by Angie Fox
She was utterly ruthless, willing to end herself, implode us both in order to end it quickly.
I had to get the necklace and free Grandma if I even hoped to save Dimitri and beat back the demon. My limbs heavy, my breath came in pants.
Dimitri lay motionless, his face in the dirt.
I tried to crawl to him. “Let me at least be with him,” I screamed. I couldn’t even say the last part, as he dies.
Panic flashed in her eyes. “I ain’t falling for that shit,” she said, blasting me in the stomach, driving me farther away.
The Earth pitched. I used the tilt along with my last bit of power to drive myself off the ground and launch myself at Grandma. I levitated for a brief, hot moment and went straight for her neck.
My fingers closed against the emerald. It was brutally cold, searing to the touch. I held on like the souls of everyone I loved depended on it.
I ripped the stone from her neck and fell backward, knowing I was in deep shit as I retreated, broken and unable to fight back. My pulse pounded in my ears, and I struggled to even feel my arms and legs. But I had it! I had the emerald, clutched in my hand.
Grandma grabbed me by the hair. She jerked me up painfully and drew a dagger out of her pocket. She unsheathed it with her teeth.
The necklace chain went liquid and wound around my hand. The humming metal streaked up my arm and circled my throat. It attempted to harden, but not fast enough as she exposed my throat and slashed down at my jugular.
The knife sliced straight through the soft metal. I gasped. I was beyond the pain. I waited instead for the blood.
And revenge.
Sure as hell, my Grandma wasn’t behind this. The demon was.
He might be strong, but I was, too. I used my last remnant of hope to hit her with a full blast of angel power. It was the only thing I had left, the one edge I had to combat a demon.
I dug deep, past my hurt and anger and fear. I searched for the love I had for Dimitri, who lay dying or possibly even dead on the ground. He was the man who gave me everything of himself, who made my real wedding possible and who would never leave me, come hell or demon spawn. I thought of Hillary, who shocked me by being willing to change for me, a demon slayer, a girl who wore a switch star belt to walk down the aisle. Pirate, who only wanted to be with me, no matter where I was or what I was doing. And who was going to have to tolerate a lot more nights locked outside my bedroom if I had anything to say about it. I also had my biker friends, who were willing to ride hard, live on the run, and then go to a society tea party for me. Because they loved me.
I shoved all of that power, all of that love at the demon inside Grandma. And I redoubled it when I thought of Grandma herself, how hard she must have fought before she succumbed, how she was the one who always stood up for me, and accepted me, and challenged me to be something more than I ever imagined I could be.
She staggered back under the force of pure energy and love. It drove me to the ground as blinding light blazed from my hands. I kept pushing it out, even as I emptied myself of power, and energy, and life.
“Enough!” Grandma screamed, covering her eyes, her hair whipping behind her. “I’m back! I’m back!”
I poured everything I had into blasting her even harder.
She jolted back, fighting me, clawing at it like it was a swarm of angry bees. “You always gotta overdo every fucking thing.”
The power flowed from me. My nose ran. My teeth rattled. I clenched them harder.
“Stop it!” she screamed. She fisted her hands at her sides. “Give me a God damned break!” she glared at me. That’s when I saw her eyes were sky blue. Normal.
I gasped and let my own hands drop to my side, immediately feeling the weight of them. A chill ripped through me. If I wasn’t careful, I was going to pass out. “You have to help Dimitri.”
Grandma staggered over to where he lay. I had to crawl.
“Shit, shit, shit,” she muttered under her breath. She dug in her bra until she drew out a wriggling white spell. She swayed on her feet, yanking off the top of the silver snake ring on her left hand. She tossed the severed cobra head onto the ground. Protruding from the ring, which was now basically a snake neck, was a lethal looking needle. Grandma plunged it into her chest.
I stumbled to my knees, ready to blast her again if I had to. I didn’t know if I had the strength.
The needle pierced the flesh above her heart. She breathed like she’d run a marathon, winding the spell around and around the bloody snake head.
It was the counter spell. I’d used one last year, on Ant Eater. From a jar.
She drew back and launched it at Dimitri.
It sizzled over him, piercing the skin at his neck as I struggled to reach my husband. The top of the ring lay on the ground, untouched.
“Did it work?” I asked. I didn’t know what was still wrong with her, or how long I’d freed her, and the scary thing was, I didn’t care. Right now, we needed to save Dimitri. The rest of it, I could handle if I just had him.
Grandma looked like she was about to faint. Bright red blood stained her tunic. “Turn him over.”
Hands shaking, I did as she asked. Dirt clung to his cheek. He wasn’t breathing. Oh my God. I couldn’t lose him now. We’d come too far for this.
The spell glowed at his throat. I shoved hard at his chest, forcing the air out. He gasped hard and took one glorious, shallow, unsteady breath, then another. The relief of it staggered me.
I watched him for a moment, soaking it in.
I held his head in my lap, murmuring against his cheek, as Grandma sat down hard next to me, her hair tangled around her eyes, her skin pale and slicked with sweat. “Christ. I feel like I got plastered by a semi.”
“Try a demon,” I said. Dimitri’s breathing had evened out. He still hadn’t opened his eyes. By all that was holy, it made me sick to think how close we’d come to losing him.
The ground rumbled beneath us. We weren’t out of this yet. Not by a long shot.
Grandma clenched her teeth and closed her eyes. Her entire body trembled.
Pure dread settled in my stomach as I tried to recover. “The demon’s coming back.” She wasn’t free.
She grit her teeth. “Not yet.”
No, but soon. I brought my hand up to my neck where she’d tried to knife me, shocked I hadn’t bled out all over the ground. The emerald lay over my jugular. I hadn’t even felt it move. To be fair, I could still barely feel my own hands and arms. My finger caught in a groove, and I realized the knife had cut a deep gash in the stone.
Dimitri’s eyes opened and he coughed.
“Don’t speak,” I told him. The skin on his neck was bright red and I didn’t know if he had a crushed windpipe or larynx or what.
Grandma shook her head. “Look Lizzie, there’s not much time. The demon still has his hooks in me, and he’s pushing back hard. Kill me if you have to, but another will come, and another, and not even you can fight off an entire clan of possessed griffins.”
I didn’t get it. “Why did he possess everyone?”
“Because his first two attacks on you failed, and it frustrated him. When you took off the emerald, he saw an opening, and decided the wedding was the best moment to overwhelm you with force, so he wouldn’t fail again.”
I looked down at Dimitri. “Well, it’s working!”
“No shit, but it’s stringing out his power. Break one chain and the whole web unravels—” She clutched at her middle.
“Grandma?!”
Her eyes met mine in horror. “We’re too late…”
Dimitri choked. I didn’t even know if he’d been well enough to listen. “Go,” he waved me off, “I’ll catch up.”
I hesitated. Hades. He’d nearly died, and I was about to leave him lying here.
“Lizzie,” Grandma said, working her way to her feet. “He’s right,” she said, planting her hands on her knees for support. “Your wedding over there is the key. Zatar needs a blast of power. That me
ans a lot of souls in one place. You brought everybody together.”
For heaven’s sake. I tried to stand. “I didn’t even want a big wedding.”
She snorted. “Too late.” We both flinched as a boom sounded from the herb garden. She shook her head. “He’s coming. We gotta get over there.”
I glanced one last time at Dimitri, who had one hand braced on the ground.
“I’ll be back,” I said, in the most optimistic statement of all time, seeing as I could barely stand, much less fight the Earl of Hell.
Grandma and I took off for the arched trellis in a staggering run.
The sky had grown dark. The Earth rumbled.
Grandma braced her hand against the woven wood as we made the first turn. Her eyes were still normal, but I was waiting for them to go pink. I didn’t know what I would do if it happened in here. “You okay?” I called out to her.
She shook her head, still guiding herself along the wall with her hand. “Mostly.”
We made the second turn, and I smelled sulfur up ahead. “I can’t blast everybody.”
She didn’t argue. Crimeny. What was there to argue about? It had been hard enough to free Grandma.
My head felt hazy, but I tried to think. “Rachmort deals with lost souls. Can he help?”
We both breathed heavy as we made it toward the last turn. “Is he compromised?”
“Pink eyes.”
“Don’t trust him. Hell, don’t trust me.” She doubled over and fought another wave of possession. I stopped, gripping her shoulder to steady her and myself. “The dead bride is the key,” she said. Grandma shook me off, and we started moving again. “She is the one powering his connection. Free her and you free us all.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Sure. Focus on the dead bride. I was going to be a dead bride if I didn’t fix this.
The emerald at my neck warmed, and the metal around it softened and began to snake down my chest.
We broke out of the covered trellis and into an overgrown section of the garden bordered by a tall hedge. The ground rumbled. Smoke and shouting erupted from the other side. I couldn’t imagine what was happening, but it wasn’t good. The acrid stench of sulfur burned my nose.
My poor mom and dad. Cliff and Hillary didn’t deserve this. They never asked to be a part of this world. I’d dragged them into it, and now a demon had them.
Zatar held power over everyone I’d ever loved.
Liquid metal wound around my right arm. Well, it had better hurry. We were going into battle. I drew a switch star and prepared to round the hedge wall.
“Hold up.” Grandma grabbed my shoulder at the last minute and shoved my back against the prickly, overgrown bush. “They’re going to attack.” Her mouth set in a grim line.
No kidding. Unless she was talking about something different. “Do you mean Cliff and Hillary?” No way I could hurt them back.
Grandma was desperate, on edge. “Everyone.” She gave me a hard shake. “Zatar’s orders are for us to rip you apart, keep you breathing only long enough so he can suction your power and use it to break out of hell.”
Cripes. Maybe I didn’t want to duck around the hedge.
The ground shook, and I nearly tumbled out anyway.
Okay. Think. “Can you fend them off long enough for me to try and free the ghost?”
Her grip on my shoulder tightened. “No.”
“Why the hell not?”
She clenched her teeth. “I’m going under.”
Fuck a duck.
Then I saw it. Her eyes were going pink around the edges. I shoved her away. “Stay with me as long as you can. That’s an order!”
She groaned and punched at the air. “God damned mother fucking demon!”
Yeah, well, she could get pissed off later. “Let’s go!”
“Me first,” she said, surprising me as she darted out in front. Smart. It could buy me an extra second if they saw her first. The emerald necklace had re-formed into a single, iron arm guard with a row of sharp spikes and the locket at the center. It covered my entire left forearm.
Grandma drew up short, and I nearly ran into the back of her. My guests were in a full-scale battle with each other. It was biker witches against Greeks against society mavens against more biker witches. It was as if they had been primed to hate, born to violence.
Frieda had climbed onto Aunt Ophelia’s back and had her hands wrapped around her neck. The large Greek woman spun and sat, crushing Frieda against a white folding chair as the biker witch tried to take a bite out of the older woman’s ear.
A sharp pain lanced my ankle. “Ow!” Pirate had sunk his teeth into my skin. I yanked him away, careful not to hurt him, losing my shoe in the process.
I had him by the collar. He bared his teeth. “Die, demon slayer!”
“Gimme!” Grandma snatched him, and he tried to take a chunk out of her arm.
Flappy shrieked and I watched him crush the catering tent, blood lust in his eyes. The white dragon’s razor-sharp claws ripped through the thick canvas and shot out as he flew straight for me.
Frick! I ran, dodging hockey great Matt Shott, and taking out Mrs. Rodgerson who had lost her blonde wig and was kicking a live spell jar at Antonio and Creely. Luckily, I was going down because Sidecar Bob had tossed a spell jar at my head.
I fell onto my right knee. A Mind Wiper spell headed straight for me, and I deflected it with my bronze-plated arm.
The ghost stood in the center of the horde, shackled, held in place by a demonic force.
Flappy was almost on me, claws out. Grandma’s eyes were hot pink.
“Go get her!” she screamed, as I scrambled to my feet. Grandma dove in front of Flappy and took the shot meant for me.
Zatar’s power crackled in the air like loose lightning.
I ran for the ghost, and when I glanced back, I saw Grandma rising from the ground, her shoulder bloody, her eyes scarlet, and her stare lethal.
Rachmort came at me from the side. I threw out my arm, ready to block him when he dove past me and took Ant Eater down.
White wedding chairs littered the ground. I shoved them aside as I made my way to the ghost. She clutched at the chains that held her. The manacles were lined with sharp spikes that pierced her skin. Rivulets of blood ran down her body. I didn’t know what I was going to do to get them off of her.
How do you break a soul bond?
“Get her!” Creely hollered, and the entire crowd shifted its malice toward me.
Holy hell. I needed a minute. By all that was holy. Please!
A cool blue jolt of power seared through me. Clan magic. I hoped to God. It numbed my ring finger as it rose up from my skye stones, encasing both the ghost and me. Creely bounced off the blue energy and fell to the ground, stunned. I couldn’t quite believe it myself.
I was shaking. My demon slayer instincts screamed for me to draw a switch star, to kill them all. It took everything I had to turn my back on the mad rush of bikers, in-laws and society mavens set to attack. I had to trust Dimitri’s magic, and my own.
I had only one idea on how to free the ghost, and it had better work. I reached for the locket, and this time it, it clicked open at my touch.
The grave dirt had to be the answer. I’d known all along I needed to take it, I just didn’t know why. But this dirt was from the place where her family and friends had mourned for her. They’d prayed over her. Used their meager resources to build a monument to remember her. Those people hadn’t been able to reach her in the dark place she’d been taken. She was shackled. Cold and alone. But she was loved. I could bring that love to her.
“I have you,” I said to the ghost. “I’m here.” I touched the rich dirt to her hands, poured the black Earth into her outstretched palms, and the chains fell away.
A look of wonder crossed her face. Her skin began to glow. She reached for me, caressing the dress I wore, then whispered her fingers against my cheek in a silent caress. Thank you. She grew more and more radiant. Her
words echoed in my mind as she broke free and began to rise up.
I focused on her bravery and her determination. She’d been a prisoner of the demon for more than a century. I couldn’t imagine the horror of her wedding night, the betrayal she faced as a human sacrifice. She’d had her very soul chained. She’d been brutally used. They’d taken everything from her. Yet, she never gave up hope.
Amazing.
She must have seen her chance when the demon lured my mom to this place. The dead Elizabeth had called to me, even when I couldn’t hear her. She’d asked me to her grave. My necklace had responded. It began to glow, stopping me along the road even when I didn’t know why. It had even offered me a vessel when I felt compelled to try and make a difference.
To think, she ended up saving me as well.
I watched her rise and as she slowly ascended, I drew on my angelic strength to try and help her along on her journey. It flowed to me despite the ugliness of today. It was the light in all of us, the light we sometimes have to choose in order to see.
I released it out to her. She glanced back and smiled. For one brief moment, I saw her embrace the joyful spirits waiting for her, before I lost her in the clouds.
The Earth had quieted. The fighting around me ceased. My guests had stopped trying to kill me, and each other.
They looked rather dazed, in fact. Creely sat on the ground, confused as to how she’d gotten there. Mrs. Rodgerson stared at the blonde wig in her hand. Grandma cursed at the blood on her arm, and Pirate made a face, as if he didn’t like the taste of what he’d been trying to chomp.
Hillary lowered the folding chair she’d been ready to smash into my head. “What on Earth?”
A middle-aged Greek woman stood next to her, dazed, and handed Hillary the sleeve to her white mother-of-the-bride jacket. “I found this,” she said, clearly not quite sure where she’d gotten it.
Frieda wandered over to Grandma. “That was some earthquake.” She stopped, holding her stomach where Ophelia had sat on her. “I think my girdle’s too tight.”
I tried to do a mental headcount, which was hard when none of them were standing still. “Is everybody okay?” I asked. If they were, I wanted to get back to Dimitri and see how he was doing.