What was going on? This hadn’t happened before. Aurelia had looked peaceful when she’d communicated with my mom. Had Harley connected with a hellhound that wasn’t Gage? Or had she connected with Gage and he was dying or something?
“He’s fine,” Harley said through clenched teeth, her eyes still squeezed shut.
Relief rushed through me. He was alive!
Harley frowned. “Apollyon is keeping him in the Netherworld to try to lure Tatum there. I’m trying to break his hold on him, but I don’t know that I have enough power.”
Power?She needed power? I had plenty of that.
Without thinking it through, I rushed forward, bringing my own power to the surface as I snatched Harley’s hand. Harley had said we were supposed to be more powerful than Apollyon when together. We were about to put that theory to the test.
I heard Aurelia’s warning shout, but the moment I touched Harley’s skin a rush of energy surged through me, blocking out all my senses. I wasn’t really sure what I was doing, but I forced myself not to freak out and instead let instinct guide me as I pushed my power into Harley, giving her the extra boost that would hopefully allow her to break Apollyon’s hold over Gage.
It’s working. I’m getting through. I heard Harley’s voice in my head.When I tell you to, I want you to open a portal to the Netherworld, she said.
Whoa, hearing her voice in my head threw me for a second, but I focused on her directions. What would opening a portal into the Netherworld do? Obviously I could open a portal, but what were the chances I’d open one exactly to where Gage was?
I’ll direct where the portal opens, she said into my mind.
Could she read my thoughts?
Yes, I can, came her response.Now shut up and open a portal, she commanded.
I didn’t second-guess her as I pulled up a hand, palm out, and willed a portal to the Netherworld to open in front of me. The moment the purple power surged from my palm, I felt Harley’s energy merging with my own. It wasn’t a painful feeling, but it was foreign.
This must be how Indigo felt when I merged with her at the cemetery, I thought.
My senses came back to me in a rush, and I watched as Harley’s green magic mixed with my purple as a portal started to open in front of us. The swirling circle grew quickly, but I couldn’t see through it. A plume of sulfuric smoke billowed through it and into the hotel room. I stared at the portal, willing Gage to emerge.
Come on, Gage.
Suddenly, a large hellhound jumped through the smoke and landed between Harley and me.
A yelp ripped from my throat in surprise and the portal snapped shut.
ItwasGage. I recognized his beast form. Flames covered the streak of hair that shot down from the top of his head down his spine. Harley dropped my hand and Gage growled, lunging at her, and my heart sank in my chest.
“Stop!” she yelled right before his fanged teeth sank into her arm.
Immediately, Gage’s hellhound form dropped to all fours and sank low enough that his belly rested on the floor.
“Shift,” Harley commanded, and before my eyes his black fur started to recede. Bones broke and reformed, and within a matter of seconds the naked body of my boyfriend lay face down on the ground at my sister’s feet.
Holy hellhound whisperer.
Gage was littered with cuts and his skin was covered in streaks of red and black blood, but his wounds looked superficial.
I dropped to my knees in front of him and gently ran my hands over his messy hair and shoulders.
He shuddered and lifted his head. Green eyes looked back at me, and I let out a sob of relief.
She’d done it. Harley had broken Apollyon’s hold on Gage—if only for a moment—and brought him back to me. I would never forget this favor she’d done for me.
As Theo dropped a sheet over Gage, I glanced over my shoulder to thank Harley, but the words died on my tongue. Her wings and the black veins of magic that had spiderwebbed over her hands and arms were gone; her face was ashen and she swayed on her feet.
“Harley?” I asked, concerned that something was wrong with her.
She looked back at me and said, “You owe me one,” before her eyes rolled back in her head and her body tipped sideways.
