by Leia Stone
Calista laughed, empty and echoing. “That’s exactly what he is. And if you want to see him alive again, you’re going to do exactly as I say.”
Heat flushed through every part of my body, and it wasn’t the lava. Pure fucking rage bubbled within me. I was going to tear the sirens limb from limb.
Brock brought a calming hand to my shoulder and called up to the sisters. “What do you want in exchange for Cass?” he asked, but his muscles were tight. Rage coiled through him as much as it did me; he was just better at the diplomatic role.
“Isn’t it obvious?” Calista sang out.
No, you fucking crazy bitch, it isn’t.
“We want your bounty hunter girlfriend to open the gate to the underworld all the way. If she does that, then we’ll hand over her ugly friend.”
Oh hell no. I breathed hard and heavy through my nostrils. No one called my pot-bellied, pink furry bestie “ugly.”
It also hadn’t occurred to me until that moment that the full force of the sirens’ army couldn’t come through to Earth; the gate was still magically barring their entry. Yes, the gate was open a bit, and some creatures had managed to slip through it, but if the gate continued to be the reason no more creatures were coming through, I needed to do everything in my power to keep the gate doing its job.
Opening my mouth to unleash every insult I could think of, Brock shook his head in caution, and I restrained myself—barely.
“Why don’t you open the gate yourself?” Brock asked.
“Oh, don’t worry, we will if you don’t cooperate, but it’s much easier if she does,” Calista answered, anger tingeing every one of her words.
Water started to flow down the side of the cliff where the three sisters perched, and I found my rage growing hotter as I remembered them trying to drown me.
“And if she opens it?” Brock continued, when he obviously had to fucking know that there was no way in hell I would open the gate all the way. Just one fog demon had been enough to nearly bring down the entire town, and it had stopped at one town only because it’d just been getting started when we killed it.
“When she opens it, that will be our business, not yours,” Calista snarled. “After that, our little transaction will be concluded.” With that she … floated … down the waterfall she’d created and landed on the ground before us. Her sisters followed until all three were standing about thirty feet away.
Good. Come closer so I can kill you easier.
“You must know we can’t let you unleash a bunch of demons on the Earth...” Brock growled, hand on the butt of one of his guns.
Because, duh. These siren triplets were seriously cray-cray if they believed for a second I’d let them unleash the contents of the underworld on humanity.
“We’re not asking you to let us do anything,” the second sister said, taking one step closer.
“We don’t need your permission,” the third sister parroted.
This was starting to feel like an ambush, and my rage was only burning hotter. Purple magic began to leak from my skin and swirl around me, like it had before in Brock’s living room.
“It’s the only way you’re getting Cass back,” Calista added, like it was a matter-of-fact truth, eyeing my purple magic curiously.
“Like hell it is,” I growled, letting all of the anger that had been boiling within me snap out in the direction of the three sisters.
My magic slammed into them, knocking them on their asses, but I wasn’t going to stop. Not until Cass was with me and the sirens had drawn their last breaths. My boss Mack would deal. No amount of bounty money was worth the danger the triplets posed to all of humanity. I pulled my gun and ran at the sisters, firing as I went.
Brock’s sure footfalls pounded out behind me. He had my back; bullets flared from his gun as well. One of them struck the second sister in the abdomen.
“Stop or I’m going to kill Cass!” Calista shrieked from her place on the ground. My purple magic covered her like a blanket, but I didn’t have time to be pleased with myself.
Even though I assumed she was bluffing, the words sent a chill rushing through my veins, cooling the sweat misting my skin in an instant. I skipped a step, stumbled on a rock, and nearly fell into a trickle of bright orange fire. Brock whipped a strong arm around my shoulders, heaving me back with a fierce pull. Then both Brock and I lowered our guns.
“You have to calm down,” Brock implored. “I can’t handle anything happening to you or our baby.”
Bringing a hand protectively around the swell of my abdomen, I leaned into him while forcing myself to breathe slowly and deeply. He was right. I had to calm down.
We were in a standoff, and I was about to advance toward the sirens—fuck their threats about Cass—when my intuition nagged at me. The sirens were still trapped under my purple magical blanket, so I slipped Cass’ booty shorts out of my back pocket, gripped them tightly again, and closed my eyes, secure in knowing that the siren sisters were still struggling to get out from under my magic.
My gut told me to head left instead of continuing on toward the sirens. Cho’s spell, it had to be.
“We go left,” I whispered to Brock, who didn’t question me.
“Halt!” the third siren called out. I glanced back to see them frantically trying to help their wounded sister and peel back the layers of my spell.
Hah. Maybe I was a decent witch after all.
But when neither Brock nor I answered, the sirens were left mumbling among themselves, obviously thrown off that we were on Cass’ trail. The next time I turned around, they were no longer at the base of the outcropping of rock. Weird. I figured they were trying to catch up to us or cut us off. Damn. Either wasn’t a great option before we secured Cass. After that, they could bring it on, because I was going to mow every one of them down.
Jumping across black rocks like we were running through a dry riverbed, we arrived at an open clearing. There was no clear path forward, and so I stopped and focused on Cass’ little shorts again. Only this time they urged me the opposite way, in the direction we’d just come from.
“What’s wrong?” Brock asked.
“Cho’s spell is now saying that way.” I signaled with my head. “Do you think they’re moving him?”
“They must be.” But when we trailed our gazes across the underground lava pit, we saw no signs of movement. We didn’t even spot the sirens, though I was pretty sure they must be moving toward us.
My gut churned with unease, and I called to Cass through our telepathic link again. Still crickets. “I don’t like this,” I told Brock, who pursed his lips and took a step closer to me.
“What’s to like?”
“I feel like they’re messing with us,” I said.
“I just shot one of them and you trapped them in a blanket of magic. They’re definitely messing with us,” he affirmed.
“I’m not sure we should follow Cho’s spell anymore.” Though how else were we going to find Cass if we didn’t follow his magical booty shorts? But I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was really wrong.
“Then we don’t.” Brock didn’t even question my instincts. “In which direction do you think we should head?”
Taking a few moments, I tuned in to our surroundings. The heat had regained its oppressiveness—think the middle of the summer in humid Alabama times two, and all that beneath a heavy, dense seal skin meant to insulate from cold water temperatures. But even amid the sweltering heat, a chill tickled at the edge of my senses. Was it Cass trying to reach me through our link? Was it my intuition again?
Like a swift punch to the gut, I realized what it was.
“Someone’s trying to cast a spell over us,” I said to Brock so softly that he had to crane his head forward to make out the words. But when he did, his eyes widened, and he pulled me into his arms, holding me in a tight embrace while he whispered in my ear.
“Can you tell who or what it is?” he breathed.
I shook my head.
&n
bsp; “Can you cast a spell to protect us?”
I shook my head again.
Wait, I could do one of those protection bubbles Tianna taught me to create, though I had no idea if it’d be strong enough to hold. After all, we were in the underworld, for fuck’s sake. This was the birthplace of the scariest magic in existence, along with the most frightening of all monsters to wield that power.
“Whatever you just thought of, do it,” Brock urged, and I didn’t waste time. Whatever magic was being cast our way was far enough along for me to feel it amid the distraction of lava spurting all around us.
I squeezed Brock in my hold and closed my eyes. Right away, I pictured my energy, my magic, as a bright light that I could extend out of myself. When the white glow was bright within my mind’s eye, I directed it over Brock and me, draping each one of us individually in its protection. When I was satisfied that the light fully coated Brock and me from top to bottom, I whispered so softly that I wasn’t sure even Brock could hear me, and he was literally pressed against me…
“My light, my magic, infinite energy of the universe:
Protect our physical bodies from all harm.
Repel any and all attacks from the forces of darkness.
While we remain within the underworld, keep us healthy, strong, and safe.”
Okay, so it was more like a prayer, but Tianna had said words contained power, and so I was giving it all I had.
I added, “And please help us kick some serious ass.”
Brock’s murmur of a chuckle was the only signal that he had heard my obviously made-up spell after all, but I still prayed it worked.
Releasing Brock, I allowed my instincts to guide me instead of Cass’ booty shorts, which I now suspected had been magically tampered with. When my body pointed in the direction I’d last spotted the sirens, and I started in that direction, Brock grabbed my arm.
“Wait,” he said. Pulling me back against him so no one could eavesdrop in this place where the rock itself seemed to watch us, he breathed, “Use your illusion power. Project out several of you.”
“I’m not sure I can. I’ve only practiced it like twice.”
“Third time’s the charm,” he urged.
I sighed. “They’ll know I wouldn’t leave your side.”
“Then you’ll have to.”
I stared at him. He stared right back, apprehension at separating shimmering in his amber eyes. An orange glow reflected in them as I finally nodded. We needed every advantage we could get, however slight.
My dad had told me the secret to my illusion magic was to not think too hard on it. So before I could worry about how I’d accomplish it, I simply pictured three identical copies of myself, glowing bubble of light included, pushing some of my magic into the intention.
When I opened my eyes, nothing had happened. Like at all.
Shit. I guess when my dad meant don’t think on it too hard, he actually meant to think on it at least a little.
Summoning more of my magic, feeling it filling the well inside my chest, I clenched my eyes again and envisioned three separate versions of myself. I pictured every detail about myself that I could, even going so far as to have the other me’s smile confidently.
When the three images of me were fully concrete within my mind’s eye, I directed every bit of the magic within myself toward them. Even when I started straining from the effort, I kept going, and only once the three other versions of me were fully enveloped in a cloud of my purple magic did I release it.
In a rush, the remainder of my magic slammed into the three versions of me, and my eyes popped open.
I startled when I spotted three exact copies of me circling us, but then a huge grin split my face. Brock stepped away from me and walked into the middle of the projections so as not to give away which Evie was real.
“You did it!” Brock whispered.
I nodded. “Pretty awesome, huh?”
“Hell. Yeah. Now let’s get moving.”
As Brock and I set off in the direction where we’d last seen the sirens, the three copies of me took three different paths. If we were lucky, one set of me would come across Cass. I couldn’t exactly see through the eyes of my replicas, but I had the feeling that if one of the other me’s saw Cass, I’d know it—and then we’d haul ass to wherever he was.
We’d already been down here far too long. It was time to find Cass and end the sirens.
I moved faster across the rocks that made every one of our steps uneven, but I didn’t run. Brock, Cass, baby, and I were getting out of here alive and well.
18 Siren soup
Because the booty shorts had clearly been tampered with, we were going off my newly-trusted intuition instead, which I was hoping was a little bit of magic. I just felt in all my being that Cass was this way.
Once we got to the spot where the sirens had struggled, a mixture of water and blood still marring the ground, I took a left toward a sharp, jutting rock.
“Evie?” Brock asked one of my illusions. Either he was a good actor or he was confused about which one was really me.
I didn’t answer. I didn’t know if we were being watched and I wasn’t sure I could make my illusions talk. We were headed right for the giant cliff, and my alpha was no doubt wondering why, when a crevasse appeared in the side.
‘Cass!’ I shouted through our bond, and this time I swore I felt something—a tugging at our connection.
Brock eyed the three-foot opening and pulled two guns, one for each hand, before slipping inside.
What the fuck? No word, no hesitation, he just dipped into the cave entrance like it was no big deal.
I scrambled to catch up, my illusions running with me. Could I leave one outside this opening like a sentinel? That sounded like some advanced level shit, but it was worth a try. Slipping into the small opening behind Brock, I attempted to leave one of my illusions outside while bringing two in with me. I had to focus on the projections of myself so that I wouldn’t lose them or make them look spectral. Creating them was pretty easy, but keeping them solid was a challenge.
As we stepped into the darkness, the smell of sulfur and rotting sewage hit me hard. We’d walked right into a little side tunnel. There were two ways we could turn: left or right.
Come on, Cass, where are you?
My left hand went tingly and my eyes widened. Was I doing magic? Or did we have help? The tingling felt friendly, like something familiar I couldn’t place. Without waiting, I turned left and dragged my two projections with me. Brock brought up the rear, the cocking of his shotgun ricocheting off the walls. He’d pulled out the big firepower.
We were on Cass’ trail, I knew it.
Following the maze of cave tunnels, we were led to a bigger opening with another split, left or right.
Loud voices projected far below, and I placed my finger to my lips so Brock would know to keep quiet. As I inched closer to what seemed almost like a balcony with people below, I peeked over and quickly snapped my head back in.
Fucking mother fuck!
Two of the sirens were at the base of this huge cave, and spread out around them were over a thousand demons.
This shit was bad.
Like apocalyptic bad.
“Earth no longer trusts supernaturals!” Calista called out to the demons before her, arms out the side of her body as she projected her voice with strength.
The demons rose up in a mighty, angry cry, muffled with grunts of agreement.
My right hand tingled in warning, but I wanted to stay and hear what they had to say.
“Humanity is ripe for the taking!” the second sister cried out.
“It’s now or never!” Calista yelled.
A wide-eyed Brock was standing before me; my right hand was tingling so much it was becoming painful. I recognized the magic signature then. My mentor, Tianna. It was her. She’d somehow broken free and was helping me!
“To the gate!” Calista cried, startling me from my realization. The cave started to s
hake as thousands of footfalls rattled the rock beneath us.
Oh fuck fuck fuck.
They were going to try to force it open.
I snapped to my feet and bolted to the right.
‘Cass, you fucker! Where are you?’
We needed to get the hell out of here and get to the gate before they did.
‘Ev!’ His muffled voice barely came through. Tianna must have worked on whatever was blocking us.
A sob ripped through my throat when I heard that raspy smoker’s voice.
‘Cass! I’m coming!’
‘Evie! You’re here?’ He sounded like he was talking through a pillow, muffled and far away, but it was better than nothing.
I ran blindly through the halls carved from the rock, trying to concentrate on my projections, which ran with me, along with the one I’d left outside the cave entrance, as well as Brock’s footsteps behind me. When I rounded the corner, I caught a sliver of Cass’ pink fur inside an open room.
‘Don’t come for me! It’s a trap!’ he screamed into my mind just as I ran into the room, gun drawn.
Thanks to my bounty hunter training, I took in the scene and started shooting. Cass was magically handcuffed to a metal ring that looked cemented into the rock wall. A large, ugly-ass demon was standing off to the right, talking to one of Calista’s sisters. I got three bullets out before a wall of water slammed into me, knocking me backward into Brock.
Oh fuck that.
I’d never been so pissed in all my life. I screamed with rage and leapt into the wall of water. I was a fucking seal, right? I’d swim through this and rip that bitch’s head off her body. My purple magic lashed out wildly as I broke through the wall of water and landed on the other side. Dripping wet, with a useless gun, I pulled my katana.
The siren bitch looked at me, her mouth gaping open in shock. She was holding her abdomen, which was bleeding freely. One of my bullets had found its mark.
But she wasn’t staring at me. One of my illusions stood next to me. That’s what had her transfixed. Brock was roaring on the other side of the wall of water, but I had to push his panicked desperation away.
