“Where the hell did they find Naud chains?” Evie asked.
I rubbed at the back of my neck. “There’s only one place they could’ve gotten them. Shockingly, it’s home to the same people who just leaked this.”
Albert hadn’t taken kindly to Samael’s threats. And while he knew Samael would likely consider killing him for leaking this video, he also knew that Samael would then be faced with a power struggle within the Durham Mage Council, which the demon would have to sort out.
On the TV, Mary stepped over Veronica’s body and picked up the grimoire. It was impossible to tell how much power Samael was gathering on the video, but even now I could feel the memory of it, hot and potent in the air.
Witches began to flee. I memorized their faces, wondering if Samael had found them yet. These were the witches who’d escaped, and like cockroaches, they were likely to keep coming back for more. Someone needed to spray them with hairspray and light them on fire.
I winced at the direction my thoughts had taken. Turns out, I was still pissed about the entire experience.
The recording continued to play. I was getting to my knees, and I stared at my determined expression, my stomach swimming at the memory. Agony had roared through every cell of my body and I’d been fighting to stay conscious. I’d known that if I passed out, the witches would succeed.
Mary raised her hands. On the screen, I made it up to one foot.
Mary let her power loose, aiming it at Samael. A few feet from me, Gail cursed. I glanced at her, but her gaze was on the TV as the power streamed from Mary, dark and deadly.
I leapt in front of Samael, and he clutched me in his arms. My ward surrounded us, my power glowing like an iridescent, violet and gold wall. A wall that Mary’s power was beginning to eat through.
On the screen, Samael clutched me to his chest, and then brushed my lips with his. In the living room, the witches gasped, turning to glance at me.
I couldn’t hear him over the chanting of the coven, but I still remembered the languid tone of his voice.“You’re okay,” he’d murmured.“My turn.”
On the screen, Samael placed me on the ground and stood in front of me. Mary’s power had almost made it through my ward. Samael was talking to me, telling me to drop my ward. His eyes were indulgent. He’d looked at me like–
“You look half-dead, Danica.” Horror saturated Evie’s voice.
I attempted a grin. “Spoiler alert, I made it out okay.”
She simply shook her head at me, and I turned back to the TV. I did look half dead. I’d had a vicious head wound, a broken ankle, and I’d been drained of power.
Onscreen, I dropped my ward, and in the blink of an eye, Samael turned the witches to ash. He took a step toward me, and I froze. There were no longer any witches alive to make any noise, and the camera caught his next words.
“Danica,” he purred. “Are you frightened of me?”
“Of course she is,” Gemma muttered. “I didn’t raise an idiot.”
I glowered at her. “You didn’t raise me at all.”
Someone hushed me and I scowled. On the screen, Samael was picking me up. Vas appeared, offering to take me, and Samael clutched me to him, the movement clearly possessive. Shit.
He kissed my forehead, and there were several gasps. “A forehead kiss!” one of the younger witches said. “You know what that means!”
“What does it mean?” Zip asked.
“It means the king of the demons has a big fat crush–”
“Shhhhh!” several voices cut the witch off.
The video ended and the news anchor stared into the camera. “Our sources say members of the coven were direct descendants of the McCormick coven. The McCormick coven was responsible for the opening of the portals seventy-two years ago.”
A tiny hand touched my shoulder and I jolted. On the sofa behind me, Cil beamed at me.
“You’re friends withSamael?”
“Uh…”
“More than friends,” someone muttered, and I lifted a hand, keeping it behind me and hidden from the kids as I flipped them off.
