by Jen Ponce
That dark part of me was often a dick.
I crossed my arms and turned on Grandmother. “What’s all this about?”
“They’re going to be doing raids in the Witch District, Korrinthe.”
I shrugged. “So? They’ve done that before.”
She stepped to me, though she didn’t grab me again. Her eyes blazed. “No, you haven’t seen anything like this. They are mad about Kyle Klein’s murder.”
A cold shiver went through me. “Who?”
She gave me a ‘don’t be stupid’ look. “Kyle Klein of the Havershaw Kleins. He was brutally murdered, stabbed multiple times. Also, there was a massacre at a magi bar. Eleven magi brutally murdered. And it gets worse.” She bit down on whatever else she was about to say. “You must get out of here. Now. They are going to rip through this place, take it down brick by brick if they have to.”
Worry sent my mind to my daddy. Hell, to Poppy, to Alice, to all my friends in Hell’s Mudroom. “Why would they blame the witches? Surely Kyle is more powerful than a mere witch.”
Grandmother curled her lip. “Don’t be sarcastic, Korri. I know what you think of magi, but do you honestly think one of us would do something so heinous?”
“Yes.”
She scoffed. “Pack whatever you think you can’t live without. We must be out of here before they begin. Once they start, no one will be allowed to leave.”
I pulled my phone and dialed my daddy.
“Who are you calling? You can’t say anything to anyone. I’m breaking the law being here and collecting you. The only reason—”
“Daddy? I need you to get out of Hell’s Mudroom. Now.”
“Korrinthe.”
“Korri? What’s going on? Are you okay?”
“Grandmother says there’s going to be raids, Daddy. The Lodge is planning to shake down the witches because a few magi were murdered. You need to get out. ASAP. Hear me?”
“I hear you.”
My grandmother glared. “Tell him not to tell anyone.”
“Is that your grandmother?”
I turned my back on her when she reached for the phone. “Yes. She came to get me out.”
“Good, good. You go, sweetheart. Go be safe. She’ll keep you safe.”
“Daddy? You’re leaving, right? You’ll get out?”
“I will do my best to get as many people out as I can.”
“That’s not—”
“I’m not leaving people behind to die, because that’s what this will amount to if it’s as serious as you say. Witches will die.”
“Fine, I’ll help you.”
“No. Get out.”
“Daddy—”
“I love you, sweetheart. But your mama would want you safe, so you’re going to leave. You hear me?”
I glared at my phone, at the picture of my daddy and mama that I loved so. “I hear you.”
“Good. Love you.”
“Love you.”
When I hung up with him, Grandmother was striding through the living room to the hallway, determined, I supposed, to pack my things herself.
I caught up with her before she made it to my bedroom. “I’ll do it.”
“We don’t have time to waste,” she said, and when I saw her pale face, I realized she was well and truly afraid.
Fuck.
“I’ll hurry. But let me …” I did not want my grandmother pawing through my underwear drawer. She’d find my toys and have a heart attack or something. As soon as I got to my room, I dialed Poppy. She didn’t answer, of course, but I’d expected that. I left her a message about Grandmother’s warning, then let her know I was taking our list of tea party items with me. “You can get it whenever you want, but I didn’t want to leave it behind in case …” I paused, thinking hard. “Poppy, they might come after you. They might remember what happened … Just, be careful, please. I love you and I’m sorry I—” I cursed under my breath. “I’m sorry I hurt you, but I’m not sorry about … the other thing. I’m not. I just can’t be.” I hung up before I could make more of an ass of myself, then I pulled out two suitcases. Two wasn’t enough to hold everything I wanted to take with me, but two would have to do, because two might be the limit of my grandmother’s patience.
I packed clothes, my favorite dildo, shoes, lube, a few books, a couple bags of herbs and other magical accoutrement, and, of course, the kill list. I snugged that puppy into the dildo and screwed a charm inside with it. Were we to be searched, I didn’t want them thinking the thing was anything other than what it looked like. And if they touched it, the charm would start it vibrating. Loudly.
I found that people got funny around dildos, especially dildos they thought had been used.
I hoped that prudishness would keep me from getting caught with what amounted to incontrovertible proof of my perfidies.
Hell.
I didn’t spell it otherwise, not wanting to bring attention to it.
“Korrinthe! We must go before they seal the gates. You’re … you don’t want to be caught here.”
I paused, wondering at the hesitation. You’re what? Not any more valuable than anyone else in the WD. Not great shakes as a granddaughter since she thought I was at fault for my grandpa’s death.
“Korrinthe!”
“Yeah, I’m coming. Hold on.” I sent a text to Alice and a few of my other friends, urging them to leave town for a while, then dragged my suitcases out to the living room. Dempsey, sour-faced as ever, picked one up for me and we made our way back down to the car.
It wasn’t right, me leaving. I should stay, should try to help but I went along with my grandmother willingly enough. I told myself it was because I couldn’t help anyone else if I were trapped inside Hell’s Mudroom or worse, if I were stuck in prison.
That’s what I told myself, though I wasn’t sure I believed it.
26
BAPHOMET
If you don’t have horns, are you really living your best life?
The witchling had set me free and I found myself unable to forget her, despite our brief meeting. “Change your name,” she’d said and changed my name I had, though now I prowled in a Hell almost empty of my kind.
I’d long wished to be free. Now that I was, I wasn’t sure what to do with myself.
Perhaps I would go back to the witch world and find the one who set me free.
Perhaps I would show her how appreciative I was for her assistance.
My tail swished as I walked, my skin alive with the sensation of wind rushing by, something I hadn’t felt in so long trapped in that fucking crystal.
I created a fireball in my hand and tossed it at a nearby wall. It exploded into flames and I grinned, showing killing teeth to no one. It was so damned satisfying to use my magic however I pleased, whenever I pleased.
It had been too long. Too long trapped, too long enslaved.
“Baph.”
I peeked over my shoulder, another grin stretching my lips. “Lux.”
His big, houndy smile made me wish I were the kind of female who liked males. He would be the exception if there were exceptions. “She set you free.”
I pivoted, my mouth opening just a bit to let the air slide over the scent glands in my mouth. “You’ve slept with her. What’s her name? Who is she?”
His dimples were cute, if one liked that sort of thing. “Korri,” he said, and when he did, her name lit him up from within.
Interesting.
I sniffed again. “Malphas? Abaddon?” I shivered. Malphas was a calculating killer but Abaddon? He was insane. Insane and his scent was all over Lux too. It was a heady mix of smells, all mixed with sex.
I licked my lips.
“Does she like females too?”
Lux laughed. “I’d forgotten that about you, Baph.”
I tipped my head. “What?”
“Your utter lack of a filter.”
I shrugged. Filters or their lack didn’t concern me. What did concern me was revenge … and finding that interesti
ng witchling again. I wanted to talk to her, to get inside her mind again, to see how she ticked. “Why is she so compelling?”
“I don’t know. I only know that she is.” The hound studied me, his gaze curious but not intrusive. “Could you find out more? With your talent?”
“Perhaps. If the answers aren’t blocked off. If she’s open to allowing me entrance.” I smiled at that, at all the ways it could be taken. “Take me to her?”
“I will. When night falls in their world. When it’s safe for us to walk there. When she’s alone.”
I didn’t want to go when it was safe. I wanted to go when the magi gathered in crowds. I wanted to slice through them, watch their blood and their guts spill free. I wanted to watch their heads roll. “What are we going to do to stay free, Lux?”
“We’re going to fight alongside her. Abaddon has also tasked Stolas with finding Paimon.”
“Oh! Clever. If we can find him, he can find the others.” I paused, thinking of the witchling. “She’s intriguing, I’ll give you that, but how can one witchling free our people?”
“She’s not just a witch. She’s half magus.”
I snarled. That made her less intriguing by far. “How do you know she’s with us? How do you know she won’t turn on us as soon as she finds something better?”
He spread his hands wide. “She saved me. It was an accident the first time, with me, but when I visited her, she didn’t try to harm me. Or capture me. Instead, she fucked me and then she turned around and freed Malphas. Abaddon. Many more. You. She hasn’t once tried to trap us or use us for her own purposes. Hell, even the shadows are set free without much more than a request to help her get more medallions.”
When something sounded too good to be true … I decided I would reserve my judgment. Lux was convinced of her goodness; I could see it all over his face.
“Has she used one? Does she know their power?”
He nodded. “She used mine.”
“And still she set you free?”
He shrugged, though I saw how strongly he was convinced of her goodness. This woman, this half-witch, half-magus could put one over on him easily at this point.
“What about Abaddon? Is he—”
“Insane?”
I laughed. “He was always insane. Is he unstable? Is he dangerous?”
“We’re all dangerous.”
Both these things were true. Abaddon, though, he was powerful. Instability in one so powerful could cause a fire that would easily rage out of control. Not that I didn’t want to see the magi burn, but their world wasn’t just for those pricks. The witches were still there too, and the witches had once been our friends.
“How did we come to this, Lux?”
He looked about us, though he knew damn I didn’t mean Hell itself. “We lost our compass and then we lost our heart and soul.”
Hecate, Lilith, and Satan. How had the magi killed brought us so low? For Hecate’s death alone they deserved to die. “We have to find out how they did it, so we can make sure they can never do it again.”
“Why? There are no more gods left. Not our kind.”
“Perhaps we can kill their god. Ventus. What’s good for the demon is good for the magus, no?” I twitched my tail up over my shoulder and stroked its scaled skin, playing my fingers along its barbed tip. I could kill with it or I could caress with it depending on my whim.
I could strangle with it as well, though it hurt to do so.
“Perhaps,” was all he said, and I sighed. hellhounds were so unruffled by things. Their live and let live attitudes were handy in stressful situations. They were calm when others lost their heads. But there were times when I wished Lux would get angry, get passionate, lose his shit. Impulse wasn’t a bad word.
“If you’re going to be boring, I might just take a nap while we wait to visit the witchling.”
“Go ahead. I’ll wake you when it’s time.”
I considered leaving him, but I didn’t want to sleep. I’d been sleeping at the whim of the magus who’d held me captive for too long. I wanted to dance, to fuck, to kill. “Where’s Abaddon?”
“Do you really want to poke that bear?”
I grinned. “No. But I wouldn’t mind bugging the bastard.”
The flap of wings caught our attention. “Stolas,” I sighed as the demon landed lightly on his now-witch feet. His transformation was utterly flawless, per usual, and he looked so delightfully real I had to hug him.
“Baph,” he said, his discomfort at my touch so funny. “Lux.” He glanced around as if worried, then his shoulders eased when he didn’t see the thing that made him fear. “I have something I need to show you. I would have before,” he said this to Lux, “but …”
Lux nodded as if he understood what was going on. I could have touched one of them to find out, but let them have their little secrets.
For now.
Stolas looked around once more, then pulled out a black orb that tugged at me with its power. Its dark power.
“Is that … Lilith?” I breathed, scenting our goddess all over it.
“It’s a piece of her fire. I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t pass that knowledge around. Understand?”
If her fire still burned, then she was alive somewhere, someway. I bit my lip, my fingers trembling. “Can I hold it?”
His lips curled into a snarl, but he gave it over and I gasped at the power in it. It was her, our Lilith, our beautiful Lilith. She’d been gone so long, I’d almost forgotten the taste of her, the heat of her, all the lovely things about her. And Stolas had had a piece of her all this time? A piece he jealously kept to himself?
“Baph,” Lux said, warning in his voice and I realized my spikes had emerged from my spine. Growling low, I passed the ball back, my jealousy an ugly, angry thing.
“I looked into the fire,” Stolas said, “and saw Korri in it. More importantly, I saw a break in her life story that seemed almost deliberately erased. Someone was hiding something that had happened in her life, in her past. So I went to the place shown to me in the fire to see if I could find out more about what happened during that time.”
Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw shadow demons gathering, drawn, no doubt, by the compelling power of Lilith’s flame. I couldn’t imagine how cold and restless the shadows felt without her.
“And?”
Lux’s questions were much more patient than mine would have been, which was why I’d kept silent, though I was as eager to hear the answer as Lux.
“Something happened when Korri was young. A summoning gone wrong, something … Lilith was in that room that night. A grand room in a grand house for a grand magus or two. Korri’s grandparents summoned a demon on their own, a powerful one by the look of the circle. And the summoning went sideways and the grandfather died. Lilith’s fire wanted me to see it, responded to it almost as if—”
“As if it were Lilith herself summoned there? Trapped there?” Lux asked.
Hope exploded inside me. “Where? We must go there—”
“She’s not there. Only the echoes of what happened.”
“Then where?” I wanted to shake him, but I curled my fingers into fists to combat the urge.
“Around the neck of Korri’s grandmother?” Stolas asked. “Or inside—”
A muscle in Lux’s jaw jumped as he cut off Stolas. “If she’s there, Korri doesn’t know it. And I thought you said the summoning went sideways. No demon as powerful as Lilith could have been trapped whole anyway. They would have had to piece her, which would mean more than just two magi, no matter how strong their trap.”
He was right, damn him. It didn’t change the fact that they’d tried to capture her, our beautiful dark queen. “We need to find out more. Are you caught up in her spell, Stolas, the way Lux is?”
Stolas didn’t scoff as I expected him to. He was withdrawn, pondering something. “Hmm? Oh. I admit I find her rather intriguing indeed.”
Something about the way he said it made me wonder and I
touched his shoulder. “Holy crow. You think Lilith is inside her?”
Stolas jerked away. “Don’t do that again, Baph, unless you wish me to rip that tail of yours clean off.”
“I would like to see you try, owl boy.”
“Inside Korri?” Lux asked. “How?”
Stolas glared at me, then said, “If the ritual went wrong that night and if Korri were there, Lilith could have taken her as a vessel. Her body would have been strong enough to hold all of her even at a young age.”
I breathed out. So that was why she smelled so good. She was our queen.
“No,” Stolas said, as if reading my mind now. “We don’t know if she’s in there. If she was, surely she’d recognize us and we her, but none of us saw her in the mortal. If she’s there, something is wrong.”
I wanted to find the witchling and dig into her until I found the answers … and yet, I almost hated the thought of destroying such a one as she. “How can we discover the truth?”
“I have Lilith’s knife and there’s a working that will bring her forth if she’s in there.”
“What kind of working?” Lux asked. “Will it hurt Korri?”
“Of course not,” Stolas said, but I thought he might be hedging.
“What will it do to her?” Lux pressed.
Stolas lifted his chin. “Would you really choose her over our queen?”
I tipped my head, waiting for his answer, curious. I had been Lilith’s handmaid. Lux had been her guardian, one of twelve. He had served and loved her well as I. Would he truly choose a mortal over Lilith?
He didn’t answer … which was its own answer, wasn’t it?
27
KORRI
The only text I got from Poppy was an angry one. “Lucky u 2 b able 2 leave when things go 2 shit.”
I sighed and dropped my phone on the bed, weary enough to go to bed early. Unfortunately, Grandmother wanted me downstairs to eat dinner with her. It didn’t matter that I was feeling guilty, nor that I wasn’t in the mood to mind my Ps and Qs at her table, I’d go because she’d make my life Hell if I didn’t.
I went downstairs and wandered to the large sunroom, a place I was always drawn to because of what had happened there when I was little. I didn’t remember much, just the terror, but the room called to me just the same. My grandfather had died there and it had been my fault, according to Grandmother. I remembered the hand coming out of the circle and grabbing me. The pain. The fear.
