“No more surprise guests,” Kai said.
Sarah’s expression turned grim. “Until tonight.”
“Except I didn’t invite him.” Eden didn’t know what had happened, but she knew it wasn’t that.
“That’s actually not the biggest flaw in this theory,” Alex said. “The real problem is that you don’t have a portal key.”
Eden’s flesh pebbled as she pulled the relic from her pocket. “What if I do?”
“You think you won a portal key in a scavenger hunt?” Alex appeared apoplectic.
“It’s like a billion years old, and I got it from a shadow coven. Isn’t it possible they did something to it, and the energy I channeled during the test triggered it?”
“No way Carolyn would have missed something like that.” Alex shook her head. “No freaking way.”
“Then how did he get here, Alex? Tell me. How did he open a portal without a key?”
Silence hung between the two of them until Jules said, “This might tell us.” She held up a book with a title in a language Eden didn’t know. “It’s about inter-dimensional travel.”
“You read Latin?” Sarah’s eyes widened.
Jules shrugged. “Enough to get by.”
“Get by where?” Alex snapped. “Ancient Rome?”
Jules ignored her and kept reading while Eden stood up and began pacing.
Quinn went to her, putting a hand on her shoulder. “What is it?”
She gazed in his eyes, determined not to cry.
“If this turns out to be a key…” She gripped the vile disc. “That’s a good thing because we should be able to revoke the invitation and send Bes’tal back to wherever he came from, but…”
“But what?” Quinn said.
“It will also mean for sure that it was me. That it was my power that allowed him to come here and kill—“
“Eden, no matter what that rock is or isn’t, none of this is your fault. You’re a good person.” He touched her face.
“You don’t know that,” she said.
Even she wasn’t so sure anymore.
“I know you.” He cupped her face with his hands. “I know your heart.”
“That’s what Sarah said.”
“Then Sarah is right.” He kissed her forehead.
“I found something!”
Eden and Quinn dashed back over to Jules, who was pointing to a passage in the book.
“There’s a simple test. If this is a portal key, spinning lights will appear when I speak the incantation.”
Eden handed her the relic and Jules began chanting softly.
She finished, but no lights appeared, and Eden’s heart sank. They needed an answer.
“I told you Carolyn would never have been that careless,” Alex said.
“Try again,” Eden urged. “Just in case. If he came from another world, there had to be a key.”
“There was.”
Their heads whipped up to see Bes’tal in the doorway.
They all froze in a moment of suspended animation, and then all hell broke loose. Alex flung a small fireball, but Bes’tal deflected it, sending it crashing through a window.
Quinn rushed forward but was sent flying.
For a moment, Kai engaged him in combat, but the Av Rek landed a kick that sent her crashing into a shelving unit.
As Eden watched the carnage, her anger grew. She managed a small fireball and hurled it at him.
It seared a line across Bes’tal’s cheek, but when he touched the burn, his expression was almost proud. “Ah, my Eden. You grow more powerful with every fight. Perhaps I should wait to take you. Who knows the strength a few more hours of sparring might bring?”
He shot Sarah a warning look as he passed her and a writhing Kai.
Quinn sprang to his feet and landed a blow before receiving one that knocked him unconscious. Bes’tal looked down at him with contempt.
“You could do better, pet.” He stepped over Quinn’s motionless body.
Eden’s heart raced as she tried in vain to summon more fire.
“All of this effort to prove there was a key.” He came closer. “Of course there was. Even one as powerful as myself cannot pass through a locked door. You should have just asked. I would never lie to you, Eden. You, I will honor above all others.”
A green ribbon shot from his hand and wrapped around Eden, settling under her skin and cutting her off from magic. She gasped and tried to run, but invisible bonds gripped her like icy fingers, rooting her to the floor.
He closed the distance between them. “You are worthy of me.”
Eden’s heart pounded in her chest. Being without magic made her feel worse than helpless. She felt completely naked, but she wouldn’t show fear.
“I bet you say that to all the girls.”
Another step and they were face to face.
“Perhaps I cannot wait after all.” His touch on her cheek made her flesh crawl. “Your pull is too strong. I am helpless to resist.”
“Try.” Quinn swung an ax, partially severing Bes’tal’s neck.
Blood spurted from the wound, and the soul eater dropped to the floor, his eyes glazing over.
“Hard to kill my ass.” Quinn let the ax clatter to the floor.
Eden rushed to him—the bounds around her body and her magic now dissolved—and threw her arms around him. “You did it! You killed him.”
Relief made her giddy, and she showered him with kisses.
“Not exactly.”
Everyone turned to look at what Alex studied on the floor. The blood pouring from Bes’tal’s wound shimmered and slowed. Then it reversed course as if being pulled back into his body.
Eden’s veins turned to ice.
Chapter 24
Eden watched in disbelief as the blood that seconds ago had gushed from Bes’tal’s neck, was now resorbed.
“It’s like Carolyn said…”
“He can’t be killed,” Sarah whispered.
“Die, you son of a bitch!” Jules screamed and kicked him over and over. “Die!”
It didn’t do any good, Bes’tal’s wound was almost healed.
“Come on.” Eden tugged on Jules’s arm. “We have to go.”
But Jules was despondent; Eden had to drag her outside. Sarah helped an injured Kai stand, and they stumbled toward the door.
Eden looked back to see that Quinn had retrieved the ax and was raising it high above his head. He slammed it down in what should have been a decapitating blow.
Bes’tal’s eye flew open, his hand wrapping around the handle of the ax. He wrenched it from Quinn’s hand and sprang to his feet, swinging.
Eden screamed as the blade missed Quinn by inches.
She managed a fireball—it was small, but distracting enough that Quinn and Alex made it out of the greenhouse.
They raced toward Coventry House—Eden with Jules and Alex leading the pack. Quinn helped Sarah with Kai.
They’d made it inside and were halfway down the hall when a terrible sound made Eden steal a glance over her shoulder. There was a great whoosh as Bes’tal unleashed a fireball as wide as the corridor.
Eden dove forward, taking Jules and Alex with her. Quinn and the others disappeared from view.
All she could see was Bes’tal, striding toward her, untouched by the flames. For a moment she froze, but then Alex hauled her to her feet, dragging her into the secret stairway.
The panel was almost closed behind Eden, Jules, and Alex when Bes’tal’s hand shot forward and forced it back open. Jules shrieked, and she and Alex pounded on his fingers, trying to get him to let go.
“Release!” Eden shouted, the command coming from somewhere deep inside of her.
Bes’tal’s hand snapped open. The last thing she saw as the secret door slammed shut was Bes’tal’s shocked expression. It more than likely matched her own. It seemed the Av Rek was right about Eden finally coming into her own. Even Alex appeared impressed.
The three spun on their heels, but b
efore they could take a step, Bes’tal’s hand burst through, splintering the wooden panel and grabbing Alex by the hair. She struggled in vain, and Eden felt her newfound power taking over. With the wave of her hand, she sliced through Alex’s hair, freeing her.
“Best haircut ever.” Alex sprinted down the stairs.
Through the hole in the wall panel, Eden saw Bes’tal’s face darken.
“Please don’t make me hurt you, Eden. No one likes bruised fruit.”
Her mind screamed at her to run, but she stood, transfixed, as Bes’tal held out a hand. What was left of the panel came apart at the seams.
Sarah had never been so happy to have a man on top of her.
When the wall of fire had come screaming down the hallway, Quinn had saved her and Kai’s lives by diving on top of them and sending them all through an open doorway and into a bedroom.
“Eden?” Quinn called out frantically as he scrambled to his feet, but there was no reply. “What happened to her? Did you see?”
Sarah shook her head. “We have to find her. She’s the one he wants.”
“What we need to do is put out this fire.” Kai pulled herself to her feet. “It won’t do any of us any good if this place burns down around us.”
“You do what you want. I’m going to find Eden.” Quinn took a step to leave, and Sarah moved to follow.
Kai blocked their way. “I get you want to help her, but this place is filled with stuff so old flame retardant wasn’t even invented. It’s not gonna take long for this fire to get out of control, and it’s not like the fire department is getting past that dome outside.”
“Damnit.” Quinn scrubbed a hand through his hair, even as smoke drifted into the room. “You’re right.”
He grabbed the blankets off the bed and tossed one to Kai, wrapping the other around himself.
The three of them ducked into the smoke-filled hallway.
Eden raced down the stairs, Bes’tal hot on her heels.
She was only two steps behind Jules and Alex when she heard a loud crack. The staircase split in front of her, leaving her on one side and Alex on the other. Jules dangled by her fingertips.
“Why do you force me to kill your friends when all I want is you?”
She had to stall so Alex could get Jules to safety. She spun around to face him. “If I’m all you wanted, why did you take Carolyn?”
He gave a small shrug. “My appetite gets the better of me at times. And all I took was a taste.”
Disgust overrode fear and twisted her belly. “That taste killed her.”
Jules screamed, and from the corner of her eye, Eden noticed that her hand had slipped from Alex’s grasp. She now dangled by only one hand, her legs kicking furiously.
“We really aren’t so different.” Bes’tal advanced a step. “You did invite me, after all.”
Eden choked.“I did not invite you. Or if I did, I didn’t mean to. I couldn’t control the forces.”
“Forces aren’t meant to be controlled. They are meant to be surrendered to.”
Eden narrowed her eyes. “I will never surrender to you.”
Bes’tal smiled at her the way an adult does at a child who’s said something endearing yet ridiculous.
“But you already have, pet. As did I, the moment I accepted your invitation.” He gripped her by the hair, and a spell blossomed in her consciousness.
“Surrender to this.”
A ball of pure energy shot from her hand into Bes’tal’s midsection. His eyes widened as it shimmered and flexed inside of him. Then the ball exploded, showering the room with energy particles that had once made up Bes’tal.
“Come on!” Alex shouted, and Eden whipped around to see that she’d managed to hoist Jules up.
Eden looked to where Bes’tal had been and realized the energy was already retracting back into itself.
Her stomach tightened into a fist, and she panted, unable to get enough air.
What is it going to take?
The stairs beneath her shifted and groaned.
“Eden, jump,” Jules cried.
The stairs buckled at the same instant she leapt, and she tumbled into a free fall.
The fire continued to rage.
Quinn and Kai attacked it with extinguishers while Sarah held out her hands, smothering it with flows of energy she couldn’t quite explain. Carolyn had said those with inborn talent often rose to the occasion when required, and she guessed this proved it.
Quinn shook his extinguisher then tossed it aside.
“Empty. I’m getting the hose.”
He raced out the door, and Sarah wondered what they would do when Kai’s ran out. She could already feel herself fatiguing. Rising to the occasion was one thing, but every body had its limits.
A loud groan drew Sarah’s attention upward, to the wide beam above Kai’s head. She hadn’t realized the flames had spread that high. She transferred her focus, but it was too late; the beam broke free. Sarah shoved Kai out of the way as it came crashing down.
Bes’tal cursed his own greed. He’d toyed with the girl too long—eager to let her ripen on the vine—and now he was paying for his hubris.
He came back to himself in pieces, his atoms realigning into their proper orbit until he was finally himself again.
He took in the ruined staircase and floated across the gaping chasm.
Eden reached the basement right behind Jules and Alex. Her mind raced, bordering on hysteria.
“I-I made him explode. I made him explode, and he’s still coming…”
She couldn’t wrap her brain around it. How did you fight when you had no hope of winning? How would she ever make this right? She felt herself slipping further and further into a panic.
Eden fought it with every ounce of strength she had left. She would stop the Av Rek or die trying, but she wouldn’t allow herself to become useless.
Jules appeared dumbstruck while Alex paced, muttering to herself.
Finally, Jules spoke, her words tentative. “I think we should try the spell again—to see if the stone is a portal key. I-I think I may have messed it up.”
“Really?” Eden’s heart skipped a beat as she clung to hope. If the relic really was a portal key, they could send Bes’tal back to where he’d come from. She wouldn’t have to figure out how to kill something that couldn’t be killed.
Jules pulled the slim volume from her back pocket, and Eden silently blessed her for holding onto it through everything that had happened.
“Give it to me.” Alex held out her hand. “I’ll do it.”
“But you don’t read Latin.” Jules didn’t give her the book.
“I also don’t screw up spells, so hand it over.”
Jules bit her lip and flipped through the pages. “It’s this one.”
Alex took the book and the stone and began reciting the words.
The Latin sounded awkward on her tongue, but a moment later, small sparks of light danced above the artifact.
Relief flooded through Eden.
“I don’t understand,” Alex said, bewildered. “How could Carolyn have made such a mistake?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Eden said. “All that matters is that we can use it to send Bes’tal back where he came from.” She turned to Jules. “Please tell me there’s a spell to reverse the invitation.”
Jules took the book from Alex and began furiously flipping through the pages. “Here.” She handed the book to Eden. “This will send him back.”
“Do it.” Alex sounded resolute. “Do it now before he kills anyone else.”
“But he’s not here—”
“Call out to him,” Jules said. “He can sense you. We can’t risk getting caught off guard again. Bring him here.”
Eden felt the panic rising but stuffed it down.
She closed her eyes. “Be ready.”
Sarah had managed to push Kai out of the way of the falling beam, but now found herself pinned beneath it.
Quinn and Kai struggled to free
her while Sarah did her best to hold back the flames.
“We need leverage!” Kai shouted.
“I saw shovels in the greenhouse,” Quinn said. “Can you hold the flames long enough?”
Sarah nodded but wasn’t sure she was telling the truth.
“Go!” Kai said. “Hurry!”
Kai picked up the hose Quinn had brought inside and sprayed the advancing flames.
Eden reached out for Bes’tal.
“He’s close. He can feel me calling to him, but he wants to make me wait.”
How do I know that?
“An evil genius with a flair for the dramatic.” Alex folded her arms. “That’s not cliché at all.”
Alex seemed to have come back to herself. Her sarcasm, at least. Eden was almost glad—it indicated she thought they had a chance.
“Evil, perhaps.” Bes’tal stepped into the room. “But hardly a genius. Although I took one once. His soul tasted like…”
“Chicken?” Alex quirked an eyebrow.
“A wise-cracking sidekick.” Bes’tal cocked his head. “Also original.”
“I am not her sidekick.”
Eden used the exchange to recite the spell Jules had found to activate the key, but when she’d finished, nothing happened. She squeezed the stone tightly in her palm, willing it to do something.
“Jules?” Why wasn’t it working?
“Say it again,” Jules said.
Bes’tal shook his head, amused.
“The problem lies not with the spell, but with what you are trying to enchant.” He crossed to Eden and pried the relic from her hand. “This is just a stone.”
He crushed it in his fist, the dust sifting through his fingers.
“But…you said there was a key…”
There was nothing else it could be.
“There was.” He brushed his hand across her cheek. “A beautiful, powerful, willing key.”
He cupped his hand beneath her chin, and everything inside of Eden crumbled.
“No.” She couldn’t let herself believe.
“Yes,” he said. “I felt it when you opened. I could feel your desire. Your need to create something beautiful and good. Only good. That kind of blindness... Well, usually I have to slip in, but you... You were wide open.”
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