She was gone.
I let out a breath. Though we were in the clear, neither of us moved. Oliver’s eyes softened as his fingers grasped a loose lock of my hair and tucked it behind my ear.
My skin burned from his touch. I swallowed and my gaze dropped to his collarbone, where his shirt opened to reveal a few alluring chest hairs. All I wanted was to press my fingers into the perfectly sculpted muscles of his neck and shoulders. My gaze floated down his shirt to where I knew those abs and pecs were hiding, just taunting me.
Heat rose in my cheeks. Get it together, Desi. My tongue turned to sandpaper, and I closed my eyes, blocking him from view.
Oliver wiggled his shoulders, and the rock wall behind him disintegrated into a pile of dust. He exhaled, his breaths heavy as if he’d just run a mile.
“Give me . . . a moment,” he panted, closing his eyes and stepping back. He doubled over, his chest heaving.
“Are you all right?” I placed a hand on his back.
“Holding the enchantment . . . like that . . . drained me.”
I squeezed his shoulder. “Thank you. You saved me.”
Oliver straightened and looked at me through furrowed brows. “You knew her?”
I nodded. “She somehow travels to the future and becomes my Familiar.”
Oliver’s eyes widened. “I—what? How?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know. Alba thinks Kismet’s connected to me. That when I travel back to the future, she’ll find a way, too. But that doesn’t make sense, because she’s been my Familiar my whole life. If she travels back with me, then . . .” I trailed off.
“Then it’s possible you might return to the wrong time,” Oliver finished in a solemn tone. “To a time before you were born.”
I swallowed and nodded. “I don’t know how this time travel thing works. I obviously had no control when I came here, so who knows if it will happen again?”
Oliver’s lips pressed together in a thin line, but he made no response.
Silence pressed in on us from all sides, ominous and eerie.
I sighed. “Did you get the ingredients you needed?”
“Yes.” Oliver withdrew a small corked bottle from his pocket. A pearly white liquid sloshed inside. “We just pour this at the feet of the demon and utter the spell.”
“The same spell as banishing a First Tier demon?”
“Not quite.” Oliver’s face scrunched up in thought. “Something like . . . ‘Vile demon of the second estate, with this potion I seal your fate, to suffer banishment to the depths below, and forever leave this world we know.’”
My eyes widened. “How do you have that memorized?”
Oliver looked at me with a wry smile. “In a war against demons, you have to be as prepared as you can be.” He paused. “Speaking of which, do you remember the time travel spell? Without it, we can’t cast it.”
I crammed my eyes shut, trying to recall the words I’d spoken only days ago—though it felt like longer. “Um . . . ‘Ancient powers, I . . . call on thee? Summon thee? To . . . gather winds and take me . . .’ No wait, ‘carry me’—sorry, let me start again.” I cleared my throat, my cheeks burning with embarrassment. “‘Ancient powers, I summon thee, to gather winds and carry me, hasten my journey through time and space, and bring me to my desired place.’” My eyes opened and I nodded with confidence. “Yes, that’s it.”
“You’re sure?”
“More or less.”
Oliver groaned. “Well, I suppose that’ll have to do.”
I rubbed my hands together. “So how do we track down a Second Tier demon? They probably don’t roam around like the First Tier demons.”
“You’re right. We’ll have to get a little more creative.”
Oliver held up one finger and a small flame appeared like that of a candle. He crouched to the Grimoire and flipped through pages until he stopped, squinting at the words.
Under his breath, he muttered,
“Powerful magic, encircle my charms,
Obscure this magic from nearby mortals.”
I frowned and then remembered the spell was in Spanish.
Oliver stretched his hand toward the sky, and a jet of flames burst from his hand, firing up like a flare. The trail of flames shot higher and higher until it burst in a circle of fire that spun in the air as a beacon to our location.
I swallowed and exhaled a shaky breath. “Are you sure about this? Won’t this just bring all the demons to us?”
Oliver shook his head. “They’ll send a scout first.”
“What if the scout is First Tier?”
“My bet is they’ll think someone—or something—dangerous cast this spell and they’ll send a powerful demon to investigate. But if they don’t, we can just use the scout as leverage to find his superior.”
He waved his hand over the Grimoire and muttered,
“I call upon the magic in this space,
Conceal this in your hiding place.”
A large hole in the ground appeared, and Oliver placed the Grimoire inside. When he stood, the hole filled and became smooth again, blending in perfectly with the concrete surrounding us.
I wrung my hands together and bit my lip nervously. “So now we just wait?”
Oliver crossed his arms and nodded as he leaned against the brick wall. His gaze was distant, and his jaw tightened.
He looks like a fracking model. I stared at his alluring green eyes and the way his shirt stretched over his muscles. My mouth felt dry, and I dropped my gaze.
Silence fell between us. As I looked at Oliver again, I frowned. His tight, pinched brows and clenched fists indicated something was bothering him. Something he wasn’t telling me.
I swallowed and glanced around. “What does sangre mean?”
Oliver frowned. “It means ‘blood’. Why?”
I shrugged, gazing toward the shops across the street. “Just a word I came across today.”
I felt his gaze burning into me, but I avoided it, not wanting to draw more attention to myself. I didn’t want him to know I planned to banish El Diablo. He would offer to help, and it would probably get him killed.
The wall in front of us rippled. I snatched Oliver’s hand, and he straightened and turned to follow my gaze.
A figure stepped through the wall, and I jumped as
