Except now that they’re not clustered together, now that I can see them individually, I realize “whale” isn’t quite right. It’s just the closest comparison my brain can conjure. They’re creatures ofsomekind—I’m pretty sure about that—because they’re sort of swimming through the air. Or wiggling. Moving with purpose and intention that feels distinctly alive.
But they’re enormous. Bigger than any whale I’ve ever seen at an aquarium or on a nature documentary. Each one has to be at least as long as a city bus. Maybe longer.
And when the pale sunlight breaks through the clouds and hits them, I see something that makes my stomach flip.
They’re not quite solid.
Instead, they’re almost translucent, like jellyfish. I can see through them to the sky beyond. I can even make out the faint suggestion of internal structures that pulse and shift. They glow faintly from within, as if lit by bioluminescence.
It’s beautiful in the most terrifying way possible.
“What the hell is that?” Remus’s voice comes from beside me, and I jump a little. I didn’t hear him approach; I was too transfixed by the impossible things swimming through the sky.
“Devourers.” Sabra whispers the word like it’s a curse.
“Sabra,” Layden’s voice carries a warning edge. A ‘don’t scare them’ kind of tone.
“What?” Sabra snaps back, and there’s steel in her voice now. The shock is wearing off, replaced by something sharper. “It’s the truth. I never thought she’d be able to actually bring them through.”
Layden rounds on her, his expression somewhere between impressed and horrified. “Then why did you help her with the circle?”
Sabra tosses up her hands in a gesture of pure exasperation. “It sounded like the end of the world!”
“So what’s different now?” Layden gestures toward the sky where the whale-jellyfish-Devourercreatures are starting to move more quickly, taking off in different directions across the gray expanse. “Maybe now we have a chance.”
“How does averting one apocalypse make sense if we invite another one?” Sabra’s voice pitches up, getting louder with each word.
“What do you mean?” Remus demands, and I can hear the edge in his voice. The one that means he’s seconds from doing something violent.
Sabra drags a hand through her hair, leaving chalk dust streaked through the strands. “When it was just circle magic, we couldcontainthem. As in, we could call them back after we were through with them and send them home.” She looks between Remus and Layden, making sure they’re following. “With what Vlad did—juicing Phoenix up by feeding on a plane-crosser—they just got transported permanently here. Get it? Now we’re stuck with the Devourers on this plane.”
“Fuck.” Layden and Remus say it in perfect unison, both staring up as the sky-whales scatter across the horizon like enormous, ghostly jellies.
I watch them spread out, my mind struggling to keep up. “I don’t get it.” My voice sounds small even to my own ears. “Why would you invite anything called aDevourerhere in the first place?”
Sabra turns to look at me, really look at me, and I see her reassessing. Remembering I’m just a regular non-witchy human who twenty-four hours ago didn’t know any of this existed. She softens slightly, putting her hands on her hips in a posture that would be funny if we weren’t potentially watching an apocalypse unfold.
“What else would you suggest doing in a pinch to stop a nuclear apocalypse?” She says it without judgment, just matter-of-fact. “Those guys eat nuclear energy like it’s candy.”
Wait. What?
“How exactly do we know this?” Abaddon’s voice comes from behind us, and I turn to see him stalking back across the courtyard. He must be done checking on Hannah and the baby now that the tornado’s calmed. His wings are still partially extended, ready to take flight at a moment’s notice.
Sabra waves a hand dismissively. “That’s the theory anyway, from the information we’ve gathered. They eat every source of energy starting with radioactive material until a particular plane is bereft of life, then they lie dormant for ages until they find a new source.”
Bereft of life.The words echo in my head.
“So.” Abaddon crosses his massive arms over his chest. “What’s your great idea for getting rid of them after they eat all the nuclear energy? You know, so this entire universe isn’t left completelybereft of life?”
Sabra starts to open her mouth?—
And then her phone goes off.
Not just hers. Layden’s starts buzzing, too. All of the guys in black suits scattered around the courtyard suddenly have phones in their hands, all of them vibrating or chiming in a discordant chorus of emergency alerts.
I left mine back at the castle—back in that room where I was confessing my love to Remus like we had all the time in the world—so I crowd in beside Remus as he moves closer to Layden and Sabra.
“What?” Remus asks, his voice tight.
