“You have caused much pain,” I said, not masking my disdain. “But today, you will help us fix it. You will help us save the Holland witches. Do you understand?”
She nodded frantically, wiping her eyes. “Yes. Anything. I’ll do anything.”
I turned back to my brothers. “Shall we finish what we started?”
13
CINDER
My stomach felt like a pit. Like a soup pot filled with simmering bile, and someone had dumped a gargantuan-sized bag of the sourest candy imaginable into the acrid stew and was stirring it with a ladle made of wormwood.
Patrice…? Of all the people in all the world, I never could have imagined Patrice would be the villain in my family’s tale.
No, that wasn’t fair.
Her story sounded sincere. I really, really wanted to believe she’d enlisted Chrys’s help when I disappeared and that, despite the giant clusterfudge this had become, she truly was trying to help. But damn…
That meant my road to Hell really was paved with her good intentions.
Ash groaned, drawing me from my thoughts.
“Miles, Shade, watch her.” I pointed at our healer.
“On it.” Shade crossed his arms, widening his stance, and Miles retrieved the spell bottles that had scattered across the floor when Patrice dropped her bag.
“Now. We must do it now.” Chaos’s voice sounded commanding and frantic at the same time, the bond he shared with Ash giving him laser focus.
The demons stood in a circle around my little sister. They joined hands, and hellfire crackled around them, their low, buzzing energy building, thickening the atmosphere in the room.
Ember clutched my hand, and we stood there, Mom, myself, and Em, helpless, yet full of hope. We’d done our part. We’d freed the demons and found the amulet, and now all we could do was watch and wait.
The guys’ voices sounded like gravel, low and rumbling, as they spoke in their demonic language. The energy built and built, stuffing the room like cotton, making sweat bead on my forehead.
Discord glanced at me, his expression a warning that things were about to get spicy, and my chest both warmed and ached. He’d nearly lost himself when Patrice came into the room. Centuries of spite and hatred had almost resulted in an act of revenge that would have destroyed us.
But he’d maintained control. Not only that, but he’d tempered his brothers’ rage as well. A thousand emotions washed through me: relief, pride, love, adoration. But my moment of reprieve was short-lived.
The demons focused their energy into Ash. Her eyes flew open, and the most blood-curdling scream I had ever heard ripped from her lungs. She writhed on the floor, clutching her chest and clawing at her shirt as if it were choking her.
Her eyes rolled back until only the whites remained visible, and foamy spit collected on the corners of her mouth. She gasped and screamed again, sounding more animal than witch, and dug her nails into the floor, leaving blood and gashes in their wake.
“Stop!” she ground out before another scream tore from her throat.
The demons ignored her pleas, focusing more magic into her. She flipped onto her back, her spine arching unnaturally, like a horror movie exorcism going very, very wrong.
“They’re hurting her,” Mom said, her voice shrill.
“We have to stop them,” Ember said.
I released their hands and grabbed Discord’s biceps. “You have to stop. You’re killing her.”
“We’re not,” he said through clenched teeth.
“You are. Look at her, please!” I tugged his arm.
“She’s right. I can’t do this to her.” Chaos dropped his brothers’ hands. “There has to be another way.”
Ash dragged in a ragged breath, the tension in her muscles releasing. Her head lolled to the side, and she stared blankly at our feet.
