My stomach clenched as the power was slashed from me, piece by horrifying piece. Knees weak, I tried to stand.
“Stay with me,” I begged Dimitri.
His face was flushed, his lips had turned blue. He was going to pass out, and in a few seconds, I wasn’t going to be able to do anything either. I felt my strength rush away from me in another terrifying throb, leaving me light-headed. I stumbled sideways.
The ground jolted, and I pitched forward toward Grandma.
She jerked sideways, smart enough to stay out of my reach. “What? Am I not draining you fast enough?” Her mouth set into a hard line as she upped the voltage. Pain seared through me, and I watched her shake and suffer as it stole her life force as well.
Shit. She wasn’t going to draw this out. Unlike the demon I’d bested in hell, Grandma didn’t play. She knew me and was intimately aware of what I could do to her given half a chance.
She was utterly ruthless, willing to end herself, implode us both in order to end it quickly.
I had to get the necklace and free Grandma if I even hoped to save Dimitri and beat back the demon. My limbs heavy, my breath came in pants.
Dimitri lay motionless, his face in the dirt.
I tried to crawl to him. “Let me at least be with him,” I screamed. I couldn’t even say the last part,
Panic flashed in her eyes. “I ain’t falling for that shit,” she said, blasting me in the stomach, driving me farther away.
The Earth pitched. I used the tilt along with my last bit of power to drive myself off the ground and launch myself at Grandma. I levitated for a brief, hot moment and went straight for her neck.
My fingers closed against the emerald. It was brutally cold, searing to the touch. I held on like the souls of everyone I loved depended on it.
I ripped the stone from her neck and fell backward, knowing I was in deep shit as I retreated, broken and unable to fight back. My pulse pounded in my ears, and I struggled to even feel my arms and legs. But I had it! I had the emerald, clutched in my hand.
Grandma grabbed me by the hair. She jerked me up painfully and drew a dagger out of her pocket. She unsheathed it with her teeth.
The necklace chain went liquid and wound around my hand. The humming metal streaked up my arm and circled my throat. It attempted to harden, but not fast enough as she exposed my throat and slashed down at my jugular.
The knife sliced straight through the soft metal. I gasped. I was beyond the pain. I waited instead for the blood.
And revenge.
Sure as hell, my Grandma wasn’t behind this. The demon was.
He might be strong, but I was, too. I used my last remnant of hope to hit her with a full blast of angel power. It was the only thing I had left, the one edge I had to combat a demon.
I dug deep, past my hurt and anger and fear. I searched for the love I had for Dimitri, who lay dying or possibly even dead on the ground. He was the man who gave me everything of himself, who made my real wedding possible and who would never leave me, come hell or demon spawn. I thought of Hillary, who shocked me by being willing to change for me, a demon slayer, a girl who wore a switch star belt to walk down the aisle. Pirate, who only wanted to be with me, no matter where I was or what I was doing. And who was going to have to tolerate a lot more nights locked outside my bedroom if I had anything to say about it. I also had my biker friends, who were willing to ride hard, live on the run, and then go to a society tea party for me. Because they loved me.
I shoved all of that power, all of that love at the demon inside Grandma. And I redoubled it when I thought of Grandma herself, how hard she must have fought before she succumbed, how she was the one who always stood up for me, and accepted me, and challenged me to be something more than I ever imagined I could be.
She staggered back under the force of pure energy and love. It drove me to the ground as blinding light blazed from my hands. I kept pushing it out, even as I emptied myself of power, and energy, and life.
“Enough!” Grandma screamed, covering her eyes, her hair whipping behind her. “I’m back! I’m back!”
I poured everything I had into blasting her even harder.
She jolted back, fighting me, clawing at it like it was a swarm of angry bees. “You always gotta overdo every fucking thing.”
The power flowed from me. My nose ran. My teeth rattled. I clenched them harder.
“Stop it!” she screamed. She fisted her hands at her sides. “Give me a God damned break!” she glared at me. That’s when I saw her eyes were sky blue. Normal.
I gasped and let my own hands drop to my side, immediately feeling the weight of them. A chill ripped through me. If I wasn’t careful, I was going to pass out. “You have to help Dimitri.”
Grandma staggered over to where he lay. I had to crawl.
“Shit, shit, shit,” she muttered under her breath. She dug in her bra until she drew out a wriggling white spell. She swayed on her feet, yanking off the top of the silver snake ring on her left hand. She tossed the severed cobra head onto the ground. Protruding from the ring, which was now basically a snake neck, was a lethal looking needle. Grandma plunged it into her chest.
I stumbled to my knees, ready to blast her again if I had to. I didn’t know if I had the strength.
The needle pierced the flesh above her heart. She breathed like she’d run a marathon, winding the spell around and around the bloody snake head.
It was the counter spell. I’d used one last year, on Ant Eater. From a jar.
She drew back and launched it at Dimitri.
It sizzled over him, piercing the skin at his neck as I struggled to reach my husband. The top of the ring lay on the ground, untouched.
“Did it work?” I asked. I didn’t know what was still wrong with her, or how long I’d freed her, and the scary thing was, I didn’t care. Right now, we needed to save Dimitri. The rest of it, I could handle if I just had him.
Grandma looked like she was about to faint. Bright red blood stained her tunic. “Turn him over.”
Hands shaking, I did as she asked. Dirt clung to his cheek. He wasn’t breathing. Oh my God. I couldn’t lose him now. We’d come too far for this.
The spell glowed at his throat. I shoved hard at his chest, forcing the air out. He gasped hard and took one glorious, shallow, unsteady breath, then another. The relief of it staggered me.
I watched him for a moment, soaking it in.
I held his head in my lap, murmuring against his cheek, as Grandma sat down hard next to me, her hair tangled around her eyes, her skin pale and slicked with sweat. “Christ. I feel like I got plastered by a semi.”
“Try a demon,” I said. Dimitri’s breathing had evened out. He still hadn’t opened his eyes. By all that was holy, it made me sick to think how close we’d come to losing him.
The ground rumbled beneath us. We weren’t out of this yet. Not by a long shot.
Grandma clenched her teeth and closed her eyes. Her entire body trembled.
Pure dread settled in my stomach as I tried to recover. “The demon’s coming back.” She wasn’t free.
She grit her teeth. “Not yet.”
No, but soon. I brought my hand up to my neck where she’d tried to knife me, shocked I hadn’t bled out all over the ground. The emerald lay over my jugular. I hadn’t even felt it move. To be fair, I could still barely feel my own hands and arms. My finger caught in a groove, and I realized the knife had cut a deep gash in the stone.
Dimitri’s eyes opened and he coughed.
“Don’t speak,” I told him. The skin on his neck was bright red and I didn’t know if he had a crushed windpipe or larynx or what.
Grandma shook her head. “Look Lizzie, there’s not much time. The demon still has his hooks in me, and he’s pushing back hard. Kill me if you have to, but another will come, and another, and not even you can fight off an entire clan of possessed griffins.”
I didn’t get it. “Why did he possess everyone?”
