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It suddenly made sense why the demons hadn’t attacked us when we’d approached the pit. Ty wanted us to free them. He wanted me indebted to him.
He’d offered me a devil’s bargain before, but I’d refused. Did he somehow think this would make me agree?
Before I could make any more demands of my former lover turned devilish host, he took a step backwards. Just before the shadowy realm enveloped him, he winked. And then he was gone, invisible as soon as he crossed the threshold.
“We can’t let him disappear,” I said, chasing after him.
“We’re with you, Mel,” Jax said from my side as he charged toward the threshold with me.
Hudson agreed. “We go together or not at all.”
“We’ll make him pay, huntress,” Nico added.
Tempest’s warning echoed in our heads as we stepped into the shadowy haze.“Demons await.”
I conjured a quicksilver blade and called down a blast of fiery lightning before I even figured out what the shapes in front of me were. A winged hellhound fell from the darkened sky of the infernal periphery as Jax launched a massive spear of ice through its heart. I was impressed he could keep it cold enough to stay solid in the infernal realm.
“Where is he?” I lunged forward, swinging twin demonfire blades to clear the path so I could find Ty.
Tempest said,“It’s not far to the rift between realms now that the periphery has diminished. He may have already crossed.”
The guys protected my flank as we strode deeper inside… only to see the dark moat straight ahead of us. The trench cut across the hazy periphery in both directions, separating us from the true infernal realm on the other side. Dark flames filled the moat, making it impossible for us to cross.
Catching sight of a humanoid figure on the other side made my heart fall. Ty had already crossed the moat. We couldn’t follow.
With a cry of rage, I unleashed my magic against the nearest target — a hellcat. The surge of lighting caused it to explode from the inside, and cinders went everywhere. Demons closed in on all sides, and none of us bothered to use one type of magic anymore as we killed them one after another. With our newfound abilities and our large shared reservoir of magic, we felt invincible, and yet… we would eventually run out of magic. That’s probably what Ty wanted.
“Jax, look out!” Nico called.
I turned to see Nico blurring to stand between Jax and a charging hellbull. Thanks to Nico’s warning, Jax lunged to the side, but Nico was closer to the hellbull and couldn’t get clear in time. The beast’s fiery horned skull crashed into Nico, butting him off the ground.
“Nico!” I screamed.
His body flew through the smoke straight toward the dark moat. He twisted midair, but fear filled his expression as he fell into the dark flames.
His entire body disappeared into the bottomless depths.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Mel
“No!” Jax screamed.
We both fell to our knees at the edge of the trench, too afraid to go into it ourselves.
“Please get up,” I cried out, though I couldn’t see Nico anywhere.
Despite the sound of Hudson fighting behind us, my eyes remained fixed on the dark flames separating us from the infernal realm.
“How could you do that?” Jax cried. “You weren’t supposed to do that.”
Hearing the hopelessness in his voice tore at me. Nico had always feared for his sanity if one of us died in here and our coven bonds snapped.
That’s when I realized, our bond hadn’t snapped. I still felt a vague connection with all of them via our shared reservoir of magic.
“If he frenzied, he might survive,”Tempest’s voice whispered hope into our minds.“The four of you are more powerful now.”
“Please,” Jax cried at the same time.
