Demon Marked

for a reason: to strengthen the frozen field, so that Lucifer can’t just can’t slip through the barrier to the Chaos realm, and then open up a passage to Earth. Oh, and bring a few dragons with him. If we do this, we might as well just cast that spell on Ash’s face now. At least Lucifer won’t be bringing in dragons from Hell through a Gate.”

“That’s Michael talking through you,” Khavi said.

“No, it’s not.” With a wild laugh, she shook her head. “He’s not here right now.”

“Of course he is, somewhere, so he’ll hear me when I say that this halfling has opened doors that were closed to me before. And do not forget, Taylor, that there was another reason for his sacrifice: to prevent his sister from entering Hell through Chaos.”

“And fat lot of good that did. She’s down there, anyway. He took her down there. That was my body, but I wasn’t jumping it.”

“Exactly,” Khavi said. “He did. Because a door opened there, too, and instead of wresting control over all of humanity, she only wants revenge on her father. Taking his sister to Hell allowed us more time here . . . and now Ash will give us more time, too. Her presence changes everything. With the proper symbols and spell, the barrier can remain as strong without Michael in it.”

Okay. Ash didn’t know half of what they were talking about, but the gist of it seemed to be: Michael got out of Hell, while Lucifer and Michael’s evil sister remained trapped in the realm. That sounded good to her.

“So what needs to happen?” she asked. “What do I need to do?”

Khavi looked at Taylor. The other woman suddenly stilled, before turning stricken eyes on Ash. “She told me that I’d sacrifice you.”

“Fuck that,” Lilith said. “There’s another way.”

“No.” Khavi shook her head. “There has to be an exchange.”

An exchange—as in, Michael for Ash? Dread filled her chest. “No. I won’t do that. Rachel’s agreement with Lucifer released me from the frozen field. Forever. Even if I die now, I won’t go back unless I break another bargain. Right?”

“Yes,” Khavi said.

“Then I’m never going back there. The only bargain I have now is with Madelyn— and I won’t break it.”

She’d given up Nicholas so that she wouldn’t have to break it. Nothing they said about Michael would persuade her to return to that icy hell now.

“Damn right.” Lilith turned on Khavi. “Does it have to be a willing sacrifice? Shit like this usually has to be, because there are rules. Opening a Gate to Hell, you don’t need Ash to agree to her sacrifice, because Gates can open on their own with enough pain and misery to fuel it. Rare, yet it happens—we had one beneath the fucking Golden Gate. But no one can get into the frozen field without willingly entering into a bargain first. By the time they’re tortured down there, they’re regretting that decision, but at some point they did make a choice of their own free will.”

With a sigh, Khavi nodded. “Yes. It must be willing.”

Ash’s heart thudded with sick relief. “I’m sorry. But I won’t.”

“Are you so certain?”

In a blink, the seer’s eyes filled with black from edge to edge. A surge of psychic power crashed through Ash like a wave. Khavi’s Gift. Ash staggered. Already the surge was retreating, but felt as if it tossed little bits of her about in its wake, overturning stones along the path to her future as easily as churning through sand.

Ash didn’t know what the woman saw. She didn’t care. “The frozen field isn’t part of my plan.” It emerged as a hiss. “Only seeing Madelyn dead. Being with Nicholas. And making a fuckload of money.”

Khavi tilted her head, looked at Ash through those blank obsidian eyes. “But Nicholas will soon be dead.”

“What?” Oh, God. The room spun. Someone caught her arm, steadied her. Taylor, Ash recognized. “How? When?”

“Soon, as I said. I have seen it, and he is still young.”

Ash pushed away, headed for the door. “Then I have to—”

“He will call,” Khavi said. “He will need help.”

No. No, he wouldn’t. The ground seemed to steady. Ash shook her head. “He won’t risk me like that.”

“But I see him call. It is very clear to me. And that call must be answered.”

“No,” Ash repeated. “He wouldn’t.”

“Yes.” Khavi paused, and another short, powerful wave swept through Ash’s mind. “He will die . . . and yet your feelings will never fade. You will love him for the rest of your life. Are you sure that’s what you want to live for?”

A horror of a future. Still better than losing Nicholas and an eternity in the frozen field. Both were unimaginable—and never could she choose them both. Unable to speak, Ash only shook her head, continued to the door.

“Ash,” Lilith said softly behind her. “Save the naked traipse through the warehouse for a special occasion. I don’t think this qualifies.”

No. It didn’t. Feeling suddenly old, broken, Ash formed her clothes and slipped out of the room, straight into a hallway filled with Guardians and their stares. Sympathy, horror, and resentment seemed to fill each one.

Ash kept her mental blocks strong, and kept on going.

CHAPTER 16

Jesus. Taylor waited for the door to close before swinging around. “What the fuck was that? ‘You’ll love him for the rest of your life’?”

“What?” Khavi frowned at her. “I did not say her life would be very long. I hope it is not.”

“God. We don’t do this.” Taylor looked at Lilith. When Ash had left, her eyes had been glowing red, but the flat stare Lilith leveled at Khavi looked twice as demonic. “Do we? Is this what we are now, that we sacrifice one life to save another?”

“That’s what Guardians have always been,” Khavi said. “Sacrificing our lives to save another’s is how we become Guardians.”

That wasn’t the same at all. But Khavi had a way of twisting things about that made Taylor wonder, “Are you saying Ash will become one if she sacrifices herself like this?”

“No,” Lilith said, and Taylor couldn’t remember hearing such cold anger from the woman before. Usually, the former demon hid it behind a razor-sharp smile and a tongue that could slice to the bone. “It would be the same situation as Rachel’s: She should become a Guardian, but the field would claim her first.”

“She never becomes a Guardian,” Khavi confirmed. “There is no door leading in that direction.”

Fuck. Taylor pushed her hands into her hair, tried to search her mind for any sign of Michael. Was he hearing this? What would he think of this?

No, screw that. She didn’t need to feel his reaction. She knew what it would be.

“He wouldn’t want this,” she said. “He wouldn’t want us to guilt or coerce someone into sacrificing herself for him, especially a woman who should have been a Guardian, and who’s literally been through Hell and torture, just because she sacrificed herself to save someone’s life. And he sure as hell wouldn’t want us to give that woman nothing at all to live for, to tear her heart out and then say, ‘But hey, now that your life is total shit, you can save someone else and make your pathetic soul worth something.’ That’s what a demon would do.”