“Double crap,” I groaned. “We can’t let that happen.”
Harley sighed and fell onto Dash’s bed. “I agree. I had to flee Shade City that night to keep from being handed over to dear ol’ dad like a sacrificial lamb. I don’t know if I can ever go back.”
I stilled. “Does that mean you’ll help me?”
Harley shot me a “duh” look. “Do I look like I want my soul eaten by my psychotic father?”
I burst into laughter, which turned into tears, and then suddenly I was crying.
Harley stiffened. “Whoa, dude. You cool?”
Embarrassed, I wiped at my eyes. I hadn’t even cried like that when Gage turned into a hellhound and stepped through that portal… but in fairness these tears were as much for him right now as anything else.
“No. I’ve had the worst day ever. Apollyon turned my boyfriend into a hellhound and today is the full moon so he was—”
“Sucked into the Netherworld?” she finished, and I looked back up at her in surprise.
“Yeah… how do you know?”
Harley raised one eyebrow. “I’m a master Shade with superpowered Shadowling DNA. I control hellhounds for fun. It’s a cool party trick.”
My breath caught in my throat, and it felt like the entire room spun. “What do you mean? You control them like Apollyon does?”
She shrugged. “I’ve never met Apollyon. Not very many Shades have. I got my powers from a level ten demon during my Descension Ceremony, but yeah I can make hellhound shift, unshift, roll over, whatever.”
She had Apollyon’s power to control demons!
“Harley!” I jumped up. “You can make Gage shift back into a man? Help him control his hellhound?”
She nodded. “Girl, if you want I can put a spell on him that would keep his beast from ever coming back out.”
Holy freaking hellhound crap! This is huge.
Now it was my turn to pace. If Harley could get Gage to stop shifting, that would break Apollyon’s control over him. I didn’t want her to spell him from never shifting again because Cael said that he’d need to separate from his hellhound form in order to overcome it… but one step at a time.
I clasped my hands together and fell to my knees for dramatic effect. “If you help me with my boyfriend’s hellhound problem, I will literally do anything.”
Harley shot me the stink eye. “Get up. We are badass Shadowlings. We don’t beg.”
I grinned. “Is that a yes?”
She rolled her eyes. “Only if you promise never to do anything this pathetic again. It would be bad for my rep if anyone saw my sister acting this lame.”
Sister. She just called me her sister.
A warm fuzzy feeling grew in my chest. Maybe there was hope for a real relationship between Harley and me after all. That’s what I’d wanted before we’d even met.
“I promise. I’ll even pinky swear if it’ll make you feel better.” I held up my pinky finger toward her.
She shook her head, but I caught the small hint of a smile on her lips. “That won’t be necessary. But sure, no sweat off my back. I can help your boyfriend. You gonna help me not become soul food to Psycho Daddy?”
I nodded, grinning as I stood, feeling better than I had in months, but there was something else we needed to talk about. “So, about the whole not becoming soul food thing. What are we going to do about the fact that neither one of us can actually kill Apollyon?”
We’d both overheard the level ten demon talking about cursing us so that we couldn’t kill Apollyon without dying ourselves.
Harley growled. “He paid my drug addict mother to have me so he could consume my soul and joyride around Earth. I want to kill him.Slowly.”
I sighed. “I know. I want to kill him too, but we can’t. The spell.”
