“Khalid!” Aiden snarled.
The Hallowed breached the salt circle, its entire bulk surging for me. Khalid’s blade was already swinging, left handed. Grosvenor’s snare triggered.
Mind-bending, knee-trembling power exploded behind me, wiping out sight and sound in a blaze of golden light.
Behind me?
I dropped into a crouch as Khalid stumbled under the unexpected assault. I whirled, trying to see whatever was approaching us without losing sight of the Hallowed. Blinking into the golden, pulsating light, my eyes burned with tears from staring into the onslaught of magic. Pure power.
A shadow appeared, walking toward us as if walking through a gilded tunnel. Two legs … body … two arms … shoulders … neck … head …
Above me, the Hallowed shrieked, tearing free from the curse breaker’s snare.
The entity’s voice raked through my mind, scrambling my brain. I fell to the ground, convulsing. Unable to stop myself.
The Hallowed would come for me. I had to be … I had to …
I couldn’t let it get Aiden.
Struggling, I gathered my power, preparing to be taken, to be invaded body and soul.
I’d broken free from it once. I could do so again.
The golden light faded.
Blue sky appeared overhead.
The Hallowed didn’t strike.
I stopped convulsing. I slowly turned my head.
A petite blond in a teal silk dress was standing in the clearing. Her hands were on her hips, lip curled in displeasure.
Behind her, a whirling circle of energy twisted in midair — the source of the golden-tinted onslaught of power.
A portal.
I had never seen one before, but I wasn’t an idiot.
Beside me, Khalid forced himself up and onto his knees. Aiden was a couple of steps away on my right. I managed to prop myself up on one hand.
Only seconds had passed.
The newcomer turned and shouted over her shoulder, “Found it!” Then she strode forward, scanning the orchard. I took her in at a glance, my mind reeling. Clear blue eyes, lightly tanned skin, pinked cheeks and lips. She moved as though she owned every molecule of the earth and the air surrounding her.
I couldn’t feel a drop of power coming from her.
She was epically dangerous.
‘The nine …’ I remembered the Hallowed whispering the name in my mind. She was one of the nine.
The nine what?
The blond took Aiden in with a grin as he crouched beside me, placing himself between me and the dangerous being strolling toward us. Everyone else simply watched, their reactions seemingly all just slightly delayed versions of my own.
If she was here to kill us all, we were already dead.
But the blond just winked at me as she stepped right past me, over Grosvenor’s tiled spell and through the doorway the Hallowed had carved into the salt circle.
The Hallowed.
I scrambled back, my reactions all delayed. I gained my feet even as I dragged Aiden with me.
Inside the spent layers of the barrier spells we’d raised against the Hallowed, the blond reached down and picked up the idol.
Isa stood in front of Kader and Ocean. Sky and Grosvenor were off to one side. Between them and the entrance to the circle, I tried to tuck Aiden behind me. Unsuccessfully, as he tried to push in front of me in turn.
Across from us, on his own, Khalid stepped away, hands raised before him. But his face was … his expression was filled with awe as the newcomer stepped through the opening in the salted circle. She was carrying the cracked idol. And the Hallowed was somehow being held within it. I could feel its energy.
The air around the idol rippled, as if the Hallowed had tried to attack or make a break for it, and the blond had effortlessly quelled the attempt.
If she had, she’d moved so quickly that even I couldn’t see it.
The blond took two more steps, pivoting to scan all of us again. Then she smirked at me. “Thanks for the assist,” she said. Her accent was American. West coast, I thought.
Before I could respond, she tossed the idol over her shoulder. Her movement was casual, seemingly effortless, yet somehow the idol flew in a long arc all the way to the portal. The golden magic swallowed it.
“You’re going to need a bigger box,” the blond shouted, chortling.
If that was some sort of joke, I didn’t get the reference.
“And you’re welcome,” she called in a singsong voice.
As if in response, the portal imploded, then disappeared.
The blond blinked, then grimaced. “You are such an asshole, old man,” she muttered.
I doubted she knew I could hear her.
She looked at all of us again, brushing her hands together. We stared back.
“I am Haoxin,” she said, chin raised, shoulders back. “The guardian of North America. One of the nine. We apologize that we momentarily …” She tilted her head thoughtfully. “That we lost track of the Hallowed. Nasty bit of work. Goes around calling itself ‘the mother of the dawn’ every few centuries.” She brushed her hands together a second time, as if perhaps remembering the touch of the Hallowed — though she’d made collecting it appear effortless.
Haoxin looked at me.
Expectantly.
I opened my mouth. And for a moment, I thought I might have forgotten how to speak. I was terrified. Yet at the same time, some part of me wanted to kneel before her and kiss the hem of her silk dress.
Across from me, I could see the same conflict reflected in Khalid’s expression.
“I am … Emma —”
Cerise sat up with a groan.
Haoxin’s gaze locked on her. Faster than I could track, the blond stepped to the witch, crossing the width of the clearing seemingly in that one step.
My stomach bottomed out. If she turned against us, I wasn’t sure I could drain her before she snapped my neck. I wasn’t sure I’d see her before she snapped my neck.
That she could kill me so easily, I had no doubt.
Ocean cried out. The same shocked gasp came from the others, though Aiden and Kader had already followed my gaze.
“Myers witch,” Haoxin snapped, peering down at Cerise.
The elder witch blinked up at her, confused.
“Your coven has been the guardian of this evil for over three centuries! But you …” Haoxin sneered. “You decided you could control it. I’ve punished idiots for far less.”
Haoxin reached for Cerise, who was cowering at her feet.
Then she paused, hand hovering just over the witch’s shoulder. She tilted her head thoughtfully. Again.
Haoxin’s hand dropped to her side as she straightened, scanning each of us arrayed around the charred and trampled grass.
Cerise was mumbling something, her palms up, pleading. Or perhaps worshiping.
Haoxin’s sky-blue eyes settled on me. “I see someone has already punished you accordingly, witch.”
I blinked.
The self-proclaimed guardian of North America was suddenly standing before me. Just out of my reach.
I quashed the impulse to reach for my blades lying in the grass a few feet away. And at the same time, I forced myself to again ignore the need to bow before her.
It wasn’t magic. Or charisma. I would have been able to feel her in my head if she were a telepath.
A slow smile curled over the guardian’s pinked lips. “What a treat you are, amplifier. You’re the one who drew my attention in San Francisco the other day.”
Her apparent misunderstanding of how much time had passed since I’d caused any sort of incident in San Francisco should have seemed like a weakness. Instead, it only confirmed what I already suspected.
Haoxin was …
Staring at me with one eyebrow raised, she had paused as if expecting me to answer her. But my heart was beating so madly I wasn’t certain I could speak over it.
Haoxin frowned thoughtfully, glancing around
her again. This time, her gaze swept higher, as if taking in her entire surroundings.
“Where am I, anyway?”
No. She was looking for landmarks.
“Lake Cowichan,” I said. My tone was steady, normal. “Vancouver Island, British Columbia.” I paused, then added, “Canada.”
“Ah! Good,” she said. “It felt like the northwest coast. But the season threw me. I’m always pleased to have an excuse to stop by the bakery.” She leaned toward me, grinning. “Though Jade hates it when I drop by unannounced.”
If I was supposed to know who Jade was, I couldn’t remember. This close, I could actually see power twinkling in Haoxin’s eyes — like barely contained mischief that could wipe us all from the face of the earth with a single uttered command. A simple flick of her wrist.
I felt numb, yet completely alive at the same time.
“I’ll give your best wishes to the Godfreys. And will let them know you have everything under control. Otherwise, you’ll have all of them all over you.” She flicked her gaze across all of us again, lingering on Kader. She furrowed her brow thoughtfully. “You do have it under control, yes? Emma?”
I nodded. “Yes, thank you … guardian.”
Haoxin took a step around me, then leaned forward on her toes, aiming a wicked grin at the elder sorcerer. “You’re in my territory now, sorcerer. I am not so … lenient as some of the others.”
“I am happily retired,” Kader said smoothly.
Haoxin sniffed. “See that it remains that way.”
Then she turned and walked away.
I watched — we all watched — in silence as the golden spiral of the portal yawned open before her. She stepped into its maw, then disappeared.
As one, we all turned and looked at Kader.
He grimaced, settling his hand on Isa’s shoulder as if his son might have been the only thing holding him upright. I didn’t believe it for a second.
Sky stepped toward Cerise. The elder witch was frowning, gazing down at her limp hands in her lap. Then her head snapped up.
She met my gaze, knowing what I’d done to her.
She deserved worse.
Not that I was her judge. Because apparently, that task fell to a demigod who had claimed all of North America as her territory.
I turned away, reaching for Aiden and pulling him with me toward the house.
Chapter 12
Finding myself with nothing to do while the sorcerers and the witches sorted themselves out, I pulled Christopher’s notebook out of the pantry and flipped through it in search of his granola recipe. I’d found the Tupperware container that usually contained the granola empty — washed and on the drying rack — when Aiden and I had come in. So I’d boiled eggs instead, forcing him to eat two with toast before he and the other sorcerers holed up in the barn. They wanted to be absolutely sure that Kader was no longer connected to the Hallowed. Or to Cerise.
As I was stirring cinnamon into the ingredients I’d carefully measured into a large metal bowl, Paisley, wearing her regular pit bull aspect, wandered in through the open French-paned doors. Ocean was only a few steps behind her. The witch looked tired. Her magic was just a low simmer.
Paisley crossed around the kitchen island, bumping her head into my thigh hard enough that I had to shift my footing to compensate. Ocean perched on one of the stools, setting her elbows on the island and her chin in her hands.
Sky was still upstairs with Cerise. Both Aiden and she had confirmed that the elder witch was completely drained of magic. Not that any of us were thinking of questioning a so-called guardian, who walked through portals and plucked up ancient magical entities with her bare hands, all seemingly without effort.
I touched Paisley on her broad head. “I’m glad you’re back. I’d like you to stay on the property now, please. Christopher is coming home.”
The demon dog looked at me, blinking. I grabbed a whole almond and carefully balanced it on her nose, as I’d seen Opal do the last time she was home. Paisley chuckled darkly. Then she flipped her head back, sending the almond shooting upward. She widened her jaw and caught it in her mouth as it descended.
“Impressive,” Ocean said, clapping her hands together softly.
Paisley flashed a sharp-toothed smile at the witch. Then she trundled off into the still-empty space where the kitchen table should have been. Without any preamble, the demon dog sprawled on the white tile floor, aligning her body with a sunbeam that was slowly creeping into the house.
I noted that she hadn’t agreed to stay on the property. I would have to enforce the rules. When there were fewer guests in the house.
“What did you put in that?” Ocean asked, eyeing the clump of ingredients in the metal bowl.
“Just what’s in the recipe,” I said, dumping the contents of the bowl onto the parchment paper lined cookie sheet.
Ocean tugged the open notebook toward her, scanning the handwritten recipe as I chopped and pressed the big lump with the edge of the spatula, trying to flatten it. I’d seen Christopher make granola at least a half-dozen times, but it had never looked so clumped before going into the oven.
Ocean glanced at the unbaked granola, then at me, grinning. Widely. “You’re supposed to melt the coconut oil first.”
I narrowed my eyes at her, then looked down at the lumpy mess of rolled oats, honey, sunflower seeds, and chopped almonds. “It doesn’t say that!”
Ocean smirked. “It’s nice to know you aren’t perfect at everything.”
I snorted, then just stared at the granola. The ingredients were too expensive to throw out.
“Just bake it,” Ocean said. “But, like, stir it every six minutes, instead of just at twelve minutes when you add the coconut.”
I’d already added the coconut.
Ocean blinked at me. “Did you already add the coconut?”
I grimaced.
She laughed, the sound light and pleasant. “Just be careful not to overbrown it.”
“I did reserve the cranberries,” I said stiffly, turning to shove the granola into the preheated oven. Though I had remembered to do that only because I’d seen Christopher sprinkle the dried fruit on last before allowing the granola to cool. Taking the witch’s advice, I set the timer for six minutes.
“Emma …” Ocean started to say. Then she trailed off, glancing toward the hallway.
I’d heard and felt Sky traversing the stairs only a moment earlier myself.
“Yes?” I prompted, tidying up my prep area and pulling out a cooling rack.
Ocean shook her head, grimacing.
Sky appeared in the doorway to the hall. “Mom wants to leave,” she said, her gaze drifting over Ocean — then homing in on me.
“Leave, then,” Ocean snapped.
“You’re really not coming with us?”
“I’m really not.”
Sky stepped into the kitchen. Magic shimmered around her clenched hands. “I can’t believe you blame Mom.” She pointed a finger at me. “Emma got influenced by it too!”
Only an hour alone with her mother and Sky had completely reversed her position. So Cerise Myers’s influence on her daughters wasn’t all magically induced.
I took a slight step to the side, so as to avoid any unintentionally thrown magic. I didn’t want to get any more tangled in the Myers/Azar family squabble than I already was.
Ocean glared at her sister. “You’re the one who was pissed at her before! If Mom hadn’t released it, hadn’t brought it here, Emma wouldn’t have been involved at all. Mom set it on us all. She could have killed Aiden! And I know you know that she would have killed us in that … that … stupid spell, if that was what it had wanted. I think she might … I think she was killing us, before Emma stopped her.”
“It infected her!”
Ocean shoved her stool back, going toe to toe with her shorter older sister. “You’re not stupid, Sky. You’ve taken the same classes as I have. It couldn’t have gotten hold of Mom without her inviting it in.”
<
br /> I wasn’t so certain about that. The Hallowed was far, far more powerful than an average demonic possession. But again, I wasn’t going to get further involved.
Sky shifted her attention to me. “Emma, please —”
“Emma already said no,” Ocean growled, stepping into Sky’s space.
I hadn’t actually outright said so, but —
“She stole all of Mom’s power! All her magic!” Sky cried. “Mom won’t … if she’s not a witch, she won’t have any value to the coven —”
“Well, it’s a good thing she extorted all that extra cash out of Kader.” Ocean folded her arms huffily, then set her hip against the island counter, firmly placing herself between me and her sister.
Sky’s face crumpled. “You know what he did to her.”
Ocean nodded. “I know what she says he did. And I know bits of what he pretends happened. But I didn’t know that our house, our … lives had been funded by him already. What did she need more money for?”
“The Hallowed,” I said. All right, apparently I wasn’t going to keep out of it. “It’s expensive to fund the lifestyle of a self-declared goddess.”
“Mother of the dawn,” Ocean mumbled. “That’s what the … guardian called it.”
“No,” I said. “That was what the Hallowed called itself.”
Sky stepped around her sister, still carefully keeping the length of the kitchen island between her and me. Her eyes were wide, pleading. “Emma, please. You could just give Mom back some of what you took.”
“Sky!” Ocean snapped. “Aiden and I said no already. It’s punishment, like the … like Haoxin said. The magic will come back.”
I wasn’t so certain about that either. Those I drained rarely survived the process. And of those who did, it was possible that only the Five had ever come back from a complete draining. Assuming it was even possible to drain one of the Five completely.
“You aren’t her judge,” Sky snarled. “You aren’t a jury of her peers.”
“No,” I said, keeping my tone calm. “But her coven is. What happens when she returns without the Hallowed?”
Sky inhaled deeply, smiling slightly, as if encouraged by what I’d said.
I obviously hadn’t articulated my point.
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