Page 119 of Dancing With Demons

“Would you mind taking your notes to Erlik for me? So he can deliver them to the headmistress? I’ve never met the woman, but I’ve got a feeling her threats are promises.”

I stood in the corner of the room, watching events unfold. Despite my promise to protect her and not interfere, I wanted to break through my invisibility glamour and strangle that rat with my bare hands.

Despite his promise to Charlotte that he’d deliver his mothers’ message to her first, I knew for a fact that the reason it took him three and a half weeks to make a three-day journey was because he stopped off and gave the information to any and everyone who paid his price for a head start in the Hallow Hunt.

I knew from the second I saw the bitch. This rat was a snake.

Done with him, Charlotte left the room and I followed behind her—never more than three feet away as I’d been for the last four weeks.

And what an interesting four weeks it had been.

Charlotte was right that announcing the Hallow Hunt to all of hell gave her added protection. Almost immediately, all the vampire elders of all the covens declared to their people that Charlotte wasn’t to be touched. There were a billion food sources in the mortal world. And any vampire who threw that away to feed on one would die in the most brutal way the elders could imagine.

An even more effective threat than expulsion, because not a single vampire tried it. More than that, a few of them even foiled other murder attempts against Charlotte.

The vampires were done starving. They were done chasing after food that bit back. They wanted out of hell, and they wanted out now.

But as fortunate as Charlotte was to have an army of silent bodyguards who never slept and had supernatural hearing, not even they could stop every attack—

So I did.

I blew up that worthless shit Connard when he tried to hit her with the gut-exploding spell for the second time. I covertly switched out her food and drink every time it was secretly poisoned. I beheaded three glamoured assassins who tiptoed into her bedroom, thinking they were clear to go.

I did it all, and it baffled me every time. I didn’t understand it, but with every murder attempt, it became clear that someone, or a group of someones, did not want supernaturals to leave hell. They didn’t want anyone to gain the power of the All Hallows. They didn’t want a single thing in hell to change, and they were willing to kill Charlotte to stop it happening.

But who? I mused as I followed her through the halls. The lords of hell want to abduct and imprison her for sure, but they don’t want her dead. They want her firmly under their control so that she could grant the All Hallows to no one but them.

They wanted it so badly, that after centuries of extraordinarily shitty parenting, Zariel, Mammon, Leviathan, Beelzebub, and Asmodeus were sweet-talking and showering their little princesses with so much praise and presents, it was embarrassing.

All five of them were swearing up and down that everything was going to change. All their daughters had to do was deliver the Avos witch to them, and they could rule side by side—father and daughter—emperor and empress of the twin realms for all eternity.

So far, none of the princesses had given in. Like I said, centuries’ worth of shitty parenting had frayed any trust between them a long time ago, but that didn’t stop my head from exploding every time one of them followed Charlotte around or put their hands on her.

Bzzz.

Fishing in my jacket pocket, I took out my phone.

Father: He’s here. Now get rid of him.

I grinned even as I rolled my eyes. Only my father would get annoyed at a visit from a devoted lackey who’d do almost anything for him. Dear old dad really didn’t like it when someone got in the way of his doing nothing.

I looked up at Charlie as she reached the tower steps and started climbing. “Finally,” I whispered. “Your gift is finally ready, and you’re finally going to be mine again.” I scoffed. “I’ll show that stupid mutt who’s the master of groveling.”

The whole way up, I practiced what I was going to say. She’d be surprised to see me pop out of nowhere, for sure, but as long as I could convince her to come with me, everything would be fine.

“What’s up, Charlie, I— No, fuck! That sucks.” I cleared my throat, starting over. “Hey, Charlotte, how you been— Idiot!” I pounded my head. “She’s been horrifically depressed and throwing herself into revenge to mask it. You can do better than this!”

Charlotte pushed open the tower door.

I took a deep breath and filled my lungs with acrid, burning air. “Charlotte, hi. I know you’re surprised to see me, but there’s something I—”

Charlotte climbed onto the ledge.

“Wait! No—!”

She jumped.

“NOOOOO!” Racing to the ledge, I shattered the invisibility and ripped off my face glamour. Turning my face toward the skies—blinding, golden light pierced through the never-ending gloom. “SAVE HER!”