Olivia didn’t even see the gun until the shot rang out in the stillness of the circle. She hit the ground with force as the bullet tore through her flesh. She tried to move, but she was still too stunned. She tried to drag some oxygen into her lungs, but the breath seemed to be caught in her throat.
Theo roared and smashed his fist against the shield as he saw Olivia thrown to the ground, her blood staining the snow crimson. Jake’s heart almost stopped as he saw she was not moving, but before he could say anything, he heard a familiar growl behind him. As he turned, he saw the surrounding forest glow with several pairs of red eyes.
“Theo.” He stashed his gun, knowing it would be no good, and pulled out his knife. “Theo, you can’t help her right now.”
Theo turned and saw the hellhounds as they slowly stalked out of the tree line and shimmered into solid forms.
“What the fuck are those?” Mac’s eyes widened.
“They’re hellhounds,” Theo replied as he passed Mac his gun in addition to his own. “Here, take this. Bullets won’t kill them but will slow them down.” For a moment his gaze met the cool eyes of Charles Connell, but he didn’t have time to worry about him right now as they turned to face the hounds.
One of them leaped straight for him. He raised his arm to protect himself, but it knocked him back and sank its teeth into his forearm, piercing through his coat and his skin. With a hiss of pain, he brought the knife up and plunged it into the hound’s throat. It exploded into inky dust in front of his eyes, and the sudden release of his arm a relief.
Another lunged straight for Jake, but he dove and rolled across the snow, bringing his blade up and driving it into the creature’s gut, watching in satisfaction as it detonated in front of him.
Backed up against the shield, Mac emptied his clip at the hound rushing straight for him. Bits of matted fur flew as the bullets bit into its dead flesh. He braced himself for the impact as it lunged, but it suddenly exploded as Theo swung around and buried his knife between its shoulder blades.
Theo glanced across and caught sight of Charles Connell and Davis. As one hound leaped for Davis, he shimmered, and it passed straight through him as if he were as insubstantial as mist. Davis’ flesh rippled and once again solidified as Charles calmly raised his hand, and with a flicking gesture, the hound exploded.
Jake jumped out of the way as another headed for him, but it caught his jacket and pinned him to the ground on his stomach. Unable to plunge his knife into it at that angle, he howled in pain as it sank its teeth into the back of his shoulder. Suddenly the pressure released, and he felt rather than saw the creature explode and black ash rain down on him. A figure jumped nimbly over him, twisting in midair, and skidding to a halt on the slippery ground. Jake’s mouth fell open.
Deputy Helga Hanson looked down on him with pale blue eyes. No longer in her bulky police uniform but clad in a form-hugging black, she appeared to look slimmer and willowier than he’d originally thought. Her long, straight white-blonde hair hung to her waist and caught on the winter wind. She held a whip made from pure silver energy that pulsed in her hand. He watched, momentarily stunned, as another hound headed straight for her, but she simply spun the whip over her head and brought it down in a smooth, fluid crack, splitting the creature down the center as it crumbled inwards into a pile of ash.
Olivia tried desperately to breathe in, unaware of the deathly struggle going on outside the circle. She watched as her mother ripped the heart from Thomas Walcott’s chest, heard him take his last rattling breath, and there was nothing she could do to save him.
Isabel dropped the heart into a large glass jar and walked up to the dead tree where four sooty orange symbols glowed, melting the snow covering them. In the gap between the first and last symbol, the ground began to churn upward, spilling over itself to reveal a gaping hole in the ground. She placed the jar in the hole and watched in satisfaction as the ground folded in on itself, burying the jar and its gruesome contents. A fifth symbol glowed in its place and suddenly fire erupted, running in lines between each of the symbols and joining them to form a flaming pentagram.
A burning star… just like Theo’s premonition.
Olivia’s head dropped back against the wet snow, saturating her hair as she gazed numbly up at the dark sky. The lunar eclipse moved into place, and the moon burned red, mocking her. Her eyes shifted as her mother’s face filled her field of vision.
“Just tell me why?” she whispered painfully.
“Because I want what is rightfully mine,” Isabel replied. “I want my birthright.”
“Why kill those men?”
Isabel reached out and grasped Olivia’s shoulder, sinking her fingers into the bullet wound. Unable to hold it in, a searing scream of agony tore from Olivia’s lips.
“Because you don’t raise a demon without a leash.” Isabel studied her fingers. They were coated with Olivia’s blood, which ran down her skin and pooled in her palm. She rose to her feet and walked away from Olivia, pulling a knife from her cloak.
Olivia gritted her teeth and rolled to her side, gasping at the white-hot pain of her wound, which was bleeding profusely. She dragged herself along the floor, trying desperately to pull herself upright.
Isabel calmly sliced across her palm and watched as her blood seeped through the wound, mixing with her daughter’s. Pressing her palm to the bark of the tree, she closed her eyes and murmured something too low for Olivia to hear.
“No,” she croaked, trying to reach her mother.
A deep groaning began beneath the ground she lay on. She could feel the tremors, like the aftershock of an earthquake. Suddenly with a tremendous groan and a sharp, loud splintering sound, the tree split down the center and peeled outwards in an explosion of flame and heat.
Theo rushed back toward the shield at the agonizing sound of Olivia’s pain-filled scream. He’d watched helplessly as her mother had walked to the tree and touched it. He watched it split wide open, belching fire and smoke. He knew what happened next—he’d dreamed it enough times. If he couldn’t reach her in time, Olivia was going to die.
The rage burst through his veins, surging through him like adrenaline. He raised his fist to strike the shield as he’d done a hundred times before in his dream, but this time, he’d forgotten he was still holding Olivia’s knife. He brought the blade down against the barrier, and it sparked and a crack appeared, splintering across the surface. Driving the knife into the crack, Theo braced his shoulder against the shield and pushed it in further. The dome was slowly giving way, the crack spreading out like glass slowly splintering under a great weight.
The black hilt heated beneath his touch until it was white-hot, the lettering on the blade bursting into bright blue flame. He could feel the flesh of his hand burning, but he refused to let go, his only thought was to get to Olivia.
The hilt of the knife began to soften, and black tentacles snaked out and wrapped themselves like vines around his hand. The hilt snaked further up his skin, entwining around his wrist and sliding under his sleeve, up his uninjured forearm to his elbow and further, until he could feel it wrap tightly around his bicep. It squeezed tighter and tighter until he could feel it strangling his arm and sinking into his skin.
It burned as it went, but he kept on inexorably pressing forward. The hilt had completely disappeared into his flesh now, and the blue-black blade also began to liquidize and wind up his arm, following the same path. His whole arm was burning; the knife had completely melted and been absorbed into his flesh. It was now his own hand he pushed through the shield. Suddenly he felt it give, and he ripped his way through.
