Tinker Bell looked at the open portal and raised her hands. “Apertura claudere, spatium sanare!” The portal's edges began to waver and flicker like a dying flame.
Dark Demons scrambled desperately toward the shrinking portal, their shrieks of panic echoing off the cathedral's stone walls. They clawed over each other in their frantic attempt to escape, a writhing mass of bodies fighting for survival. Some managed to dive through the narrowing gateway, their forms dissolving into shimmering light as they crossed back to Abandon Rock.
But most weren't fast enough.
The portal contracted with increasing speed, its edges glowing brighter as Tinker Bell's magic took hold. The shimmering surface rippled and warped like water circling a drain. Dark Demons threw themselves at the closing gatewaywith desperate fury, their clawed hands reaching for freedom that slipped further away with each passing second.
One demon got halfway through before the portal snapped shut around him, bisecting his body with brutal finality. His agonized scream cut off abruptly as his top half fell back into the cathedral while the rest of him vanished into the other realm. Dark blood pooled across the ancient floor.
The remaining demons stopped their frantic rush and turned slowly to face us, their eyes wild with the knowledge of their fate. They were trapped here now, cut off from their world, their queen, any hope of reinforcements or escape.
Those trapped here were as good as dead, and they knew it.
The cathedral fell into an eerie silence broken only by heavy breathing and the distant sound of battle outside. Dark Demons backed against the walls, weapons raised in futile defiance. They would fight to the end because they had nothing left to lose.
"Please help Rose." Valentin's voice cracked with desperation as he pulled frantically on the chains that bound him to a massive stone pillar.
“Working on it, drama king,” Dimitri muttered as he worked at the locks beside him, cursing under his breath.
The metal links rattled and scraped against the ancient stone but held firm. His body was unmarked—no wounds, no blood, not a single scratch marred his skin. Why? Why had they left him completely untouched while Rose...
I knelt down beside the still form wrapped in thick, thorny vines, my knees hitting the cold cathedral floor hard. My heart clenched with dread as I studied her. I wasn't even sure if Rose was still alive—her chest barely moved, and what little rise and fall I could detect was so shallow it might have been my imagination. She had been enduring this torture far longer than I had suffered in the bayou. How could anyone survive this level of sustained agony?
Hades landed beside me with a soft thud, his scaled body warm against my side. He leaned forward and sniffed at Rose's vine-wrapped form, his nostrils flaring as he assessed her condition.
I looked at him, hope flickering weakly in my chest. "Can you free Rose?"
Hades lifted his massive paw. His claws extended with a soft snick—razor sharp and gleaming in the dim light. He slashed at the vines with surgical precision. The plants seemed to hiss like serpents as his claws cut through them, then they withered and died, turning black and crumbling to dust as their dark magic was severed.
The vines fell away to reveal Rose's battered body, and my stomach lurched. She was a bloody mess—barely recognizable as the woman I'd known. Her blonde hair was matted and coated with dried blood, some of it so dark it looked almost black. Ugly, deep cuts crisscrossed her arms and torso, some still seeping fresh blood. Her skin was deathly pale, almost translucent, as if she'd been drained of every drop of life.
Hades moved to the second vine-wrapped form—Alice—and repeated the process, his claws making quick work of the dark magic. She was in similar condition, unconscious but breathing.
"Rose!" Valentin's anguished cry tore through the cathedral like a physical wound. The raw desperation in his voice made my chest tighten painfully.
The sound of footsteps echoed as Serenity and Angelo passed through the doorway. Angelo was a terrifying sight—covered head to toe in demon blood, crimson rivulets dripping down his chin from recent feeding. His eyes were wild, feral, the predator barely contained beneath the civilized veneer. But the moment he saw Serenity move toward Rose, something in his expression softened.
Without a moment's hesitation, Serenity hurried over to Rose and knelt down gracefully beside her broken form. She placed her palm gently over Rose's face. That familiar white glow began to emanate from her hand. Her eyes closed in concentration, her brow furrowing with effort.
"She's alive but fading fast." Serenity's voice was steady, but I could hear the underlying urgency. Time was running out.
"No!" Valentin wailed, the sound echoing off the stone walls like the cry of a dying animal. His agony was so raw, so visceral, that it reverberated through the cathedral. He thrashed against his chains with renewed desperation, the metal cutting into his wrists as he struggled.
“Would you stop moving?” Dimitri growled, his hands still working at the locks. “I can’t break these damn chains—they’re enchanted or some shit.”
I looked away from him, my jaw clenching tight as cold fury settled in my bones. Marsha had done this to Rose. That bitch had tortured her, left her to die wrapped in those vines.
Zoe was unconscious and dangled next to Valentin like a limp rag doll, her breathing so shallow I could barely detect it. Joy would want me to save her first. She’d been so protective of her. And Zoe couldn’t fight back or hold on—if those chains gave way, she’d fall. I pulled on her chains but couldn’t break the damn things. They had to be enchanted like Valentin’s.
My gaze shifted to where Marsha lay bound in Morden's shadows, still struggling uselessly against the dark magic that held her like a straitjacket. Good. She wasn't going anywhere. When Rose was stable and the immediate threats were dealt with, Marsha and I were going to have a very final conversation about what happened to people who tortured the innocent.
She'd earned every second of pain coming to her—for Rose, for Joy, for everyone she'd tortured with her sadistic magic.
I started toward where Marsha lay bound, ready to end this.
Then the air itself changed. A sudden pressure dropped in the cathedral, making my ears pop. The temperature plummeted, my breath misting in front of my face. Something felt wrong—fundamentally, terrifyingly wrong—like reality itself was being torn open somewhere far away.
The portal. Joy.
