Maybe this wasn’t so easy peasy.
“Close it!” my father shouted again, and a howl sounded in the night. Brock’s howl. I had to hurry.
Pulsing every ounce of my strength into the handle of my katana, first I took two steps, forcing the gate closed, shoving against my sword, which was wedged in the lock. And then I took a third step.
The earth was definitely moving, as if an earthquake were rumbling across it. The amount of energy this gate was pushing off was tremendous, and I felt every little bit of it. It coursed through me like a live wire, but I somehow managed to hold on, just like my father instructed.
Finally, I had no more than six inches left to close to the gate when a female hand came up behind me and clamped over mine, yanking backward, trying to dislodge my weapon.
Calista.
I didn’t have to look back to know. I could smell the saltwater and demon sulfur on her.
“Evie!” Cass shouted.
I didn’t think. I just reacted. Keeping one hand on the hilt of my blade, I released the other and spun, wrapping it around her throat. The amount of power coursing through me made me feel like I was the fucking Hulk. I had the power to rip her head from her body one-handed, that’s how much magic flowed through me in that moment.
“Your time is up, bitch,” I seethed.
A streak of gray sailed through the air, and then Brock’s wolf landed on her back, pushing her forward into me.
“No!” Calista stumbled, loosening her grip on my blade.
I used the momentum of her fall to sidestep and shove her head into the crack in the gate as she fell to her knees in front of me.
The bulk of Brock’s wolf body clung to her back, his nails digging into her flesh, forcing her to remain on her knees. Her hands dug into the shaking earth while her head wedged into the six-inch gap I had left to close in the gate.
“Please! I’ll go back. I’ll—” Calista begged.
But I clutched the hilt of my katana with both hands and dug my heels into the ground, pushing that damn gate with every ounce of power at my disposal. Calista’s plea cut off abruptly as the gate severed her head from her body in one clean slice.
Her head fell into the underworld and her body collapsed at my feet, blood draining from her neck.
Holy shit. I’d finally killed that bitch.
“It isn’t over!” my father shouted. “Turn the sword and finish it before the power overtakes you.”
The vibrating traveling through the lock to my sword, and up my arms, was insane. I wouldn’t be able to hold on much longer. My arms felt like Jell-O, and the trees off in the distance were rustling so hard with the way the earth was shaking that I thought there was a very real chance they might fall over.
“Gran, give me strength,” I called, knowing that if she could help me she would.
A gust of wind whipped past me, delivering the scent of sage, and I smiled.Gran.
With a final push and a cry, I wrenched my blade to the left, like pushing through cement.
I screamed, forcing myself to keeping going even though my arms were so weak I wanted desperately to let go. Electrical currents ripped through my body as the katana slowly turned the lock.
My arms were shaking like I was holding onto a jackhammer.
‘Evie!’Brock cried out into my mind.
“Don’t touch her or you’ll die,” my father warned Brock quickly, leaning forward in his wheelchair.
I was a mother now. I would need to be strong in the days to come, for myself and for my unborn child.
Fuck this gate. Fuck it hard.
With a final push, my katana slid the glowing, green lock into place.
