If I were to be a living relic, then I had to meet the darkness unafraid. “I ask for protection to be given during this spell. Lift my voice so it can be heard even in the belly of the Underworld!”
I didn’t spare Bastien a glance even though I could feel his worry penetrating through the circle. I couldn’t afford to let his fear stop me.
I called to the power beneath the earth, invoking thecurrent of demonic magick that Devlinn insisted I’d be able to access. Sure enough, I felt it stir behind my palms. Felt it rise. Up my spine. Twisting in my gut. Clawing around my throat. The wind picked up, creating a wall of energy around the circle. “I call to the demon whose power resides in my veins, and ask him to join me in the circle!”
Bastien was gesturing wildly outside the circle, but I couldn’t hear him over the sound of the wind and the blood thundering in my ears.
I waited for a shadowy figure to appear, but nothing happened. So I tried the words again. “I call to the demon whose power resides in my veins, and ask him to join me in the circle!”
My stomach lurched. I doubled over, coughing up a stream of black fluid into the snow. When it was done, my body shook with shivers. The black stain smoked where it hit the ground.
Bastien lunged forward, threatening to break through, but I raised a hand to stop him. “Don’t!” I shouted. “I can do this!”
None of them understood how much I needed this to work. I wiped the liquid from my mouth, smearing it across my cheek, and set my teeth. The memory of flames burned in my mind—the wild, terrifying fire I had called from the earth. I closed my eyes and imagined speaking directly to the demon whose powers I possessed.
“I call upon your power, as your chosen vessel, your servant…”
Inside my head, a disembodied voice cut me off.“You are no servant of mine.”
My eyes snapped open. That was not Bastien’s voice. It was something else. Someone else. I looked at Bastien and knew, by the look of terror on his face, that he had heard it too.
My stomach lurched again, and more blackliquid poured out of my mouth. It was horrible. Disgusting. When it finally stopped, I was gasping for air, trying to find my breath again. The wind died down, and the clearing went still again.
“Why is she reacting like this?” Bastien demanded. Grabbing a fistful of Devlinn’s fur cloak. “I thought this was an opening spell.”
“She can’t use her magick until the demonic bloodline is reestablished, Your Grace. The spell will be easy once she has full access to her magick.”
He shoved Devlinn to the ground, and Tansy screamed. “Then why is she reacting this way?”
“I-I can only guess, Your Grace,” Devlinn stammered while another stream of black vomit spewed from me.
I dug my fingers into the ground as my stomach churned. My throat burned. When the sickness finally stopped, and I could blink the tears out of my eyes, I realized my cloak and the horn were now covered in a thick, oily puddle. The smell alone made me want to be sick again.
“Then guess!” Bastien was shouting.
Tansy helped Devlinn to his feet. “It’s like she isn’t reaching her demon,” he said. “It’s almost like they’re not in the Underworld.”
Bastien went still. “That’s impossible. He’s there.”
Through the sickness and the haze, I searched my husband’s face. “You know whose power I have?”
He dipped his head. “Yes. His name is…Gorrath.”
The name tasted familiar on my tongue.
“You’re telling me Claire has Gorrath’s powers?” Devlinn shouted. Sounding half-amazed, half-concerned. “The Gorrath?”
“Who is Gorrath?” Tansy asked.
“Who is Gorrath?” Devlinn said with a laugh. “Only the demon of sex and disease.”
I stared at the black rot that had come from my mouth. Disease. And the desire I couldn’t seem to shake, the near-constant ache. Sex. An anger that didn’t feel altogether like my own tore through my body.
“I was the one who banished Gorrath to the Underworld,” Bastien explained. “So I know he’s there.”
“This is the Lawless Lands, Your Grace,” Devlinn offered. “They still summon demons. For all we know, Gorrath could be here. It would explain her symptoms.”
Bastien flashed his teeth, and blackness consumed the blue of his eyes. “That’s impossible!” he raged. “I sealed him there permanently.”
