“Mommy!”
“I’m here, baby,” I called, searching the area and finding her bound to polished stone pillar I’d never seen here before. “It’s going to be okay,” I told her, even though I wasn’t at all sure it would be.
I heard the grass rustle behind me and knew the men had caught up. But I didn’t turn to look at them. I was too horrified by what I saw to my left—Eric tied naked to another pillar, hisentire body covered with small cuts so that thin trails of blood crisscrossed his body.
No.
I meant to scream the word, but somehow it ended up only in my head.
Eric had already been bled. That meant there was only one chance left.
The chalice stone.
But where was it and what did it look like? For that matter, where was Lilith?
The second one was easy—all around us in the ether. But as for the other…
I met Allie’s eyes. “A ceremonial stone. Have you seen it?”
She shook her head, struggling against her bindings, but it was no use. I doubted I would do better, so I didn’t go over and try. There was no point. Until I destroyed the stone, she wasn’t safe at all.
“Jared,” I called. “What does it look like?”
He opened his mouth, then closed it when the air filled with the screams of a child in pain, as if trapped in a never ending nightmare.
It will never stop. Not if you help our Kate. But be my right hand, and you will have your sister back. Your sweet Celia who screams when the fire of my breath touches her. Your little sister who is slowly going mad because you’ve failed her. Who hates you because you haven’t rescued her. You can free her now. Help me, and I will let her go. I might even give you her sanity back.
“She’s lying,” I called to him, as the demons who’d been standing like statues around the perimeter rushed the men.
“Don’t worry about us,” Cutter shouted, nailing one in the eye with his knife, and proving that his skills were just as extensive as advertised. Stuart and Eddie fought together, and Isearched desperately for the chalice stone. But I saw nothing at all.
I had to find it. Ihadto.
“The chalice stone is the key,” Father Corletti had said.“If she has already begun the ritual of the blood, then the next step will be for her to enter the chalice stone. It is an intermediary location between her realm and ours. She will go there, gather her strength and almost immediately leave again.”
My head spun with the memory—and the importance of Father Corletti’s words that he’d shared with all of us, speaking over the Odyssey’s audio system as we’d raced toward the Stone Table.
I had to find the chalice stone.
“You must destroy the chalice while she is inside it. If you do, then you will have destroyed Lilith in her true form, and she will be no more. If you do not, then she will enter Allie and there will be no stopping her.
I’d told him I understood. What I hadn’t told him was that his words had terrified me.
I hadn’t realized they would get even worse.
“There is a price, mia cara. The one who destroys the stone—there is no coming back. You must understand this. The ancient texts are clear. There is only death or insanity, should the destroyer be unfortunate enough to survive. Stopping Lilith comes with a price. You need to understand.
“I need to save my daughter.”
“In that case, you must know. The weapon is blood.”
I’d said those words then, and I said them again now. We’d talked about finding another way in the car, but I knew there was no other way. Allie was the one who mattered, and not just because of her newfound abilities. She was my baby girl, and I wasn’t going to sentence her to an eternity of torture trapped with a demon. I’d make the sacrifice willingly.
Too bad I couldn’t find the damn stone.
“Mom! Something’s happening.”
Sure enough, the air around us seemed to shimmer. I felt a pull, as if all the air was gathering, and I heard Eric cry out, as if this strange vortex was pulling the life from him, too.
