La Voisin’s lips pressed together until they turned white.
“Perhaps, I might be able to create one if you wanted to timewalk to aspecificplace and time,” Morgan offered, clearly trying to come to a happy medium. “But many eras? I’m sure that’s just not possible.”
The black witch shot up from her seat. “You said I could have anything! Any magical favor! And now you tell me you will not give me what I want?”
“I’m not saying I won’t give it to you,” Morgan corrected. “I’m saying Ican’t. It’s impossible.”
La Voisin’s hands drifted to her hips, and for a moment, I thought her eyes would start shooting daggers at Morgan.
After several long seconds, she dropped her hands, and sneered. “I’d hoped it wouldn’t come to this, but as always, my master was right. Now I have no regrets whatsoever for telling him about you.” She snapped her fingers.
The room grew stiflingly hot, and the rotten stench of sulfur hit my nostrils. I backed up, my skin tingling at the change in atmosphere.
A horned figure appeared in the salt circle.
In my periphery, I caught Eva’s flinch, and knew what had caused it, as my scar had begun to burn dully too.
Morgan threw herself in front of us. “We had a deal.”
“We did. And you couldn’t give me what I wanted. You expect me to betray my master for a bit of coin, a cloak, and a slice of my future?” La Voisin snorted. “What good would that do? What good are you if you can’t give the prince of darkness what he needs?”
I stifled a gasp as the black witch’s plan became clear. She’d wanted the power of timewalking for her demon master, to help his ultimate cause, not to allow her the freedom of moving through the ages.
“No matter, my humble servant,” Xaphan growled from where he stood in the salt circle, and expanded his impressive black wings. “If I kill them now, there will be no need for a timewalking amulet. It’s either that, or they join us.” The Prince of Hell’s red eyes pinned me.
I sneered. “Never.”
He shook his head, as if I’d just said the dumbest thing in the world. “Unleash me.”
La Voisin darted across the room and kicked a bit of salt out of the perfect circular formation.
I groaned. What idiots we were. We’d missed our chance to rush out of the room while Xaphan had been bound in the circle.
Now, as he stepped over the broken ring of salt, there would be no simple escape. We had to fight him.
I lifted my hands, and pools of darkness sprang into my palms.
Xaphan was terrifying, with his glowing red eyes, black, scaly skin, and claws so sharp they could shred the bone over my heart. And yet, I knew instinctively that he was no match for the king and Queen of Hell. Which meant, perhaps, that Eva and I had the power to beat him.
Morgan caught sight of my magic and shook her head. Fuchsia power bloomed in her hands. “Get back. What if—”
“Together, we won’t fail.” Eva stepped forward. I mimicked her boldness, flanking Morgan on the other side.
Xaphan boomed out a laugh. “We’ll see about that.” He thrust out his hands, and black spiderwebs spun out of them to crawl up the elaborately papered walls of the room.
Without hesitation, Eva and I flew into motion. Our black power surged, chasing Xaphan’s magic. As it met the prince’s power, the spiderwebs began to scream, towail,as if his magic was alive, before they fizzled out entirely.
The demon prince loosed a roar, and, beating his wings, surged toward us.
A wave of fuchsia washed out of Morgan, hitting the demon in the chest, beating him back.
“Get out of this room,” she ordered us. “Out of the house.”
Eva and I took two steps back, but Xaphan’s black spiderwebs shot around us, covering the door into the hallway.
La Voisin jumped into the mix. She began blasting off her own magic, a repulsive grayish-green mix of witch and demon power.
I caught Eva’s eye. “Attack the web! I’ll take her!”
