Page 47

Sarah forced a third swallow. This one was colder still as it slid through her stomach as if she'd swallowed a piece of winter New Orleans never actually got. Her knees buckled a fraction before Abraxos's hand found the small of her back. His touch was steady and immovable. She leaned into it without meaning to.

"You can do this," Abraxos told her. His belief in her helped a little.

"Give me a second." The fourth swallow burned. Heat chased the cold up through her sternum so fast she gasped. For one dizzying moment, she couldn't tell where the potion ended, and her power began. It felt like someone had lit a match at the base of her spine, and the fire was climbing. It was patient and curious, looking for the ability locked in her blood.

She forced down the dregs, grit and all, then set the empty mug on the counter. The heat leveled off into something low and steady. It pulsed behind her ribs in time with her heart.

"It’s working," Pema announced as she began packing her satchel. She slid vials home with the brisk efficiency of a woman who had prepared for battle a thousand times. "The moonstone is set at the north point of the alley. We placed it there ourselves and cast a protection bubble over it while the potion was cooking."

“We should head out,” Abraxos announced.

Sarah tested her legs and found them sturdier than she'd expected. Her fingers drifted to the stylus sitting against her hip. It was tucked beside the cloth-wrapped Tellstone. When she pressed her palm flat over both of them, the heat in her chest surged to meet the contact like two ends of the same wire touched.

"You’re ready?" Zander asked as he filled the doorway with Izzy behind him. He was dressed in the same battle leathers he'd worn through every fight. His sapphire eyes swept the kitchen and cataloged who stood where.

Abraxos nodded. “We are. She isn’t happy about it, but she drank the potion.”

"Based on the smell, I can see how it wasna pleasant,” Zander pointed out. “Warriors are staged in a three-block radius. Camael's got angels on the rooftops. We need to be there before the moon clears the tree line, or we lose our window."

“Abraxos said we’re ready,” Isis grumbled as she stalked out the door. She was followed by her sisters. Their mates must have already been at the site.

Sarah let Abraxos lead her out the back door into the backyard. She lost track of the others as they either raced through the streets on foot or took their vehicles. The night air had gone thick with the kind of humidity that clung to skin like a second layer.

Sarah felt the city differently as Abraxos wrapped his arms around her waist and took to the air with her. The mark on her palm kept snagging on threads of power she'd never noticed before. They were old and buried, running under the pavement like veins under the skin. The closer they got to Angel's Alley, the louder the hum beneath her ribs became insistent and hungry.

Abraxos set them down at the mouth of the alley just as the moon cleared the first rooftop. Izzy, Donovan, Zander, and Elsie arrived before they could walk down the path. The fountain at the far end threw pale light across cobblestones. Tonight, the ground pulsed under her boots as if it were breathing. The black mark on her palm burned bright enough to make bones glow beneath her skin.

Abraxos's fingers tightened around hers before he stepped into the center of the courtyard. He moved into the exact spot where the stone angels stood sentinel over their carved children. Sarah felt the bond stretch between them. It was electric yet thinner. Like a wire pulled taut between two points. It was uncomfortable and would be difficult not to be distracted by it.

"Positions!" Zander's bark sent warriors melting into the shadows along the rooftops and side streets. Izzy and Donovan took the alley's mouth. They held their blades at the ready. Camael and two of his angels settled into the eaves above. They were watching the area for the attack that Lucifer would no doubt launch any second.

Amelia dropped to one knee at the alley's edge. Her hands were glowing with faint gold. Her magic was a banked fire waiting for a reason to burn. Jace hung back near the fountain with his sword in hand.

Sarah dropped to her knees across from Abraxos and withdrew her stylus. Sucking in a breath, she pressed the iron tip to the first cobblestone. The circle began unevenly as her hand started shaking. Lifting her gaze, she met Abraxos’s gaze. He dipped his chin. “You’ve got this.”

“I do,” she agreed, and this time when she drew, the line was straight and even.

The first line of Enochian rose out of her throat before she'd consciously decided to speak it. The ancient words came out in a voice that didn't sound entirely like her own. Cold power surged up through her knee, then through her arm, and out through the stylus in a line of gold-violet-green light that burned itself into the stone. The ground answered with a groan that rattled the fountain.

"That's one." Amelia's voice carried across the courtyard. "Six to go. Keep your breathing even, or you'll burn through the draught faster than you want."

Sarah nodded and spoke the second line. It was harder than the first, and the syllables scraped her throat raw on the way out. The light brightened and spread a third of the way around Abraxos's boots. Somewhere behind her, a scream split the night. It was high and grating, but she couldn’t turn and look. It was clear that Lucifer’s first wave had found them.

"Four coming up through the south gap." Izzy's shout carried the eagerness she reserved for a fight.

She met the first creature with a spinning cut that opened its throat before it finished clearing the shadows. Her boots barely touched the ground between strikes. Her vampire speed turned her into something closer to a blur than a woman.

Donovan came in behind her. He was just as deadly. He planted his feet and used his daggers to carve up a demon. He didn't chase the fight the way Izzy did. He waited for the demon to come to him and then made sure it regretted the trip. He drove one blade up under the demon's jaw while the other opened its gut in the same motion.

"Okay, do the third line." Sarah refocused herself and forced the words out. The ground bucked hard enough to throw her off balance. Abraxos's hand shot out. He wasn't allowed to leave the circle. Somehow, his reach still covered the distance. He steadied her without a word.

A crack beneath the fountain appeared, and heat rolled out of it thick enough to fog the air. What climbed free wasn't the bull-shaped Titan or the boil-covered horror. This one was long and had a body that moved like it had been poured. Scales the black of wet obsidian caught the moonlight in oily ripples.

Its head split into three the moment it cleared the ground. Each one was crowned with curved horns, each a foot long on either side. She’d seen an illustration in the Codex years ago. Back when she'd still believed the illustrations were just old stories with good artists.

"They’ve got this. Continue," Sarah chastised herself, though focusing took a minute when all three heads swung toward the light bleeding off her palm. They locked onto her as if it were hunting her.

"Do the fourth line, now, before it's fully clear!" Abraxos shouted.