“There now,” Lucas said, catching her before she fell to the ground. “I didn’t want to do that, you know,” he said to me as he lowered her gently to the floor, out of the way. “But I can’t have her interfering in the ritual. It’s a delicate process.”
“How magnanimous of you,” I hissed, my jaw clenched so hard I thought it might shatter.
“You’re quite welcome.” Lucas turned his back on me, heading over to the table full of incense burners. I watched as he poured more incense into the pots, then brought them over one by one and laid each one next to the candles marking the pentagram points. He then used the candles to light them. Soon, the room filled up with the thick, fragrant smoke. It tickled my nose, making me sneeze, and I began to feel a little woozy.
“There we go,” Lucas said, his voice soft. He produced a paper fan, then began to walk around the circle again, wafting the smoke toward me as he chanted in a strange, guttural language. The words washed over me, full of power that made the hair on my arms stand on end, and the woozy feeling increased. It was almost as if I was floating away….
Wait. I was floating away. Panic cut into me as I began to lift up, into the air. What was happening? I lifted my hands, only to find that they were ghostly apparitions, a silver white that I could see straight through. Oh, God. My body was below me, still trapped in the circle. What the hell? Was I dead?
“There it is,” Lucas breathed, his voice full of barely disguised greed. I followed his gaze, and shock rippled through me at the sight of something glowing gold within my soul, somewhere in the vicinity of my abdomen. Lucas chanted something else, and pain ripped through me, like a jagged knife. I screamed as the glowing thing was pulled free—the Infinity Key. Now that it was separated from my soul, the golden glow solidified into a golden key, ornately molded, with rubies set into the handle.Holy shit. It was insane that something so powerful had been hidden inside me this whole time, and I’d had no clue.
“And so it is done.” Lucas flicked his fingers, and the key zoomed straight into his waiting hand. At the same moment, I plummeted back down, and my soul re-entered my body. The moment it did, I cried out in pain—every nerve ending seemed to be on fire, as if I’d been doused in flame. I wanted to thrash around, to do something to alleviate it, but my body was still under Lucas’s command, and I couldn’t move.
“After all this time, the key is finally mine,” Lucas murmured, stroking the gold metal with his fingers. His blue eyes were alight with glee as he lifted the key, and terror filled me as I realized what was about to happen. “Now I can finally summon the demon—”
“Oh no ye don’t!” Brodie cried, appearing in a flash of light. I cried out in joy and relief as he tackled Lucas before he could use the Infinity Key to open the gate. The two men rolled across the cement, punching each other, but Brodie had a good fifty pounds of muscle on Lucas, and the other man was no match for him. Brodie pinned him easily to the ground, then reached for the knife at his belt to finish him off.
“You think this is going to be that easy?” Lucas sneered. He shouted something in that strange language. To my horror, four Possessed stepped out of the walls. These were different from Lucas’s normal minions—they had black skin and yellow eyes, and there was something strange about them, as if they were shadows brought to life.
“Bloody hell!” Brodie snarled, rolling away as one of the demons lunged at him. He back-flipped to his feet and summoned that glowing green magic to his hands. Shouting in Gaelic, he made some complicated gesture, then blasted the demons with wind, as I’d seen him do before. But this time, the wind seemed to pass straight through the demons, as if they weren’t even standing there.
“Shadow demons are unaffected by Druid magic,” Lucas said, smirking as he got to his feet. The key was in his hands once more, and his blue eyes glowed with bloodlust as the demons advanced on a now-retreating Brodie. “Unless you can summon fire, you’re not going to be able to do anything about them.”
“Fine. Then I’ll just do this the old-fashioned way.” Grimacing, Brodie shrugged off his jacket, revealing several more knives strapped to his body. He drew two wicked-looking daggers as the demons charged, then began slashing and dodging with lightning speed. But these shadow demons were fast, nearly as fast as Brodie, and they outnumbered him. Before long, he was trapped, two of them holding him by the upper arms. He struggled against their grip, and they pulled back so tight that I heard his shoulders dislocate with a sickening pop. Brodie’s roar of pain made my heart squeeze with agony, but that was nothing compared to the pain and horror I felt when the third demon came up and sank his fangs into Brodie’s neck.
“No!” I cried, tears streaming down my face as Brodie screamed with pain. He thrashed against his captors despite his shoulders, using his powerful legs to kick the demon away. But it was too late. The poison was already flowing through his veins, turning his golden skin ashen.
“Let him go,” Lucas ordered. “He can suffer a slow death while he watches me finally complete my plan.”
“You bastard,” I sobbed as Brodie was tossed unceremoniously to the ground. He was shaking like a leaf, and I knew it was only a matter of time before those blackened veins spread across his skin. “How could you?”
“It’s simply a means to an end, Arabella,” Lucas said dispassionately as he lifted the key. He pinned me with a cold stare, then added, “Just like you are.”
He made a twisting motion with the key, and the ground trembled. I gasped as the cement below me grew incredibly hot, and then a blast of hot air hit me. Suddenly, I was hovering over a giant pit, glowing red as hot lava frothed and bubbled only a hundred yards below. Oh, God. This had to be Brodie’s vision. Was I really going to die?
“Here we go,” Lucas murmured, drawing a golden chain from his pocket. It was similar to the one he wore around his neck, except the stone hanging from it was pitch black. He held it over the chasm, then began to chant, eyes closed. The lava below began to bubble faster, and I screamed, squeezing my eyes shut against the heat searing my skin. I was going to burn alive at this rate!
Arabella!a musical voice shouted in my head, and my eyes popped open.Arabella, call my name!
“Who are you?” I demanded, looking around. I didn’t see anyone… but the stone beneath Lucas’s shirt, the amulet that I strongly suspected was holding my angel, had begun to glow.
You know it already, my angel said, her voice filled with urgency.Lucas made a huge mistake by touching the Infinity Key. I was able to grasp a bit of its power, and I think I can free myself from this infernal stone. But you must summon me, Arabella. You must call my name!
“Lariel!” I shouted, the name coming to me from that strange, empty place in my soul—the place that had been carved out for my angel. It was a summoning, a plea, a prayer—my last hope. The key in Lucas’s hand flared, and he shouted in surprise, his chant momentarily forgotten. The stone around his neck exploded in a flash of light, and he screamed as two golden orbs burst from his chest, filling the room with their light. The demons fell back too, inhuman shrieks echoing off the walls as the holy light touched them, but I hardly noticed because one of the golden orbs rushed straight for me. It disappeared into my chest, and I gasped as it filled me with its heady power. The heat from the hellfire below suddenly ceased to affect me as I was encased in the angel’s glowing, protective glow, and I let out a sigh of relief.
“No!” Lucas howled as I got to my feet, brimming with power. I still couldn’t control my body, but the angel could—she guided my movements, pulling a dagger from my boot as I advanced on Lucas. He began to chant faster, gripping the key tighter, but he was out of time. Before he could finish the chant and summon the demon, my angel threw the dagger. It embedded itself in Lucas’s throat, and he dropped to the ground, clutching at it. Blood gushed from his lips as the key clattered to the ground. Without his will to guide it, the chasm in the floor abruptly closed.
Crisis averted.
“Brodie!” I cried, rushing over to him. He was still crumpled on the floor, and now the black veins had spread over his skin. I rolled him onto his back, and tears spilled down my cheeks at the sight of white froth bubbling from his lips. “Oh, God. Lariel, can we do anything to save him?”
“No,” she said, her musical voice full of sadness. “I could burn the poison out with my angel fire, but there is no guarantee that it would not kill him. Mortal bodies are not meant to withstand such power.”
“Perhaps not, but I think I can help him.”
Startled, Lariel and I turned to see the other angel hovering nearby. “Are… are you Lucas’s angel?” I asked, my voice full of wonder.
“Yes. My name is Xariel,” he said, his musical voice deeper than my own angel’s. “When I saw Lucas going down the dark path, I tried to dissuade him. Instead, he trapped me in that infernal stone so he could use my power against my will. I’ve only had Lariel for company these past two years.” His voice softened at the mention of my angel’s name. “I find that I do not want to be parted from her just yet, and I do not want you to lose your man, either. I will give him the angel’s blessing, and make him a Sentinel. The blessing will drive the demon’s poison out, just this once.”
