“What? No!” Onyx sputtered.
Maxwell muttered, “Fuck, we’re doomed.”
“Be serious,” Luc snapped, his heart thundering. “Don’t let Hollis’s attitude put you off your guard.”
Tension rippled through the group, and Rowan slunk into the background, staying hidden with the other vampires and the witch as planned. Even with the illusion, it was better they remained in the background, keeping any evidence of the concealment out of the spotlight.
Hollis and the mysterious others remained shrouded in mist. Luc beckoned Valac and his supporters forward. As they settled around him, the tug on Luc’s chest grew, pulling until he almost flung himself forward.
Magic sizzled against his skin. Luc wouldn’t get through the gate if he tried. He had tostand firm.
At last, the mist parted and Hollis strode forward, his face drawn. “The council refuses to see you.”
Luc laughed. “I’m sorry you have to play messenger. It’s too bad they can’t face me themselves like mature beings.”
“It’s not a failing or sign of immaturity to stick to one’s convictions,” Hollis said stiffly. “The council told you never to return. You must leave immediately.”
Shadows still loomed in the mist. How ridiculous. How insulting that they stood out of reach, refusing to face him.
“No.” Luc raised his voice as he directed his gaze beyond Hollis. “I won’t stand for the council’s injustices any longer. Witches deserve to enter their rightful afterlife. You’ve punished them for too long.”
Hollis’s eye widened, and he glanced over his shoulder into the mist.
“That’s right, witches,” Luc continued. “Banning their souls to punish the Fallen is immoral and goes against the balance of life you claim to protect.”
A growl erupted from the mist and echoed through the archway. One of the shadows loomed larger, and black wings came into focus.
The Eternal, Malachi, strode forth, his massive horns like a stag’s antlers and his body twice the size of the average Eternal. “Lucifer, wayward child of light. How dare you act as if you care for witches after being the one to damn them?”
Malachi’s deep voice set the blood in Luc’s veins vibrating, and he suppressed a shiver. “I didn’t damn witches. No demon damned them. We may have birthed them, but you—the council—damned them. You created the cursed realm. Not us.”
Malachi had to be at least twenty thousand years old and had been on the council for much of that time. There was no lead councilor, but he was revered by many.
“Semantics.” Malachi waved a wing dismissively, sending mist waffling over Luc. “Leave.”
“No.” Onyx stepped forward, wing to wing with Luc. Ash pressed closer on Luc’s other side, and Dante moved beside Ash.
The other demons advanced, their group spanning almost the entire expanse of the archway. Catalina stepped out from between Valac and Isaac, and they lifted the illusion from her.
“We will not leave. Witches won’t be damned any longer. Why can’t our souls enter the Eternal Realm?”
Malachi took a staggering step backward, his massive footstep sending vibrations through the soil. “What is this?”
“I’m a witch.” Catalina stalked closer until she was beside Luc, in front of Malachi. “I’m not awhat, I’m a person. A soul you have deemed unworthy. Less than.”
Hollis flinched.
Malachi’s eyes burned red. “Witches are not less than.”
“Aren’t we? That’s how we’re treated. Less than our human counterparts.”
“No. The Eternal Realm assists mortal souls in reincarnation. Witches are not fully mortal. Magic should never have entered humanity, never touched Earth, and disrupted the natural order.”
Luc clenched his fist, and everything seemed to heighten. The same old argument angered him like never before, but his time to speak would come.
“You don’t reincarnate.” Catalina pointed at Malachi.
“I am an Eternal being.”
