by M. J. Scott
And then I knew.
"If you have to kill Nat to stop the demon, you will. Won't you?" I stared into those so young-looking eyes and knew I was right. The Cestis would act for the greater good even if it meant sacrificing Nat. Well, maybe I was my mother's daughter after all, because for me, it was all about the personal, not some abstract "greater good." "This is my mess to fix."
Cassandra exchanged a look with Lizzie. "You need to calm down, Maggie."
"No, I really don't."
As though he agreed, Damon stepped up beside me.
Which only meant that Cassandra included him in the frown that transformed her face from Mrs. Claus to do-not-mess-with-me. "If you go like this, you're not going to be able to help her anyway. The demon will feel you coming and be waiting."
"Then I'll fry it."
"And what if it’s come through? What if it's holding on to Nat at the time? What will you do then?
"You should listen to them," Damon said.
Apparently he was standing by my side but taking theirs. I glared at him, but he didn't flinch.
"They know what they're doing," he said.
"I think we've already proved that so-called experts have caused more problems than anybody in this situation," I snapped, then cursed myself silently as his face went icy cold. Me and my big mouth. Yes, Damon's team had come up with the filter, but it was my mother who'd first called whatever demon we were dealing with and given it a link to our world.
"I'm sorry," I said, but he had already stepped away, heading down the corridor and pulling out his datapad to make the calls that could destroy his life.
My heart cracked, but I couldn't worry about fixing me and Damon—or even trying to figure out if we could be fixed—while Nat was out there, waiting for me.
"She's clearly just going to do something idiotic if we make her stay here," Ian said, his words dropping into the tension-charged silence like the crack of a whip.
"I'm still here," I muttered.
"She is strong. We can use that," Ian continued.
"But the risk," Cassandra protested.
"The risk exists regardless," Ian said.
"What does that mean?" I demanded.
Ian hitched one elegant shoulder. "The demon could potentially overwhelm any of us if it's too strong. You're merely the easiest target because of your former bond."
"Doesn't that mean it's even riskier if you all come with me? You're the strongest witches in the country." I swallowed thickly. A demon with that sort of power . . . who knew what it could do to the planet? Maybe it could lead others through, turn the whole place into one big demon snack bar until all the humans were gone.
"This is why we need time to think," Cassandra snapped.
"Nat may not have time," I snapped back.
"Maybe. But you're no good to her if you just charge in and get taken too," Ian said. "We need to plan."
"You plan. I'm leaving." I started to move but Cassandra blocked me.
"No," she said. "Not yet. There are things you need to know."
"You're not seriously going to let her go alone?" Radha asked.
"She's right. If the demon has come through, we can't all be risked at once." Cassandra didn't look happy about what she was saying.
Lizzie grimaced. "But Radha is right. We can't send her alone. There's no way she'll survive it."
It must have been a measure of just how out of my mind with fear for Nat I was that this pronouncement didn't make me any less determined to go.
Cassandra nodded. "So we send one of us with her. Just one. The rest of us can prepare to be backup if we're needed."
"You only need backup if you think this plan will fail," I said. "If you think it’s going to fail, I’m the most expendable.”
"Merely a contingency plan," Ian said smoothly. "I'm sure you understand the need for those."
This whole conversation was taking too much time for my liking. Less chat, more action. "Okay, so I go. And one of you comes with me. That's settled. Can we move on to the part where you teach me how to kill a demon?"
"You only need to know how to kill it if it's managed to come through. Otherwise you just need to know how to free Nat. Demon stone will take care of that." Lizzie sounded as though she thought what she was saying was perfectly reasonable.
"Doesn't demon stone have to be magically contained? I don't know how to do that. Or how to un-contain it."
"Whoever comes with you can take care of that. You just have to get close enough to her to break the bonds. It won't be easy if the demon is controlling her."
"How do I do that?"
"We'll figure something out. There are spells to break bindings."
"And if the demon has come through? What then?"
"Then you—we—need to kill it. Or destroy its physical form, anyway. The shock of that will break the bonds it has with any humans."
"How?"
"Breaking the bonds requires changing the energy field temporarily. Like with you and the chip."
"You think I should tranq it and perform chip surgery?"
Lizzie grinned. "Only if you know what tranquilizers will work on a demon. It might work with the victims, but given we don't know who or where they all are, that's a little tricky. You need to change the demon's field."
"I'm sure that's not as simple as it sounds."
"Fire might do it. Or electricity," Antony said thoughtfully.
"Great, now I have to get it to stick its finger in a socket."
"We can check out the power sources around the park. There might be something you can use. Fire will definitely take care of its physical form though," Lizzie said. “Destroy that and it’s back to its own plane. If Damon recalls the games, it can’t gain power that way, so if we break its bond with Nat, it shouldn’t be able to come back through.”
"Lightning would work," Antony said.
"You want to teach a newbie to throw lightning?" Cassandra said. "Even if she has the ability, it would take weeks."
"She already called fire without knowing what she was doing. It's not that different," Ian countered.
"Even you can't do it reliably," Cassandra snapped, "and the rest of us wouldn't risk even trying. We need another idea."
"Most other ways would involve her getting close to it. If it touches her, it can overwhelm her," Ian said.
"Sounds like I'd need a freaking missile launcher," I muttered. "Other options?"
Radha held out her hands. "Sheer force of will? You could change its field with magic and then kill it."
"How would that work?"
Radha looked at Cassandra. "Can she see the fields?"
Cassandra nodded. "She did during the lesson I gave her. But that’s her only training."
"It will have to do," Radha said. She turned to me. "You need to alter the demon's field. Disrupt it. That would sever the connection to whatever it's using as a power source. The easiest thing might be to try and make the color you see it as change. It would take a lot of power though." She eyed me dubiously.
To save Nat, I was willing to try anything. "Just tell me what to do."
"With two witches, it should be possible," Antony said. "One to try and change the field and the other to try frying it. I'm willing to try. Who knows? It might just work."
Or we might just both die trying. I swallowed hard. I had moved into some crazy place beyond fear in my head, but my body still knew I was terrified. My hands wanted to tremble, and I wasn't sure I could take a step. But I had to ignore that. I had to hang on for Nat's sake. I could fall to pieces later, but now I had to focus.
"There are the daggers too, of course," Ian added.
What the hell? What daggers? "I thought you said I shouldn't let it touch me? Wouldn't using a dagger require getting close? And what kind of dagger can hurt a demon?"
"Ceramic daggers with demon stone cores. We use them on people who are possessed, mostly. A last resort to try and break a bond that doesn't give way to normal methods. It should w
ork on a demon too, if you can find a vulnerable spot," Ian said.
"I don't even know what a demon looks like. How the hell am I supposed to know where it has a vulnerable spot?"
"They never look the same, but you’ll know it's a demon. They’re unmistakable. As for where to hit it, you won't know until you see what form it takes. But aim for soft and squishy: eyes, mouth, belly."
The longer we talked about it, the more ridiculous it sounded. But surely they wouldn't send me out there if they thought I had no chance.
"Okay,” I said. “Enough with the worst-case scenario. Now tell me what to do if it hasn't come through."
They didn't let us leave for another hour or so. And with every endless second of every endless minute that ticked over, all I could think was that Nat was waiting. She was maybe hurting and broken. I did my best to focus on what the Cestis were teaching me, because it might just save Nat—and me—but part of my brain screamed at me to just go get her.
Eventually I put my foot down. "That's it. That's enough. We can’t wait any longer. Antony, we're leaving. Grab the stuff."
The Cestis had produced a small mountain of weapons to use against the demon. Antony and I both had several of the demon stone daggers, which came in sheaths that were weirdly bulky, clearly designed to stop the daggers breaking and loosing the demon stone on something other than the demon if at all possible. They had some sort of spell on them too; they vibrated subtly under my tentative touch. None of these things made me want to strap the damned things around my body, but I had no choice.
Antony had added a huge gun to his arsenal. I refused to carry one. I'd only ever shot a gun on a range or in games. I didn't trust myself to not do more harm than good with one in real life. I'd accepted another, more mundane knife of the utility variety that Lizzie suggested might come in handy if Nat were tied up or something. Along with the weapons, we were both draped with enough amulets and protection to ward off just about anything. Or so I hoped.
Damon had spent most of the hour on the phone with his lawyers and avoiding me, but when I spoke, he rose. "I'm coming too."
"Don't be stupid," Ian said. "You can't help."
Damon's master-of-the-universe look descended over his face. "This is partly my fault. I'll stay out of the way, but I'm going. They need transportation, and they'll need someone to call the rest of you if something goes wrong."
It was clear that unless the Cestis were willing to actually physically restrain Damon, they weren't going to stop him.
"If something goes wrong, you might not be able to call," Ian said.
Damon shrugged. "I'll take the risk. I'm going."
Chapter Eighteen
I didn't talk as we drove through the quiet dark of the city. All the sensible people were safely in bed, not heading out into the night to fight a creature that part of me still didn't want to believe could even exist.
The mood inside the car was dark and silent too. Antony tried going over the plan until I told him to shut up before I had a panic attack. Damon just drove, his expression set. I watched him, watched the colors of the traffic lights and adscreens and buildings play across his face, but there was no change in the determined set of his jaw and mouth.
It took less time than I'd expected to reach the new bridge. Less time still to speed across the darkened bay to the headland, where the sky was ever so faintly starting to lighten.
The parking lot at the Marin County end was empty.
"Now what?" Antony said as Damon switched off the car.
I gripped one of the amulets Cassandra had festooned me with, hoping it would give me the strength to not crumble with fear and actually do what I'd come here to do.
My mouth was dry and I swallowed, licking my lips before I answered. "Now you and I walk. Damon stays here." I locked eyes with Damon, hoping he wasn't going to try some last-minute act of heroic stupidity like insisting on coming with us. Having Nat in danger was terrifying enough. The thin thread of control I was clinging to might just snap if I had to worry about him as well.
“If we're not back with Nat in forty minutes, then call Cassandra," I said to him. He nodded but didn't speak.
I looked across the parking lot to where the path into the park began. It was still almost totally dark. Almost anything could be lurking in the shadows around the first curve.
Nat had said I’d know where. I hoped I did. We hiked here regularly. And usually stopped to eat our protein bars in a pretty clearing a bit beyond one of the trailheads. It had to be there. If I was wrong—no, I wasn’t going to think about that. It had to be the clearing. It would only take us about ten minutes to get there. And every minute I hesitated was another minute she was in danger.
I turned back to Damon for a long moment, trying to think of the right thing to say. I settled for just reaching out to touch his face. "I am sorry," I said softly. "Forty minutes, okay?"
His eyes closed and then opened, looking bluer than ever, though that couldn't be possible in the dim light. My heart lurched as I wondered if I'd ever see them again.
Finally he nodded. "Forty minutes. No longer."
"C'mon," I said to Antony, and we set out into the darkness.
The trail was rough and slippery underfoot after the night's rain. In the dark, it was like trying to tightrope walk in army boots.
"Can't you make light or something?" I hissed at Antony after I slipped for the forty-seventh time and he'd hauled me upright.
"I could, but the demon can sense magic. No point warning him we're coming."
"It knows I'm coming."
"It doesn't know that you're with me. Or that you know how to use your magic."
"I don't," I pointed out. “Besides it knows I fried its imp.”
“We don’t know for sure how much a demon sees or senses through the imps. Besides, if it could see, it should know you had no idea what you were doing.”
That was hardly comforting. “I still don’t.”
"You will when the time comes. Lizzie's very good."
Lizzie had worked some weird voodoo on me during our preparation time to plant the knowledge on how to do various spells in my mind. When I'd asked why I had to bother learning from Cassandra if she could do that, she'd just laughed. Each spell was a one-off, apparently, and there were only a few that would work with whatever Lizzie was doing. I didn't feel any different, so I had no idea if she'd been successful. My head ached, but I put that down to tension rather than a barrelful of magic being shoved into my brain.
"I should go ahead, keep you in reserve," I said as we approached the trailhead. Antony nodded and moved behind me.
I regretted my suggestion as soon as he did. Now there was nothing between me and whatever waited for me. But that was the point. Antony was strong. A powerful, experienced witch. He had some chance of surviving and actually defeating the demon. Despite all the Cestis had done to prepare me, I'd accepted that I was basically cannon fodder. I probably wouldn't be getting out of this unharmed, or even alive.
Or at least I'd accepted that in my brain. My body wasn't so resigned.
My hand shook as I pointed ahead where a narrow secondary trail that I'd taken a few times branched away. "The main trail curves around here, and then there's a clearing. If you cut across using that trail, you'll be in some trees, out of sight but able to see."
I kept walking as his footsteps crunched off the path. I wanted to run but wasn't sure whether it should be back to the car and safety or forward to Nat. So I just made myself keep moving, one careful but shaky step at a time, trying to be as quiet as I could until I reached the edge of the trees. I stopped there, hoping I was still hidden by the fading darkness.
Nat stood in the middle of the clearing, still dressed in the clothes she'd worn to Unquiet. Her bare arms were blotched with what I hoped was dirt rather than bruises, and her head was bowed. As I stared at her my heart began to thump so hard it hurt.
Nat. So close.
But still so far out of my grasp, b
ecause beside her stood a dark-skinned man. No, not a man. The demon. The shape of it subtly wrong, the colors of its skin swirling slowly as I watched. My skin prickled with terror.
Well, that settled one question. It was here. In physical form. Now we had to deal with it.
The demon's hand rested on the back of Nat's neck, but his eyes met mine across the distance.
"There you are," he said. "You're slow." His voice hissed and bubbled, resonating in ways that made my teeth ache.
"I wasn't aware I had a deadline," I said. I even managed to keep my voice from shaking.
"Natalia has been waiting for you. You shouldn't keep your friends waiting. Right, Natalia?" He shook her and she raised her head. In the now-gray dawn light, she looked pale, too pale. Her eyes were shadowed but they shone. It took me a moment to realize it was because she was crying soundlessly.
"I asked you a question," the demon hissed with another shake that snapped Nat’s head back.
"Right," she said. Her voice scraped hoarsely but it held no emotion.
My right hand closed over the dagger handle at my waist. "Let her go." The words hurt my too-dry throat, but at least they were steady.
"I told her you would come. Come back to me," the demon said. I saw a gleam of teeth that on a person might’ve been called a smile. On the demon it was something distinctly not.
I fought rising terror, tightening my grip on the knife. "I didn't come back to you. I came for her. Let her go."
"If I don't?"
"I'll make you." I had no idea how, but I would try. For Nat. For me.
"How? You're weak. So weak you didn't even know I was there all those years. Why should I give her up? She's mine now. Just like you."
"I was never yours," I spat, taking a step closer. "Never." Part of me wanted to just run at him, to strike him down. But that would be suicide.
The demon gave me another of those sickening not-smiles, and the breeze across the clearing brought a sudden waft of rot. "Your mother didn't want you. She gave you to me. That makes you mine."
"Leave my mother out of this." I fought my anger, needing to think. Its energy field. I had to try to see its damned energy field.
