by Deanna Chase
Invisible power exploded from Lailah, pressed in on me, made my limbs twitch with desire to feed the magical stream. I clutched my arms, forcing myself to stay passive. Using my magic now was likely to feed Meri. Even though I’d separated myself from Kane, she could still reach me through our bond. Letting her grab any more of my power wasn’t an option.
Philip’s deep voice filled the club. “Goddess of darkness, hear my call. I, Philip Pearson, command you to bring forth my son, Dan Toller.”
Blue sparks sprung from his fingers, colliding with Lailah’s in an impressive display of icy blue fireworks. My body hummed, longing to be part of the circle. I missed the magical connection, the cohesiveness of the coven.
I stared at Lucien, his arms mimicking Philip’s, high in the air, containing the circle. The fierce concentration evident in his stance reassured me I’d made the correct choice in granting him the coven. He had the skill and the intelligence to take care of them while I was gone. As much as I’d shunned covens and magic my entire life, I now knew they were part of me. Necessary. A piece of my puzzle I couldn’t continue to ignore.
The light danced around me, shifting and winding into unrecognizable shapes. Tendrils of magic split off from the ball of fireworks, snaking their way to the two witches. A crackle ran through the room like lightning and suddenly the threads connected the four magic users around the circle, creating a canopy of magic overhead.
A roar of energy filled my ears like static. Lailah’s mouth was moving as she appeared to shout. Lucien’s face contorted into something resembling fierce determination, his green eyes glowing with effort. Opposite him, Rosalee, tiny Rosalee, seemed to have grown five or so inches. She balanced on her tiptoes, face raised to the ceiling as she struggled to maintain the overwhelming magic battering her limbs. Only Philip stood calm in his spot, power crackling off him in waves. He stared at me, waiting.
I pushed forward, arms and legs heavy as if moving through water. He nodded, encouraging me as I fought the thick energy.
When I got a few steps from Philip, he mouthed stop and held out his hand for Dan’s pendant. It dangled from my fist, flashing in the light. I didn’t let go, just let the necklace hang from my grasp in front of him.
It was his turn to shout a word I couldn’t decipher, and with a stream of magic concentrated around the pair of us, Philip reached out and clasped his hand over mine.
The static vanished. Gasps and shouts of surprise sprouted from my friends and wind kicked up, whipping my hair over my eyes. I pushed it back and gaped.
The icy blue light had formed an unmistakable image of Dan splayed out on a suspended slab, slightly above a roaring fire. Flames licked the sides, making him cringe away.
“Oh, my God. She’s going to burn him alive,” I cried. The image contorted as the magic folded in on itself, forming a ball. A moment later the ball spread, leaving a medium-sized hole in the club floor. Only this time it glowed fiery orange.
Heat warmed my body as I inched closer.
That was it. My opening into Hell. All I had to do was jump. I took two steps. A tingle of familiar energy brushed my psyche and made me freeze. Trembling, I turned to my left.
There was Kane, a deadly combination of terror and anger consuming every inch of his being. He vibrated with it, setting my already frayed nerves on edge. In one look I tried to portray the jumbled emotions tumbling around inside me—love, regret, guilt.
He acknowledged nothing. Never hesitated. Only moved with dogged determination and purpose, coming straight for me.
I stared into his blazing dark eyes. And jumped.
Everything blurred, heat and light searing my vision. I groped about, uselessly searching for purchase, and seconds later, landed with a thud on a cold hard floor.
“Ugh.” Pushing myself up, I squinted. The dim gray room appeared to be empty.
Good. I was alone.
Until a muffled thunk, followed by a groan, echoed behind me. I catapulted to my feet, simultaneously spinning and backing up toward the wall. Mocha eyes stared up at me.
“Damn you, Kane. What the heck are you doing in Hell?”
Chapter 16
Kane pushed himself up, that same determined fury flowing from him. “Coming after you.”
I unconsciously took another step back.
“What were you thinking?” he growled as his frame towered over me.
This time I stood firm. He grabbed my shoulders. I stiffened, sure he was going to literally shake some sense into me.
I stared up into his scowling face, waiting.
Instead, he crushed me to him, holding me tight against his pounding heart.
“You shouldn’t have followed me,” I said into his chest, my words muffled. Unbridled emotion took over, and I started to tremble as more tears filled my eyes.
He stroked my hair, breathing heavily as we both fought for control. Finally, he pulled away and wiped the last of the tears from my cheeks.
“I had to do this,” I whispered.
“Dan would not want you to risk your life for his.” He traced a finger down my jawline. “No man who loves a woman would want that.”
I didn’t bother to debate the implication. Maybe Dan did love me. I loved him. How could I not? We’d grown up together. Been best friends and then lovers. But I wasn’t in love with him, and Kane knew it. “I didn’t come because of Dan. If he was the only reason, we could have tried a summoning spell first.” I glanced down at Kane’s thigh, appearing so normal covered in the dark denim. “I came for you.”
A muscle pulsed in his jaw. “I repeat, a man who loves you doesn’t want you to risk your life for him.” He tilted my chin up, giving me no choice but to meet his gaze. “Do you really think I could live with myself if anything happened to you because of me?”
A trickle of indignation coursed through my veins. “And if anything happened to you, what do you think I’d feel? Especially knowing I have the tools to fight this.” I prayed that was true. Already I couldn’t feel the spark of power that usually occupied a place in my chest.
We stared each other down, both of us frustrated.
I raised one defiant eyebrow. “Are we going to stand here all day, arguing, or are we going to go kick some demon ass?”
He shook his head in exasperation. “I’ll settle for just getting out in once piece. Please tell me you have a plan.”
I smiled as I pulled out Mom’s map. “A treasure hunt of sorts.”
Kane took the crumpled paper, turned it over a few times, and handed it back. “It’s blank.”
I swore under my breath, frantically racking my memory for the maze of tunnels Mom had drawn. Green. We needed the green lit one. Please let us be close. “Hopefully I can remember the dang thing.” I grabbed the invisible map and stuffed it in my pocket. “Follow me.”
We crept out of the small barren room through a stone arch. Pale light glowed in the distance. I needed to find the main passageway. The map had shown a web of tunnels that all led back to the core of Hell, where Lucifer himself reigned as king of the underworld.
Unfortunately, Meri’s quarters were perilously close to Lucifer’s throne. If we were lucky, the locator spell had dropped us in the correct tunnel. If not, we’d have to somehow cross the commons of Hell unnoticed.
I clutched my infused herbs in one hand and held onto Kane for dear life with the other. Philip had armed me with a few powerful earth spells, but if I had to use them before we encountered Meri, we were doomed. She’d drain my natural power through Kane, and I’d be too weak to fight her.
Kane slowed and I glanced back. “What’s wrong?”
He rubbed his thigh. “Nothing. Just a twinge.”
Fear bloomed in my chest. Did Meri know we were here? All the more reason to hurry. I nodded as Kane fell in step beside me.
The pale light brightened as the stone walls closed in on us, narrowing our path. I stopped. Were we going the right direction? I glanced over my shoulder. Darkness loomed behind u
s.
No, Mom said to follow the light. We slowed, inching our way along the wall, listening for any movement of nearby demons. Nothing permeated the air except the dank smell of mold and rot. I crinkled my nose and pressed further.
We passed two closed doors, both covered with dust and cobwebs.
Deserted. Good.
The rough stone floor turned smooth, indicating centuries of wear. We rounded a bend in the tunnel and came to an opening in a larger passageway. Bright white orbs of light blinded me.
Shit. We weren’t in the right place. According to Mom, each section was color-coded by the magical orbs suspended near the ceilings. Meri lived in the section illuminated with green light. I raised my hand to shield my eyes and was suddenly yanked back into the narrow pathway.
“What the—?” I got out before Kane’s hand clamped over my mouth as he pressed me against the wall.
“Shh,” he barely whispered.
Seconds ticked by. Then someone grunted and the distinct sound of something being dragged filled the passageway. I stopped breathing. The sound dimmed, and I gently pulled Kane’s hand away from my mouth, took a deep breath, and peered around the corner.
A squat, round man with a head full of thick, black hair walked backwards while dragging a canvas sack. The contents appeared to be heavier and larger than the person hauling it.
I twisted back into the passageway before the man could spot me. Though, judging by his heavy breathing, he didn’t appear to be too focused on his surroundings. “Not yet,” I whispered.
When the noise faded, we once again ventured into the passageway. All clear. Not hesitating, we took off. Depictions of Bourbon Street buildings, rotting and in various states of disarray, lined the walls. People with deadened eyes filled the brick-lined streets. The illustrations resembled a post-apocalyptic New Orleans. I had to avert my gaze from the disturbing, never-ending mural.
We ducked into each smaller passageway we came to, carefully scoping each section of our journey. Eerie silence grated on my nerves. Besides the one dragging his haul, we hadn’t seen or heard anyone.
“Where are we going?” Kane finally asked.
“To Meri’s dungeon, where hopefully we’ll find Dan and a jewel that we can use to break Meri’s connection to you. Then we’re out of here.” I leaned against the stone wall and took a second to send out my awareness. Kane’s heightened sense of worry and unease filled me. I pushed his energy aside and pressed deeper. Only a whisper of emotion reached me. Something close to lustful glee. The dark kind that fed off destruction.
I shuddered, but kept the line open, wanting to sense when we got near to whatever was feeding that emotion.
We pressed on. The air warmed, and the old rotting stench shifted to a rancid plume of burning smoke. I gagged, my eyes watering. “Oh, God.”
Kane pulled the collar of his shirt over his nose and mouth.
Where were we headed?
One more turn around a bend, and my question was answered. The passageway opened up to a large, enclosed auditorium, the roof at least five stories high. Directly in the middle, a snow-white bonfire of gigantic proportions burned, contained by thick glass walls. An electric spiral staircase wound its way to the top, where the squat man we’d seen stood with his canvas bag.
Kane and I shrunk back into the shadows of the passage opening and watched.
A 360-degree screen flickered to life on the walls of the auditorium. It was broken into four sections, each one showing a different decaying part of the city of New Orleans: A Garden District home overrun with withered vines and rodents; The Mid-City Park, barren of all vegetation and filled with demons; a burning French Quarter; and Uptown, deserted of human life and flooded with blood.
I stifled a cry, unable to tear my gaze from the nightmare before my eyes.
The screens went blank and the images were replaced by a close-up of the man at the top of the bonfire, now reaching into his bag. Directly behind him was an empty red velvet chair, high enough to reside over the entire area. Lucifer’s throne. It had to be. Thank the Gods he didn’t appear to be in attendance.
Sweat covered man’s face and neck. He smiled an evil grin as he slowly pulled the object from the bag.
I gripped Kane’s forearm, nails digging into his skin. “What is that?”
His mouth dropped open then he shut it.
“Kane?” I glanced back up at the screen. My stomach rolled. I swallowed, my throat quivering as I forced myself not to vomit.
The demon, now obvious by his saucer-wide black eyes, held a severed arm above his head, turning it in all directions.
A cheer went up from an invisible crowd. Using the limb, the demon saluted his audience and tossed it into the fire.
I gagged, barely holding down the contents of my stomach.
The cylinder of fire raged, bubbled up to the top, and swirled around as if alive. It turned from fiery white to orange, back to white, and so forth through a range of colors as the demon tossed more body parts into the inferno.
The cheers grew louder, filling the auditorium with a bone-chilling evil. My knees started to buckle with the intensity of it all. Kane held me up, locking me to his side, both of us momentarily paralyzed by the scene in front of us.
When the bag was empty, the demon tossed it in and raised his arms, inviting the frenzied crowd’s applause. The fiery dance within the glass chamber intensified and snapped together in one last triumphant finale to form an image of a tall, thin man, skeletal even, with distinctive bone structure. Anger and pride defined his facial expression as he stood, feet spread and arms crossed in a defiant stance.
Somehow, I knew the form was of the man the demon had just fed to the fire.
Was this Dan’s fate? The vision we’d witnessed back at the club of Dan hovering over a fire flashed in my brain. We had to find him before he was next.
The silhouette of the man in the silo burst apart and the fire returned to its normal blaze, only now the flames burned an iridescent green. Across the chamber, a spotlight shone on a passageway.
From its depths, a tall female demon with an angular face and long black hair stepped up to a small podium. “I accept the honor of the Fire Sacrifice. In two nights forth, you shall have your offering.”
Meri!
We were just in time. If we didn’t get Dan out, he’d be fire food.
Demons of all shapes and sizes spilled forward from hidden tunnels and passageways. The mobs pushed past us and would have crushed us against the stone wall if Kane hadn’t moved and pulled me with him. He yanked me in front of him and steered us along, moving painfully slow toward Meri and the green tunnel.
As the chatter and whoops of celebration filled the chamber, my skin crawled. The instinct to flee was so strong, I started to drag my feet, unable to keep moving forward.
“Stay with me, Jade,” Kane said into my ear. “Don’t let them take you.”
I didn’t know exactly what he meant, but I managed to put one foot in front of the other. After a long crawl through the crowd, we found ourselves only one passageway away from where we wanted to be.
Kane pulled me into an empty, darkened tunnel. “Can you do this?”
I struggled to breathe. My limbs were sluggish, and with every beat of my heart, dozens of tiny invisible needles prickled in my chest. I leaned into him, stumbled, and toppled to the side, only saving myself at the last minute when I grabbed onto his waist. My elbow jammed into his thigh. He gasped, biting off an oath.
“Sorry!” I stared up into his pasty-white face. He was suffering more than I’d realized. I pulled out the earth-infused herbs. Mom told me to use them sparingly, but if I didn’t stop the drain working over both of us, we’d never get home. I held my hand out, a small mound of dried herbs in my palm. “Here. Swallow this.”
He didn’t argue. A second later he grimaced and coughed, trying to dislodge the herbs stuck in his throat.
I swallowed my own portion and closed the bag back up. That left
one more dose. The pain pulsing in my chest started to dull. I gave Kane a questioning glance. “Did it work?”
He flexed his leg and gritted his teeth, but his color had returned. “I’ll be fine.”
While my energy wasn’t restored, at least I could think and function again. Kane seemed to move a little easier as well. We ducked back out of the tunnel, only to find the crowd was starting to thin.
Not good.
We’d been at an advantage, blurring in the crowded sea. Now we were sitting ducks. A small group of demons started to disperse. I glanced around, desperate for some cover. Nothing. Only the tunnel behind us and Meri’s passageway in front of us.
And Meri herself.
The last of the group wandered away. Meri’s familiar gray eyes turned almost black as they focused on me.
Instantly, I gathered the earth magic provided to me by Philip’s herbs. My chest burned with it, my fingers sparking with foreign power.
Meri’s high laugh reached me. “You make this so easy. Where’s the challenge, white witch?”
“Bring me Dan and we can call this a truce,” I offered, knowing she’d never deal.
Her lips slid into a slow, satisfied smile. “A trade, then?” She gestured to Kane. “One for the other?”
I stared her down with my steely gaze.
“Or I can take both.” Meri threw both arms out, magic barely kindling within her.
She hesitated, and in that moment, I sensed a deep internal struggle. Something was holding her back from a full out attack. If I didn’t know better, I’d say she was battling her conscience. I stood my ground. “You’re not getting Kane. Not today. Not ever.”
Meri’s dark gray eyes narrowed, and the magic pulsing through me started to slip away. I focused, holding it close, ready to unleash on her at any moment.
Her smile turned evil. “You don’t even know what’s happening.”
“Jade,” Kane’s voice rasped. I spun, finding him kneeling on one leg, clutching his thigh. He gritted his teeth and forced out, “She’s taking my strength. Use your magic to strike while you can.”
