Instead, we leaped apart, startled by the way the door slammed open and Mindy cried out, “Aunt Kate! Oh! I, um, it’s opening! The portal is opening. Like, right now.”
That cut through everything, and just like that we were racing through the hall joined by Zane and Ren and Ana.
“Just now. We heard a rumble and went to look. Jared and Allie did the recon—they’re the fastest. But we didn’t even need them to get close. Not really. We could see its glow from all the way across the basement.”
She paused for a breath. “Marcus is already heading down with Eliza and Cutter and Sophie. It’s not just Samarek they’re fighting. It’s demons, too. I don’t know how they got down there. But there’s like a dozen of them.”
“Well, hell,” Eric said. “There must be a hidden tunnel.”
He was probably right. Which meant that more corporeal demons would be joining the party—a guess that immediately proved to be right when I heard them rampaging through the mansion.
“Keep us busy up here so that they can do what they do down there,” Eric said, and he wasn’t wrong.
“Anyone not already in the basement, get armed and get fighting. Eric and I are going down. And trigger the house alarm. Get the staff and Timmy and Elena in one place—not the Safe Room. The battle will be right under it. Outside in the parking lot would be best. Close to the street. Lots of eyes.” I swallowed. “Keep them safe, Mindy,” I said, wishing I had time to run to Timmy. To see his sweet face.
But there would be time enough after. I was going to make sure of that.
With a firm nod, Mindy darted out of the room, Eric and I rushing right out behind her but heading in the opposite direction. Not to outside and safety, but to the portal and the battle. And the place where were going to finally take Samarek down.
25
ALLIE
The house had become a war zone.
I had fought zillions of demons, but I’d never seen anything like this—dozens of them pouring through the hallways, crashing through windows, tearing through the place that had become my home.
They were in human bodies, mostly, but some had come in their true form and were skittering around, joints bending in ways joints aren’t meant to bend, sharp teeth bared. Cold, flat eyes.
“Allie, down!”
I hit the floor as Jared’s blade sang over my head, taking out a demon that had been lunging for my back. I whipped around and finished it off with a jab through the eye, releasing the demon that had invaded the body back to the ether.
“The portal,” I gasped, scrambling to my feet. “We have to get to the portal.”
“Kind of busy here!”
He wasn’t wrong. The first floor had become a battleground—Marcus with his twin short swords, carving through demons with the brutal efficiency of someone who’d been doing this fordecades. Cutter back-to-back with Aunt Laura, who hardly ever fought, but was doing a solid job.
Eddie was in the midst of it, too, way more spry than he should be for his age, and he was darting through the fray, tossing holy water vials like grenades.
As for the students, they were holding their own, and I was pretty damn proud.
“Allie!”
I turned to see Mom rush into the room, a knife in one hand and Timmy clutched against her hip with the other. He was crying—not the screaming terror I’d expected, but quiet, hiccupping sobs, his face buried against her shoulder.
“Status?”
“They’re not trying to hold ground,” Marcus said. “They’re buying time.”
“For Samarek.”
“Has to be.”
Mom’s jaw tightened. She scanned the room, and I saw the moment she made a decision.
“Zane.”
