I looked at the cubs, then pointed at five of them in turn. “Walk forward.”
They obeyed, proceeding after their companions.
“Gabriel, you stay with them,” I said.
I ordered the other cubs forward in small groups with an angel walking behind like a grade-school chaperone. I handed one of the toddlers to Samiel, who nodded gravely at the little boy in his arms.
I shifted the little girl I held to my other arm so that I could carry the bag of cameras with my right hand. It’s not comfortable to grip anything for any length of time when you have only three fingers.
Lucifer’s sword banged uncomfortably on my back as I took up the rear position behind Samiel. The cub stared off into the distance over my shoulder. The bag of cameras smacked into my thigh and swung out again, over and over. Beezle’s weight on my shoulder felt like an anvil, especially when he started to snore.
“Gods above and below,” I muttered.
A zillion demons were after us, we were crammed into a tiny space with limited options for defense, we were trying to protect a bunch of helpless children, and my gargoyle goes to sleep right on schedule. No amount of peril would jeopardize Beezle’s naptime.
“On the upside, I might have lost a pound or two, what with all the stress and the walking and the not eating for hours.” I needed to find an upside before I cracked up completely.
We had just reached the portal entry when we heard the distant whoop of the triumphant demon horde. I pushed to the front of the column to open the portal, only to discover that the cubs in front were still trying to walk forward into the wall.
“Stop walking,” I ordered, and they immediately stopped. I frowned at Jude.
“I tried doing what you did, but they wouldn’t listen to me,” he growled.
That was a complication I didn’t want to think about, and in any event there was no time. The demons were coming, and their claws sounded like the approach of thunder.
I held my tattooed hand up to the symbol in the wall, and once more the portal opened. Jude went through first, and then I ordered the cubs through in their chaperoned groups.
Nathaniel approached me before his group was about to enter. He reached for the makeshift bag of cameras. “Let me take this for you. You will need your hands for defense if the demons appear before we are all through.”
I handed him the cub instead. “She’s heavier, and it’s more important that we get all of the kids through.”
He nodded, took the cub and disappeared into the portal with the others.
The last feathers of Samiel’s wings had just slipped into the portal as the demons emerged over the slope down the tunnel. I leapt into the portal behind the others, one hand holding Beezle to my shoulder—he still wasn’t awake—and one hand gripping the knot in my coat. I took a deep breath and tried not to think about the pain that always accompanied portal travel.
A few moments later I crashed on my face into the clearing. The cameras clattered to the ground as the knot came loose. Beezle awoke with a grunt and flew off my shoulder. The portal spun behind me.
Gabriel grasped me by the shoulders and hauled me to my feet.
“You must seal the portal,” he said urgently.
“Seal it?” I said blankly.
“You must close it permanently,” he said. “The demons were directly behind us. They will pour forth from that portal if you do not seal it now.”
“But…” I began, but I didn’t need to voice what I was thinking. Wade.
I looked at the cubs, standing in the clearing like broken dolls.
Jude shook his head at me. “No.”
“You must close the portal,” Gabriel insisted. “We cannot defend the children if the demons come through.”
I knew what Wade would want me to do. I turned toward the portal, my right hand outstretched. Lucifer’s mark needed no guidance from me.
“No!” Jude shouted.
From the corner of my eye I saw Jude leap toward me. Samiel intercepted him and there was the sound of a scuffle.
Light burst from the palm of my hand, the blazing red light of the heart of the sun. The portal shrank rapidly. I thought for a moment that there might have been the gleam of tooth and fang emerging from the swirling mist, a glint of malicious eyes, but a moment later the portal was closed and the image was gone.
The demon mark in the rock was scorched and blackened. The portal was closed forever. I dropped my hand and turned back to the others.
Samiel was sitting on top of Jude, who was facedown in dead leaves. The angel used his legs to pin Jude’s arms to his sides, and the wolf’s right cheek pressed into the dirt.
Jude was red-faced with fury. It was a testament to Samiel’s exceptional strength that he was able to hold Jude down. Wolves are some of the most physically powerful supernatural creatures around.
Samiel glanced up at me, questioning.
“Let him up,” I said.
He looked doubtful.
“It’s okay.”
Samiel reluctantly released Jude, who leapt to his feet and stalked toward me. His nose had lengthened into a muzzle. His front canines protruded over his mouth. The fingernails of his hands sharpened into claws.
“Bitch!” he shouted, and his voice was the growl of the wolf.
Gabriel tried to step in front of me, but I stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. I would not hide from Jude in his grief. It could be laid directly at my feet.
Samiel moved toward Jude, looking like he intended to tackle the wolf again. I shook my head and stood my ground.
Jude walked right up to me, chest thrust out, breath coming in harsh pants. His right hand was upraised as though he intended to slash my throat open.
He pushed his muzzle into my face. I lifted my chin and held his gaze. I said nothing.
“I should kill you,” he breathed. “I should kill you now and rid the world of one more of your kind.”
“Killing me won’t change anything,” I said with a calm that I did not feel. I wasn’t sure I could blast Jude fast enough to stop him from ripping me to pieces if he decided the inclination moved him.
“You sealed the portal,” he growled. “I always knew the spawn of Lucifer would betray the wolves.”
I couldn’t hide from this. It was my fault. We had lost our only clue to Wade’s whereabouts, and I knew that. I also knew that Jude’s heart was breaking. An alpha is everything to his pack, and as his right-hand man, Jude would have been closer than a brother to Wade. But I didn’t have to stand there and be insulted for the hundredth time.
“Let me repeat again—I am not the spawn of Lucifer,” I said, my temper rising to the surface.
“Lucifer’s power runs through you. Lucifer’s sword chose you. Lucifer’s mark is upon you. Whether by one generation or a thousand, you are his spawn. I see his craft in your face. I see the same black heart.”
“His power may run through me,” I said softly, “but his heart is not mine. I am sorry about Wade. I am sorry. If you look as closely as you claim to, you will see that.”
His ice-blue eyes flickered over my face, confused. His wolf receded, leaving the face of the man. For a moment he hesitated; then he turned his head to the side and spat. I was thankful he didn’t decide to spit on me.
“I see only the deception of your kind.”
He turned away from me, crossed the clearing and fell to his knees. He raised his face to the sky and howled.
The cubs, who had been standing so still I’d almost forgotten about them, began to howl in unison. Their eyes were still blank and uncomprehending, but their little voices rose in the same grief as Jude’s.
Samiel, Gabriel, Nathaniel, Beezle and I stood and waited, outside of the circle of their sadness. Inside my heart, I howled with them.
Once we started moving again we were faced with a different problem. The cubs would follow a direct order, but only if I told them to. They wouldn’t listen to anyone else.
“You could ma
ke them do anything,” Beezle said. “They would all do the Macarena in sync if you asked them to.”
“Oh, yeah, because a troop of dancing brainwashed kids would be so helpful right now,” I said as we tramped through the woods. Jude was leading us back to the site of the original attack.
“Just trying to lighten the mood,” Beezle said. “Everyone is so grim.”
“Well, gosh, Beezle, why would we be grim? We’ve had a swell adventure here in the woods.”
“You don’t know Wade is dead,” Beezle said.
“He might as well be. I don’t know where that portal went, and now I never will. And we had no other clues to go on.”
“Sure you do. The charcarion demons.”
I stopped and stared at Beezle, who was perched on my shoulder and looking incredibly smug.
“The charcarion demons,” I repeated. “And they are significant…why?”
“How many cinnamon rolls will you give me if I tell you?”
“No one in our house needs cinnamon rolls. Especially you.”
“I’m not the one on a diet. I think I deserve some compensation for information that is obviously important to you.”
“Just spill it, Beezle, or I’ll replace all your Cheetos with whole-grain crackers.”
He puffed himself up indignantly. “You wouldn’t dare.”
“Try me.”
“Okay, okay. Charcarion demons are found in only two courts of the fallen.”
“And those are…”
“Abezethibod…”
“Bless you,” I said.
“And Focalor.”
“Focalor,” I said, somehow not surprised by this information. “What’s he up to now? I thought he was being punished by Lucifer.”
Beezle shrugged. “I dunno. That’s for you to figure out.”
“He definitely has an ax to grind with me,” I said slowly.
“Yeah, since you publicly humiliated him when you snuffed out his rebellion in front of Amarantha’s court.”
“Why do you say it like that? Was I supposed to let him tear Lucifer’s kingdom apart and endanger millions of innocent people?”
“No, but he definitely wants your head on a stick.”
“He’s going to have to get in line,” I said, thinking of all the scary creatures who wanted to squash me. I shook my head. That was not a productive line of thought.
“And he’s always had a grievance with Lucifer—or at least for the last three or four millennia or so.”
“Why is that?” I asked.
“Haven’t you ever wondered why Focalor looks like a demon even though he’s fallen?”
“Well, yeah,” I admitted. “I have wondered.”
“That was his punishment for defying Lucifer the last time.”
“What were they arguing about?”
“Focalor wanted to go home,” Beezle said, pointing a claw skyward. “He was gathering a contingent of fallen to ask for forgiveness.”
“Why didn’t Lucifer just let them go?”
Beezle snorted. “And take half his base of power with them? Lucifer had just established his own kingdom. No one was allowed to have second thoughts.”
“So Focalor has a lot of reasons to resent Lucifer,” I said thoughtfully. “And not only are the wolves friends to me, but they were negotiating with Lucifer again.”
I glanced at Jude, who was silently leading us through the woods. Maybe he was right. Maybe all the wolves’ troubles were Lucifer’s fault. And mine.
We entered the clearing that was the site of the kidnapping that had started this whole mess. Jude called a halt, and I repeated the order to the cubs. They stopped in their tracks wherever they were, frozen in a long, ragged line.
“I’ll take the cubs myself from here,” Jude said.
“How?” I asked. “They won’t listen to you.”
“I am not going to take three of Lucifer’s grandchildren into the place where I have hidden the pack,” Jude growled.
“Well, you’re going to have to take me, or you’ll never get them home.”
It didn’t take a genius to figure out that Jude would have happily ditched me, but even a stubborn wolf must acknowledge the inevitable.
“Fine, but just you. No gargoyle, no entourage.”
“No,” Gabriel said in that I-am-an-immovable-object way that he has. “How do we know you will not harm Madeline once she is outnumbered by your pack?”
“And what worth is your word when you have taken every opportunity to show just how much you despise Madeline?” Nathaniel challenged.
“Are you questioning my honor?” Jude asked, visibly bristling.
“Enough!” I shouted, rubbing my eyes. “Gods above and below. I know too many men. I need to get some girlfriends.”
Beezle snorted. “Yeah. I can totally see you drinking cosmos and talking shoes with a bunch of chicks.”
Okay. So maybe that was absurd. But the fact remained that there was far too much testosterone in my life.
“I am going to go with Jude and bring back the cubs. You,” I said, pointing to Nathaniel, “are going to go back to Azazel’s court.”
Nathaniel looked mutinous. “I would be remiss in my duties as your fiancé if I let you go alone.”
“You are no longer my fiancé,” I reminded him.
“Azazel has not publicly revoked the engagement,” he said stubbornly.
My anger broke. I was tired and pushed to the limit and in no mood to deal with Nathaniel.
“I have told you that I will not marry you, and you know the reason why. Don’t make me go into details in front of everyone here, because it will hardly present you in a good light.
“I am not a toy to be manipulated by Azazel. It is not his word that matters in this case, but mine.”
As I spoke I became aware that the clearing had filled with light, and that it was coming from me. But I was too angry to care.
“Now, you may not be my fiancé, but you are a member of my father’s court. As such, it would be politic for you to go the hell home when I say so,” I said.
I could feel a headache building behind my eyes, the pressure of the unreleased magical energy that was burning through me in concert with my temper.
Nathaniel pressed his lips together. “Yes, my lady.”
He turned stiffly away, opened a portal and stepped into it without another word. We all watched silently as it closed behind him.
A very small part of me knew that I had behaved badly, that Nathaniel had helped us rescue the cubs, and that he deserved better than to be berated by me in front of everyone. The larger part of me was just mad, and tired of being crossed at every turn by some fractious male who thought he knew better than me.
I turned on Gabriel and Samiel. Samiel’s eyes were the size of saucers. He’d never seen me in 100 percent full-on Morningstar mode before. Even when I’d opened the portal with Lucifer’s power it had been tempered by my own powers and inclinations.
My eyes didn’t always blaze with light, as I’m certain they were doing just then. Ever since I’d been marked by Lucifer’s sword this happened occasionally. “Lucifer” does mean “shining one,” after all.
“As for you two,” I said, pointing at the half brothers. “I want you to go home as well.”
“I will not allow you to go into harm alone,” Gabriel said.
“Yes, you will. Jude gave his word, and I trust him. He doesn’t want all of us there, and I don’t trust you not to follow me. So you and Samiel and Beezle are portaling it home before Jude and I take another step.”
“Why do I have to miss all the fun?” Beezle complained.
“Because I need you to make sure these two go home and stay home,” I said.
“If my lady orders it, then it shall be done,” Gabriel said angrily. There were meteors shooting across his black eyes, a sure sign that his own temper was rising.
“Don’t even think about giving me that passive-aggressive I-am-your-thrall shit,” I said.
“I am not in the mood.”
“But I am your thrall,” Gabriel said tightly.
“Then follow my freaking orders and go home!” I shouted. “And stay there, so that we can have a proper argument about this later!”
Gabriel gave me a stony stare, then wordlessly opened a portal and went through it.
Beezle flew from my shoulder to Samiel’s. “Well, you just stepped in a giant pile of dragon dung. Have fun cleaning that up.”
I’m so glad that I’m not you, Samiel signed.
“You two are so supportive. I don’t know what I’d do without you,” I muttered. I handed the bag of cameras to Samiel. “Take these home and put them in a safe place. Don’t let anyone mess with them, not even Gabriel or Beezle.”
Samiel gave me a two-fingered salute and turned toward the portal.
“And, Beezle, all that waffle stuff had better be cleaned up when I get home!” I shouted.
I saw Beezle’s shoulders sag just before the portal closed.
“Told you I wouldn’t forget about the dirty dishes,” I muttered.
6
THE LIGHT EMANATING FROM MY BODY SLOWLY FADED as my temper cooled. I became aware of how dark it was outside, and just how long it had been since we’d left the house. I’d gotten up at five a.m. to be shouted at by the instructor at the Y and hadn’t had a second of downtime since. Plus, that measly bowl of oatmeal was the last thing I’d eaten.
I sighed and faced Jude. He waited, staring at me like I was a circus performer. The cubs hadn’t moved a centimeter since I’d told them to stop.
“That’s the entertainment for the day. Tune in tomorrow for the exciting conclusion,” I said.
Jude said nothing, only turned and moved through the woods again. I told the cubs to follow him and then I fell in at the end of the column.
I don’t know how long we tramped through the forest. I just know that I am not a particularly adept woodswoman even when I can actually see the tree roots. In the darkness my inability to avoid trippable objects was magnified about a thousandfold. I thought I heard Jude snickering a few times.
Jude stopped abruptly. I saw two shadowy figures emerge from behind trees ahead of us. I told the cubs to stop walking while Jude conferred for several minutes with his pack mates. After a while he came back to me, and the other wolves slid back into the trees.
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