Fuck, that’s sexy.
Fuck, I should not be thinking about how sexy she is right now.
But fuck, I can’t help it.
I steal another kiss, sweeping my tongue into her mouth, damn near eating her up right there.
But all too soon, the demons are rising again, and Draegan’s shouting something behind us about the Codex, and Westlyn’s face falls, and then she’s bolting away from me, headed straight for the altar.
I spin around and see Verrick and the Archmage both diving for the Codex, magic pulsing from its pages like the very lightning West used to attack the demons, dark and violent and deadly.
“Burn inhell!” she shouts at them, snatching the book away just as her enemies crash into the table. She clutches the Codex to her chest, tendrils of silver and indigo magic snaking out from inside it, winding around her arms like serpents.
“Where the fuck is Auggie?” Rook shouts, joining me again. “We need to get West and—fuck. Incoming!”
I tear my gaze away from West and catch a half dozen demons charging toward us. Tatiana’s right behind them, her eyes widening with some horrifying realization I can’t even guess at. Her lips move rapidly, and I feel the warmth of her magic washing over me just as the tendrils wrapped around West explode in a flash of blinding silver magic that knocks us all to the ground.
There’s nothing but that light. That eerie magical light, and a pain like nothing I’ve ever felt before, like my entire body is being turned inside out and scrubbed with a wire brush, which is way less fun that it sounds.
I’m spinning. I’m floating. I’m sinking. I’m drowning. Every last one of my cells is being rearranged, reformed, and I can’t fucking see…
Westlyn. Where are you? Where the fuck are you…
A burst of cold air floods my lungs, shocking my body back to consciousness. When I finally open my eyes again, I’m ninety-nine fucking percent sure we’re dead.
And ahundredfucking percent sure we’re in hell.
* * *
“Is everyone all right?” Tatiana says, helping Fleur and Laney out of a snowdrift.
I do a quick scan—all gargoyles are bloodied but present and accounted for, but… fuck. Westlyn.
Right there. Standing in the middle of the group, still clutching that Codex, shivering her tight little arse off, but alive.
And really fucking angry about it, too, judging from the fire in her eyes.
“Why is it snowing in the cathedral?” she shouts up at the sky, fat snowflakes landing on her cheeks and melting against her skin. “And why do I feel like someone tried to turn me into a smoothie? Somebody better explain this before I absolutely lose my shit!”
She’s dangerously close to losing said shit, not that I blame her. None of this makes a damn bit of sense.
I trudge through the snow and put a wing around her, blocking out the cold as best I can as I scan the area, trying to get my bearings.
We seem to be in some sort of town square straight out of the middle ages, complete with its own gallows and pillories. A guillotine too. A few dozen dilapidated buildings and homes line the street, and on the edges of this pathetic little town, a dark, lifeless forest encroaches, bare black trees reaching up through the snow like corpses rising from the grave.
A gust of wind buffets us, bringing with it a silence so dark and complete, I want to weep.
“Jude,” West whispers, teeth chattering. “Is this… Are we in hell?”
“No, darling,” I say softly, the realization finally hitting me. “Worse. We’re in the Court of Wintermoon.”
She shivers beneath my wing, and when I look into her face, tiny threads of that same dark magic skitter across her skin. Still held in her protective embrace, the Codex gives off a faint glow.
“This doesn’t look like the Wintermoon I remember,” Auggie says, spinning in slow circles as he takes it all in. There’s not a soul in sight. Nolifein sight—fae, animals, birds, evergreens. Even the snow itself feels like death. “How did we even get here?”
“There’s a fae portal above Thornwood,” Drae says. “I assumed it was no longer operational, but Verrick must’ve triggered it.”
“Why the fuck would he bring us here?” Auggie asks. “The place is a damn ghost town.”
