Could Miriam become another of my logs? Was she my way to get Sienna on-board for this showdown with Mandelbaum?
“I don’t have all the power,” I said, “but feel free to be a tad jealous.”
Miriam laughed.
I rubbed the goosebumps on my legs. “Mind if I ask you a question?”
She twisted the Star of David between her thumb and index finger. “You’re wondering how I can wear this and not have it be a betrayal of following Lilith?”
I nodded. “Kind of.”
“I look to Lilith as a role model,” Miriam said. “A strong woman who fought adversity and blazed her own path, like many Jewish women in history. It doesn’t conflict with my deep religious beliefs.”
“Judaism is so patriarchal. It doesn’t bother you how women were deemed unclean, relegated to the sidelines?”
“It does. Men got a lot of things wrong, but I also believe in the Almighty and that all will be sorted. We just need to tolerate the men a little longer because they have their uses.” She winked at me.
“Then trust that the Rasha have their uses, too.”
Miriam bit her bottom lip. “Alright.”
She gave me their location. Wow. This was huge. We could finally free our comrades.
“Thank you.” I liked this woman. Were we even enemies anymore? “Would you like to hang out some time?”
Miriam raised her eyebrows. “You mean when we’re not in imminent danger of the wards failing?”
“Or the coming of the Mashiach. We could get sushi.”
Miriam laughed. “I like your positivity.”
“Well, I watched a lot of Buffy. Embraced her ‘can do’ attitude. Speaking of being kick-ass, I need to get back.”
“Have an apocalypse to plan for, do you?”
“Better than plan for it. I’m going to avert it altogether.”
“How?” she said.
I pulled out the Ring of Solomon. “Destroy this. Lilith stole it from King Solomon once because it was too much power for one man to possess. Now it’s my turn to do the same.”
“Whoa.” Miriam gawked at the ring. “Well, go, Buffy. Though you might want to remember one thing.”
“What’s that?”
“The Hellmouth had to open.”
“Huh?”
“The End of Days must come. The world must be reset. Be’ezrat HaShem.” God willing.
With that, she stole the ring and was gone.
24
Miriam was working with Rabbi Mandelbaum and now he had the ring. I’d been played, plain and simple. Miriam had told me precisely what I’d wanted to hear, and I’d been so sure of myself that it hadn’t occurred to me that I could be tricked.
I pinged Sienna over and over again until she arrived, staring at me stonily.
“I need your help,” I said.
Her demeanor grew more despondent as I explained about Miriam and losing the ring.
She sank down onto a park bench. “Sure, she was religious, but to betray us?” She rubbed her eyes, exhaustion stamped on her face.
“We lost a battle, but the war’s not over,” I said. “Bring your witches. Bring the Rasha. Join us.”
Portalling into Hex Factor HQ at the front of a group featuring Sienna and the rest of the Rasha was one way to make an entrance.
Murmurs rolled through like a wave, Rasha and witches spilling into the hallway. There was a lot of back-slapping and delighted reunions amongst all the hunters, with the Rasha facilitating introductions with our witches to the newly-released and still-dazed men.
For all her power, Sienna hung back awkwardly. I escorted her to Raquel, Elena, Catalina, Shivani, and Rivka, who were in the gym training under Baruch’s supervision.
Sienna scratched at her forearm. “Rabbi Mandelbaum has the Ring of Solomon. I’m here to help.”
Talk about strained silence. Tree Trunk bolted after less than a minute.
“Stop being so heavy-handed with the cinnamon,” Rivka said.
“What are you—”
Rivka cut Sienna off. “Esther always said you overloaded cinnamon in everything. The rest of us don’t share your deficient taste buds, so the next batch of rugelach you leave at my door like a thief in the night better taste right.”
Sienna dipped her head like a little girl being chastised. “Okay.”
Shivani, rocking some impressive biceps for a retired woman, planted herself in front of Sienna. “If you mean what you say about joining us, we need all of you. We can’t have this divide in our community anymore.”
“We can’t,” Sienna agreed. “Let’s work out the details and I’ll gather my witches.”
I went to round people up. Rosh Hashanah was in two days and we had a rabbi to foil. Or assassinate. Either worked.
From the way witches and Rasha reacted to my presence, the plague had just swept in. If they didn’t know about my fight with Ro, for sure they’d heard what had happened with Leo.
I stalked through the hallway, shoulders back and chin up.
A loud whistle pierced the chatter. Cisco stood in the foyer of the school. “They’re here.”
I braced myself for the worst, carried along with the swell of people out the front doors.
Ro and Drio swaggered up the walk, chests puffed out, receiving back slaps and fist-pumps. Long gashes were raked down Drio’s left shoulder and along his ribcage, while Ro had an ugly purple bruise along his chin and was limping badly, but the injuries didn’t diminish their glows of happiness and relief.
They’d killed Hybris.
I’d forgotten that today was the date they’d been given by Durukti. I checked my phone, but Rohan hadn’t sent me a text saying he was leaving. I didn’t want to be the girlfriend who screwed up on that magnitude. It wasn’t on him to remind me about the most important demon kill of his life. It should have been the first thing on my mind this morning. I hurried into the bathroom and splashed cold water on my face. Leo was right. I was a narcissist. Maybe if I’d been less self-involved, I’d have been there for my boyfriend and still have the ring.
Ro was bursting with a well-deserved smug satisfaction, laughing with Danilo and some other friends.
I edged up to him like I just happened to be passing by. “You did it.”
He raked a considering stare over me. “You were right,” he said. “It didn’t help.”
Danilo forced the people around us to disperse. “Give them some privacy. Rohan is a surly bastard when he’s on the outs with this one.”
“Am not,” Rohan said.
“Fuck yeah, you so are,” Cisco said.
Was it petty that a small bubble of happiness fizzed around inside me hearing that? I maintained a suitably appropriate somberness for the conversation we’d been having. “I’m sorry. I thought you’d get closure. I mean, I’m sorry for everything.”
Ro glanced at Danilo and Cisco who made kissy faces at him. “I’m the one who’s sorry. When I saw you slash your throat I went to a crazy place.”
Drio leaned over. “He’s very rigid.”
Rohan pushed him away by the face. “I said some horrible things and I was way out of line.”
“I crossed one or two thousand lines myself.”
“I can’t promise this is going to be easy for me,” Ro said, “but damned if I’m going to lose you.”
“You going to fight for me?”
“Hell, yeah.” His lips quirked up. “And I fight dirty.”
This time I did jump on him and kiss him.
“Let me point out that I was the one who killed Hybris,” Drio grumbled.
I slid off my boyfriend and smooched Drio’s cheek, all wet and sloppy. “Good killer.”
“Ugh.” He wiped it off with his sleeve.
Leo showed up. “Way to go, Ro!”
“Leo, please talk to me,” I said. “What do I have to do to make things right with you?”
“Figure it out on your own.” She patted Ro’s arm. “I’m happy for you.”
“I’m glad you avenged Asha,” Leo told him.
“Grazie.”
There was a long, loaded moment where I was dying to comment, except I’d lost my teasing rights with Leo. I only hoped I hadn’t lost her.
“Back to the salt mines,” she said with a wave.
“Was that a comment on Kane?” Ro said.
I laughed. “Kane Hashimoto, the OG Salt Bae.”
Drio watched her until she was inside the school.
“How do I fix things with her?” I asked Drio.
“Bella, if I only knew.” He left to talk to a Rasha I didn’t know.
Ugh. He was of no help.
“You got Sienna to release the Rasha?” Rohan said. “This is amazing. How?”
The truth rose up, hot and thick inside me clogging my throat. I thought I’d been so clever in my handling of everything and everyone. I could have forced the words out, but I wanted to bathe in his glow, in his love, a while longer.
“Mandelbaum got the ring,” I said.
“Time to marshal the troops,” he said. It didn’t even occur to him that it was my fault. I could handle Rohan being angry with me, but I couldn’t stomach his disappointment.
I squeezed his hands. “I love you more than anything. Can you hold on to that and let us figure out the rest after?”
His answer was a sweet kiss. “You got it.”
The auditorium was a lot more crowded with several hundred Rasha now in attendance. They should have outnumbered the witches, but they didn’t. For whatever reason, word having gotten out to the community-at-large about killing Satan or wanting to see the freak show that was me, the witch contingent had swelled to about three hundred. The auditorium was standing room only.
My friends were on my side. Most of them. Rohan, because he didn’t know what I’d done yet, and well, Leo was on her phone, but the rest were good.
For now.
“Mandelbaum has the Ring of Solomon and Rosh Hashanah starts the day after tomorrow and it’s my fault.” I spilled every ugly detail of my encounter with Miriam. “I’m going to fix it, but I wanted you to all know so that you had the information to act accordingly.”
Telling everyone was the right decision, but I didn’t have the guts to look at Rohan while I did it.
“What are you going to do about it?” Jezebel called out.
“Nava,” Mandelbaum boomed out.
I spun around. “Where are you, you coward?”
“Nee? You okay?” Ari said.
“Mandelbaum is here.”
Everyone went on high alert, but no one could find him.
One witch in the front row twirled her finger in a crazy motion.
“Not even the witches think you’re capable,” Mandelbaum said.
I held up my middle finger.
The witch who’d made the crazy sign shot me the finger back.
“Not you.” I paced the stage, scanning the crowd. “You’re nothing, Mandelbaum.”
“It will be a mitzvah to put you in your place.” He was insufferably smug.
“Getting a jump on your evil plans? It’s not Rosh Hashanah yet.”
“Why wait? Nava Liron Katz, I call you. Nava Liron Katz, I bind you. Nava Liron Katz, I command you to come.”
The rabbi needed me. I portalled out.
He stood out front of the compound in the California desert, now razed to rubble, where he’d conducted his demon experiments. “Good girl.”
I beamed under his praise, then immediately wondered what the hell was I doing?
A voice inside my head shrieked at me to fight him, but my body had other ideas. I reached out to touch the shiny brass ring on his finger, but he snatched his hand away.
“Show some respect for your Mashiach.”
That same tiny voice inside me told him off, but my body was his to control again and I bowed my head. My blood turned to ice. I was helpless to refuse him.
“You will accompany me into the demon realm.” He held out a bracelet by his fingertips, careful not to touch me.
Physically, the bracelet was nothing more than a strip of hammered copper with symbols engraved on it, but it made my skin crawl. It wailed with dark magic and blood and violence. I recoiled, my arm trembling as I tried to move it behind my back, not wanting this obscenity to touch my flesh, but he barked at me to put it on and I obeyed.
He slid a vial of clotted black and red goo out of his pocket and uncapped it.
Pain-kill-death-pain-mercy-mercy-mercy
I staggered back at the magic shriek broadcasting off it. It wasn’t all demon cries; Tessa’s anguish was in there as well. “What is that?”
He tapped a finger against the vial. “Tessa found me a way into the demon realm.”
The rabbi’s cruelty was abhorrent. He’d gotten off on this torture and he had to die.
My mind rebelled against that treacherous thought the second I’d had it. Respect the Mashiach. If we’d done wrong, we deserved the punishment he meted out.
Fuck. No. Not my head. My body was bad enough. If he controlled my mind, I’d break, and this time I didn’t think I’d come back from it.
“As soon as we get inside, these bracelets will direct you to the Gates,” the rabbi said. “Portal us there and open them.” He dripped some viscous liquid on his own bracelet, and then over mine. A sticky clot plopped out, sliding onto my skin.
I gagged.
A rift opened up and sucked us through.
We were back in the demon court. I had a split second to see Malik on the throne with his new contingent of guards: red cyclops demons built like brick walls. His confusion at seeing me turned to alarm when he saw who I was with.
I portalled us to the gates. My heightened demon awareness kicked in during the split second before we landed and I threw up an invisibility shield over the two of us.
In a chilling repeat of my time being tortured, I once again carefully gathered up the last slivers of my lucidity, helplessly watching myself perform this as if from a distance. The disconnect was profound, worse than having Lilith inside me, worse than the previous torture. I was a mindless zombie, Mandelbaum’s pawn to do with as he pleased.
The Gates of Alexander loomed over us, impossibly high, made of twisted iron, every inch of them scratched with fuck-off looking symbols.
Dozens of zmey dragons guarded the gates in rows three-deep, belching fire and flexing their razor-sharp talons. They couldn’t see us but they had a keen sense of smell, and immediately closed in on us.
I held my hand out to the zmey. “Protect the Mashiach. His will be done.”
With those words, I hit rock bottom, sending up silent apologies to my loved ones for failing them.
The dragon closest to me unleashed his fire.
I rolled gold magic over the lot of them, watching them wink out.
“Open the gates,” the Mashiach commanded.
I looked in vain for a keyhole.
“Stupid girl. Do I have to do everything? She warded these gates and you are her descendent, you abomination.” He grabbed my hand and shoved it up against the iron.
Centuries-worth of dark magic wards surged toward me, piercing my palm like a viper’s bite. My head snapped back and my mouth opened wide in a howl, gold magic gushing from me in a thick column that swirled up along the gates. It coated them in a billion glistening, dancing motes. It was beautiful, and I wanted to yell at the Mashiach that he was wrong. I wasn’t an abomination. I was everything good and wonderful and exactly as I was supposed to be. I couldn’t help him.
Let me go.
I didn’t get the chance. The gold dust hardened and blew the gates wide open.
Gog and Magog were free.
25
A double-headed skeletal wraith drifted toward us made of nothing more than shadow and hate.
The Mashiach smiled. “Well done, Nava. You’ve played your part. Now I can finally be rid of you, as I will r
id myself of all your kind.” He stepped forward. “Gog and Magog!”
The wraith paused, hovering.
“Gog and Magog, I call you. Gog and Magog, I bi—”
The Mashiach’s words were cut off with a strangled gurgle as the wraith flew toward him and body slammed him, possessing him. He flicked terror-filled eyes to me and disappeared.
The compulsion binding me dissolved.
I sucked in a lungful of air, ripped the bracelet off, and wiped the disgusting clot off my skin.
How had he bound me? I didn’t have dark magic.
The ground rumbled. Malik stood flanked by twenty cyclops demons. This wasn’t the ally I bantered with. This was the cold, ancient intelligence before whom my magic paled.
“Shaitan.” I bowed low, my knees knocking together. I did my best to keep the grimace off my face at how badly these demons stank to me.
Malik jerked me up by my hair. “You’re going to fix this mess, or I will spend eternity hunting and torturing every single person you hold dear and make you watch.”
“Yup,” I squeaked. “On it. Could you spare some demons to help?”
He lifted me off the ground—still by my hair. “Your gall is astounding.”
I scrabbled at the floor with my tiptoes, hoping he didn’t rip my scalp off.
A shofar sounded, a great trumpeting through all corners of the universe.
“It’s started,” I said.
Malik flung me to the ground. “Go with her,” he ordered the demons.
Hollywood’s depictions of the end of the world by demonic means generally involved some enormous monster with a forked tail and horns and people running rampant, screaming.
The scene at the packed plaza in front of the Wailing Wall at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem was more a sea of people, tourists and locals alike, filming the witches and Rasha arriving, the general consensus being that this was some kind of cool flash mob.
The only shouts came from the bearded Hasidic Jews in their black suits, kippahs, and talleisim, lined up along the wall. Sidelocks and fists shaking, they were furious that their prayers had been interrupted.
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