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A prickle of uneasiness ran over my skin. I could almost make out the demon’s form now: the curve of its knobby head, the hunch of its shoulders. My mouth went dry. I forced myself to swallow.
I’d faced it before and come out no worse for wear. I wasn’t letting some monster cow me. Not while Rose needed us here.
She was gazing toward that glowing shape too, her expression torn. Before she could leave us there with the witches we barely knew, which she’d have to before much longer, I grabbed her hand and pulled her to me. There was nothing easier or more natural than burying my fingers in her hair and claiming her mouth with mine.
For luck. For whatever power might flow from me to her. For everything I had to give.
She was gripping my shirt when I eased back. I leaned my forehead against hers.
“I love you,” I said. My voice came out hoarser than I really liked.
Her lips formed a bittersweet smile. “I love you too.” She turned to the others, leaning in to kiss Gabriel, and then Jin, and then Ky. “I love all of you. And I’m looking forward to spending the rest of our long lives together.”
She couldn’t sound completely confident, but the words gave me a rush of satisfaction anyway. She wasn’t sure we’d make it through the night. The rest, I knew, she couldn’t have meant more.
Our consort stepped away from us to head down the lane, to wait at the front of the ambush. The enforcers around me and the other guys nudged us back, farther into the field where the other less trained witches who’d joined the fight were clustered.
I submitted to the prodding only because I knew Rose would falter if she looked down the road and saw us still there within easy reach of the demon. My hand tightened around the magical baton the enforcers had lent me. It might not be good for much against a supernatural creature from another dimension, but if I could make it hurt, I would.
Another surge of that discomforting sensation washed over me. Somewhere behind us, one of the witches—probably one of the ones who’d fed that thing before—let out a soft whine, and someone else started to murmur to her in soothing tones. I glanced at the other guys and saw their expressions tense in the dim light too. The amount of power that thing had…
No, I wasn’t going to think about that. I wasn’t going to think about anything except Rose’s strength. It might be a demon, but tonight it was going up against an angel in her full glory.
The earth trembled beneath our feet. The thing was lumbering on at quite a clip according to the reports we’d gotten. Enough to make it feel like the approach of an earthquake.
“You know,” Ky murmured, “this is probably a totally corny thing to say, but I’m going to say it anyway, because, well, killer demon heading our way, you know.”
“Just spit it out, Brainiac,” I said.
His lips twitched into a smile. “I’m glad we came together again. I’m glad we had at least a few months like this, even if a lot of that time we couldn’t focus on a whole lot other than not getting caught or killed. It’s been… It’s been good.”
“Yeah,” Gabriel said softly. “It has been. I’m sorry I wasn’t around for all of it.”
“To making it through to the next great adventure,” Jin said wryly, raising his hand as if making a toast.
I’d spent a lot of the last few months feeling as if I was still only on the fringes of the group, only included in it because of history and Rose’s affection. But right then, in the hazy magical light streaking through the depths of the night, I had to say it really had been good. Maybe we didn’t fit together quite as easily as we had back when we were kids, but we did fit, even me.
There wasn’t anywhere else I’d rather have been right now, and not just for Rose.
“To the next great adventure,” I said, echoing Jin’s tone. We knocked knuckles the way we would have clinked glasses.
The ground shook again, harder this time. The eerie sensation in the air just hung there now, wafting stronger and then ebbing but never completely fading. The hairs all up my arms rose. I braced myself, my gaze fixed on the glowing form rambling toward us. It was almost here.
The magical lights caught the creature’s twisted face—and the bodies dangling where it was clutching them under its left arm. They rocked with its movements, limbs limp, but I thought I saw one pale hand jerk as if trying to pull free.
Damn. They really might have survived that horrific trip.
Rose must have given some gesture, because the witches at that end of the field sprang into action. The air warbled with a different sort of energy, one that jolted me in a way I didn’t mind.
The demon halted, its head swinging as it sought out its attackers. Its eyes were so dark they seemed to blend into the night around it, as if it had two holes leading right through its smoldering face out the back of its skull.
Sparks of magic burst across its side. My hand found the sapling next to me and gripped it hard. I couldn’t tear my gaze away.
The magical assault didn’t seem to have hurt the demon any, but I guessed that wasn’t the point. As more flashes and flares flickered around it, Rose appeared on the road where it must have meant to cross, her body whirling, her hair streaking out around her like a spray of shadow.
The demon gave a deep snarl. Rose thrust out her hands, and the creature’s left arm spasmed, shooting out to the side as if she’d shoved it.
The bodies of its victims tumbled to the ground. With a hiss of magic like a rising wind, a ripple of movement spread through the enforcers along the road. The demon lunged after its prey, but Rose spun again, and the other witches drew in their magic. The demon stumbled backward a couple paces. A magical wind wrapped around the slumped forms and yanked them away from the fiend into the midst of the gathered witches farther afield.
