“We have to get back to Stratford. Now!” Jessa all but yelled. “Can you open a step-through back there, Lizzie?”
I was tapped out, my energy fizzing around inside of me with that buzz of fatigue that followed overuse, but I had to try. “I’ll do my best.”
Demons appeared in the doorway then, a large group of them judging by the power.
“We’ll keep them back.” Braxton’s voice was already deepening as he started to shift. “Just get us back to Stratford.”
“Us too,” Justice said, and she and her sisters raised their jewels and the light washed over us. Protectively.
I nodded and closed my eyes. I could do this; I had to do this, because Louis was capable of anything right now, and once he was back with the ley lines, he would be near unstoppable.
Just as I reached for the last of my energy inside, I heard Grace whisper to Tyson. “Has a sorcerer ever come back from this kind of darkness?”
He hesitated before he said, “I’ve never heard of it. Unless we can figure out how to bring him back, we’ll have no choice but to kill Louis.”
That was the truth I had been hiding from since the moment I realized the dark energy was my oldest friend. And enemy.
I was going to have to kill Louis.
6
Louis
The journey back to my body was easy. The vessel had weakened in my soul’s absence, but the moment we reunited, power rushed through every cell and filled my center. Returning to the vessel gave me some clarity, knowledge of what I needed to do now that I was back and at full power.
As I rose from the bed, flinging off the magical attachments that must have been trying to keep me functioning, I ignored the shocked look of the shifter at my bedside and clothed myself in long dark robes. Not my usual attire, but I was not my usual self any longer.
As I strode from the room, there was a gasp from the front desk. “Louis!” a dark-skinned, long-legged healer cried. She was beautiful, but did not have enough power to interest me. “You’re awake. Oh my gods. We’ve been waiting so long for you to—”
I waved my hand and cut her babbling off midsentence. Her eyes widened as she stared mutely at me. “Yes, I have awakened. I need you now to run off and tell the rest of the town that we will be having a meeting. In the main hall. I want to see every single face in twenty minutes or I will come and find them. And they won’t like what happens if I have to do that.”
Her eyes widened. The old me, the weaker version of me, never spoke to others this way. I was standoffish but respectful—which had gotten me nowhere. It was time for me to be the sorcerer and leader I was always meant to be. It was time to take Stratford—and America—back. The Compasses weren’t here. Again they’d left this town to fend for itself. It was time to usurp those bastards and take back what should have stayed mine.
As I walked from the room I released the magic holding the healer’s tongue and was happy to see she had already picked up the phone. Everyone would be at the town meeting, I already knew that, and while I waited for them to gather, I needed to stop by my old home.
I had something there to grab, something I required to bring myself, and the rest of our world, to full power.
A beautiful face flashed across my mind, and with it came a rising swell of darkness inside of me.Elizabeth.I hadn’t seen her for years. I’d thought I would never see her again after our last fight. What the hell was she doing here? Why would she come back now?
She was just here to destroy me again. The demons had known she was a weakness for me, and weaknesses could not be tolerated.
Fuck.She had looked exactly the same. Hair like spun gold as it trailed down her back. Fire in her shimmery silver eyes. She’d always been able to cut me down with one look, and I’d always let her get away with it, but no more. She’d better stay out of my way, or I would make her.
You wished I died.Her words, designed to appeal to my softer side, her pain so clear as she uttered them. But it was too late for that. I didn’t care anymore.
I could never forget though, that while Elizabeth might be one of the most beautiful creatures I’d ever seen, she was also one of the deadliest. Her power was strong, and it compared to mine, something most didn’t know. I would not underestimate her.
Not for one second.
Maybe it was time to show my little Elizabeth that there was someone she should fear. And that someone was me.
7
Elizabeth Teresa Montgomery II
Imanaged to get the step-through to Faerie open, but it cost me the last of my energy to do so. Jacob practically carried me across as we followed the others. Braxton was last through, sending flames out behind him before he shifted from dragon to human. I shut the step-through down before anything sinister could follow. Then the princesses did their thing and got us back home.
After being in the dark for so long, the light of Earth was almost blinding, and the energy here was overwhelming. In the same way as when senses were cut off briefly before returning, I suddenly felt everything so strongly. I struggled to free myself from Jacob, collapsing to the ground, where I lay breathing in nature, absorbing the energy of the ley lines as they filled my well of power again.
