I tense. The air ripples. The hellfire launches. The first blast of heat caresses my face.
And then I’m tackled to the ground.
I fall forward onto the pedestal, knocking over the grimoire on my way to the parquet floor. A weight lands on top of me, pinning me just as the hellfire screams overhead and ignites the curtains.
For one long second, no one reacts.
Then everything explodes into chaos.
Demons are jumping over benches to reach the grimoire, which I’m still huddled over. The weight pushes off me, and only then do I realize I was saved—
By Rook.
A swarm of demons closes in on me, but Rook waves his hand and casts a shield. With his other hand, he snaps his fingers, and something like water rains down on us, dousing the hellfire that’s spread up the wall.
For a moment I think he’s protecting me, but as Tolliver shoots toward me, Rook knocks him back with a burst of magical force.
It’s not me he’s protecting. It’s the grimoire.
He’s fighting off dozens of demons while the rest run for the exits, compelled by the panic CJ is projecting into their minds.
With the demons distracted, I turn to Hades—only to find her frozen, a scowl on her face, her bident half raised.
Ten feet in front of her stands Ezra, gripping a human femur etched with the rune for control.
Because CJ didn’t come alone. They arrived with a stone in their pocket—one that technically belongs to Rook, though he left it behind in his rush to escape. A limen stone, runed to summon the person holding its twin.
Ezra wears a powder-blue tuxedo T-shirt. I asked him to wear a suit since demons seem to like them. This was his compromise.
He definitely doesn’t blend in, but the chaos coupled with his ability to go unnoticed got him close enough to Hades to activate the rune and put her under his control.
Ezra took to runic magic like a fish to a sudoku puzzle written in fire.
But he also doesn’t give up. And even though there was absolutely no way to test if the rune even worked on a Titan until just now, he went for it anyway. That’s growth.
He’s struggling though. Sweat beads on his brow and his mouth grimaces around the incantation. He won’t be able to hold the spell much longer. I have to make this quick.
“Tolliver!” I call, looking for him through the chaos.
The bag of fruit he brought in doesn’t just contain limes. It has everything we need for the banishment potion. Everything except a strand of Hades’s hair. Once I have that, he can mix everything up, and we can start the spell. I don’t see Tolliver, but I have to trust he’s doing what he can to get to me.
I turn to Hades. Even frozen in place, she’s terrifying. That bident almost ended Tolliver, and just being near it sparks a reflexive kind of fear. I approach slowly, carefully. I only need a single hair.
She watches me, unmoving, eyes alight with fury.
I swallow hard and gently reach up, wrapping a single strand around my finger. Just as I start to pull, Ezra screams. I turn instinctually.
A demon has knocked the femur from his hand and tackled him to the floor. For a moment, I’m sure I’m about to watch Ezra die. But then Tolliver barrels in, yanking the demon off him.
I let out a sigh of relief, just as my body jolts forward.
Tolliver lets out a raw cry. Ezra’s face goes pale.
I look down. Two blood-soaked tines stick out from my torso, one through the gut, the other straight through my heart.
It doesn’t make sense. I don’t feel a thing.
The breath leaves my lungs. Everything goes quiet. Red starts to bloom around the wounds, and then Hades yanks the bident free. That part I feel, though it’s more like pressure than pain.
