I shot a stream of fire at the creature, but it only added fuel to its attack. It swiped a taloned hand at Patrice, but she squealed and jumped backward, its claws only catching her shirt.
“It has two hearts,” Ember said, clutching her sword and circling the fiend.
“Believe me, I’m well aware,” I said.
She glanced at me, eyebrows raised, and I nodded. Yes, I had fought these suckers before. Apparently, she had too.
Another bolt of lightning flashed across the sky, striking the same tree. Crackling fire consumed its branches, and it crashed into the clearing between Patrice and us, limbs snapping and sparks flying everywhere.
“We’ve got this,” Shade said, jutting a hand toward the shedim. “Do your thing.”
The shedim screeched and froze to the spot, dropping to its knees as Shade appeared to suck the life right out of it. I’d ponder when and how he developed that power if we made it out of this predicament.
“End this,” the goddess commanded, and we had no choice but to obey.
“We will attempt our magic on this side of the veil,” Discord said. “Join your mother.”
My stomach did a backflip. The clearing was on fire, the air thick with the acrid scent of ozone and the heavy, vibrating hum of a reality that was literally falling apart at the seams. The rift, a jagged, pulsing scar in the veil, stretched fifty feet high, bleeding the dark orange light of the Underworld into our realm, and my dad lay utterly still on the ground in front of it.
“Now is the time, Holland sisters,” Hecate said, her silver hair flowing upward into the vacuum of the rift like she was standing in an invisible wind tunnel.
Ember, Ash, and I stepped forward, linking hands and forming a crescent in front of the goddess. Ash’s face was still pale from the curse, but the sheer gravity of the moment seemed to be holding her together.
I took Hecate’s and Ash’s hands, and Ember took Mom’s. The goddess’s magic surged through me like a blast of liquid nitrogen in my veins. I tried to gasp, but the air stuck in my throat.
“Holy Hec—” Ash started, but she thought better of using the goddess’s name in vain right in front of her.
“Eff me,” Ember muttered.
We closed our eyes and slipped into the trance. The world disappeared around us, until all we heard was the roaring wind and all we saw were the unraveling fibers of reality, whipping loosely, their ends snapping and cracking like electric whips.
I had no idea what the guys were doing, but on Hecate’s command, we sent a combined blast of gold, red, and silver vim toward the fraying edges of the veil, trying to stitch the fibers back together with sheer willpower.
In my mind, I grabbed a red thread and then a black one, pulling them together and pressing the ends against each other. The red one crackled, and the black burst into a cloud of obsidian dust.
“Like with like.” Hecate’s voice drifted in the void.
“Right.” I tried two red ones this time, pressing the ends together and willing them to become one.
They refused to join.
I imagined tying them into a knot, crossing one over the other, and looping it through. This time, it held. But the moment I let go, the knot untied, the threads crackling with energy, whipping this way and that.
“I knew I should’ve taken that basket-weaving class at the community center,” Ash said in our minds.
I tried two black threads and got the same results. “This isn’t working.”
“We’ve got this!” Ember shouted over the roar of the wind.
“Use my power,” Hecate said. “Mix my silver light with your gold.”
I focused on the super high vibration running through my veins and sent a pulse of it outward. Fibers wove together, solidifying in my mind’s eye and then unraveling as quickly as they had joined.
The energy around us shifted as our demons performed their magic. Violet flames and crimson shadows crashed against the barrier, but the moment their energy touched the goddess’s silver light, it scattered like sparks against a brick wall.
“It’s not sticking!” Mayhem said, his voice distant.
Hecate tightened her grip on my hand and then released us from the trance. “Your magic is a discordant frequency, demon. You are fighting the very world you wish to save. You must channel me too, or the weight of the void will pull us all under.”
