by Eva Chase
The first rush of power smacked into the demon just as it had finished swinging toward us. It flinched, and the reddish glow on its hazy skin wavered. The enforcers swiveled on their feet, moving even faster. With a hollow-sounding groan, the demon shuffled back one pace and then another. Its already gnarled face contorted into a grimace.
It was working. My spirits leapt. I pushed my own gestures faster, urged my own spark higher and hotter, pouring all the magic I could summon toward those who could shape it best.
The demon scuttled backward another few steps. Then its back arched. A flash of panic shot through me in the instant before it lunged at us.
The sweep of its clawed fingers propelled a shrieking wave of its awful energy into us. The blast rocked me on my feet. Thalia let out a cry, falling to her knees. The enforcers near the front of the assault stumbled, many of them falling to their knees.
“Regroup, regroup!” the sergeant shouted. “We had it. Push back—push harder. Encircle it.”
The squads ahead of us spread out in a semi-circle around the creature. Their arms lashed through the air, and their feet stamped against the ground. I threw myself into another round of magicking, my breath sharp in my throat. We had to get that control back. We’d managed to move the demon a little. If we could just keep that effort up—
But the creature didn’t even wince this time. Its head swiveled on its thick neck as it took in our scramble around it. Its black eyes gleamed. Thalia stayed crouched on the ground, but I forced myself to walk closer to the edge of the circle, where I could continue passing on my magic most effectively.
I’d just come up a few feet behind the front lines, the rest of my squad around me, when the demon’s gaze jerked straight to me. Its fathomless gaze fixed on my face with an attention that crept through every nerve in my body. My feet lost their rhythm; the sway of my arms faltered.
The monster leaned forward as if studying me, and that horrible smile I’d seen when it had rotted the tree stretched across its face again. The witches between me and it were casting more spells, but the demon barely seemed to notice. I staggered backward, unable to tear my gaze from its inhuman eyes. The intensity of its focus gripped me as tightly as if it’d closed its claws around me. My thoughts jittered. Was it trying to tear right into my mind?
No. I concentrated on my spark, on the heat and the glow of life inside me. My magic flowed through my limbs and over my skin.
The demon made a sound like a groaned snarl. Its claws whipped out, smacking into the front line of enforcers. One speared a witch right through the skull. Another sprawled on the ground, her legs streaming blood.
“Retreat!” the sergeant called out. I caught sight of her for an instant before the surge of the squads swept me up. Her face was bloodless, even her lips near-white.
I whirled and dashed toward Thalia, who was struggling to her feet on the field behind me. But even as we ran, the demon’s eyes bored into my back. I felt it tracking me, niggling at my mind, from the moment my hand closed around the older witch’s elbow, all the way back to the jeep, and through the screeching of tires as we fled.
Chapter Eight
Damon
I was trying to be patient, but every man has his limits. I’d poked at the second computer in our rinky-dink office for a while, peered at the maps Seth was making notations I didn’t totally understand on, and went out to grab us coffees and then lunch at places nearby that had nothing to do with the Assembly. But even walking on the streets of downtown Portland outside wasn’t enough to distract me.
Rose was out there fighting that… that thing that had practically made me piss myself just looking at it through the portal a month ago, and I was stuck here playing food delivery boy.
Not that I thought I’d really be all that much use out there on the battlefield either. If I would have been, I’d have argued a hell of a lot more. The last thing I wanted to be was a liability to her. So delivery boy it was.
In the middle of the afternoon, I stalked down the hallway to peer out the streaky window there. A car honked on the road below. There was still no sign of the witches who’d headed out en masse this morning. No sign of Rose. If the Assembly officials still dicking around here pretending they were so useful knew anything, they hadn’t bothered to keep us in the loop.
I had people I could talk to who knew other people. I could have scrounged up some guns or maybe other types of handheld weaponry. The pistol I’d gotten in New York hadn’t helped us much against even the Enforcers, though. And during that first meeting, the Assembly assholes had mentioned that their enforcers had tried a certain amount of non-magical firepower against the demon. Bullets had bounced right off its freakish skin. It figured.
When I wandered back into the office, Kyler and Gabriel barely looked up from their respective computers. Jin and Seth were sitting on the couch together discussing something about “angles” and “patterning,” like they were going to crochet their way out of this problem.
I’d just dropped onto the end of the couch beside them when one of the officials—that Brimsey guy who always got an expression like he’d bitten into a bruise on an apple when he looked at us—peeked in at us as he meandered by down the hall.
In what was not quite my finest moment, a comment shot from my mouth before I had a chance to think. “We’re not here for you to gawk at. If you’ve got some news, spit it out.”
His mouth tightened, and he strode off without a word. Brilliant strategy, Damon. Way to win them over.
But let’s be real. Winning people over was Gabriel’s job, and maybe Jin’s. Mine was to stop them from getting away with bullshit.
True to form, our recently returned leader shifted in his chair to look at me. “I think we’re better off giving them at least a little benefit of the doubt,” Gabriel said.
“I think he’ll survive the occasional jab,” I said.
He shrugged. “I hate them too. Hate them all you want. I just figure we’ll have an easier time when we leave here if we keep the peace while we’re with them.”
The most annoying thing about Gabriel was that he almost always had a good point. I scuffed my feet against the floor with a scowl. I was supposed to be keeping the peace with him too, even though he’d taken off on all of us after stomping Rose’s heart to pieces. Even if he’d left for good reasons in the end, it’d still gotten stomped on.
She was the one who’d asked me to keep the peace, though. I could do that for her.
Ky glanced over too. “Why don’t—” he started, but before I could find out what our Brainiac was going to suggest I occupy myself with, a scramble of footsteps sounded in the hall outside.
We all jumped up. I made it to the doorway first. A few of the Assembly officials farther down the hall were hurrying to the staircase. Something was up.
I didn’t wait to discuss it—I hustled right after them. The other guys kept pace. We rushed down the stairs and spilled into the front hall just behind the officials.
The enforcers who’d left that morning were coming in. The bunch I saw was clustered around one woman who was limping, her mouth twisted with pain. I caught sight of another witch with a blotch of eerie gray across her cheek as if the skin had rotted. My stomach lurched.
Where the hell was Rose? What had that fucking fiend done to her?
Her black hair gleamed between two of the enforcers just coming through the doors to join the crowd in the hallway. I leapt forward, pushing through the chaos as gently but quickly as I could. In the space of a breath, I took in my consort’s face—paler than usual but unharmed—and her posture—all body parts apparently in working order, if weak. Then I pulled her into my arms.
She hugged me back, her fingers digging into the fabric of my T-shirt. Her breath came out ragged. A quiver ran down her back, and my teeth gritted.
The other guys had caught up. “Is she okay?” Seth asked.
I nodded. At Gabriel’s gesture, I eased both Rose and me back against the wall, f
arther out of the way of the enforcers still streaming into the building. Babbling voices echoed around us, but there was only one person’s account I really cared about.
“What happened, angel?” I said. It hadn’t been good—that much I could tell.
“I don’t know,” she said against my chest. “I don’t really understand… The plan didn’t work. Not completely. We started to push the demon back, but even with all of us there, it was stronger. And I think we made it mad.”
A chill coursed down my back. All those enforcers and Rose and the best plan they’d come up with, and the demon hadn’t even been slowed down. What was it going to do now that they’d shown their hand?
“There’ve got to be other things we can try,” Jin said, trying to put an optimistic spin on the situation as always. “If you found a strategy that worked a little, you can build off of that.”
“I hope so,” Rose said. She raised her head a bit, but she sounded doubtful. Her eyes were so distraught that my heart wrenched. “That wasn’t even—”
“Lady Hallowell!” One of the officials who’d set themselves up in charge from the beginning—Remington—pushed over to us through the crowded hall. She motioned toward the stairwell. “We need to talk about what happened out there. As soon as possible.”
Rose nodded and raised her chin as she moved toward the stairwell. The rest of us followed her—what else was there for us to do?
In the meeting room upstairs, the two Northcotts who apparently really ran things around here and a couple of the other officials from before were standing around the table, along with a few witches in enforcer sweat suits. No one sat down even after we filed into the room.
Rose came to a stop behind one of the chairs, her brow knitting as she looked around at the people gathered there. I stayed right beside her, as close as I thought she’d be okay with in front of these spectators. She shouldn’t have to feel ashamed if she needed to lean on someone after what she must have been through in that battle, but even I knew this wasn’t the moment to force the issue.
The three enforcers looked tired and a little wary, but the officials’ stances were practically rigid. What were they so tense about? And why were they focused on Rose? They weren’t blaming her for the plan not working out, were they? They’d all agreed to it. It’d been better than anything these assholes had come up with alone. I didn’t have to be there to know Rose had tried her best to see it through.
“We understand the attempt at magnifying the residual stored demon power to repel the intruder had some initial success, but quickly lost efficacy,” Mr. Northcott said, setting one hand on the table. “Is that also your impression, Lady Hallowell?”
Rose gazed back at him with the same puzzled expression. “Yes. I’m sure anyone who was there could tell you that.”
“And to what would you attribute that loss of efficacy?” Lady Northcott asked. If anything, her posture had gotten even more stiff.
“The residual power, or our amplification of it, mustn’t have been strong enough,” Rose said. “My best guess would be that we were able to overcome the demon’s will at first, when we took it by surprise and were at our freshest, but it took a lot of effort. We tired, and it adapted to what we were doing. I mean, that’s what makes the most sense.”
The dour expressions around the table suggested that the officials didn’t think so, even though the enforcers were nodding in agreement.
“There was something odd, though,” Rose went on. “Right before it started attacking, the demon seemed to be focused on me, or something around me… I don’t know how to explain it.” She rubbed her mouth with an anxious twitch of her hand.
Lady Northcott’s eyebrows rose. “And you didn’t do anything to provoke that interest?”
Rose blinked at her. “Of course not. I wasn’t even on the front line. I stayed behind most of the enforcers, sending all the energy from my spark that I could forward to them, as we discussed. Did someone say I stepped out of my place?”
Remington ignored that question. “Where exactly did you get the idea for this plan to make use of the men who might hold demon power in the first place, Lady Hallowell?”
Rose turned to her, even more bewildered than before. “What does that have to do with anything? It was just something that occurred to me after what I saw and knowing what I do about how the Frankfords’ and their faction worked. You all told me none of our usual magic had affected it much. It seemed reasonable to think the powers of its own world might have more impact.”
“I think we need a step by step rundown of everything you recall doing from the moment you set off with the Justice force,” Lady Northcott said.
Rose’s mouth tightened, but she launched into a recitation of the drive out, the way she’d hung right at the back at first and then moved forward as the squads spread out. Her hands balled against the top of the chair back as she talked. To stop them from shaking, I realized, when a tremble slipped through anyway.
My jaw clenched. She was upset about what had happened—that encounter with the demon had obviously shaken her up—and these pricks were practically interrogating her.
They didn’t look any happier when she finished. “During the period when you moved closer to the demon, did you change the way you were casting your spell at all?” Remington said.
“No,” Rose said. “I told you everything I remember. What is it you’re trying to figure out anyway? I’d like to know why the demon seemed interested in me. It was— It was not the most comfortable feeling I’ve ever had. Maybe if we brought in some of the enforcers who were nearby, they’d have some insight. I didn’t get the chance to talk to any of them before we all scattered for our cars to get out of there.”
The officials exchanged a glance, and that said everything. They knew something they weren’t telling her. They were trying to lead her in some direction without giving her all the information, like she was on some sort of trial. Did they really think they could get away with treating the woman who’d laid so much on the line for them like a criminal?
“We’ll speak with them later,” Lady Northcott started in a flat voice. “Right now we’d just like to know—”
I slammed my hands into the tabletop. At the bang my palms smacking the varnished wood, everyone jumped, even Rose. The Northcotts stared at me.
“No,” I said in my most menacing tone. “You’ve badgered Rose enough. What the hell is it that you know that you’re not sharing? Cough it up! Or we’re walking right out of here now. We didn’t have to come help you mop up the problem you made, you know.”
I looped my arm around Rose’s. “Damon,” she murmured, slightly chiding, but she reached to take my hand at the same time.
Lady Northcott’s jaw worked. “I don’t think it’s your place to make those sorts of determinations.”
Rose drew herself up straighter. “Of course it’s his place—just as much as it’s your consort’s place to stand beside you as the head of the whole Assembly. And Damon is right. You’re talking to me completely differently from before. You asked me to come here and help based on the things I’d seen. Why are you suddenly acting like I’m one of the traitors?”
More glances around the table. All right, I was done with this bunch. I tugged Rose. “Come on, angel. Let them come find us when they’ve pulled their heads out of their asses.”
The second we took a step toward the door, Lady Northcott raised her hand. “No. Wait. I’m sorry. It’s just… It’s been difficult to wrap our heads around this.”
“Around what?” Kyler said.
She made a dismissive gesture to the enforcers, and they slipped out of the room. “We can’t be sure—” Brimsey started at the far end of the table, but Lady Northcott shook her head.
“I’ve seen no indication that there’s any conscious affinity. She deserves to know.”
“I deserve to know what?” Rose asked. Her fingers tensed around mine.
Lady Northcott sighed. “One of the enforcers who
was with you during your interviews yesterday was bothered by something your father said during your interview, about our success against the demon depending on you. She asked permission to speak to him again this morning. That interrogation was conducted under truth compulsion while you were on your way to the confrontation.”
“And?” Rose said when the older woman hesitated. “My father’s been trying to guilt me into thinking the way he tried to bind me into a toxic consorting was necessary, not a crime. As if I’m any different from the other witches the Frankfords’ faction has wrung dry.”
“Oh, but you are,” Lady Northcott said. A shiver ran under my skin at her tone. “You’re one of the most powerful witches I’ve seen in my lifetime, Lady Hallowell. When I consider how little time you’ve had to hone your newly emerged abilities, probably the most powerful.”
“I come from two strong magical families,” Rose said.
“You do. But it’s more than that.” Lady Northcott hesitated, and then pushed on. “Your father shaped you for this sort of greatness from your very beginnings. You were conceived under the influence of that demonic magic.”
Chapter Nine
Rose
Your father shaped you from your very beginnings. Even hours later, Lady Northcott’s words rang in my head. Wandering around the bedroom of the hotel suite the Northcotts had set me and my consorts up in wasn’t helping me escape. Everything around me was a reminder of the fears I’d provoked in the Assembly officials. They hadn’t felt safe letting me stay in the building with them anymore.
I forced myself to come to a stop on the hardwood floor and dragged in a breath of the lightly freesia-scented air. The tap of Kyler’s fingers against his tablet carried from the suite’s living area. After my initial shock had worn off with the comfort of my consorts around me, I’d encouraged him to go back to his research. He was looking for any records that might relate to the circumstances of my conception and birth. Gabriel had gone to join him with one of the laptops we’d borrowed.
