“Soph?” My cracking voice echoed.
The only response I got was a breath of hot air, ash blowing into my eyes.
I blinked rapidly, slowing my steps against the rapidly increasing wind. It made my eyes water, and I had to stop completely until the burning passed.
When I opened my eyes again, two red demons stood on the path ahead of me, grinning wickedly, their sharp teeth glinting. I blinked rapidly, trying to dispel the hallucination, but the monsters only got closer.
I wasn’t imagining them.
I spun around in search of an escape, but another appeared on the path where I’d just come from. I stood in shocked horror as it unfurled its tattered, leathery wings. It hopped from one foot to the other, flames licking up from the earth wherever its cloven foot touched.
There was nowhere to run.
Here in the in-between, where I was cursed to spend eternity, the devil card had come to life.
Shielding my face from the wave of heat that crested before me, I took a deep, ashy breath, calling on the magic still flickering inside me. I felt it warming inside me again, gearing up for whatever came my way, but it wasn’t enough.
The hellish creatures had some major home-field advantage. They were fire demons, and I was pretty sure this entire realm was wrapped around a core of living flame. They seemed to be drawing power from it, their eyes glowing a bright orange-red as the flames at their feet grew hotter.
Before this moment, the closest I’d ever come to working with fire magic was the night at the safe house when I’d scried and connected with Reva through the flames.
I had no idea if I could wield it, but I didn’t have a choice. I needed fire.
I closed my eyes and took a breath, envisioning my magic seeping out through my feet and into the rock below. I felt it penetrate the dense stone, working down to the molten core.
An image of a great underground inferno appeared in my mind’s eye, and I held onto it, coaxing the flames higher as I whispered a final plea.
Spark, smoke, fire, inferno
Burn here above as you burn down below
Let rock join flame and fight as one
Hear my words, let it be done
Heat radiated up through my legs, the fire magic joining with my own.
It’s working!
I channeled the magic into a burst of energy, watching it spark to life between my palms. Blue flames ignited in my hands.
And then I braced myself for the fight from hell.
Three
Darius
In thirty-three years of life as a mortal and countless more as a vampire, I had known a great many liars.
Blood had never been one of them.
“Gray!” I gasped as the sudden rush of heat flooded my chest, followed by the sweet, heady scent of the witch who thoroughly owned my heart. The sensations were unmistakeable—the siren call of Gray’s blood resurfacing after its days-long absence, more intense than it’d ever been before.
It was our blood bond. Sensing her this way… I swallowed the emotion tightening my throat. It meant she was still with us. Still alive.
I grabbed my cell phone, fumbling with the damn screen for several frustrating moments before I finally managed to punch in Ronan’s number.
While he and Emilio were out at the Landes property hunting down clues, I’d been forced to wait out the daylight in a dank, moldering motel on the outskirts of Raven’s Cape, rendered nearly impotent by my deadly aversion to the sun. It’d been several hours and I’d yet to hear from either of them; I had to assume my connection to Gray was the first real spark of hope we’d received.
