“No!” I screamed at the same time the demon unleashed the magic onto the mage. The leaves sliced through the mage’s neck in the blink of an eye. His head dropped onto my chest. His body collapsed beside me.
The demon roared with laughter in my voice. My mirth cut off abruptly as an arrow pierced my shoulder. A second one would have collapsed my face if Andrei hadn’t reared up and punched Chanelle in the head. She scuttled backward.
Free from his hold, I kicked out wildly. Bradley appeared in my vision. “Step back,” Kai said. Bradley kept coming. He was going to kill me and nothing was going to stop him.
The demon had something to say about that. So did Kai. Caught between restraining me and stopping Bradley, Kai had to make a hard choice. As soon as he lifted his hold, the demon had me standing upright.
It laughed once more. “As if I need your protection,” it made me say.
A circle of blue light constructed around me. Kai lunged at the circle but it was too late. I was encased. The demon turned my head to the side. It drew more and more of the hedge magic from the gap in the seal. Having forgotten the battleground nightmare, the demon became obsessed with the havoc it could wreak in the mortal world.
Six figures materialised around me. Angus, a mage of the First Order, a vampire, a shifter, a para-human, and a Nephilim. The elite guard.
The First Order mage raised a hand glowing with yellow fire. “Release her!”
I pressed my tongue out between my teeth and tasted the emotions roiling in the air. Hatred. Fury. Fear. Panic. Astonishment...love. It paused at the last like it wasn’t capable of processing it.
The mage shot a wave of yellow fire at me at the same time the Nephilim guard tried to slice through the circle with his blade. All of them came up short.
The seal groaned against the weight of my magic, trying to break out. If the demon got hold of any more magic, it would become unstoppable. Worse still, the thing that I had been trying to hide away from it was dangerously close to the surface of my thoughts.
I had Lucifer’s blood. My magic could release him. The demon had control of me. I was terrified that it would put two and two together. That in the blink of an eye, it could unleash Lucifer onto the world. I couldn’t let that happen.
While the demon was distracted with the growing leak of magic and the elite guard, I grabbed the arrow from my shoulder and yanked it out. Kai smashed his fist against the circle of magic, realising what I intended to do.
“No!” he screamed.
Andrei was only a second behind. He was too shocked to speak, but he too tried to break down the circle. I smiled at both of them. Then I shoved the arrow as hard as I could into my carotid artery.
You win, Gaia.
The demon bellowed its rage. It ripped my hand away, but it was too late. There was blood everywhere. I fell to my knees.
The last thing I heard was Lucifer’s voice directed at the demon. Take her from me and you will regret it for eternity.
The demon fled.
So did my soul.
51
Green light saturated my eyelids. It happened in tandem with the golden glow that repaired the cracks in the seal.
Voices trailed closely behind. “That’s grounds for disqualification,” Bradley snapped.
“Why didn’t you do that when she killed Carlos?” Chanelle said.
Angus’s voice rumbled but I couldn’t make out what he was saying. It mingled with the sound of indiscriminate voices in the background. A warm hand caressed my throat. My head was rested on somebody’s lap. The pain from the arrow was gone. I felt the soft tension of a couch beneath my back. The first thing I saw when I opened my eyes was Kai leaning over me. The glow from his magic made my eyes water. The stern expression on his face made my heart stutter.
“She’s awake,” Angus said.
The voices ceased. All of the elite guard were still present. They stood in an equidistant circle around where I lay. Preparation for the off chance that I might wake still possessed. Max sat with his eyes closed in the armchair close to my feet. There were scars and burn marks all over his body. Andrei leaned against the window frame. The pane to his left was held together by the thinnest strip of metal. All of the glass was shattered. His eyes fluttered like he was only just holding on to consciousness.
Chanelle hovered by the kitchen island with Barbara. Her mouth puckered. The Lodge looked as though it had been hit by a tornado. I scanned the area outside until my sight locked onto a headless figure laid out on the lawn. Bile clogged my throat. Suddenly I was so tired.
“Please stop,” I told Kai.
His magic flared brighter. I felt it tug at something rooted deep inside me. A corresponding flare of green that had sunk its talons into me. I couldn’t do this again. Now, more than ever, I knew there couldn’t be a happy ending. The demon’s reaction and Lucifer’s statement made things crystal clear. I was a liability.
“I said stop!” I choked out. Shoving his hand away, I tried to sit up only to lose my balance and almost topple over. Kai grabbed me around the waist.
“Andrei,” I croaked. Kai’s whole body stiffened, but I didn’t care. The vampire jumped to his feet, suddenly alert. When Andrei went to help me up, Kai’s arm winched around me. There was a moment when I thought I would have to fight him. And then slowly, he retracted his arm and allowed Andrei to help me to my feet.
Nobody protested when we made our way up the stairs
