“We have to get rid of it!”
“Yeah, genius, tell us how!”
Barbie stalked over to the baby with a determined stride. She grabbed the chains and started dragging him toward the fog. Killian joined her, taking half the weight.
The sight was surreal—my sister and her mate hauling a chained infant. Anyone seeing it without context would have called every child services agency and police force in existence. Part of me wanted to record it; social media would have lost its collective shit.
Together, they headed down the path beyond the fog, the evil baby bumping along behind them.
“Barbie, wait!” I called, hurrying after them with Rowan at my side.
“Stop!” She didn’t look back. “Everyone go back. If we have to step into the void to dump this thing, then that’s what we’ll fucking do.”
“What if you don’t come back?”
“We have to risk it. Killian and Tyson will be with me. I won’t be alone.”
An approving dragon’s growl tore from Killian’s throat.
“Not a chance we’re letting you do it alone!” Silas surged forward. “If we do this, we do it together.”
“You all have responsibilities to the realm,” Barbie argued.
“Fuck the realm,” Louis snapped with feeling.
“We live and die as one!” Cade added.
“That’s unrealistic,” General Baal commented from behind us. Apparently, he’d decided to tag along, too. “Everyone dies alone.”
Cassius and Rock fell in step as well, refusing to be left behind.
We marched deeper into the fog like the world’s strangest parade. Barbie halted so suddenly I crashed into her back.
“Force field!” she called out.
“A ward,” Cade corrected, his wand already out to test the barrier. “Shit, it’s stronger than anything I’ve ever felt.”
Everyone immediately began attacking the unseen wall with their respective powers. At one point, it flickered under our combined assault, offering a fleeting glimpse of what lay beyond.
Blue flame danced on the other side—not normal fire, but something alive, aware, and vicious.
“The flame is sentient!” Cade cried out. “It’s guarding the passage.”
“Step back!” Barbie called, tossing her dark flame at it. The blue fire danced with hers like old friends reuniting. The ward, however, remained as solid as ever.
“The Living Flame!” Isis’s dismayed exclamation sounded beside me. The deities hadn’t bothered walking; they could project their consciousness anywhere in this space at will. “It wasn’t there before. Nothing passes it. Not even the Titans, the oldest beings.”
“What is this Living Flame?” Silas demanded.
Shit, this was bad. We’d come so far, done the impossible, and now we were stuck at the finish line with an evil baby we couldn’t dispose of.
Barbie traded a frantic look with me, sweat beading on her forehead.
“If we can’t ship out this evil baby, we’re fucked!”
“We’re so fucked!”
Then everyone was talking at once, voices overlapping in a hysterical clamor.
