by Frost, L. L.
I move to put myself between him and the others in the room. “Who are you, exactly?”
“He’s a useless, selfish asshole who should just go back to sleep while the adults work,” Flint announces cheerfully.
The demon’s attention shifts to Flint. “Lord Marius will not be pleased that you are assisting in this foolishness.”
“Lord Marius can go fuck himself.” The amusement slips from Flint’s face as he turns toward the other man. “And if you’d like to get the fuck out of my friend and run home to tell him that in person, that would be just great.”
“He can’t make portals,” Pen breaks in, refusing to look at not-Marc. “But he can tear through the veil if there’s already a weak spot.”
That would be safer than my original plan, but... I lift a hand to my chest, to where I know the mark is, but feel nothing.
I dive inward, ferreting out all the links I share with other demons. Here are the threads for the imps, shining strong and bright. Here are the ones that connect me to the demons of destruction, less vibrant and stretched thin, vanishing into a space I can’t follow. And mixed deep within them, a fraying pink strand that grows dimmer by the day.
This link to Julian could mean anything. It’s possible that whatever Victor Hesse did, Julian’s energy remains somewhere, trapped like we trapped the beast. Or it could be his memory, locked in the Library, my last connection to him. Either way, he’s out of my reach. So, after a moment, I let his thread go and continue to search for an unknown link that ties me to Victor Hesse.
But I find nothing.
I shake my head. “I need the link to find Victor Hesse, regardless. He needs to be stopped if we’re ever to be safe. There’s no reason to pay for something when this will suffice.”
“How do we know he’s still on the demon plane?” Tally asks from where she hovers just on the other side of the circle. “He could have returned before the lock down.”
My hand shifts to the bottle that hangs around my neck, and it practically leaps into my palm. It pulses with hunger, and there’s a sense of yearning, too, a desire to be somewhere else. But it can’t pinpoint the location. It’s just not here.
“The beast can’t sense Victor Hesse here, so he must be on the demon plane.” I drop the bottle. “The only other place he could be is Dreamland.”
Tally shakes her head. “Aren would know.”
“How’s complete sovereignty treating him?” I ask.
“He’s insufferable.” Tally rolls her eyes. “It was bad enough when he became the first baku to break into the Between and to shrink without sundering. I think he’s making himself a crown.”
“You won’t succeed,” not-Marc cuts in. “Do you really think you’re the first demon to try to affect the ley lines? If it were possible, they would have already been moved and our world wouldn’t be on the brink of death.”
“No, I assume it’s been attempted many times,” I say slowly as I fight down my irritation. “This has been going on for hundreds of years. Of course, an attempt would have been made to reverse what was done at the end of the great war.”
His eyes narrow on me. “Then what makes you think you’re so special?”
“I don’t think that.” I hook a thumb over my shoulder at the witches. “I think they’re special. Humans are the ones who pushed the ley lines out of whack. It stands to reason they’ll be the ones who can change it again. And we’re not on a mission to move all the ley lines, just the one powering the Between.”
“Just shut up and let them try,” Pen snaps at Marc. “It’s no skin off your teeth if they all die in the attempt.”
He stares back down at her. “And if they mess things up even more?”
She shrugs. “Then they’ve proven the ley lines can be changed.”
“You say that because it’s not your home that could be destroyed by their foolishness,” he hisses.
“You’re right.” Her face hardens. “For all I care, the demon realm can burn.”
“Such a positive atmosphere we have here, huh?” Flint pulls off the sharpie’s cap and focuses on my chest once more. “Now, I believe the mark was somewhere around...”
Xander snatches the pen from his hand. “You can’t even see it.”
Flint scowls at him. “You’re ruining my dream of drawing on her boobs.”
“You can draw on my boobs all you want if I make it back,” I offer, and he brightens.
“Flint,” Pen warns. “I’m not pulling your ass out of the fire if her demons of destruction decide to crush you.”
“They’re very nice boobs,” Flint sighs heavily. “It might be worth it.”
“Thank you.” I turn said boobs toward Xander. “Let’s do this.”
“Wait.” Reese grabs the cap from Flint and shoves it back on the marker Xander holds. “We need more preparation than simply completing the leash.”
His brother nods. “If we’re going to act as anchors to pull you back once you’re in the ley line, then we need links, and a spell big enough to reach you across the planes of existence.”
Impatience pushes me to insist we move forward right away, but I restrain the emotion. They’re right, and we need to do this as accurately as possible if we’re going to succeed. “What do you need?”
“Give us...” Xander looks around the room, his shoulders tight with strain. “Just give us a few minutes to set this up. This has all been theory up until now, so...”
He trails off as he strides back across the circle to grab his satchel.
“You should power up while we get things ready,” Reese advises. “We have no idea how this leash thing works. For all we know, you could pop in right next to Victor Hesse as soon as it’s complete.”
“Good idea.” I flex my fingers. “Just need to think how to give it the right purpose.”
Reese pats my arm before he joins the others, and Xander begins to give him, Jax, and Slater directions. Reese kneels next to his large duffel bag, pulling out items and passing them to Jax and Slater, who disperse them around the circle.
Teeth worrying at my bottom lip, I step onto the ring of gold set into the floor. Ley line magic floods up through my feet and legs, then streams into that empty space inside me, pooling inside of it. Magic spills down my arms to my fingertips, rises into my chest, and fills my mind with temptation.
Give me the strength to stop Victor Hesse. Give me the will to save my men. I repeat the request over and over, letting the ley line interpret the request. I don’t know enough about what Victor Hesse can do, or which part of the network of magic powers the Between.
But the ley line is everywhere and knows everything. In one hand, I hold the images of Emil, Tobias, and Kellen in my mind and wrap them in my need to protect. In the other, I hold the need to cleanse Victor Hesse’s poison from existence, to stop him from doing more harm.
The magic surges through me, making my bones ring, before it sweeps back into the circle, leaving behind a fragment of its power.
When I open my eyes, the world looks brighter. I find Reese crawling around the circle, drawing chalk symbols onto the floor inside the ring of gold. One layer of symbols already loops around the room, and his brow furrows as he works on a second layer.
Careful not to smudge the lines, I step back next to Flint as Pen joins me.
She looks at her partner. “Shouldn’t you be helping them?”
His brows lift. “You want me to...” He points at the others, and at her hard stare, he nods. “Yeah, totally getting on that right now, boss.”
When he leaves, Pen looks back at me. “So, you’ve been in the ley lines before?”
“Yeah, hundreds of times.” At her surprised look, I shrug. “I needed power fast.”
Her lips purse, and she looks away. “He’s right that changing the ley lines has been attempted before. Have you heard of Enyo’s Prophecy?”
“Enyo as in the Librarian?” I ask. At her nod, I shake my head. “No, never heard of it.”
&nbs
p; “It was buried as inaccurate after the high council’s last attempt to fix the ley lines.” Her eyes flicker to me and away. “It said that a being born of human and demon desire would bridge the worlds and set right what was broken.”
“Sounds like an incubus or succubus,” I note.
“This being must hold both life and death at once.” She watches as Reese starts on a second band of symbols inside the first. “The last time they found someone who fit this prophecy, it didn’t end well.”
I frown at her emotionless profile. “What happened?”
“Nothing,” she says simply. “She died, and it changed nothing for the demon plane.”
I study her expression. “So you think I’ll fail?”
She shakes her head, her blond hair slipping around her shoulders. “What you did just now, you’re holding ley line magic, right? Like a witch does?”
I nod, though I’m not sure it’s exactly like a witch does.
“And you’ve held the power of destruction.” Her lips twist. “I think you have a chance. If you don’t die.”
“I’m not trying to fix the ley lines,” I remind her gently. “I’m just trying to free my men.”
“Your purpose doesn’t really matter. It’s the result that does.” She extends her hand. “I wish you luck, Adeline Boo Pond.”
Confused, I reach out to grasp her hand. “I thought you wanted the demon plane to burn.”
Her fingers curl around the back of my hand. “New life can come after a fire.”
A sizzling fire burns between our palms, unlike anything I’ve ever felt before. It sings of death and life born from ashes, and I gasp at the power contained within this slender woman who neither registers as demon or witch to my senses.
She smiles, and releases me. “I think you’re right. It’s time.”
Xander takes a deep breath and positions the sharpie over my heart. “This is going to work.”
“Are you trying to convince me or yourself?” I whisper, then shiver as the tip of the pen touches my skin.
“Kellen never came right out and said what exactly he planned to use us for,” he murmurs as he concentrates on drawing the symbol. “If we were discovered, we couldn’t implicate him beyond sheltering witches. Everything we’re doing today is only theory we’ve talked about.”
I stare down at the mark slowly appearing. “What’s the theory?”
“Why there are so few witches, and how to make accessing the ley lines easier.” He frowns as he makes a swoop over the crest of my breast. “There are places where the magic is stronger, and other places where it barely exists.”
“On the demon plane, there are nodes of magic, just sitting on the surface, with offshoots that burrow beneath the ground.” I lick my lips, tasting the mingle of emotions in the air. “Maybe the offshoots that go deep are what you feel the most on this side.”
“The Between won’t be powered by an offshoot.” The pen hesitates near my collarbone. “Something that can power a pocket of existence will be large.”
“My connection to the guys will show me the way,” I say with more confidence than I feel.
While I believe what I say is true, entering the ley line is so much more than simply taking power to fuel my corporeal form. I escaped it before by focusing on my desire to return to Emil, Tobias, and Kellen. But, this time, I’ll be commanding it to move. Even if it’s just a piece of the greater web, the ley line doesn’t think of itself as pieces, it simply exists.
“Okay, that’s it for this one.” Xander’s words break through my thoughts as he kneels to draw a new symbol over my stomach, where my core of power resides.
From what I can see, it resembles Victor Hesse’s, but far more complicated.
When Xander pauses with the pen above my belly button, I reach back and unclasp my bra, shrugging it off. I pull the beast’s bottle over my head, too, and hold it out from my side to provide an unobstructed canvas for the spell.
Xander stands, drawing a straight line up my center, between my breasts, up my throat, chin, over my lips and nose, before swishing across my forehead. I don’t need to wonder what this mark looks like. Most everyone in the room already wears one on their body, most on their foreheads, though Tally stands with her shirt off as well and sports two of the marks, one at the center of her chest and the other on her stomach, where her power resides at its strongest.
Even Gavin wears the mark, his sharp eyes taking in every part of the ritual. When I’d told him he didn’t need to take part in the spell, he’d just shaken his head and said he wanted to know.
Only Marc, or not-Marc, stands separate from everyone else, refusing to take part.
Xander caps the pen and steps back. “Ready?”
I swallow the sudden lump in my throat and nod. Demons don’t bind themselves to others lightly, and tonight, I will bind myself to everyone in this room, giving them a part of myself while taking a piece of them. If I fail, they’ll lose a part of themselves, and if I prevail, we will forever be connected.
Xander’s gaze drops to the marks on my body, double-checking to make sure everything looks right. “You can put your bra back on. It won’t affect the symbol, now that it’s drawn.”
As he steps back to the other side of the circle, I loop the bottle back around my neck before shrugging back into my bra. By no means is it as good as armor, but it makes me feel a little less vulnerable.
Reese, Jax, Slater, and Xander take up positions at equal distances from each other around the circle, and everyone else fills in between them and kneels. Only Flint and Xander remain standing.
Flint lifts one hand, open and pointed toward the ceiling. Slowly, he taps two fingers against his palm, the rhythm reminding me of when he summoned my energy core from my body and into his bottle. The power inside me stirs and rises to his call, suffusing my skin with iridescent light.
He continues to steadily tap his palm as Xander paces around the circle, pausing behind each person to lay his hands on their shoulders. He murmurs something too low for me to hear, but I feel the tug on my energy, and threads pull from my body, arcing through the air to connect me to each person.
An answering ring in my bones sounds as each link establishes itself, and flickers of unfamiliar emotions sift through me, similar to what I feel when I try to read people’s desires, but less defined. I shiver as I take them in, accepting them as part of myself.
When Xander finishes, he stops once more at Flint’s side, and the other man stops tapping.
Instantly, the power sinks beneath my skin once more, burying these new threads deep, and I sway, suddenly lightheaded from too much sensation.
But the spell isn’t done, and I force myself to stay upright as Xander kneels and places his fingertips to the circle. Jax, Slater, and Reese follow suit, and the circle flairs to life in a brilliant ring of gold.
Xander looks up at me. “We’ll give you as much time as possible.”
I nod in understanding. They won’t be able to funnel the ley line magic indefinitely, and if their bodies give out, then the spell will end.
A scrape of sneaker against floor pulls my attention around as Pen inches forward, the skin around her eyes tight. She flexes her fingers, gives herself a shake, then presses her fingers to the circle. A hiss escapes her lips before the circle brightens with added power.
I stare at her in surprise. Even though she doesn’t register as a demon to my senses, after that flare of power she displayed, I had assumed she was just very good at hiding her nature. But a demon wouldn’t funnel ley line magic. At least, not unless they were crazy succubus like me, which I’m certain she’s not.
Ignoring my surprise, Pen glances at the detective. “Come on, Sharpe. In for a penny, in for a pound.”
He glances from her to the glowing circle. “You want me to touch that?”
“Call it hands-on experience.” She looks across the circle at Flint. “You, too. Get on your knees.”
“It’s usually sexier when you sa
y that,” he grumbles as he finds space next to Xander and adds his support. He winces as he connects to the circle, and it brightens even more. “The things I do for love.”
After another moment of hesitation, Detective Sharpe tentatively presses his fingers to the circle. He gasps, the sound filled with wonder, and the glow jumps up another notch.
“Thank you,” Xander murmurs as he looks at the new additions before his focus jumps to his small coven. “Pull back a little. Reserve until we need it.”
They nod, and the glow dims to a level that doesn’t threaten to burn my retinas.
Xander takes a deep breath as his attention shifts to me, and I brace myself for what comes next.
His lips move, shaping words that slip past my ears, and the mark on my chest rips open.
Agony stabs through me. I stumble, blood flowing from the wound as if it was newly cut by Victor Hesse’s knife. A powerful tug comes from my center, like a giant force turning me inside out.
The wooden floorboards vanish from beneath my feet, replaced by the cracked and burned earth of the demon plane. Hot wind, laden with ozone, lifts my hair and steals the breath from my lungs.
Eyes wide, I stare at the living room that still exists on the other side of the circle, and the shocked faces of those I hold most dear.
Another sharp tug comes, dragging at my insides, and I stumble forward, falling to one knee. Pain burns across my chest, and I clench my fists, fighting against blacking out, and the beast’s bottle pulses with awareness.
A howl sounds in the distance, followed by another, and when I next look up, my home is gone, replaced by the wasteland of the demon plane.
The burn of ozone and dying earth fills my nose as I force myself to straighten, on high alert for the approach of a hunting akuzal. The power that pulled me here won’t have gone unnoticed, and if I don’t get moving soon, I’ll be swarmed and torn apart by the ravenous monsters who roam the wasteland.
