“Not with words, but with images and impressions,” Harper replied.
Jumpy swallowed. “I would like to disbelieve you, but you have shown too little fear for my liking.”
Because she’d wholeheartedly believed that Knox was coming… but she was beginning to think he wouldn’t get there in time. Heat seemed to build behind her eyelids, and a lump formed in her throat. But she’d never been a person who accepted defeat. Never. No self-respecting Wallis ever would. She could see only one way to fight the incantors that were holding her captive. Just one. It would be a huge risk because she had no idea what would truly happen, but she had to take it.
Harper dug her fingers into the soil, felt the vortex’s menacing energy sizzling beneath her. Instead of fighting the vortex as she’d done since she arrived, she worked with it. It was definitely not the best idea to work with a malevolent, indiscriminate energy, but she was out of options.
Hoping it would be strong enough to help her, she sucked it in. Absorbed it. Welcomed it – and maybe that was why it didn’t hurt her. The dark energy mixed with the protective power in her belly, which painfully shot to her fingertips like zaps of electricity. Without a second’s hesitation, she called to her wings. She felt them respond, felt them begin to rise… but they didn’t. Damn.
“You think the child will save itself, don’t you?” Whiner asked.
Ignoring him, Harper sucked in more of the vortex’s energy. Took it, filled her metaphorical power tank with it even as it made her feel soiled inside and caused her head to pound like a bitch. A contraction caught her off-guard, breaking her concentration. Shaking, she breathed and moaned through the excruciating pain. Once it passed, she took yet more of the vortex’s energy, seeking out the “bridge” between her wings and the flames. And there it was.
“You do think the child will save itself, don’t you?” Whiner pushed.
Harper glared at him, smiling inside as the ground began to shake. “No, I don’t.” The air buzzed and thickened with power. “I think it will kill you all.”
Flames exploded out of the ground in front of her – red, black, gold, and hungry. They devoured Linda whole, and Harper couldn’t help finding immense satisfaction in the bitch’s screams. Yeah, maybe the vortex’s energy had fed her vengeful streak a little.
The unbearable heat radiating from the flames burned Harper’s skin, but they left no blisters. Despite their strength and power, they wouldn’t harm her. Instead of spreading as she’d hoped, the flames returned to where they came, leaving only ashes behind. Shit. It was hard to concentrate while battling with panic, pain, and rage.
Head still pounding, Harper infused hellfire into the grass, making the enchanted vines restraining her wrists catch fire. They released her with an animal-like squeak, and she sat up and did the same to the vines restraining her ankles. Finally free, she forced herself to get to her knees. The others were all staring at her in horror – no, at her belly in horror.
“It was the child,” Jumpy cried out. “It called the flames!”
“We’re leaving,” declared Nora. “Get her.”
Whiner frowned. “But —”
“We didn’t go through all this to leave her here,” Nora hissed. “She comes with us.”
Harper struggled to her feet and waited, ready to make her move. Her last reserve of the vortex’s energy strained against her skin, wanting freedom, wanting violence. Dark, revolting images flashed in her mind – images of all the things Harper could do to the people around her. Images that both tempted and sickened her.
She shook her head, needing to think clearly. Her heart jumped as Nora lowered the enchanted vines that surrounded the boulders. Yes, that’s it, bitch, send your little helpers this way. As two robed figures raced toward her, Harper called to the —
Pain thundered through her womb, sending her to her knees once more. Motherofgoddamnholyfuck. The incantors reached her, and fingers dug into her arms. “No!”
A blast of energy swept out of her body – a beautiful gold, sheen of light – and knocked every single incantor to the ground. Harper’s mouth fell open, and she got to her feet once more. Oh, little baby, you’re gonna be a handful. Because Harper had not done that.
That familiar dreaded, droning sound filled the air again, making everyone freeze. A portal burst to life… and several figures stepped out of it. The sight of the dark demon leading them, danger in every line of his body, made her knees shake.
“Knox,” Harper breathed in relief. A sob almost choked her. He looked at her, his eyes fevered and glittering with rage. They softened with relief for the briefest moment… then his body jerked as his eyes abruptly bled to black, like the demon had forced its way to the surface. It stared at her, and then she could almost feel its soul-eating rage from there. The incantors must have felt it too, but they didn’t act. They stayed frozen, like prey hoping not to catch a predator’s attention.
A buzz vibrated the air, and her stomach churned. She knew what was coming. It wasn’t like when Harper called to the flames of hell – that “buzz” was the power gathering as it came to her. For Knox, the power lived inside him… the demon was simply letting it free.
A tremor rumbled through the ground, and she planted her feet. The power purred against her bare skin; the force of it burned her eyes, rattled her teeth, tightened her chest, and caused a low ringing sound to blare in her ears.
As the air seemed to pinken, she looked up, unsurprised to find that the moon behind the frothing ugly cloud was now blood-red.
She jumped as flames burst from the ground with a roar. They didn’t devour the incantors. No, the blinding, tri-colored, ten-foot high flames swirled around Knox’s demon, engulfing it. They hissed, crackled, and spat as they danced and swayed – wild and angry, meaning that the demon was wild and angry. Her heart raced as a figure of raging flames stepped out of the fire. No eyes, no facial features, no clothes – just flames.
Knox was gone. The archdemon had come out to play.
Shit.
That was when the incantors seemed to snap out of their shock, hit by their “fight or flight” instinct. And they fled. The ragged line of fire headed straight for the running incantors, leaving a trail of ashes in its wake. Hell, she’d never have thought that Nora could run that fast. The archdemon followed the incantors, its movements almost mechanical.
The sentinels then raced over to her, Tanner in the lead. “Fuck, Harper, you look like shit.” He curled an arm around her, helping to take her weight. It was a good thing, because a contraction hit her so hard, her legs almost gave out. Her moans were barely heard over the screams of pain and terror coming from the incantors.
She gripped Levi’s arm. “I am so fucking glad you’re all here, even if our archdemon has lost its shit.”
She winced at a high-pitched screech – a gold flame had hooked around the neck of a fleeing incantor and tossed him into the fire. At the same time, a black flame circled Whiner, cutting off his retreat and trapping him; he screamed from the searing heat alone, and she could imagine how his skin would be blistering and eating away at itself.
Keenan whistled as a third flame wrapped around Jumpy’s body and slammed him into the ground once, twice, three times. There was a nauseating crack, and the incantor’s cries died abruptly. The archdemon could have killed them all outright, but it was toying with them first.
“Where’s Nora?” But then Harper saw her gripping a boulder, screaming as a red flame repeatedly lashed her. At any other time, Harper would have marched over there and dealt with the bitch herself. Right then, she could barely stand on her own. She groaned through her teeth as another spasm assailed her womb. “I am not having this baby here!”
Keenan scratched his nape. “I don’t think leaving here is going to happen any time soon.”
No, neither did Harper. The archdemon was out of control, drunk on power. She knew exactly how that felt, because her own demon had experienced the same invigorating, intoxicating, high. N
o demon came down from that easily, especially not one on a warpath. As for an archdemon on a warpath… well, that was a whole other thing, and she wasn’t equipped to talk it down. It had a habit of developing tunnel vision when it thought she needed avenging.
She’d managed to talk it down once in the past, but not before an entire building and a bunch of dark practitioners were destroyed. Hell, it had almost killed Tanner and Larkin that night, too set on getting to Harper and slaughtering those who’d taken her from it to really think. It couldn’t happen again. It —
Harper froze at the familiar droning sound. Fuck. She spun to see that Nora had opened another portal and was reaching out to it with one hand. “Oh God, she’s going to get away.”
“No, she won’t,” Levi growled. He flicked a hand, and Nora’s head suddenly slammed against the boulder. The portal disappeared with a pop.
Harper released a sigh of relief. She’d forgotten the reaper had a telekinetic ability. “Thank you, Le —” She cut off as she spotted the archdemon walking toward Nora. She was the only incantor still alive, Harper then realized.
The flame whipping Nora paused. Like a snake, it slithered up her body and contracted around her. Then it dived down her throat. Eyes bulging, she choked and jerked as more and more of the flame shoved its way inside her – no doubt searing, burning, and consuming everything it touched.
Agony blazed in her amber eyes and her face scrunched up into a silent scream, but Harper had no pity for her. None at all. And when Nora’s body spontaneously combusted, Harper’s demon grinned with pleasure and satisfaction.
She let out a long breath. It was over. They were all dead. The fire hadn’t died, though, she realized with a frown. No, it was still blazing, fierce and furious. It was also spreading along the landscape, consuming the snarled trees and frail shrubs. The mist was gone, and now heat waves shimmered in the air. The archdemon turned away, apparently not done playing.
“Stop!” Harper shouted. “They’re dead. Thank you. They’re gone… I need Knox right now. Let him come to me.”
But it didn’t. The demon walked away. The vortex was feeding its anger and ill-intent, she realized, and that was not at all good. “We need to get Knox away from here. This place…”
“I know, I feel it,” said Levi. “But getting the demon to leave will be a big fucking job, and I don’t think you’re up to it right now.”
He was right, but… “I have to be.” Harper sighed. “I guess I’m gonna have to fight fire with fire.”
Larkin stilled. “What?”
Locking down on all her out-of-control emotions, Harper used the last of the dark energy within her to tap into her link to her wings. As Knox had taught her, she used it as a bridge… and she called to the power waiting on the other end of it. The ground trembled and the air buzzed as, at Harper’s will, flames of hell sprouted out of the ground in front of the archdemon. They acted as a barrier, got its attention. The demon tried to lower them but it couldn’t, because these flames were answering to her, not the entity.
It slowly and stiffly turned to face her. Although there were no eyes, she felt it looking right at her. It knew what she’d done, and it wasn’t happy with her. Then it stalked toward her, and she lowered the flames before her panic could send them out of control.
“Harper, get behind me,” said Tanner.
She resisted his attempts to move her and instead stepped aside, putting a little distance between them, hoping another contraction wouldn’t make her double over. “Don’t be stupid. If it thinks you’re trying to keep it from its mate, it’ll hurt you – sentinel or not.”
Tanner growled. “And what if it hurts you, huh?”
“It won’t.”
“Ordinarily, no, it wouldn’t. But this place is feeding its anger and warping its mind. Right now, it’s got vengeance on the brain, and you just pissed it off. What if it now wants vengeance against you?”
Harper swallowed. “Then we’re all fucked.” She put up a hand as the demon came close. “You need to stop.” It didn’t. She touched its psyche and felt only a blinding rage. Shit. Her heart started pumping even crazier than before and her inner demon began to panic. The entity was almost on her and —
A shower of embers, sparks, and ashes burst to life in front of her… almost like a shield. It popped and snapped and made Harper’s face go slack.
“How the hell are you doing that?” asked Keenan.
“I’m not,” said Harper in a stunned whisper.
The archdemon didn’t seem impressed. It punched through the shield, and there was a harsh sizzling sound, like hellfire eating flesh. But the entity didn’t pull back, apparently not bothered about a little pain. The embers and sparks winked away, and the ashes disintegrated. Then the demon’s hand snapped tight around her throat. The sentinels lunged for her, but a wall of flames abruptly shot out of the ground to surround her, pushing them back and blocking their access to her.
Harper grabbed onto its flaming wrist, hissing at the burning heat, although it didn’t hurt her. She tried to free herself, but the demon didn’t even loosen its grip. “If you kill me,” she managed to wheeze out, “you’ll kill the baby. I know the baby matters to you.”
Blinding pain rushed out of its hand and filled every part of her. She screamed. She sobbed. She begged it to stop. It didn’t. It kept on flooding her with white-hot pain. As she waited for death to come, she silently apologized to the baby for being unable to protect it; for trusting this demon she apparently never should have trusted.
Her skin felt cold, wet. Blood, she thought. The demon was somehow making her blood seep out of her pores. But she didn’t smell blood. No, she smelled… decay. Rot. Sickness.
Harper looked at her arms, realized black liquid was bubbling out of her skin. And she understood. It wasn’t attacking her; it was attacking the dark magick that had infected her. She hadn’t thought there was any chance that the demon could help; it wasn’t built to heal. But this wasn’t healing – this was destroying magick. The side effect was that she was healing.
Gradually the pain dimmed, and she let out a shaky breath. The fire started to peel away from the demon, starting from its head. But the eyes were black – the entity was still very much in control.
The hand collaring her throat pulled her close, thumb circling her neck. “Mine.” It kissed her hard, inhaling her scent… and then the hold on her throat gentled, and she knew Knox was back.
His hands cradled her face. “Baby…” Using his thumbs, Knox brushed the tears from her cheeks. He was about to tell her how sorry he was, that he knew he’d fucked up and he’d make it up to her, but then she sucked in a breath and doubled over. He supported her weight as she breathed through the contraction. Once it finally eased away, she fisted his shirt and yanked.
“You need to get me away from here, Thorne! This baby’s coming whether we like it or not.”
“I can see that.” Knox scooped her up. “Go through the portal,” he told the sentinels. “Tell Jolene and the others that she’s fine so they don’t lose their minds.”
“What do we tell them when they ask how you got out of here?” asked Keenan.
“Tell them I made one of the incantors open a second portal that leads straight to my home right before I killed them – I don’t care. I’m taking her straight home.”
Harper watched as, with nothing more than a single sweep of his gaze, the fire began to calm and thin out. Still, she knew it would look much like a strip of dead, blackened land.
Golden flames built around them, licking over her skin without harming her. Soon, the fire faded and they were in their living room. Everything was set up, ready. Plastic sheeting and old towels and bed sheets were all laid out. Blankets and clean warm towels were set aside, along with Dr. Rodgers’ bag. There was even an incubator in the event that the baby might need it, and that made her feel slightly better.
Meg literally dived at her, hugging her and muttering in Spanish. Swiping a tear from und
er her eye, she stepped back and Rodgers came forward.
“Harper, Knox – this is my mate, Sharon,” he said. “She’s a midwife, and she’s here to help.”
Harper forced a smile for the curvy brunette. “Shame we had to meet for the first time under these circumstances.”
Knox carefully positioned Harper on the covered floor, and her hand shot out in a panic to grab his own. “I’m right here, baby, I’m not leaving your side,” he vowed. As the doctor and midwife examined her, Knox kept his focus solely on Harper. He’d wanted to be with her every step of the way, and he was going to make up for the fact that he so far hadn’t been. He’d keep his fears and concerns to himself. This was all about her.
“I wouldn’t bother with the heating pad or anything, Meg,” said Rodgers. “The baby’s crowning already.”
Seeing fear glimmer in Harper’s eyes, Knox squeezed her hand. “Just think, we’ll finally see the baby soon. You’ll finally know if it’s a girl or a boy – I know that’s been driving you crazy.” Her mouth quirked, and just the sight lightened the guilt weighing on his shoulders. He might be pissed at himself, but she wasn’t pissed at him.
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