Sacrificed in Shadow

by SM Reine

  “If you can remain conscious through the fear that will follow it through the portal, you’ll want to shoot it between the wings,” Elise said, recalling what her father had told her about demon princes. “It’s the only vulnerable place.”

  “And that will kill it?”

  “No,” she said. “But it might make Aquiel take longer to kill us.”

  “You suck at motivational speeches,” Seth said.

  She hadn’t been attempting one. There was nothing motivational to be said about a master demon crossing over to Earth. It was the kind of thing that would inevitably result in a lot of screaming and death and bloodshed, possibly on a nation-wide scale.

  They didn’t need motivation. They needed a miracle.

  “Between the wings,” Elise reminded him as she stepped back.

  She searched the area for a hint of shadow. It was starkest behind the buildings ringing the square, but there was too little darkness between the road and the statue. She would have no way to cross that distance. Elise wouldn’t be attempting to swallow the prince of nightmares that night—not that she had much hope it would work anyway.

  Aquiel was still struggling to emerge, one shoulder and leg stuck on the other side. They had mere minutes until his body reached Earth fully and his powers were unleashed.

  Elise ran to James. He couldn’t reach the altar with Father Night’s body on it.

  “What did you do?” James asked, staring at the priest.

  She shoved the body onto the steps. “He earned it. Trust me. You need to close the portal now.”

  “Yes, I see that.” He sank to his knees. Cracked his knuckles. “I would be stronger if you removed your ring and allowed me to draw energy off of you.”

  No chance of that happening.

  She hurled herself at the portal, sword in hand, determination a knot in her stomach.

  A pair of wolves beat her there.

  They leaped onto Aquiel’s emerging arm. One was gold, and one was black, like the midday sun and the darkest night.

  Rylie and Abel.

  They were tiny in comparison to the demon prince. Chihuahuas trying to topple a sumo wrestler. They dug their claws into Aquiel’s hide and climbed his body together, side-by-side.

  Elise skidded to a stop, staring up at the werewolves as they ripped into Aquiel’s exposed arm. The way that Rylie had attacked Elise was nothing in comparison to the wolf’s fury now. There was no hint of the shy, blushing blond girl. The wolf was practically a demon herself.

  The portal pulsed, contracted. Aquiel’s muffled roar shook through the earth under Elise’s feet. He thrashed and almost flung Rylie and Abel off of him.

  But the portal didn’t close.

  James was working hard over the altar, making broad gestures. Flames traced from the tips of his fingers, creating blue patterns that hung in the sky, formed by the words that fell from his lips. It was a kind of magic that Elise had never seen before.

  The symbols settled over the altar. The tenor of the buzzing changed, and Bain Marshall glowed more brightly.

  The door’s aperture pursed again, stuck around Aquiel’s form.

  “I need more power to finish this!” James shouted.

  Elise growled. “Of course you do.”

  She ripped her ring off.

  Opening herself to James was no easier than it had been after her exorcism. He filled the spaces in her mind, pressing against the inside of her skull, like trying to fit into a shoe that was two sizes too small.

  The colors of the magic brightened. Elise saw the tangled web of power in a thousand colors that no human eyes were meant to witness—a full spectrum of invisible lightning that lashed between the statue and the portal.

  James’s thoughts rushed through her in a chorus of whispers. Willow root, powdered dragon’s blood, this candle won’t work…new power, Elise?…Lincoln’s blood to open, Aquiel’s to close…Elise…where are you?

  I’ll get Aquiel’s blood, she thought back, focusing the words on him to make sure that he would hear it.

  Gratitude flashed between them.

  Elise rushed at Aquiel’s leg, scrabbling for grip on the asphalt. It lifted from the pavement with a gust of air, then swung over her head.

  “Watch out!” Seth shouted, firing a shot at the demon’s calf. He might as well have been firing blanks. It didn’t nothing.

  Meanwhile, Aquiel was trying to step on her.

  Elise tucked her limbs in and rolled. The wind of the passing hoof ruffled her hair. It caught the hem of her pants, and she had to rip them free to stand.

  She slashed at the hoof with her sword, but drew no blood. She was too short to reach his flesh.

  Elise had fought things bigger than her before—as big as gibborim, the smallest of which were over seven feet tall—but never something on such a scale. Maybe she would have stood a chance if she could have gone incorporeal and appeared on his back. But there was no chance of that with so much light pouring out of the door. Elise was useless.

  Fortunately, there were two wolves with massive claws that weren’t nearly as limited as Elise.

  She stepped back, dodging another crushing blow from Aquiel’s hoof, and searched for signs of the wolves. Abel’s black form was on his knee. Rylie was all the way up on his shoulder, ripping into the tendons, making blood splatter over his skin.

  His blood.

  Elise cupped one hand beside her mouth. “Hey! Rylie!” The wolf’s ears perked. Golden eyes focused on Elise far below.

  Rylie leaped, thudding to the ground beside Elise on all fours. Her muzzle was soaked in blood.

  Her lips peeled back in a growl.

  “Hey, whoa,” Elise said, stepping back, lifting her hands between them. “It’s me.”

  There was no recognition in the wolf’s eyes. Only the beast.

  She lunged at Elise.

  The breath knocked out of her lungs in a gust. Her back scraped pavement. Elise threw her arms over her face, trying to protect herself against Rylie’s bite—but it never came.

  Aquiel’s hoof crashed into the place that Elise had been standing moments earlier.

  Rylie climbed off, allowing Elise to push herself onto her elbows. “James needs you,” Elise said. “The blood on your face, actually. Right now.”

  With another strangely-human nod, Rylie sprinted to the altar. James wiped blood from her face onto the pentagram.

  Magic shoved through Elise and James and focused on the portal at the center.

  The door began to close.

  “Abel! Get down!” Seth yelled, waving an arm over his head. The wolf didn’t seem to hear—he was too distracted by tearing into every inch of Aquiel that he could reach.

  The energy of the portal cut into the demon prince’s flesh as it contracted, leaving angry red stripes on his shoulder. He roared. Northgate trembled.

  Aquiel began to withdraw.

  With a final thrash, he loosed Abel from his leg. The wolf hit the lawn a hundred yards away, bouncing and sliding. Aquiel’s hand slid through the energy of the portal as it snapped shut again.

  The fires of Hell had vanished. The demon was gone, and the town was safe.

  But the energy was still banding the statue of Bain Marshall.

  Elise watched it for a moment, breathless, waiting to see if it would disappear. Nothing happened. Magic continued pulsing around them, flooding the world with color.

  James’s thoughts were still a muddied rush. Quartz, where is it?…got to harness this…more…almost time…

  “What’s going on?” Seth asked, backing up to James. “Why won’t it close?”

  “I’m working on it,” he said. “I need your help.” Just come closer…

  Elise followed Rylie to Abel’s side, dropping to her knees next to him. His chest was rising and falling with rapid breaths. The Alpha was alive, but stunned.

  Rylie whined and licked his face.

  “He’ll be fine,” Elise said. “He’ll heal.” She took a quick invent
ory of her body. Aquiel hadn’t managed to step on her. The struggle with Judy had been entirely internal. And the cult hadn’t managed to damage her, aside from a few burned locks of hair. Somehow, she had escaped unscathed. “I think we’ll all be fine.”

  As if to contradict her, Seth gave a cry of dismay.

  Elise spun, expecting to see him under attack by Lincoln. Instead, she found James slashing a dagger across the wound on Seth’s forearm.

  James was still a master of concealing his thoughts from her. He wasn’t thinking about what he was doing, or why. He was simply acting. The undercurrent of his thoughts was meaningless. Need to find him…still trapped…so close…

  She saw James lower his bloody dagger toward the altar as if in slow motion.

  His eyes met hers. One thought rang out clearer than the rest: I’m sorry, Elise.

  Seth’s blood dripped on the altar.

  The door opened again.

  “No!” Elise shouted.

  Energy smashed through her. She saw nothing, heard nothing. She was a vessel for the magic. Runes flooded her mind, each resonating at a different pitch deep in the core of her being.

  The hurricane of magic seized her. She was battered against the shore of James’s mind, helpless to do anything but ride out the storm.

  And then, suddenly, everything was silent.

  Elise opened her eyes. Somehow, she had moved away from Rylie and Abel to stand at the feet of Bain Marshall. And now she stood on the brink of the door, gazing up at her first glimpse of Eden.

  When she had left Araboth, the Heaven that had imprisoned God, it had been dying. The Tree had been severed down the center. Smoke had blackened the sky as flames devoured the desiccated orchards.

  That was how she had imagined Eden, too: a burning corpse.

  Instead, she saw lush, endless forest, as though the portal looked down on it from the peak of a mountain. A breeze gusted through, smelling sweetly of sun-ripened fruit. Elise hadn’t seen sky such a bright shade of blue since the time before she died and returned as a demon. It filled her with an unexpected ache of longing.

  And there was someone inside. A boy—a teenager, almost a man—walking among the trees.

  The door slammed shut with a final buzz of electricity, and the night was dark.

  Had Elise survived?

  She rubbed her eyes. Her vision was spotted with green shapes as it struggled to adjust to the sudden darkness. The fact that she could rub her eyes meant that she did have hands and eyes—a good sign that her corporeal body was intact.

  Elise pushed into a sitting position. She was underneath Bain Marshall’s downturned hand. The earth was a scorched circle beneath her.

  Rylie sat beside Abel a few feet away, arms wrapped around his shoulders. They were both bloody, but alive, and backlit by the spreading fires over the roofs of Northgate.

  “What happened?” Elise asked.

  “The door opened, it got really bright, and the door closed,” Rylie said. Her voice was hoarse. “If you didn’t close it, then I don’t know why that happened.”

  James would know, but he was gone. The only other people in sight were Seth and Stephanie. He was half-carrying the doctor out of the consignment shop, although he looked so worn down that he probably needed the support as much as she did.

  Wait. Only four people?

  Elise spun, searching for Lincoln. He was gone, too.

  “The deputy?” she asked.

  “He ran,” Stephanie said, sagging against Seth’s shoulder. “I saw him go that way.” She raised a finger toward the north.

  It was too late to hunt him down. The first hints of dawn were brushing over the mountains, and Elise could feel in her bones that sunlight would hit within the hour. She needed to recover, which meant that she needed refuge—and fast.

  Sirens wailed, and she turned to search for where they were coming from.

  Instead, she saw James walking away. He was already two blocks down, no more than a pale shape against the brightening sky. She would have missed him if he hadn’t glanced over his shoulder, sending a ripple through the closed bond. He must have been wearing his ring again.

  “Get out of here before officials arrive,” Elise said.

  Stephanie frowned. “Where are you going?”

  “Hunting,” she said.

  Elise flitted across Northgate and appeared in front of James. He didn’t look surprised to see her when he turned the corner in front of St. Philomene’s. The power at the church looked like it was still out; none of the steeple’s spotlights were turned on. It made sense that Northgate would have such problems with its power if it had a doorway to Eden at its center. Ethereal energy had a way of disabling everything electrical for miles.

  “Leaving so soon?” she asked, voice cold.

  James let out a sigh. “Please, Elise. Don’t do this.” His fingers were still twitching, tracing an alphabet of fire on the air. Drawing the runes seemed to make him lose grip on the glamor. His hair was a shock of white again. His face was unnaturally smooth. Elise could see why Lincoln would have believed that James was an angel—he looked as inhuman as Elise did.

  “Where’s Lincoln?” she asked.

  “I don’t know,” James said. “I haven’t done anything to him, if that’s your concern.”

  “Like Hell you haven’t. It’s your fault he was possessed.”

  “I didn’t tell them to do that. I certainly wasn’t the one that told them he has demon blood in his lineage.”

  Elise almost dropped her falchion. “What?”

  “What sob story did Lincoln tell you?” he asked, pacing a wide circle around her. “Did he tell you that his cousin was mercilessly kidnapped by my coven, and only his servitude would save her?” Elise clenched her jaw, refused to answer. “His cousin came to me for help. She was having trouble controlling her magic.”

  “And then you wouldn’t release her when she wanted to leave.”

  “Not at all. Ashley is infernal Gray, four generations down, as well as a witch. She’s the only other Gray I’ve met that can do magic. She wasn’t losing control of her magic. She was losing control of her infernal power.” James closed one of his fists, clenching his fingers around the fiery runes. “I designed a spell to block those powers, then allowed her return to her family. Lincoln begged me to do the same for him.”

  “He doesn’t have powers,” Elise said.

  “Not yet, which is why I initially refused to attempt casting dangerous magic. He feared that the demon powers were latent. He was afraid of being damned.” James chuckled. “He begged, Elise. Told me he would do anything for my help. I agreed against my better judgment.” He stopped in front of her, almost within arm’s reach. “Yes, he sold his soul to me, in a manner of speaking—but he was hardly coerced.”

  Elise had no way to know who was lying. She couldn’t exactly ask Lincoln now that he was gone, and James’s mind was blank through the bond.

  “That would explain why his blood opened the door to Hell,” she said slowly, “but it doesn’t explain what happened with Seth. And it doesn’t explain what I saw.”

  “Where did humans come from?” James asked.

  She barked a mirthless laugh. “Is this the time to talk chicken and egg?”

  “Answer the question.”

  “Lilith sculpted humanity from clay, modeled to be like Adam’s mortal body,” Elise said.

  “But not all humans came from Lilith,” James said. “Adam produced children naturally, too. His blood line has continued unbroken for centuries. It lives in one family—one family, which has been watched by a cult known as the Apple. There were three brothers with the blood. One named Cain, who died…”

  She sucked in a hard breath. “And Seth and Abel.”

  James’s fingers started twitching again. He took one of the gloves out of his pocket and tugged it on, concealing the runes. Only when he was covered did his hand relax. “Seth and Abel’s blood will open Eden.”

  “But it didn�
��t work,” Elise said.

  James looked grim. “It did work. There are seven doors, and that was the first. Once they’re all open, I’ll be able to enter Eden.”

  Elise stared at him, unable to comprehend. “But there’s nothing left in Eden.”

  “Nothing, except the Origin,” James said.

  Elise had heard that word before: the Origin. She knew it because Eve knew it from some of her oldest memories. It was the beginning of all things, the source of life, and it was what had turned Adam into God.

  But when Elise tried to bring Eve’s memory of Adam entering the origin to mind, she couldn’t. She had all of Eve’s thoughts and dreams except that one. Eve had been too afraid to remember.

  “What do you want with the Origin?” Elise asked.

  “It doesn’t matter. That power will let me do anything I want. Anything at all.” James stepped toward her, and she backed away, holding her sword between them. He looked past the blade to pin her with his gaze. “It could make you human again.”

  The words were like a dagger to her heart.

  Elise had never given much thought to reverting to her former body—mostly because she didn’t think it was possible. She wasn’t even sure if it was something she wanted. She was insanely powerful now, nearly a god.

  But if she was human, then she could walk in daylight again.

  “Is that why you unleashed a murderous cult on Northgate?” Elise asked. “To save me?”

  “No. There’s more to this than that. But once I possess the power of the Origin, I will fix you.” He said it with such fierce confidence.

  Did he really think that was how he would earn her forgiveness? Like he hadn’t done enough manipulation, scheming, and power-grabs already. He thought that he needed to get more Machiavellian to make her like him again.

  “It would take more than omnipotence to make me stop hating you,” Elise said.

  A look of pity flashed over James’s face. “I suppose I didn’t expect you to help.” He lifted a fistful of glowing runes in his remaining bare hand. They slid over his knuckles and tangled between his fingers. “That’s why I need you to stay away until I find the other six doors.”