by Eva Chase
Before I could say anything else, he grasped my shoulder. “I’m staying this time. Some of the walls of the cage still need some work. I’ll get as much as I can done as quickly as I can, until it’s too late.”
An ache filled my chest, but what could I say to him? We did need him here, maybe more than any of the others working on the cage. If I was willing to put myself in the line of fire where I could help, I had to let him take that risk too.
“I get it,” I said. “But as soon as it comes close…”
“I won’t do anything stupid,” he said. He dipped his head for a kiss, fast and hard, and turned back to his work.
“I overheard some of the enforcers talking about some new plan,” Jin said, coming up beside me. “They mentioned glyphs. If you could use some extra manpower in the drawing department…?”
I shot him a grateful smile, even though my heart squeezed all over again. He’d never had to face the demon directly before either. Now two of my consorts were going to be coming so close.
But having him working with us could make all the difference.
“Yes,” I said. “I’ll show you.”
I fumbled for something to draw on, and Jin produced a small notepad and a pencil from his pocket. With a few quick strokes, I sketched the glyphs I’d used to cast the calming spell over the recovering witches’ dorm rooms.
Jin studied the paper, his finger tracing the lines. “Where do you want them?”
“All around the field,” I said. “In a semicircle, so the demon doesn’t have to cross any to come inside but it’ll be nearly surrounded then. Just alternate between the different glyphs. You can use—” My gaze caught on a truck speeding along the road toward us. “I think the tools I asked for to make breaking the ground easily will be here in less than a minute.”
“What’s all this do?” my consort asked. “What is the plan?”
My stomach twisted before I spoke. It wasn’t as brilliant as I’d have liked it to be. It was just the best we had.
“We’re going to try to lull it into a daze,” I said. “Slow and sleepy. And then when its guard is down, maybe we’ll be able to shove it onto the cage so we can trap it before it wakes up enough to really fight back.”
“Sounds worth a shot,” Jin said.
His arms slipped around my waist in the briefest of embraces, and then the truck screeched to a halt at the side of the road. We rushed over to join the enforcers who’d been assigned prep duty.
Jin grabbed a narrow hoe-like implement to dig the glyphs into the earth and hurried off again. I hefted up a large bag of lavender powder. For people, it had an actual chemical effect as well as its magical properties. I didn’t really think the demon would be affected the same way, but hopefully the magical enhancement and our own associations as we worked our magicking would make it a useful addition.
Figures scattered the field, carving glyphs. A few of the other enforces and I spread out between them, scattering lavender powder all around the field except the far end where the demon was approaching.
I was only halfway through my bag when the first nausea-inducing tremor carried through the air. The hairs on the back of my neck rose. “It’s close!” someone shouted farther down the field.
I tossed the rest of my powder across the grass as quickly as I could. Then I dashed back to the ring the enforcers had formed, crouched low in the grass. The tall uneven blades tickled my arms as I knelt among them. Their warm scent mingled with the lingering essence of lavender rubbed into my hands. The clouds let out another faint rumble of thunder.
“Here it comes,” a witch near me murmured. A second later, I wouldn’t have needed her to tell me. The dissonant rippling of energy washed over me even more strongly. I couldn’t restrain a shudder.
The hulking glowing form came into view less than a minute later. It barged into the field at such a swift pace compared to the cautious meandering I’d seen before that my pulse stuttered.
The enforcers all around me straightened up at the same moment, and I pushed myself to my feet to join them. To join their spell, weaving peace and calm through the atmosphere and casting it out toward the demon.
A cool airy sensation settled over me as I moved through the form, drowning out some of the demon’s energy and the stormy tinge in the atmosphere. Our magic flowed around and past me in a softly soothing wave. All around the edges of the field, the enforcers swept through the same movements, our efforts building on each other.
The demon’s gait slowed. Its head drooped and listed to the side. It peered at us with those flat black eyes that chilled me almost as much as its eerie energy did. It kept up its swaying journey across the field, but with each step, it covered less ground. The next step came later, and later.
I spun in a careful circle, my arms lifting and descending beside me, and when I looked at the creature again, it was moving at no more than the shuffle I’d seen when I’d gone to observe it the first time.
It was still moving, though. Lurching bit by bit across the field, its gaze intent enough that I didn’t have much hope we could toss it into the cage just yet. The grass around its oddly jointed limbs sagged and grayed.
I hadn’t really drawn on my demon-tainted power yet, not anywhere near as much as I could. I hadn’t been sure how that effect might interact with the spell. But in another ten, maybe fifteen seconds the demon might already be out of range of the trap. Sucking in a breath, I reached down into the depths of my spark to seek out that uneasy thread.
There. I focused on the unpleasant tremor despite the churning of my stomach and threw myself into the form a little faster. If we couldn’t lull the demon into a total daze, maybe I could bludgeon it into one. Gently.
I tossed out surge after surge of compulsion—to drag at its limbs, to darken its mind, to numb it almost like I’d been numbed by the enforcer’s baton, just all the way down to its thoughts. Whatever thoughts a demon even was capable of.
The fiend leaned forward onto its knuckles and rocked there for a second. My spirits lifted. I whirled again to cast one more burst of that numbing binding around it, almost giddy at the amount of power that was reverberating through me now. Yes. You will bend to my will. You will—
The creature jerked around, its head swinging toward me with that blank gaze. My nerves jumped with electric chill. My hands wavered, just for an instant—and in that instant, the demon lunged.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Seth
I’d heard Gabriel and Damon—and Rose, of course—describe what being in a demon’s presence was like, more than once. But either they’d downplayed the effect or what they’d said hadn’t totally sunk in.
When that massive humanoid form pushed between the trees at the opposite end of the field, my heart seemed to literally rattle against my ribs. For a few seconds, the alarm clanging all through my body stole my ability to even breathe. I could only stare, paralyzed, as the dimly glowing creature clambered in its deformed ape-like way through the tall grass.
“Holy fuck,” Jin murmured behind me, sounding choked. His voice woke me up, enough to remember that the plan was to put the demon in a stupor, not to fall into one ourselves.
And after they’d stupefied it, Rose and the enforcers were going to propel it into the cage I was standing right next to. So now might be a good time to move well out of the way.
My legs wobbled as I shifted backward. Jin gripped my elbow, supporting me and seeking support at the same time. When I glanced back, his face had grayed under his tan skin. His mouth was frozen with lips slightly parted in horrified awe.
The demon was still lurching toward us. A bolt of panic raced through me, and my legs finally started working.
Jin stumbled backward with me as I hauled us away from the cage, away from the truck, to the edge of the field where the enforcers were swaying through the motions of their magicking dance. My heart was still thumping painfully hard. I didn’t know where Rose was in the wide semi-circle around the field—
didn’t know whether trying to find her was even a good idea. She hadn’t wanted any of us, any of her consorts, out here with her because she’d be distracted worrying about us. I was not about to prove that concern right.
The enforcers stood on their own patches of land, just enough space between them so they could sweep through the motions of their forms without bumping into each other. They’d left no room for anyone to squeeze past them. Jin swiped his hand over his forehead, his gaze starting to clear, and tugged for me to crouch down with him near the inner edge of their ring. The closest we could get to any sort of safety.
“I had no idea—I never really thought—” A hoarse chuckle slipped out of his mouth. He pressed his knuckles to his lips, his gaze fixing on the demon again. When mine followed his, a fresh surge of horror tore through my nerves.
That face so huge and gnarled and yet with features I could identify as human-like. Those darkly opaque eyes that seemed to see nothing and everything at the same time, like twin voids lodged in the creature’s deformed skull…
I tensed my muscles against another shudder and wrenched my gaze to the side. I just wouldn’t look at it if I couldn’t look without my thoughts spiraling away from me. We’d have a lot better chance of surviving if I kept my head.
“Do you think their magic is working?” Jin asked under his breath. “The demon looks like it’s slowing down.”
Taking note from the corner of my vision, I had to agree. The creature’s lumbering pace had faltered. The unsettling vibes that rolled off it jarred against my nerves even harder. I fought to keep my breathing steady. In and out, just like always.
Rose and the other witches had the situation under control. This was their job. I’d done mine. The best thing I could do right now was stay out of their way.
But the thing kept shuffling onward, almost directly toward us. My jaw started to ache from how tightly I’d clamped my teeth together. The demon had slowed down, yeah, but had they dazed it enough? How much of an effect was their spell even having?
A blur of movement, a familiar purple shirt, caught my eye in the curve of the semi-circle around the side of the field. Rose’s dark hair fanned out around her pale face as she bowed and reached in a dance of her own. A faster dance than the enforcers were using. I knew, down in the sensation of light that warmed me from the inside out at the sight of her, that she was casting something more potent, drawing on the reserves of magic inside her that were now even greater because of how closely she and the five of us were interlinked.
The demon came to a stop. The grass around it started to curl with rot. Nausea swelled in my gut, but a little hope unfurled alongside it. If anyone could manage this, it was Rose. Was the demon under her spell?
In the space of a heartbeat, it whipped toward her. A shout of warning snagged in my throat. Jin let out a low desperate sound, and the demon barreled forward. Straight at my consort and the witches around her.
The wind warbled, and my bones trembled with it. I shoved myself upright, but then I didn’t know what to do with myself. It wasn’t as if I could reach Rose before the demon did. It wasn’t as if I had any way of fending it off even if I could have made it there.
Rose wasn’t standing down. I could tell from her expression that she’d seen the demon charging toward her, but she only adjusted her form, her hands slicing through the air, her legs slashing out. The demon leapt, its claws swiping at the gathered witches, and Rose shoved her arms forward.
Both demon and the enforcers around her pitched backward and sprawled on the ground. The aftershock of the colliding forces trembled through the ground all the way to my feet.
Rose’s shoulders shuddered, but she was already moving again. Magicking again. The other witches milled around her, some of them attempting spells of their own, some of them fleeing toward the cars. The ones near us were dispersing too, to try to help push the demon back or to find shelter.
The demon had righted itself in an instant. It let out a sound somewhere between a groan and a roar and lunged at the witches again.
This time whatever magic Rose was summoning wasn’t enough to completely block the fiend’s attack. Its vicious claws severed the neck of one woman and gouged others across the shoulders, the belly. Blood painted the grass red.
I took a step forward and stopped myself. “If we die, Rose dies too,” I said.
“What the fuck can we do?” Jin said miserably. “We can’t just— It’s going to slaughter them.”
The enforcers’ sergeant had clearly realized the same thing. Her shouts for retreat echoed across the field. The demon wheeled at her voice, and for the first time seemed to consider the cars. My heart sank. No, no—
The monster sprang away from its previous victims across the grass. The purposefulness of its movements left no doubt in my mind that it meant to wrench every one of those vehicles apart like it had our cage last time. And then it would plow through all our fragile bodies and Lord only knew how much else of the city we’d been fighting to protect.
We still had the cage—constructed out of copper and imbued with witches’ blood and Rose’s fierce energy. But the witches couldn’t even keep the demon off them, let alone shove it all the way over—
The thought clicked into place in my head with a sudden certainty. I’d just have to bring the cage to it.
I was already running to the truck. “Seth!” Jin called, but I didn’t hesitate. My thoughts spun in my head—I had to consider the possibilities, evaluate the risk—what if I hurt more people than I helped racing in there?
But there was no time for that. There was only the demon loping across the field toward our only means of escape, barely stumbling when another wave of magic hit it, and damn it, if I didn’t do something I was going to spend the rest of my life, however short it might be, hating myself for it.
I jumped into the cab of the truck. The key was sitting on the dashboard. I shoved it into the ignition, jerked the controls into reverse, and hit the gas with a slam of my foot.
The truck lurched backwards with a roar to rival the demon’s. The walls of the cage that had been leaning against the ground pulled off the hinges we’d left open for the final sealing. The base, lying on the truck’s flatbed, rattled but held in place.
The truck quaked but kept moving, picking up speed even over the bumpy terrain. My foot jammed on the gas pedal, I craned my neck and yanked the steering wheel I was clutching, aiming the panel behind me directly into the demon’s path.
The demon loomed, my nerves screamed, and the truck’s wheels jolted beneath me. Then the slab of glyph-twisted metal and magic collided with that monstrous form.
The demon’s torso smacked the copper shapes I’d formed so carefully. It screeched and heaved itself away. Its arm lashed out.
A surge of nerve-rattling power blasted into the cabin and threw me right through the windshield. I barely managed to wrench my wobbling arms across my face to shield myself from the spray of shattered glass. My back hit the hood, a knife of agony stabbing up and down my spine. Heat seared my skin.
“Come on!” someone was hollering, and someone else screamed, and the rest of the world narrowed down to the throbbing in my back and the stinging of my skin, and God help me, I wanted to peel it right off of my flesh, or—
Hands caught me, hauling me off the hood of the truck. Something clattered to my right. I was hefted between two bodies that I had the vague impression were much too slight to really be able to carry me. Magic, I thought dazedly, and then, Rose.
They were pulling me away from her. They were—
I wasn’t sure how much I even managed to move. I must have at least flailed a bit. One of my rescuers cursed, and the other did something that froze my limbs in place with a chill that wasn’t entirely unpleasant. And then Rose’s voice was there, only a foot or two from my ear, quavering with panic but present. That was all I could have asked for.
“Will he be okay?” she said. “Is he—”
As if my mind h
ad been holding on just to confirm her presence, I never got to hear the rest of that sentence. The world tumbled away from me completely.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Rose
“Seth? Can you hear me yet?” I rested my trembling hand against my consort’s cheek, the gentle strokes of my fingers willing more magic from me to him.
We’d been tearing down the road for a couple of minutes now, and he still hadn’t woken up. With each passing second, my heart thumped harder with the worry that he might never wake up at all.
The enforcers who’d grabbed Seth off the hood of the truck had carried him to the nearest vehicle: the minivan that had arrived with our extra supplies. We were tucked into the middle seat, the air around us tart with the scent of lavender, three enforcers in the back and two up front. The wheels shuddered over the pot-holed surface as the engine roared at speeds this road was never meant to endure.
Seth’s brawny body sprawled awkwardly in the tight space, one leg on the verge of sliding off the seat. I had his head and shoulders on my lap, a reversal of the pose I’d found myself in after my last encounter with the demon. Except then I’d passed out from overextending myself. Seth had been caught head-on in a blast of demonic energy. I didn’t even know how much damage he might have taken.
I was healing every injury I could see: the scorched-gray streaks on his arms and where the unnatural magic had burned through his clothes, the cuts where shards of broken glass had sliced into his skin. But I didn’t know how to stir him out of unconsciousness, or if I should even try to. None of the enforcers who’d leapt into the van with us in our hasty escape had more than the standard first aid training.
Engines were rumbling all around us. Horns blared as we careened onto the main road toward the city. Was the blockade still up on the freeway to stop people from heading this way? Did it even matter?
The demon’s hollow roar carried over the landscape behind us. There was a thunderous thud and a smash like crumpling steel. My stomach flipped with the certainty that it had caught one of our cars and dashed it against the ground with all its monstrous strength.