Nine months since my first shift at the Crow and Hammer when I’d thrown a margarita across the three mages and Ezra had burst into laughter.
Three and a half months since I’d found out he was a demon mage.
Two months since our first kiss under the mistletoe.
One month since I’d realized I loved him.
And tonight, whether Ezra lived or died, none of our lives would ever be the same.
A silent buzz vibrated against my hip and I started, accidentally yanking my hands free from Aaron and Kai. Shit. Hadn’t I turned my phone off?
I slid it out, the screen glowing with an incoming call from a number I didn’t recognize. Amalia was still chanting, either too focused to have noticed my movement or ignoring me.
As I rejected the call, Kai glanced at my screen.
“That’s Izzah’s number,” he whispered.
Izzah? I blinked at my phone, the screen dark. Why had Izzah called me? I hadn’t heard from her in weeks.
The screen lit up, the phone buzzing. The same number appeared. She was calling again.
Amalia recited another Latin phrase. I hesitated, every nerve in my body prickling, then tapped the screen—answering the call. I brought the phone to my ear.
“Izzah?” I whispered as quietly as possible.
“Tori!” She was whispering too, but I could hear the urgency in her tone. “Where are you?”
“Where? I—”
“Is Ezra with you?”
The floor shifted under my feet. “Ezra?”
“I just overheard—two officers, they were talking about a classified bounty on Ezra. They’re saying—”
Amalia’s voice rose through another incantation. The air grew electric, scented with an unfamiliar tang of power.
“—Ezra is a demon mage.”
The floor fell out from under me. The world fell. The universe was spinning out of control. Exploding. Imploding.
“A bounty,” I choked out, scarcely making a sound. Aaron and Kai went rigid.
“Yes,” Izzah whispered at top speed, “and the officers mentioned a team. I think they might be—”
Amalia stretched her hand out, pointing toward the blood-drenched rune as Latin flowed from her lips. The swirl of power through the two circles shifted back and forth, rippling across the interconnecting lines.
Izzah was still talking. “—already started, and you need to warn him before—”
“I have to go.” I yanked my phone away and ended the call. My hand shook, the device almost slipping from my fingers. I shoved it into my pocket.
Aaron’s and Kai’s expectant stares were scorching the top of my head, but I couldn’t look away from Ezra as he waited in the circle. Power sizzled in my nose and throat as Amalia’s voice swirled through the room.
We couldn’t stop now. We were so close.
Zylas was on the roof, keeping watch. No warning yet. We had time. Just enough time to unmake a demon mage. Just enough time to save Ezra not only from Eterran and madness, but from the justice of the mythic world that had just been unleashed.
I grabbed Aaron’s and Kai’s wrists, holding on to hope as I held back my terror. Every molecule in my body vibrated with urgency. Faster. Hurry. Quickly!
But Amalia didn’t chant any faster. A single error would ruin the ritual. She continued at the same steady pace, power rising, the eerie glow of crimson magic in the circle deepening until it was more black than red.
Drawing herself up, Amalia lifted her hand toward Ezra. “Tenebrarum auctoritatem da mihi, da super hunc imperium sine fine! Eterran of Dh’irath, bearer of the power of Ahlēa, wielder of the king’s command, by your blood and your oath, I summon—”
In a flash of glinting armor and reddish-brown skin, Zylas appeared behind her. His hand clamped over her mouth, halting her final words.
His eyes glowed like pits of magma. “They are inside.”
My thundering heart plunged toward my feet.
“Who’s inside?” Kai demanded.
“Odin’s Eye.”
The answer rasped from my dry throat. Odin’s Eye was here. A team responding to a top-secret bounty on a demon mage.
“We have to get out of here!” Aaron barked urgently.
As one, Aaron, Kai, and I turned toward the lone exit. The open doorway led into a dark landing, and beyond it was the stairwell.
Zylas grabbed Robin’s arm, shoved the petite contractor toward Amalia, then stepped in front of the two women and sank into a defensive stance. His fingers curled, claws unsheathing, crimson eyes fixed on that dark doorway.
“Aaron Sinclair,” a deep male voice called, echoing out of the stairwell. “Kai Yamada. Tori Dawson. You’ve been charged with harboring a demon mage, a capital offense under MPD law. Surrender now, or we will attack with lethal force.”
My lungs locked.
“Ezra Rowe. You’ve been identified as a demon mage and the MPD Emergency Judiciary Council has ordered your immediate execution.” A short pause. “If you have any integrity or humanity left, you will surrender as well.”
Tremors ran through my limbs. Ezra’s secret was out. The world knew he was a demon mage.
I slowly slid one hand up my thigh to my hip. As my fingers curled around a cool glass sphere, I flicked a glance at Aaron and Kai. Aaron gave the slightest nod.
I yanked the alchemy bomb off my belt and flung it. As it arched through the air, Zylas launched toward the summoning array. His fist swung down, knuckles smashing into the concrete floor at the circle’s edge. The concrete cracked under the blow, splitting the lines and runes.
My alchemy bomb smashed on the floor—and with shouted battle cries, the Odin’s Eye mythics charged through the doorway.
I caught only a glimpse of familiar and unfamiliar mythics in dark gear before the billowing smoke obscured them. Its peppery tang filled my mouth as the room went white with mist.
Aaron and Kai leaped ahead of me, drawing weapons, and chaos exploded everywhere. Fire burst outward as Aaron’s sword swept into a charging mythic, and their blades met with a ringing clang. Kai flung his throwing knives, and electricity leaped into the fog. A pained shout revealed that his attack had landed.
I yanked out my paintball gun, scouring the darting
