“Let’s say you meet another halfling.” I give it a look because halflings—the offspring of witches and demons—are outlawed. They’re a complete abomination. Just like Emmaline’s children were. And, technically, me.
Kreigen chuckles. “There are more than you think. Just because the Triad fears that they have too much magic doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen,” she says with a smile.
“The halfling, let’s call him Teddy, would have an essence and a void. When you have both, imagine it like two forces at war, oil and water, pushing down on each other because witches weren’t made to hold both. So Teddy meets you, and you have a big hole where your essence used to be and”—it snaps its fingers—“he’s more powerful than before. And so are you.”
“Why?”
It shrugs. “Simple balance system. You would pull from the void, since that’s your remaining power source and because the essence is more powerful. It doesn’t want the void in there. All the pressure is because the essence is already trying to push the void out. So the void would push out and flow into you and Teddy would be freed up anytime you used his untapped magic.”
I try to act uninterested, but my heart is pounding and my head is reeling. That makes sense. It’s why magic with Carter is easier than magic with anyone in my family. My essence is an outline, a leftover glimmer, and the void is what makes me have crazy magic. If this is real, then Carter really is like me. He’s a halfling too. God, that makes so much sense. Does he know what he is?
Kriegen looks at me, a cat playing with a mouse. I’m glad I’m so entertaining. “Penelope, kitten, you don’t seem to know much about how your magic works.”
“I don’t,” I say honestly.
It sighs and moves from its stool, back into my personal space. “I could tell you a lot more, teach you a lot more. I know what it’s like to have a power you don’t understand. I can train you.”
“Train me to what?”
“Absorb power—unlimited power. You can harness the void if it’s your truest desire. We’ve been searching for one like you.”
I stare at it. It does sound appealing, to be in control of my magic, but then I wouldn’t need Carter. I mean, I would need Carter because I love him, but what would happen? Could I really get my own magic? Not to mention I’d have to trust a demon, to be trained by one and take down my own people. That’s not happening.
“I have another question,” I start.
“Enough answering questions. I’m bored. I’m going to ask you one.” It looks at me. “Why are you here?”
“I told you—”
It squeezes my chin in its hand. When it’s this close to me, I can see that its human body is starting to melt off under its power; it’s too strong to be contained by a vessel.
“The real reason,” it hisses.
I meet its gaze. “I came to save my boyfriend.”
“Your boyfriend. How pathetically romantic.”
“Yeah, I thought so, too. What with the facing impending death and all.” It slaps me, its claws digging into my face, tearing some of the flesh. It hurts, but I won’t give it the satisfaction of crying out.
“You have a snappy tongue and it’s getting you into trouble,” it says. “What’s this boyfriend’s name and why would we have him here?”
I start to answer, but there’s a crash in the hallway and screaming. Kriegen points at two of its minions to go check it out. As they move, the ceiling falls in on them. I close my eyes, in some lame effort to protect myself. When I look up, I see Carter, smiling at me. Kriegen stands against a wall, not thwarted at all by the intrusion.
“You must be Kriegen,” he says to it. “I’ve heard so much about you.”
It presses its lips into a smile and pushes off the wall. “You’re the boyfriend.”
“Guilty,” he says. He holds out a hand to it. “William Carter Prescott. Can’t say it’s a pleasure.”
It looks at his hand, but doesn’t take it.
“Smart choice. It’s laced with this really disgusting butter spray—and butter has an awful lot of salt,” Carter says. Spray-on butter. I love him.
It’s all very quiet for a second as Carter leans into me on the wheel. “I’ll get you out of this,” he says. His hand moves over mine as he tries to undo the wrist restraint, but it doesn’t budge. His magic, the void, forms in my gut, as Kriegen laughs behind Carter.
“Your body is melting,” he scoffs at it, and gets back to work on my restraints. His eyes are light even though I know he’s stressed out. I messed this up. He wasn’t really in hell before—not if he’s just met Kriegen. I brought him here. How did he find me? Together, we use magic to free my wrists; Kriegen’s voice calls out.
“Tell me, William Carter Prescott, what you know about your mommy.”
Carter stiffens and turns slowly, his face scrunched up in hurt or confusion or anger—I’m not sure what. I touch his shoulder gently, but he takes a step forward. “The demons confused her, tricked her, promised her things that they couldn’t deliver.”
Kriegen raises an eyebrow, an amused smile on its face, and moves toward Carter. “I bet Victor wouldn’t tell you the whole truth though, not when it would make him look like an idiot. She was a brilliant witch, William, and they couldn’t handle that. They couldn’t see mommy’s vision.”
Each time it says “mommy” it’s like a slap in the face. Even to me, and that thing isn’t my mom. It moves closer to Carter as it speaks, and I see him squeeze his hand into a tight fist with each word. I try to focus the magic on the rest of the restraints, because it’s doing it on purpose, trying to distract us.
Kriegen tsks. “I’ll tell you the story. Her father was a believer in the untapped potential of the void, of the demonic power, and she spent her life trying to prove his theories right. That one day some witch would be able to access both sides of magic. She told Victor that she wanted to be the witch to wield that kind of power. The council laughed at her.”
Carter doesn’t move, but Kriegen’s in his face, only inches away, hissing words at him.
“They said she was crazy, but she wasn’t crazy. She knew there was a way, and she tried to convince her husband. He wouldn’t hear it. She pleaded to the council, but they laughed at her. They said demonic magic didn’t work. She argued that the demons used the void, and why couldn’t witches do the same? They exiled her. Not forcibly, but subtly, until she became nothing more than a pretty face in the crowd, because of her ideas. Even to her husband. She was merely a toy for him to use as he pleased. After that, she decided she would prove it.
“She didn’t plan to become a demon, only to access the void. But the demons were more open and driven, more willing to hear her thoughts and help her. Then it was easy. All she had to do was drain a witch of power and disappear. Voilà,” it said with a snap. “But then she got pregnant, right after she killed the witch for her transition. She was going to run, but Daddy found out and Mommy had to wait for nine months in a cellar until Daddy’s little boy was born—and then he tossed her out on the streets and left her to die. What Daddy doesn’t know is as soon as he tossed her out, she was saved by those who wanted her—and she changed.”
Carter is stiff as a board. Kriegen is his mom. I want it to be a lie, but it makes too much sense. We’re both halflings. I study Carter’s stance, and even though he doesn’t speak or move, all of his muscles are tense. He’s spent so long looking for her, and then to find her here. Has he known all this time?
Kriegen laughs in his face and then gets quiet. “Did Daddy tell you that Mommy came back for you when you were small? That she wanted to be with you, to take the magic she knew you had inside and teach you how to use it? Both of the magics.”
“Stop,” he says through his teeth.
“And your father said no. Victor didn’t want you to have more power than he did. He tried to kill her.”
“Shut up.”
“All your Mommy wanted was to feel like she mattered. To have power. She tried
to fit in with the witches, but the demons loved her more. They needed her.”
Carter doesn’t move.
“She’s been seeking you, William. She’s been tearing your world apart to try to find you, and here you are.” Kriegen reaches out and strokes his cheek. Carter just stands there, like he’s not able to move. I’m not even sure that he’s breathing. “And I didn’t even have to do anything to get you here.”
“You didn’t—you took Penelope! You lured me here!”
Kriegen raises an eyebrow. “No, she volunteered to come. To save you. Isn’t that right, kitten?” As soon as she says it, Carter looks toward me. Okay, so I’m an idiot. “Young love is so sweet. Too bad she didn’t know we didn’t have you—and yet here you are. It’s perfect. Better, even, because instead of one halfling, we got two.”
The demons jump into action. I leap free from the wheel. Girly demon catches me, digs its claws into my free arm. I cry out as blood drips down the cracks of wood. Brown loafers demon grabs a handful of knives and stands behind a line. One zooms toward my face and lands on the board an inch from my eye. It does it again and nicks my leg.
Carter leaps toward me, but more demons fall down from his hole in the ceiling and force him to the ground. “Let her go,” Carter yells.
Kriegen puts up a hand and the demons stop with the knives. She bends down toward the ground and strokes a piece of his hair. “I want you to stay, William. If you swear on a blood oath that you will stay with me, I will spare her.”
“Don’t do it,” I yell. Brown loafer tosses another knife, just left of my throat.
Kriegen leans into Carter. “I can help you, William. I can mold you into the leader you were destined to be. Her too. The three of us can change the world. This is our path. Together.”
Carter looks like he’s considering it. Really considering it. He glances from her to me and I shake my head. He can’t do this. I can’t have caused all this. He nods and Kriegen’s demons get off him, letting Carter stand. He breathes hard, shaking his head as Kriegen smiles like she won the lottery. She’s spelling him, like Vassago tried on me.
“One thing you should know,” he says, looking up at her. “I go by Carter.”
He shoots sparks of magic in her direction and kicks her across the room as a shot rings out and a demon howls as it falls to the ground. Who’s helping us?
I don’t have time to look. In a second everything blows up. Magic zooms, walls break, demons fall. I search for Carter in the chaos. He’s fighting with his mother, trying to get away.
I release some magic toward Kriegen, and it hits her in the face. She lets out a yell and covers her eyes. Carter glances around the room, like he’s suddenly realizing where he is. Then he sprints over to me and grabs my hand, and we run out of the room, around chunks of concrete falling from the ceiling, and out the door. We race down the hall as another scream splits the air and another sound echoes behind it.
The noise, like skin being ripped off of flesh, fills my ears and then all I hear is, “Kill them both!”
Chapter Thirty
Everywhere I look, bodies litter the floor behind us. It’s much more like the hell I imagined before.
“How do we get out?” I yell to Carter.
“I marked the route,” he says, pointing to a black mark on the wall. He leads the way to exit, but the marks are hard to see through the torn pieces of flesh splattered everywhere—from demons and Nons—so much blood.
“Left ahead!” Carter yells, slicing a dagger through this gross-looking older man. His skin was so thin that the demon’s true red color was showing under it.
We turn left and a demon grabs at my hair. I scream out, try to fight my attacker off, but no one is there. Something grips my leg. Sharp nails that I can’t see—only feel—dig into my ankle. Carter stops for me as the pain in my leg crawls higher, unseen claws carving their way up to my thigh.
“Stay calm, Pen. It’s invisible,” he says.
He counts to three, and then pierces the emptiness with his dagger. Nothing happens at first, then there’s the unmistakable cry of a demon. The grip loosens and I jump toward Carter. We stay long enough to see it materialize—even in its true form, it’s white like the floor, only more defined.
I pull a dagger from my sock and then change my mind. Carter looks at me, but I stare down at the demon. If Kriegen was right, then I’m more powerful than I know. I take a step forward and the demon looks up at us, eyes wide. I twist my hand around in the air, gathering the image in my head. The demon gasps for breath.
I don’t speak the incantation; I don’t even think it. I picture the demon turning into guts, and the demon on the ground convulses. Carter pulls me back, the look in his eyes alarmed, but says nothing as we take off down the hall. I don’t see any more markings. We burst through a set of doors, the only barrier between us and the way out.
In front of us, guarding the way out, is Kriegen in her black demon form from the woods. Slick and black with deep-green eyes and claws. Behind her, more demons than I can count. I don’t even want to try. They’re like a huge rainbow of impending death, and they’re all staring at us.
“I hope you’re not in a hurry to leave,” she says. Her voice sounds a lot like it did when she was in the human body, except now I can pick up on the traces of demonic noise now, an accent from hell. She snaps her fingers and all the demons take a step forward. I tighten my grip on the dagger.
“Whoever kills them gets their power.”
They all charge at us.
Carter runs forward into the throng of demons, blade slashing and blood splashing. A second later I charge after him, a dagger in my left hand and one of my guns in the right. I slice through two demons before another jumps me from behind, snaking one arm around my neck. Instinct and practice take over; I jam my elbow into the demon’s stomach and twist away when its grip loosens. I shove my dagger into its stomach before it can grab me again. It falls back too quickly to pull the dagger out. Crap.
Before I can even move, another demon pounces, tackling me to the ground. My entire body feels the impact. I scramble to stand up, but the demons hold me down. They pin my arms as I kick, thrashing wildly to get them off like Ellore taught me to. One of them, a shade of deep purple and covered in sharp barbs, inches closer to my neck, sharp teeth smiling and ready to bite. The other demon, a putrid orange with a hulking bulbous body, presses down on me. My gun digs into my lower back where it’s tucked into my waistband, useless. A dagger hides in my boot and my bra, but I can’t get either while the orange blob clutches my arms. I’m trapped, my heart hammering against my rib cage. There’s no way out, and needle-sharp teeth are inching closer.
Or not. I have another weapon.
I close my eyes and pull in the magic from the void. It comes quickly and when I open my eyes, I look at the demons. I think they feel the sudden rush of magic because their eyes widen before they’re flung across the room. I use the free second to reach for the gun and the dagger in my boot. I may not get another opportunity.
I run through the crowd of demons, nearly tripping on a couple that are convulsing on the floor. I glance around while I run and spot Carter across the room, as a demon explodes. He shakes guts off of him and turns his attention to another.
Another fugly thing seizing my arm. I pull the trigger on my gun. A loud bang fills my ears as blood pours from the demon. It stumbles back, pauses, and drops to the ground, writhing in pain as the salt pellets dissolve inside it. I turn away from the sight and Carter catches my eye. He slices and stabs with his dagger, leaving a wake of blood and death following after him. But there are too many. They swarm like insects, crawling over one another as they try to claim their prize: us. This won’t work. We can’t last much longer like this.
And then I see it.
Above me there’s a landing, and right beside that landing is a ladder built into the wall. It’s old, pieces missing, but it goes up. I slide my gun and dagger in my pocket and start climbing. I�
��m halfway up when it starts vibrating. Demons are following me, but I’m almost to the landing. I climb faster and pull from the void to coat the ladder in salt. It takes a lot of focus, but I eventually hear them scream as they fall down to the ground. Awesome. I’m getting the hang of this.
I toss myself onto the landing and pull the gun out of my pocket. From up here, it looks like we’re losing. And we probably are, since it’s two to one hundred. But there are lots of demons still on the ground, and even more that are splattered against the walls. I kneel down and aim the gun.
I search for Carter first. Three demons are hauling him away, moving quickly with their prey. I don’t want to hit him. Maybe if I use the void, my aim will be perfect. I focus, connecting with the gun and the magic. Carter is on the other end of the room, but he’s slicing through a demon, so I start shooting. I take out ten more, ten demons sprawling to the ground, when a hand pulls me up. It’s Kriegen.
“Creative, kitten,” she says. I aim the gun at her and pull the trigger.
Nothing happens. I’m out of pellets. Shit.
She laughs. “Did you know those things only hold about fourteen? I did the math.”
Stupid math! Then she lurches at me. I lose my balance and start to fall from the landing. Carter screams my name; I hear his voice around all the noise, and I am falling.
I brace myself for the landing, but it doesn’t come. Instead, the magic bubbles up without my really thinking, and I’m suspended in midair. Kriegen lets out a yell, and I picture myself landing on my feet. The magic listens, and in seconds I’m on the ground. A little dizzy, but in one piece. Alive.
When I land, a demon charges at me. I didn’t expect it and I get a claw to the shoulder. Quicker than me, Carter slits its neck and pulls me into the nook of this wall.
It’s barely big enough for him, but I squeeze into the small space next to him.
“You’re okay?” Carter asks.
I nod. Around us, the demons are still rabid. Some fight one another like they didn’t notice we were gone. Good. Let them take one another out.
Salt Page 27
