“We won’t know what’s under the veil until we dispense with it,” Elena said. “We want you awake so you can speak or cry out if you’re in distress.”
Frustration simmered in Raquel’s eyes. “Why is everything about you so difficult?”
“Just lucky.” I pulled my knees into my chest.
Ro crossed his arms. “You don’t have to do this.”
“Rohan.” Shivani said a few words to him in Hindi.
“No. She’s been through enough.”
Removing the veil might reveal key information to finding the Ring of Solomon via Lilith’s memories. It might also unleash them, flooding me and destroying any sense of myself.
It was a testament to how nuts my reality had become, that my fears about Lilith’s memories overtaking my own weren’t even my biggest concern. What if some knowledge, some part of me had been kept from me my entire life? There was no way it would be something good like a genius-level I.Q. You know what got warded up because they were too scary for the light of day? Monsters like Gog and Magog.
Is that what I was?
I could be happy not knowing. I just wouldn’t have the stupid ring. I finally had a life I wanted, why would I fuck with that?
Damned if I do, damned if I don’t.
“Do it,” I said.
Rivka ordered me into the center of the room.
Rohan kept a respectful distance but stayed in visual contact with me.
The women linked hands and settled them on my head. Elena said a few words in Romanian, and they pulled their hands away with a snap, like they were pulling a tablecloth off a table without disturbing the dishes.
The veil shriveled into a black wisp of smoke, curling upwards inside me before exploding into flame, hot and violent, on the cusp of burning me to ash exactly like in my dreams. A rushing noise filled my ears.
Magic welled up inside me, rushing out from newly formed cracks to fill me up, washing away my headache. It buzzed behind my eyes, in my toes, in my gut, humming with a familiarity born of homecoming. My fingers twitched, longing to dip into that endless pool. I braced myself for the razor-sharp edge of dread and anxiety, for my body to shut down in the wake of all this glorious power, but the magic settled into place with a feeling of irrevocable rightness. The rush was sweeter than the night in the compound when I’d tasted Lilith’s power, because this was mine, a gorgeous gold color.
I waved my hand and a shower of jewel-toned flowers fell from the ceiling, their crushed petals releasing a sweet perfume.
A pink cloud wove and bobbed in the early morning sky in a dance too languid for the normal human eye to follow and the sun twinkled at me with a private smile.
“Eema.” I pressed my fist to my mouth with a gasp, images flooding my brain.
“You want your mother?” Rivka said. It was a reasonable question since I’d called for her in Hebrew.
“Yes.” I caught her wrist when she pulled out her phone. “No, not my mom. My mother.”
“You’re not making sense,” Elena said.
“My name is Nava Liron Katz and I am a direct descendent of the first Liron.”
“Who was her mother?” Shivani said.
“Oh no,” Rohan said. “No fucking way.”
I nodded. “Lilith.”
“I don’t suppose you mean some other Lilith?” Raquel sighed. “No? Oh well, worth a shot.”
“Explain,” Rivka demanded.
“Lilith stole King Solomon’s ring because it was too dangerous, too powerful for one man to possess,” I said. “Given how his father had stolen the magic to make more Rasha, she wasn’t feeling particularly charitable towards him.”
“No kidding,” Rohan said.
“The king was furious and sent a team of his most skilled assassins after her.”
“Hold up,” Rohan said. “This was the research that Markovic burned. It’s dangerous.”
“Why? Because people might come after me? That ship has sailed,” I said.
Rohan glowered at me. “Or the magic is too dangerous.”
“All magic is dangerous. Your concerns are noted. May I continue with the story?”
“By all means,” he said sarcastically.
“Lilith returned the assassins to him in pieces, but coincidentally, she also learned she was pregnant.”
“She suppressed the baby’s magic so no one would go after it?” Rivka said.
“Yes. She put these wards in Liron’s brain so no one would know she was a witch of immense power and then she gave her to a wet nurse to raise.” I sank into a chair; the pain of a thousand years of loss swamped me. “Lilith sang her song of sorrow into the wards so the story, like the suppression, would became part of our genetic make-up. She was doomed to watch generation after generation of her line move through the world with no awareness of their true legacy. Who they were and what they were capable of.”
An entire future unfurled itself in front of me.
“I don’t buy it,” Rohan said.
Don’t harsh my buzz, dude. “Do I register as Lilith anymore?”
The witches shook their heads.
“There you go,” I said. “Irrevocable proof that this is my natural birthright. I don’t feel her anymore. I don’t feel that sense of wrongness, that echo. She’s gone.”
“These wards didn’t make their presence known during Ari’s induction or when you did the ritual to get him his magic,” Ro said. “You even had an MRI during your dance rehab and nothing odd showed up. Was it a coincidence that they found them today or did Lilith realize who you were when she was trapped in you and this was set in motion weeks ago?”
“Or something was knocked loose between being in the Tomb and the torture,” I retorted. “It would explain the headaches, too. Damage or exposure of the wards after everything I endured, brought on the head trauma. That’s why there was no sign of them before. You heard Rivka. These wards are old.”
“Like Lilith couldn’t fake that?” Rohan said. “If you stay alive, she’s alive, right? This doesn’t make sense.”
I laughed. “What else is new? I didn’t make sense to the Rasha when I got my initial magic either.”
Rohan sat with his elbows braced on his thighs, literally biting his lip to keep from speaking.
“I’m not making light of this,” I said. “My magic has come into my life in fits and starts and for the first time, it’s complete. I’m complete. You want me to discount that feeling?”
“No,” Shivani said. “Just consider all the ramifications of this new manifestation before you make any final decisions, including whether or not to proceed with the ritual.”
“Lilith is gone. There is nothing to purge and you’re not ripping this magic, my magic, out of me.”
“If we can’t remove it, we can suppress it once more,” Elena said.
I pushed off the bed. “You’re acting like I got a terminal diagnosis instead of feeling one hundred percent myself. Think of all the good I could do. I know where the ring is, that’s part of the story too, and I can stop Mandelbaum no problem. Be the one to take on Satan and not risk anyone else. This might be the best thing that’s happened for the war against evil.”
“You can’t keep dark magic,” Raquel said.
“The wards, I know. Then test it. I’ve had dark magic, from Lilith’s power to my boosted magic. I know what it feels like. This isn’t it, but if you want to make sure, test my magic signature. Any dark magic and it’ll be purple. The ritual goes ahead as planned. But if it’s red, you accept it as the natural witch magic it is. Deal?”
“Fatima will have Hawkweed,” Elena said and portalled out.
The others sat there emanating varying degrees of suspicion and disbelief. Whatever.
It was crazy how Zen I felt, sitting there in the wake of this momentous change, but like the phoenix, I had been reborn and it was a magical, beautiful thing. My entire relationship with Lilith had been one step forward, two steps back, but the journey was worth it becau
se I’d claimed my prize. My final transformation. Lilith was gone and I had an insane amount of magic. Let my enemies come for me and see who they were dealing with.
My body, my people, my world, I would keep all of it safe.
Elena returned. She set the glass with the Hawkweed and water on the floor. From her pocket she removed a small paintbrush and a banana.
I infused the fruit with my magic and then she did the signature spell. The banana cycled through a variety of colors, before pulsing consistently gold.
“Not purple,” I said. “Or demon blue.”
“Not red either,” Rohan said.
“Something unknown,” Catalina said. “Which doesn’t mean it’s bad, but we should still be prepared to do the purification ritual, just in case.”
“If it’ll—” Shut you all up. “Put your concerns to rest, we proceed as planned. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a ring to go get.”
And a marid to placate.
The concierge in Malik’s apartment building waved me over to the elevators. Nice to know we’d dispensed with the inanity of the demon pretending my visits weren’t the highlight of his day.
Malik flung the door open and slammed me up against the wall. He edged his face close to mine, his brows furrowed. “What’s happened to Lilith?”
“Yes, I am off to get the ring, thanks for asking.”
“Nava,” he growled. Whoa, I wasn’t “petal.” He was serious. “You have two minutes to explain why I don’t sense Lilith.” Malik strode into his kitchen, with me jogging at his heels. He opened the fridge and pulled out an already opened bottle of wine. His hand tightened on it, then he shoved it back in and slammed the door.
“The baby? The wards?” I said.
“I literally have no idea what you are babbling about.”
My brows drew together. I sank into a tall chair at the kitchen island and told him what had happened.
He leaned across the counter from me. “Lilith and I were… estranged for a long time after David. This baby could have been born, and all you say be true, but I didn’t know about it.”
“But you two were close again at some point, right?”
“We were. There is no one I’ve been closer to and I’d like to believe the same of her.”
Then why hadn’t she ever told him? Did she worry he’d go after Liron? Was this magic my birthright or was it, in fact, another trick?
“Speak.” Malik fished an orange out of a fruit bowl on the table and peeled it with his long, elegant fingers. “You make me nervous when you get quiet.”
“Nothing with Lilith is ever as it seems. Why am I so ready to throw aside everyone’s concerns? Is it because I’ve finally stepped into my true destiny and on some primal level I understand and embrace that or is this more of Lilith overriding me?”
Malik offered me half of the orange. “Lilith never bothered with introspection.”
The orange was sweet and slightly tart. I ate another piece. “My life has morphed into a giant Snakes and Ladders game. Have I climbed way up toward the person I was supposed to be, or slid down to the bottom of the board as more of my essential self vanished? Am I a queen or a pawn?”
Say “queen.” Come on.
Malik’s lips quirked. “You’re mixing metaphors, petal.”
“What do you think? You knew her best. Did I misunderstand her final words to me? Did Lilith know that I was her descendent and that this gold magic was inside me? It makes sense, right? If I stayed alive, she does stay alive through this legacy.”
“What do your instincts tell you?”
I placed my hands on my ribcage, reaching for the gold magic inside me. Learning the shape of it and testing it against my gut feelings. “This is the real deal.”
“Then stop listening to all the other chatter. Lilith spent her life surrounded by people who doubted her and belittled her.” A wistful expression crossed his face. “Who failed to see her true worth. It profoundly affected her.” He brushed the discarded orange peels into his hand and walked it over to the trash. “You are not her.”
“You’re not very concerned about my threatdom.”
“Your careless disregard for the English language certainly pains me.” Malik licked a drop of juice off his index finger. “However, I won’t dispose of you just yet. You are going to get me what I want.”
“Aha. You admit you want the throne.”
Malik smiled enigmatically. “Chances are, you’ll live longer with this magic. Are you prepared for that?”
“Death can kiss my tight ass.”
“And will you be as enthusiastically cavalier watching people you love grow old and die when you hardly age?”
Rohan. I imagined him gray and wrinkled, feeble, until his last breath fell away. I’d still love him. Of course, I would.
Wouldn’t I?
The demon’s expression turned pensive. “I often wondered what living that long did to her sense of self. It became harder for her to remember what being human was like.”
Would I lose my humanity and end up distancing myself from the very world I longed to protect? “That’s a pretty honest insight. I didn’t expect it of you.”
His one good eye, when it met mine, was wearier than I’d ever seen it. “It would appear you are all I have left of her.”
“I’m taken.”
Malik shuddered. “Not like that.”
“Alright. Dial down the revulsion. I’m a catch.” I pushed the chair back and stood up. “I have a ring to get.”
He tilted his head in acknowledgment, then undermined his gesture with a snarky “about time.”
“Malik. Fun times as always.”
“Nava.” He rose and gave me an oddly formal bow. “A witch putting a demon on the throne. You certainly get things done once you put your mind to it.”
“I’m fairly unstoppable.”
“You will keep your end of the deal? One-time use and then you destroy the ring, correct?”
“Correct. How many times do I have to promise this?”
“I don’t trust you.” He grabbed me by the collar and pushed me out of the room. “In that regard, you’re exactly like Lilith.”
Humaaaan.
“Ahh!” I flung my hands up, whacking Malik in the nose.
The zire demon stood in the living room in his blue robe with the black star. He wasn’t much taller than me, but he stamped the space with unassailable evil.
Malik was highly paranoid, and nothing should have been able to cross his wards without his permission.
The zire leaned in and inhaled. Lilith no longer. What have you done with her? Our master is displeased.
I tossed my hair. “Yeah? Well, I was displeased by your master’s courting gifts. Life is disappointment. Lilith is gone and I’ve got her magic. Tell Satan I’ll come see him when I’m good and ready.”
Sometime between now and Rosh Hashanah, next week.
The zire gaped at me. Backtalk was obviously not a thing in his reality.
You come now. His whispered words sliced against my skin, his fangs flashing against all that gray gum.
“No.”
I’d come across a lot of eye blinks in my short but eventful life. Baruch’s displeased ones, for example, made me sad and want to do better. This demon’s made me clench up so I didn’t lose control of my bladder.
Shit. Think, Nava.
“I’m… unclean.” I stared meaningfully at the zire, who completely failed to get it. Wow. Really, buddy? I ran a hand along my body. “Satan needs me, uh, ripe. For breeding.”
The zire seized my arm. We will wait in the demon realm.
“And insult Satan by forcing her impurity on him? Are you mad? Give us—” Malik threw me a questioning glance.
The zire’s fingers tightened on my flesh.
“Two days,” I ground out.
He released me. You will bring her. His tone brooked no room for dissent.
Malik nodded and the zire vanished, leaving a murky black s
tain on the floor.
I let out a low whistle. “Better call a carpet cleaner or that shit’ll set right in.”
“It’s stamped concrete, petal.” Malik rubbed a hand over his hair. “Bit of a schedule adjustment.”
Two days. We had our timeline. Now the question was, were we going to be ready?
Chapter 21
Fun fact: the North Pole is located in the middle of the freaking Arctic Ocean and is numbingly cold even in August. I may have been Canadian, but I lived in Vancouver, which was very much “one of these things is not like the others” when it came to winter in our country. I had zero tolerance for cold. Rain for 100 days in our city? A bit gloomy, but no problem. Snow, if we got it, lasted a week tops, which was good because Vancouverites tended to explode in panic at having to drive in slush, and freezing temperatures were thankfully not the norm.
I was layered to the teeth in a down ski jacket, fur-lined boots, a massive fleece scarf wound around my neck up to my eyes, and fat ski gloves, all courtesy of the one year I’d tried snowboarding. It had been an unmitigated disaster.
The crisp cold seared the inside of my mouth and nose, but my breath didn’t freeze in pretty icy puffs. Nope, encased in the scarf as I was, every breath was grossly warm and moist.
Portalling onto shifting sea ice had been a bitch, but it was fairly stunning out here. The sea was a soup of snow and stark white slabs of ice that glowed green underwater, darkening to black as they sank down into the depths. Birdsong trilled, and a fat walrus lazily sunned itself.
There was no “X marks the spot” to the unfinished corner of creation, but I didn’t need it. The ground pulsed through my feet like a game of “cold, cold, hot,” directing my path. I crunched through the snow until the throbbing was so strong, it was as if I stood inside Mother Nature’s heartbeat.
I shifted into the Zone, which displayed the normal overlay with the ward lines. Following the pulsing ground, I shifted deeper, down a level of the Zone. Sunlight and dazzling snow were replaced by a dark and barren wasteland. The ground rumbled continuously under my feet and I threw my arms out wide to keep my balance as I precariously made my way to a rocky outcropping.
The Unlikeable Demon Hunter Collection: Books 1-6: A Complete Paranormal Romantic Comedy Series Page 168
