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“Ruby!”
Maddox heard his voice this time, crystal clear amid the demons’ eerie silence. He picked up more rocks as he limped his way over to them, the pain slicing through his body at every step he took. He hurled as precisely as he could and watched as Silver lifted his hands, meeting every hurled rock. No magic was involved, but the rocks stopped inches from his hands and changed their course when he redirected them.
The man hit multiple demons in one go, stunning Maddox and Ruby. But Maddox could see the struggle in Silver’s expression as more demons piled up, and Ruby’s attempt at blasting them with her magic only served to daze them for a few seconds. Before Maddox could reach them, Silver had broken through a line and rushed away, his voice echoing through the space.
“Come with me, you bastards.”
As if hypnotized, the creatures ignored Ruby completely and scrambled for the man.
“Silver!”
“Get out of here. Leave.” Troubled eyes met Maddox’s. “Get her away.”
Despite Silver not shouting, Maddox felt the words pierce his heart with its desperation. He gritted his teeth and powered through the rest of the steps, grabbing Ruby’s arm just as she took a step toward her brother’s direction.
“No—”
Maddox yanked hard and threw her down to the glow concentrated at her feet. The rocks, lava, smoke, and demons all crumbled out of view. Just like that, they were back in Broom’s Isle, where it had started. Ruby’s state of mind, however, was no longer as calm as before as she whirled on him with the same desperation as her brother’s.
“He was innocent. He was about to tell me what happened.”
The glow brightened to the point of blinding, then darkened until he couldn’t see his surroundings. It cemented her instability. He shook his head and tried not to wince when the pain was still there somewhere down his lower back.
“You couldn’t have stayed there. It was too dangerous, Ruby.”
“I still have time,” she insisted.
“Ruby, goddamn it—”
He took her arm again, but she yanked it away and pushed him. A cry flew out of his throat as he stumbled back, widening her eyes. They searched and locked on his shirt, dark but soaked in blood.
“Mad?”
For the first time, he heard the vulnerability and fear in her voice, slithering through all the darkness and magic. He heard Ruby—the real Ruby—and the compassion that whatever was with her was trying to bury.
Then Maddox saw the portal open behind her and felt fear, too.
“Ruby. Behind you.”
Chapter 14
Ruby’s instincts took over as she spun at Maddox’s warning and spotted the portal, except it wasn’t a normal one. There was no glow and no recognizable energy, and she suspected it had been there since she gained access to the Hellhole earlier—or the Underworld. Now it was just bigger, resembling the black holes with smoke hissing out.
A head poked in, the pus visible. She punched magic toward it and shoved the demon back in, and the cry of pain told her that the magic worked better here. But the peace didn’t last long as the head returned, more insistent than ever as it tried to shimmy into her world. She punched repeatedly until her hand strained, but the creature was just as relentless.
“Salt,” Maddox croaked out behind her. “The ocean. Use it.”
Worry tightened her chest, but she couldn’t afford to glance back. Ruby redirected her magic to scoop water splashing from the waves, then formed it into a ball before she punched it toward the hole with the same force as earlier. The next cry caught her off guard, its pain so raw. When the head stopped pushing, she scooped more water up and placed it in front of the hole.
“We did it.” The silence killed the rush of victory. She turned back around and felt her world tilt when Maddox lay unmoving. “Mad?”
There was a grunt, but it was too faint for her liking. She stumbled over and knelt before him, shaking when her palms were instantly covered in blood. She nudged his shirt up and stared at the hole in his stomach, charred at the edges. The sight squeezed her mind until more images flowed—and suddenly, she was watching herself as she stalked angrily toward the forest after an encounter with a resident who had called Silver a monster.
She hadn’t attacked the resident, but she let her energy raze the creatures in that forest. It all came back in a gush of memories now, scaring her as she looked at her emotionless state and how easily she had walked away.
Don’t be scared. I am here for you. I am the only one here for you.
She couldn’t see the dark wisps, but more images flowed with those wisps in the background, egging her on and witnessing everything she had done that had been born out of her fury. Milos came back. So did Ollie. Then Maddox’s face came floating in and spilled over into reality as she looked down at his pale form.
