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I guess the others have assembled and are being quiet.
“You’re not a demon,” Slade says, answering as though she’s right in front of him. “You’re a hybrid. You have a soul. Demons have a spirit, but no soul. It makes you different. All this time we thought the rings were to build an army. And partly it was—”
“It was to collect samples of blood from every known immortal out there to cast this spell,” I say on a long breath, interrupting him.
“And to find out which immortals were the best vessels for their purposes,” Slade continues. “It’s likely they’ve stolen the bodies of more than just night stalkers. It makes sense now. The front line would be given the weakest. It’s hard to find a body that isn’t warded against possessions these days, from what I’ve noticed. They were selecting puppets.”
“Kya and Karma can possess any immortal, unlike a true demon. Most of them struggle to overtake an immortal even without the anti-possession markings,” I interject, moving to sit by Kya.
She threads her fingers through mine, almost like she needs the comfort. My eyes scan her head to see the blood has started to clot. The wound looks more superficial now than anything, but it definitely scared me at first. Her leg also looks to have stopped bleeding, which makes breathing a little easier for me.
“Why cast it tonight?” Ella asks.
Slade grows ominously silent, not even taking a breath. I look to Kya, who shrugs.
Finally, he answers. “Because they think they can open the portal tomorrow. Which is why I felt so confident it’d be easy to stop. But without our powers, we’re no more effective than a human right now, and the advantage I planned for us to have is gone.”
It’d be so easy to kill him now... To eliminate any possible future threat he posed.
“I could have found a way to ward against it if I had seen it coming. I thought the magic was lost with the ancient ones. It shouldn’t be possible. The earth isn’t thriving as well as it was back then for witches to pull their power.”
“Mortal witches didn’t draw their power from the earth,” Gage says. “They drew it from dark matter left behind from dark magic. Some drew it from immortals, even harnessed their power as their own.”
“Impossible,” Slade says dismissively. “You can’t harness an immortal’s magic as a mortal.”
“You can,” Gage growls. “I would know. It was done to me and my brother. They—”
“They what?” I ask when Gage goes quiet.
“They... They took it into stones,” he says, but he sounds distant now. Thoughtful. Like he’s holding something back.
“What aren’t you saying?” I ask him.
“Nothing. I don’t want to send us down the wrong rabbit hole because I’m being paranoid.”
Slade has grown quiet. The rest of us fall into a similar silence.
“So what do we do?” Kya finally asks.
“You stay put until this thing times out. Being on the road would leave you exposed to any number of mortal deaths. And don’t fucking leave the state again when we’re in the middle of a war,” Slade growls before the line goes dead.
Kya blows out a long breath, and I tighten my lips, refraining from say
ing something to her about killing him. Because the beast really wants to do just that right now. If I’m being honest, the man wants it too.
“He could have worded it differently, but he’s right about staying put until this thing times out.” Kane’s voice breaks through the phone, and I groan.
“You’re supposed to be with Alyssa.”
“I’m on another phone. They conferenced me in. Alyssa and I are still in the underground bunker. It shook us hard, but nothing caved. She’s actually feeling stronger as a mortal than she did as an immortal. Apparently an immortal child is much more draining on the body than a mortal one.”
Breathing out in relief, I study the destroyed room. We’re still fucking naked, and now people are noticing us through the window, even though they’re wise enough to keep a safe distance away.
My body is still indestructible to mortals. And I’m not in a mood to be pissed off. Humans always revert to evil in times of crisis. It’s like they’ve been holding it back for too long, and the first opportunity to show their darkness will emerge when the lights dim.
“We’re going to find a safer place to stay for the night,” I say, standing and grabbing our clothes from the floor.
My vision shifts. I find and remove every shard of glass on Kya’s clothes before handing them to her. Then I do the same with mine, to make sure she doesn’t get cut against me.
