Something inside me snapped. Not anger. Decision.
I couldn’t access my parent’s power, and Eloise had cut off Donn’s. She’d planned for all three, but there was something she didn’t know.
“Hudson,” I snarled, reaching my hand out for him.
Eloise shook her head. “Not yet, granddaughter. I need more. A little payment for what you stole.” Her darkness slithered into the corners of my soul, seeking out the power gifted to me by generations of elementals and an archangel who fell for a witch.
Hudson’s hand snapped around mine, tethering us together. I screamed and lurched back, breaking Eloise’s hold on me. I swept my hand through the air and tore a hole in reality to the one place she had no idea even existed.
“What is that?” she uttered in awe. “You’ve been keeping secrets, Cora.”
I yanked Hudson with me, looking over my shoulder at my grandmother, whom I’d once idolized. “And you’ve been keeping evil.”
The world zipped up tight and tilted. Light swallowed us whole. And somewhere beyond the tear, something ancient stirred, aware that the Serpents of the Dawn had been breached.
“What have you done, niece?”
Lucifer was here. Praise be. We were saved.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Choice is the cruelest kind of power, because it always costs something.
For the first time, I felt the suffocating weight of the king of Hell’s power. Lucifer’s power didn’t flare or announce itself. It simply existed, vast and immovable, like a mountain that had never once considered stepping aside. He was angry, and I hadno doubt the reverberations could be felt well beyond this realm where secrets were made.
Hudson hit the ground first, rolling with the impact as instinct took over, coming up in a low crouch with a snarl vibrating through his chest. The ground beneath him shook for a few terrifying seconds before hardening again, as though the Serpents’ domain was offended by the violence of our entrance but begrudgingly accepted it. The air twisted around me, sharp and metallic, tasting of lightning trapped in stone.
I landed with far less grace—on my hands and knees with a hiss. Hudson was on his feet a moment later and dragged me up to stand beside him. We were on top of the hill, the table empty of the usual treats, but one by one, the Serpents joined us, each with a look of bewilderment at being dragged here.
Dave was last.
Harry straightened his spectral tie with a huff. “Right,” he muttered. “Who do I file a complaint with? Because I was in the middle of something very important.”
“Like what?” I wondered.Please don’t say sexy spiritual shenanigans.
He blinked at me. “Nothing I can’t handle.”
I was sure that was true, but when did Harry start keeping things under his hat? I guessed it wasn’t important right now.
The blossom tree arching over the table shook in the breeze and lost a few petals. Lucifer waved his hand at my chair. “Take your seat, niece.” He glanced at Hudson, flicked his fingers, and a smaller version of my chair materialized next to mine, which would put him directly across from Dave.
The sky above was neither day nor night, but suspended as a pearlescent expanse fractured with slow-moving veins of gold. But the terrifying thing was the gaping, jagged red slash through it that was pulsing with each heartbeat.
Lucifer stood, wings half unfurled, posture rigid with restrained fury. His hands were clasped behind his back, and his expression was carved into something cold and precise, and entirely focused on me. I felt chastised, and he hadn’t even said a word.
“You tore the veil,” he said. Everyone glanced between us like we were on the brink of an angelic battle.
I straightened my spine and clasped my hands in front of me on the table. “In my defense, she was trying to kill us.”
Lucifer’s eyes blazed with gold. “That is not a defense.” Behind him, his wings expanded, shadowing the faint light.
“I didn’t mean to tear it,” I whispered.
Aunt Sophia tsked and found a crochet hook with green wool appeared in her lap. “Oh, Cora. You didn’t just tear it—you broke it.”
That was trickier. Tears could be sewn, but breakages were far more difficult.
Dave drummed his fingers on the table and clenched his jaw while staring at Hudson. My mate refused to even blink. The turbulent tension sharpened to something more tangible and dangerous.
