While they spoke, footsteps padded softly through the sacrificial hall, barely audible over the drip of my blood draining into the metal buckets.
“You canmake it up to me, my darling,” she purred, like a?—
Bile gathered at the back of my throat. Like alover.
“Kill them.”
A sharp thud sounded to my left where Aspen stood, and more footsteps, but no response.
“Don’t make me ask again. You know how I am when I have to ask twice.”
I hoped her words didn’t have a double meaning. I hoped this witch spoke like a seductress to everyone. If not—if Aspen?—
No. I wouldn’t go there.
“Aspen! Obey—” Her words fell off into a hiss. “Enough!”
A storm erupted around Lilith, the billowing edges skimming dangerously close to the slab. It wasn’t like any storm I’d ever seen. Rather than black clouds, red smoke roiled, thick and seething. The tang of copper shoved up my nose, burning and suffocating. The air screamed—feminine and eerie—as if it carried the cries of the dead. Lightning crackled within its growing depths, pulsing like a bloody heart, bathing our surroundings in a sinister glow. It radiated menace. Evil.
A knife flew from my left, striking the red smoke and clattering to the ground.
Alexei and Rune flashed in and out of view at the edge of my vision—right where the knife had come from. And Aspen was gone. Just… gone. Did the others take him? He wouldn’t have just left. I tried to twist to see better, but the stone yanked at my scalp. Pain shot through my skull as Lilith’s spell attempted to rip my skin from bone.
Alexei and Rune snuck closer. The beastie nuzzled my palm, nosing into it like she sensed my desperation. Alexei raised a finger tohis lips and grabbed my wrist, but his hand only circled half of it. Still, he tugged, and I cringed. Frustration wrinkled his brow, and he glanced at me with questions in his eyes.
“You need to kill her to free me,” I mouthed.
Alexei glared at the red storm, twisting a dagger in his hand and preparing to throw. Static crawled along my skin, the sharp electric smell of ether filling the air. Red lightning shot over me, forcing Alexei to dive to the ground, missing him by centimeters. Ronen’s vicious shadows retaliated, engulfing her storm and sending us back into darkness.
He had her. But then it was like watching a balloon slowly inflate. Cracks formed in his smothering sphere, red smoke seeping out. All around us, his black wisps lightened to gray, then flocked to their battling powers, flooding the space with light. They reinforced the cracks and shrank her power. Hope bloomed in my chest.
Alexei stood above me, squeezing his dagger, looking eager to help Ronen. But there was no use. This would soon be over.
Something moved behind Alexei. I strained to turn my head, gritting my teeth as the skin pulled taut. I made it maybe a centimeter before the pain was unbearable, and tears beaded in the corners of my eyes. But I had to see.
The urgency in my mind demanded I try again. At first, the slab gave me no give, but then it released my head, as if Lilith’s hold slipped.
MJ had Aspen by the throat, holding him against one of the dark pillars with a hand over his mouth while Oliver whispered in his ear. I jerked, feeling a surge of energy as I watched Aspen writhe in agony.
What the hell were they doing to him?
His legs were bent as if the only thing holding up his contorted body was MJ’s hand and the pillar at his back, yet he didn’t fight. There were no blue flames. He didn’t raise his limp arms or kick out. He subjected himself to the pain.
Alexei touched my hand, bringing my attention back to him. His face softened, on the brink of smiling as he gazed toward Ronen and Lilith. He opened his mouth as if to speak, then his face fell. Something unfamiliar tugged on my chest. The faint pressure almost hurt, but not quite. I glanced down and didn’t find anything but the remnants of my uniform.
“Ronen, stop!” Alexei shouted.
I turned back to the warring powers, and my heart froze.
Ronen knelt before the cracked sphere, red smoke bleeding from hundreds of hairline fractures. His body swayed, arms shaking to hold in Lilith’s powers. Rune growled, running over to him right as his eyes fluttered.
Something unnameable ripped through me. I thrashed against the stone, wild with the need to reach him. Every muscle in my body snapped taut, straining to tear myself free. A sharper sensation wrenched at my chest, and Ronen’s arms fell to his sides.
“Ronen!” I shrieked, raw and feral. My skin stretched, attempting to peel from my muscles as I forced myself to reach him. I just had to. I didn’t know why or how. I didn’t care about the fucking agony of prying my bloody body from the slab. I needed to get to him more than I needed to breathe.
My Infernus raged in my ear, screaming to be unleashed. I didn’t think—just pulled at the first song. Hellfire swallowed my body inblack and purple flame. It devoured the slab’s hold on me, burning through Lilith’s spell, or maybe through my blood.
Bit by bit, the stone released me. Fingers first. Then my back. Ankles. I arched my chest, reaching. I was almost there. I could almost get to him.
