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“And what happens to the rest of my family?” My heart thudded against the back of my ribs because I already knew the answer to that.
Clayton smirked. “Maybe we could work something out?”
He was lying, nothing would stop him from going after what he wanted, not after everything he’d done to get here. “I’m listening,” I said, trying to stall him.
“I mean, Magnolia could get the job done well enough, but it’s really you I want. Okay, yeah, you won’t really be you anymore, you’ll be Emily’s vessel, but you’ve got all the power, Wills, it’s fucking hot, and I’ve worked too hard to end up with second best. Say you’ll marry me, and all of this ends.”
I didn’t believe that in the slightest. “What if I say you can have the cemetery, you just have to let Mags go and we all walk away.” Else squeezed my hand and nodded. We’d find a way to get our home back if we lost it tonight. I just had to get my family away from here in one piece.
Clayton studied me, eyes wild. “Nope. We need one of you for this to work.”
“Fine, then take me, like you planned, and let Magnolia go.”
“Throw me your blade and drop the barrier and I will. And if you even attempt to kill any of us with that knife, Magnolia will die before you can call it back to you.”
I looked at Else and fear filled her eyes. I just needed to get Mags away from them. I was powerful enough to stop these assholes. I just had to get my family away from here without any bloodshed, then I’d come back and slaughter them all.
I threw my blade, and it sunk into the soil by his feet. Triumph transformed Clayton’s face, and I was instantly hit with unwelcome memories from a year ago. Of another time that I was forced to drop a ward protecting people I cared about. I started to shake.
“It’s okay,” Else said. “We don’t have a choice. Do what he wants, and let’s get our Magnolia back.”
She was right, we had no choice. I was going to make them pay for this. I nodded and lifted my trembling hands, stomach churning, heart pounding, holding them out, palm down, fingers spread, and I uttered the words to release the ward.
It dropped and Clayton smiled wider and stepped forward, then turned to Brody as the ground began to shake. “Kill her.”
No!
Brody lifted a blade—
A roar echoed in the distance, and Brody paused, turning to look. It was just a split second, but before he could turn back, something dark gathered behind him. Bram in his shadow form. Brody’s head twisted unnaturally, the snap loud in the night, and he dropped to the ground. Bram instantly scooped up Mags and sprinted for us.
Clayton hissed, hands aimed at the ground. A deep fissure appeared in the earth, and I threw out my hands and yelled the words to bring the ward back up. Clayton flew backward, expelled from the cemetery like he was attached to an elastic bungee.
Cora, who had bent over her dead grandson, then stood, rage contorting her face as she aimed all her power at the ward. Clayton scrambled to his feet, and face lined in fury, joined her. He lifted something gold and ancient looking—a wide, thin disk, a talisman of some kind—and yelled words I could barely hear, repeating them over and over.
His voice rose in volume.
Azel.
Oh god, he was calling on Azel.
Their combined power increased and smashed against our ward with greater force, and impossibly, it began to thin.
They were both so strong, stronger than they should be. Dark magic flowed from them, clawing and biting at the barrier, the kind of evil magic you sold your soul for. And with our blood running through Cora’s veins and her knowledge of the spells we used to ward, they were going to get through if we didn’t do something quickly to stop them.
I shoved my feet deep in the dirt and fired back with everything I had. Else grabbed my hand, her long white hair whipping around her. Mom joined in, and Iris stumbled to her feet and rushed to my side and took my other hand, then Mags.
Clayton laughed and crouched beside Brody. Shoving him to his back, he dug his dagger into the dead male’s chest, wrenching his rib cage open and removing his heart. Cora faltered but didn’t stop with her attack.
“We’ll bring him back, too,” Clay said to her.
The magic of the dead was incredibly dangerous and immensely powerful, which was one of the reasons it was forbidden.
He coated the talisman with Brody’s blood, hung it around his neck, and took a bite out of Brody’s lifeless heart before speaking in a strange tongue. Instantly, dread and terror swirled around us like a cloud laden with horrors and power. He was calling on Azel, a monster so evil, so vile, that if he succeeded in the summoning, we’d be lucky if any of us survived.
Clayton would know what happened to me over a year ago. Cora would have told him what Azel did to me, what he tried to do to my friends. And she knew the fallen angel was incredibly powerful, able to help them reach deeper into the dark magic they’d sought. Angels were always listening, it was part of the job description, even fallen ones, even if they’d been sent to Hell, if you knew how to reach them. Clayton would have had access to everything they needed to achieve that, including that talisman.
And they’d succeeded.
