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21
NEVER
“You’re sure this is it?” Leo asked, scanning the trees and shrubs surrounding us.
The six of us were gathered in a small clearing that looked vaguely familiar. I mean, the first time around, I’d been fighting for my life. Admiring the landscape hadn’t exactly been high on my list of priorities.
“I guess it looks like the right place,” I said.
Lily sidled up next to me. “This is it.” She inhaled deeply. “The shadow’s stench is still here.”
Leo mirrored her inhalation before wrinkling his nose. “Oh yeah, there it is.”
“See, it’s shit like that just makes me glad I don’t have any superpowers,” I said, trying to lighten things a shade. It was that or give into the anxiety clawing at my brain and making it hard to breathe.
What we were doing was risky. That was blindingly fucking obvious. And the sick feeling swimming in my stomach wasn’t helping the situation.
It’ll be fine. We have two ancient know-it-all demons here to help. Nothing bad will happen to Matty.
I had to choke down a bitter laugh at that less than reassuring thought. Something bad had already happened to him. A big, nasty bushel of bad. The best I could hope for at this point was that nothing worse would happen.
How about we focus on making sure this works? We’ll get that thing out of Matty and send it right the hell back to where it came from.
That was where Hook’s pendant (my pendant?) came into play. I reached up and clutched the thing like it was a string of pearls.
Did I love the idea of using that shard of magic to lure the shadow into our little trap? Nope.
Did the big, bad primordials think it was our best bet? Yep.
Guess who won that debate?
“It’ll be okay,” Hook said reassuringly, startling me out of my thoughts.
It was strange getting this kind of treatment from him. Broody, I could handle. Bossy? That was doable. Sweet and understanding?
Who even was this guy?
He rolled his neck first one way, then the other. “How about we get into all that later?” Then he dropped a devious wink.
And just how the hell was he doing that? Was it some godly power he possessed now that he was in my world?
“We’re almost ready,” Emerson said from the center of the clearing.
The two ancients had dragged a stick through the dirt in roughly the shape of a circle, with eight candles sitting on the ground at about equal spacing. Everything with them so far was like that. Roughly, about, good enough.
“I take it this kind of magic isn’t an exact science? I mean, do we need to wait until a certain time of night? That’s the way it works in movies,” I said, already feeling like I was woefully out of my element.
Theloneus chuckled. It was a strange sound, coming off somehow amused and deeply threatening at the same time. “Magic is never an exact science. And time? That’s relative in the human world, at least in the way you’re referring to it. Magic is not bound to a clock in any realm.”
“But the timing does matter, doesn’t it?” It wasn’t like I’d ever seen a group of women casting spells over Sunday brunch. Then again, I’d never seen anyone cast a spell in real life.
“The flow of power matters. In this world and this time, it is commonly known as the ribbon. It is, in a way, an extension of the veil that separates the Alius from this plane of existence.” He knelt, lit a candle, and stood to move to the next. “The ribbon is a source of power that magical and non-magical beings can draw on, though most humans don’t have the slightest clue that it even exists.”
An invisible magical ribbon of untold power? Yeah, count me among the ignorant on that one. “And this ribbon is always... somewhere?”
I felt Hook’s warm hand settle on my shoulder. “Yes, but it travels, weaves through the human world.”
“So, you can’t see it, you don’t know where it is, and it moves? And somehow, we’re supposed to tap into it to draw the demon here?”
