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“Do you think it’s true?” I asked, and Thalia shook her head, not in denial but in confusion. I stepped closer to the two of them, resting a tentative hand on Crystal’s shoulder. “Crystal, what do you feel?”
“I can feel it,” she said shakily. “The one that’s coming closer. And it can feel them. There’s so many of them, behind that doorway in the Cliff. So many of them. And they know now that there’s a way to break free.”
Chapter Nineteen
Rose
My footsteps clattered down the hall toward the meeting room. I didn’t have the wherewithal to try to walk more conscientiously, not with the possibilities whirling through my head.
“Rose?”
I turned to see Gabriel down the hall. He strode to meet me, his eyes dark with concern. “What’s wrong? I saw you go by—you look like you’ve got a wolf at your heels.”
More like a demon. I swallowed a burst of hysterical laughter. “The witches the faction used are sensing things from the demon. Things the Assemblyreallyneeds to know about. I’m about to crash one of their meetings so they do.”
“Do you want back-up?” he asked, without a second’s hesitation. Despite my panic, my spark flickered with pleasure at his support.
“It can’t hurt,” I said. Whatever the Assembly officials thought of me, they thought it whether or not they could see any of my consorts immediately on hand.
I motioned for Gabriel to follow me, and we hurried the rest of the way to the room number I’d gotten after badgering the Northcotts’ secretary. I didn’t have much space in me for frustration right now, but I couldn’t say it didn’t irk me that less than an hour after I’d come to Lady Northcott offering even more help than I could have managed before, she’d gone off with who knew how many other officials to discuss strategy without me.
I didn’t regret that I’d been able to soothe the recovering witches a little while I was down there, but did she really think I’d have been some kind of hinderance to this discussion rather than an asset?
As I reached the door to the meeting room, I swallowed down that irritation. Without breaking my stride, I shoved inside.
Faces all around the table looked up. It wasn’t just the usual bunch—the Northcotts, Remington, Brimsey, Travers, and the head of Defense now that her underling Townsend was being held for questioning—but also a handful of other officials I hadn’t met, at least not recently, and a couple other enforcers alongside Ruiz stationed by the walls. Quite a crowd that had shut out me and my consorts and whatever contributions we might have made.
Well, I was here now.
“Lady Hallowell!” Brimsey said sharply, jerking to his feet.
Before he could chide me for rudeness or whatever else was on his mind, I blurted out my horrible news.
“We have to close the portal. Any way we can—it has to be completely sealed, or destroyed—preferably both.”
“What are you talking about?” Mr. Northcott said before I could finish.
I spun to face him and his consort. “The witches the faction used can sense the demon’s presence even from this distance. And they can sense other things from it too. One of them feels that the other demons are working at breaking through whatever barrier the Frankfords had set up over the portal. No one’s been strengthening it. If we just leave it, they’ll tear through, and then we’ll have dozens of demons to fend off, not just one.”
Several faces around the table blanched. Lady Northcott paled too, but she managed to keep her voice steady. “That is alarming news, but we can’t act hastily. The barrier has held so far. We have the demon already out to contend with.”
“We don’t have time to talk about it,” I said. “We have no idea how close they might already be.”
Brimsey was still standing. “Lady Hallowell,” he said, his voice lower but still barbed. “This is a meeting of the highest figures in the Assembly. You can’t simply burst in and dictate what the rest of us do.”
I couldn’t help glowering at him. “I’m sorry I didn’t knock and ask permission before shouting, ‘Fire!’ It’s an emergency. It’d be irresponsible for me not to convey just how urgent the situation is.”
“You don’t know what the actual urgency is,” a witch farther down the table said. “And you clearly don’t understand all the implications. We—”
Oh, Spark help me. “Theimplications?” I said. “What about the implications of a hundred or more demons crashing into our world? No one here can really be delusional enough to think that we can deal with that kind of assault when we still haven’t managed to contain theonethat’s already out.”
“Lady Hallowell,” Mr. Northcott said. “We appreciate your concern and your call for haste. Let us at least discuss the matter and consider its feasibility.”
“Exactly!” the woman who’d mentioned implications piped up. “If you understand the situation fully, the truth is it isn’t feasible at all.”
Frustration jabbed through me, making my hands clench. “Fine,” I said. “If you don’t want to do anything about the problem other than talk, I’ll see what I can do on my own.”
I meant to whirl around and stalk out of there, but I’d barely moved my feet when something hard and narrow smacked into the back of my ribs. A crackling blast of magic flooded me, searing through all my nerves. My skin numbed; my muscles slackened. My legs collapsed under me.
