B00AO57VOY EBOK

by Myers, AJ

  I looked up at Nathan, remembering the way he had looked at me as he stared at that burning Ember doll, and found a whole new sense of purpose. I was tired of Bastian screwing with my life and the people I loved. He was finally going to meet his match. I wasn’t the girls I had been in my other lives.

  I was strong. I was capable. And I was pissed.

  Yeah, I was ready.

  ∞§∞§∞§∞

  “Ladies and gentlemen! Let’s hear it for the victorious Oakhurst Academy Phoenixes!”

  We had barely made it back inside the gym and retrieved my bag from the table where I had been sitting when the DJ’s voice made the booming announcement that our football team had arrived. I turned just as my classmates let out a deafening roar to find the football team parading into the gym with their dates as the balloons from overhead rained down on them. And leading the pack, the Homecoming Queen, Angel Murray, on his arm, was the demon who had almost ruined my life.

  Bastian’s eyes met mine where I stood watching his procession with Angel—no, the irony wasn’t lost on me, either—and the totally perverted leer he gave me made me wish I had worn a nun’s habit to the dance instead of my gown. The blue flickered out of his eyes for a second when he saw my mark and I smiled smugly. No matter what he did now, I would always belong to Nathan. He had already lost.

  He pulled his arm from Angel and reached up and plucked the elaborate Homecoming crown off her perfectly done hair. She gasped in outrage as he sauntered over to where I stood and placed it delicately on my head.

  “You’ll always be my queen, Ember,” he purred, ignoring Nathan, Tyler, Blake and Kim like they were part of the decorations.

  I snatched the crown off and stomped back over to Angel and put it back where it belonged. She smiled at me, but I could see the anger in her eyes. Poor girl, she actually thought she had won something because Jack was her date.

  “I’m sorry,” I told her, glaring at Bastian over her shoulder. “He’s a dick. He can’t help himself.”

  “You’re right,” she said, turning to glare at her date, too. “He really is a dick.”

  She proceeded to the stage alone with her head held high and the crowd roaring around her in encouragement. She really would have made an excellent queen in another time. I knew she was embarrassed and hurt, but you wouldn’t have known it to look at her.

  Be careful, baby, Nathan said quietly in my mind when I caught his eye and nodded.

  I’m always careful, I told him, smiling at the mental snort of skepticism that produced. Wait for my signal and then send in the cavalry.

  While everyone else was focused on Angel, I concealed my essence so Bastian couldn’t find me until I was ready for him to, just like Grams had taught me, and teleported out of sight. I had a job to do and all I wanted to think about was getting it done.

  I reappeared back in the hallway of the west wing and felt my skin crawl as I thought of that dead dummy again. I waited until I was sure I was alone and then continued toward the room at the end of the hall and my destiny. It was just like it had been in my nightmare, only I wasn’t terrified anymore. In fact, I felt very calm, serene even.

  My veil of serenity didn’t even crumble when I walked into the room Ms. Cantrell had prepared for us. Everything had been cleared out of it. The floor had been swept completely clean except for four large crystals—the fifth of which was in the small satin bag attached to my wrist along with the remote to the black light that would activate the circles Ms. Cantrell had drawn. According to Grams, the light was hidden in the darkest corner of the room where the moonlight streaming through the window couldn’t reach it.

  Yeah, because I trusted Ms. Cantrell. Uh-huh. Right. Okay, so we still didn’t have any concrete proof that she had summoned Bastian back from the lost plane or messed with the wards on our house or the protection spell that had failed in time for me to become Ember the Screaming Lobster Girl.

  But, we didn’t have any proof that she hadn’t done all those things, either.

  Just to be on the safe side, I dug in my bag and found the tiny remote to check the light. I held my breath as I hit the power button, sure that nothing was going to happen, but the light blinked on as promised. What I hadn’t been expecting was the true work of art that appeared at my feet.

  The design drawn on the floor was elaborate. It was called a Devil’s Trap, according to Grams. It was in the shape of pentagram within another circle composed of Latin words that I couldn’t read. Within the pentagram were drawn sigils and runes that I didn’t recognize but that were beautiful in their own way. The crystals had been placed at each point of the star save one, the one I would have to place when I got Bastian inside it. Within the pentagram was drawn the Triangle of the Arts. It was the circle within the triangle that I had to get him to step into.

  “Well, I’ll be damned,” I muttered still staring at the design before me. “Guess the old hag isn’t so bad, after all.”

  Seeing how perfectly she had drawn the trap, I couldn’t help but think Nathan might have gotten it wrong. Yeah, Ms. Cantrell was a bitter old crone, but maybe she wasn’t really downright evil. Until I had reason to believe otherwise, I decided to give her the benefit of the doubt.

  Taking a deep breath to prepare myself, I turned off the light and then got down to business. Summon the demon, trap the demon. It sounded so easy, but I knew it was going to be anything but.

  And if I wasn’t very careful, the next body Nathan found really would be mine.

  Taking the crystal out of my bag, I threw the scrap of satin in the corner and then stood in the very place I would need Bastian to be to bind him. Closing my eyes, I cleared my mind of everything and everyone but the demon I was about to summon. I let go of my emotions, finding my center the way Grams had taught me to do, and then, very softly, began to chant. Despite what you see in the movies, witches really don’t need to scream and yell like nutcases to get what they want.

  “Powers of the witches rise,

  Course unseen across the skies,

  Hear me beckon, hear my plea,

  Bastian, I summon thee!”

  The effect was almost instantaneous. One second I was alone and the next I was hit the nauseous feeling I usually associated with Bastian’s presence. I turned around slowly to find my nemesis was leaned in the doorway, a creepy smirk on his lips.

  It was time for the games to begin.

  “I knew you would come around,” Bastian crooned pleasantly when our eyes met across the moonlit room. I waited for the smoke to fill my lungs, the odor of burnt skin to fill the room, but it didn’t come. Instead, all I felt was a serene feeling, like I’d become something beyond him. “It looked like you and lover boy were having problems, anyway. It’s for the best. I’m tired of playing games with him, Ember. You’re going to give yourself to me, or I’m going to kill him this time. And do you know, I don’t think he will even fight me, not after what I have in store for him.”

  Well, someone was in for a nasty little surprise, now weren’t they?

  “I should have killed him centuries ago,” he said, casually pushing away from his post in the doorway and starting toward me. “It has been so entertaining to watch him wallow in agony for the last four hundred years, though, seeing as he keeps repeatedly foiling my plans.”

  I knew he was just trying to bait me, but it wasn’t going to work. I was going to get revenge for everything he had done to me and to Nathan, but I wouldn’t be able to concentrate if I was angry.

  “Why did you kill those girls?” I asked, really wanting to know. Of all the puzzles Grams and Nathan and Tyler and Charles’ mom had been able to solve for me that was the one question no one had been able to answer. “They never did anything to you, so why kill them?”

  He stopped and looked at me for a second, his eyes sweeping down my gown, lingering on the swell of my breasts, the curve of my hip. When he finally reached my eyes again, there was a carnal hunger in them that…well, kind of made me sick.

/>   “What can I say? I missed you,” he said, shrugging and linking his hands behind his back. “Besides, I needed a way to send a message to an old friend.”

  “So you killed them for the fun of it, right?” I asked, a burst of fury making me feel lightheaded.

  “Come now, Ember. Let’s be honest with each other.” He tilted his head, giving me a patronizing look. “Tell me you wouldn’t lose it just a little if you found your love in the arms of another.”

  “What do you know about love?” I asked him coldly.

  “Oh, I know a great deal about love,” he said, his eyes blazing with anger. “I know that it makes you weak, that it drives you mad with desire and leaves your heart in a shattered heap at your feet. It turns brothers into enemies and brings down dynasties. And I know that in order to win at this torturous game of the heart, sometimes you have to kill the very thing you desire.”

  “Are you talking about me? Or Gabriella?” He stopped where he was, like just the sound of Gabriella’s name had been enough to freeze him in place. I smiled. “Yeah, Bastian, I know about Gabby.”

  “Then you know your lover killed her,” he growled, his eyes bright crimson in his anger. “You know he fed on her like she was no better than common cattle!”

  “And I also know who shot her, you creep!” I snapped, taking a step back.

  It was like baiting a wild tiger, but it was the only way. His anger had made him what he was, and I was going to use his anger to destroy him. If I could keep him talking, keep him pissed off, I could lead him right where I wanted him.

  “Why would any woman choose you over Nathan?” I asked letting him hear the loathing in my voice as I gave him a supremely unimpressed once-over and took another step back, watching as he took one forward. He was so close to where I needed him to be. So damn close… “You disgust me. I’d rather die than be with you.”

  “And you have. Repeatedly,” Bastian said with a dark laugh. “But this time, I will win, Ember. Nate will know what it’s like, the pain of watching his one true love in the arms of another man. You will submit to me because it is the only way to save him.”

  “Yeah? I think not,” I told him, taking the last step back to put me at the point of the pentagram where I would place the crystal. “At least Gabriella had the right idea. Better to die in the arms of the man you love than live in the arms of a disgusting little maggot like you!”

  “You bitch!” Bastian roared, furious, taking the last step toward me I needed him to take.

  “Temper, temper,” I said, smiling and hitting the power button on the remote in my hand even as I dropped to my knees and placed the final crystal. The black light blinked on and activated the circles and the crystals began to glow bright blue.

  Now, Nathan, I cried out, giving him the signal that I was ready for the others to join me. I had summoned the demon, I had trapped the demon. Now all that was left was to banish the demon.

  “You can’t banish me, Ember,” Bastian growled, smiling nastily. “You don’t have the power to banish a demon as old as I am on your own. If you did, you would have finished the job the first time. So, what’s next? You know this little trap of yours will only hold me for a short time.”

  “You know what? You’re probably right,” I told him, smirking, as the flicker of candlelight came through the open door. “I may not have the power to banish your sorry ass by myself, Bastian. Lucky for me, though, I don’t have to try.”

  Ms. Cantrell entered the room first, her talon-like fingers wrapped tightly around a black candle that was meant to banish evil. Cradled in her other arm was a small wooden urn containing the remains of one Cal Angstrom, who had died for a crime he hadn’t committed. After more than a century, true justice would be served.

  Following her was Mrs. Amelia, carrying a silver candle meant to neutralize negative energy. She also carried an unadorned clay jar that held the ashes of Alexei Maksimov, a man whose only crime had been to love a woman who didn’t love him back. For the life and sanity taken from that poor soul, Bastian would finally pay the price.

  Blake came next, a pale yellow candle to represent air burning brightly in his hand. It had fallen to him to carry the jewel-encrusted urn that held the remains of the first of my assassins, Jean Luc de Grie. A man who, like Bastian, had killed his one true love. Another man who’d died for Bastian’s revenge.

  Kim was the next to join us, carrying a blue candle to represent water. She looked sadly down at the dull silver urn she carried as she entered that contained all that was left of one Emily Bowden, a girl who hadn’t been afraid of anything or anyone. Of all my past selves, she had been my favorite.

  Grams entered the room next, the green candle in her hand to represent earth sending dancing shadows along the walls and ceiling. With her, she carried a small frosted-glass urn etched with flowers containing the ashes of my second incarnation, Elena Bogdanov. I winced as I remembered the feeling of the flames licking at my skin while Bastian laughed. Soon, we would see who would get the last laugh.

  Nathan entered after Grams, a red candle to represent my element, fire, in one long-fingered hand and a solid gold urn with the remains of Evangelique de Benet held close to his chest. He walked straight to me, placing the candle in my hands and the urn at my feet, and then touched my cheek before stepping back and turning to leave the room again, his part in the battle to come at an end.

  “Not staying for the party, Nate?” Bastian purred from his makeshift prison. “Leaving another of your women alone to die? Gabby would be disappointed in you.”

  Nathan stopped and turned around slowly. Rather than anger, I was surprised to see that he looked sad. For a long moment, he just looked at the demon who’d spent the last four centuries making his life a living hell, all that remained of his best friend.

  “You are a fool, Bastian,” he said quietly, the pain in his eyes causing a lump to rise in my throat. “You were a fool then, and you are a fool now. If only your aim had been better that night, you would have had your heart’s desire. She was going to marry you, Bastian. She would have been yours.”

  “What makes you think I missed?” Bastian asked, his lips turned up in an evil smirk.

  Nathan’s expression hardened to stone in less time than it took for me to take a breath. The pain in his eyes disappeared to be replaced with the kind of hate I hoped never to see again. In a voice so deadly quiet that I shivered at the sound of it he asked, “You shot her on purpose?”

  “If I wasn’t going to have her, nobody was,” Bastian said, his smirk growing wider. “Watching you take her life? That was just a bonus.”

  “Go to hell, Bastian,” Nathan said coldly. Turning to look at me, he smiled tightly. “Baby? Make sure he enjoys the trip, would you?”

  “It will be my pleasure,” I told him, smiling at Bastian—who suddenly didn’t look so damn smug. “I’ll make sure it’s a trip he will never forget.”

  I watched Nathan go, wishing I could ask him to stay. But he couldn’t. Because of what he was, we had decided he would be safer during the ritual if he stayed away—just in case the entities we were summoning got confused about which member of the undead they were supposed to take and took him, as well. I knew it was killing him, though. His shoulders were rigid with tension and he seemed to be making his feet take him away from me.

  For Nathan, almost four centuries’ worth of heartache would end with the conclusion of the ritual. He would finally be able to wake up from the nightmare he had been living in for so long. For Nathan, happiness waited at the end of the dangerous road our coven was about to travel. But only if we were successful. If we weren’t…well, Nathan’s nightmare was about to get a whole lot worse.

  I felt a noticeable spike in the tension of the room when the last member of our group joined us. Bastian’s eyes narrowed to slits as Tyler walked into the light of the flickering candles. In one hand, he carried a pure white candle meant to symbolize the element spirit. In the other arm, he cradled a large, ornate urn mad
e of solid iron. He looked neither right nor left as he made his way to the point directly across from me. I saw Bastian’s smirk return and felt a cold sense of dread wash through me at the maliciousness I saw in it.

  “Well, well, well,” he murmured as Tyler took his place. “It looks like the gang’s all here. Very good, Ember. I didn’t think you had it in you.”

  Rather than respond, Tyler knelt down and placed his candle at the point of the pentagram where he was standing. Then, every movement calm and unhurried, he placed the urn just inside the outer circle and slowly rose to his feet to watch as the rest of us copied his actions and added our own morbid offerings to the circle. Only then did he look at Bastian. His expression was completely blank, but his eyes were so cold that it felt like the temperature in the room dropped by ten degrees.

  “So, what did you bring to the party?” Bastian asked, his smirk turning smug. Walking over to Tyler, he bent down and studied the urn before taking a deep breath. “Hmm…smells like dust.”

  “Not exactly,” Tyler said softly, the chill in his eyes becoming even more pronounced as he smiled at the demon smirking up at him. “Let’s just say it’s a little gift from Gabriella. Actually, it is Gabriella.”

  The smile on Bastian’s lips died like roses in the arctic and I saw the first shadow of fear cross his face. Fastening his eyes on the urn at Tyler’s feet, he started to back away like he was afraid of it.

  “What’s the matter?” Tyler asked mockingly when Bastian swallowed hard, his eyes still glued to the urn.

  “No, you can’t have found them,” Bastian muttered, shaking his head. “No one knows where they were hidden. I made sure of that centuries ago.”

  “And yet, here they are.” When Bastian’s head snapped up to glare at him, Tyler smiled and shrugged. “What can I say? I’ve got skills.”

  Without another word, Tyler held his hands out to Grams and Blake, who were on either side of him, giving the signal that the fun and games were over and the real work was about to begin. Our eyes met across the circle and I found myself unable to look away from him. There was something different about him in that moment, something strong and powerful and…totally frigging amazing.