Chapter 30

Thirty

Ihad been here before, stuck in this room, alone, trying and failing to measure the passage of time. Maybe it had been five minutes, or maybe it had been three hours. I had no way of knowing, and the anxiety wasn't helping.

How long had I been in flight or fight mode? A week, at least. The longest week of my life. Even when I was with Lucien, our moments spent in bed together were only a brief respite from the storm of emotions constantly churning inside of myself.

When I was alone, it took every ounce of strength I had left in me to keep it all under control, to keep myself from falling apart. If we truly were leaving tonight, and the nightmare was in fact close to being over, what was going to happen after?

Sooner or later, I was going to have to come face to face with my emotions, and my grief.

I wasn't sure I was ready for that.

As time passed, I became aware of the slightest of sounds, the bumps, the knocks, the little tugs at the very edges of my senses. At one point, I thought I felt someone touch the side of my head, only to turn and find no one there. I was sure I heard whispers coming from the corners of the room, saw shadows where there shouldn't have been.

Were the demons toying with me? They were here. I was sure of it. I wondered if being near that crown and its powerful inhabitant had anything to do with this new sensitivity to demons. How I had made it three days in this room without having a mental break was beyond me.

I didn't think I would be able to now.

The sudden spike of magic drew my attention instantly, making me stand bolt upright. It was a pinprick at first, small but instantly noticeable; an orb of light, pulsing, and strobing at about chest height in the center of the bedroom.

It struggled for a moment, but I could feel it drawing power into itself and growing. There was a moment then when I thought about running away, but something about this magic struck me as odd.

Then it felt familiar.

And suddenly I was faced with something I had never in a million years expected to see.

That growing ball of light was starting to take shape. Within moments, the light transformed to become a chest, a chest that grew arms, legs, and a head. My heartrate started to climb, I couldn't believe my eyes!

"Max?" I asked, my eyes widening.

The figure was ethereal, and translucent—ghostlike—but it was him. He smiled at me, then held up one hand, as if to ask me to give him a second. In another hand he held my aunt Persephone's amulet, and when he touched it, the symbols on the amulet twisted and turned, like there were little gears inside it.

Max's shimmering form slowly stabilized. Though he never became solid, he was present enough that I could hear him breathe a sigh of relief. I took a step toward him, but then I stopped. What if this is a trick?Why aren't the demons screaming?

I swallowed hard. "Max," I whispered. "Is that you?"

"Bee!" he whispered, "Can you hear me?"

"I… I can. What are you doing?"

"Reaching out to you!"

"But how… how are you here?"

"I'm not, I'm projecting."

I shook my head. "I'm in the Diaboli house. How could you be projecting in here? There're demons around!"

"I know there are. I've been trying to do this for a few days, but there have always been too many of them for me to get through. There's only a few of them around right now, and they aren't bothering me."

"Max…" I paused, shaking my head. "What's my name?"

"Your name?"

"My name."

"It's… Bee."

"No. My full name."

He frowned. "I haven't seen you in days, and you want me to tell you what your name is?"

"I have to know whether you're real, or just a Diaboli trick."

He paused. "Your full name is Beatrice Patricia Aurelian Ethera… the most ridiculous name in all of existence. You hate that name."

I shook my head and smiled. "I do hate that name. I can't believe you're really here!"

"I can't either. The Diaboli have powerful wards, and their demons keep guard over the Ether. Getting to you hasn't been easy, and I don't know how long I have before they find me."

"I want to ask you where you are, but I don't want you to tell me."

"I won't. I'm at the safehouse only dad and I know about."

That made sense. Our family had safehouses all over Boston, but there was one only my mom and I knew about, and one that only my dad and Max knew about. My parents had chosen to keep the locations of these safehouses a secret from each other, just in case either of them was ever captured.

"Are you safe?"

"I am now. The Diaboli hit all the other safehouses looking for me."

"That means they knew where they were."

"They've probably known for years. Are you okay?"

"I'm not hurt, if that's what you mean."

"I think that's what I'm going to have to settle for." He paused. "So?"

"So, what?"

"So, I'm coming to get you, and we're slipping you out of that place! I have the amulet. I can ride my connection to this place right now and have you out in an instant."

The look in his eyes was hard to ignore, as was his offer, but my gut told me that was a bad idea. If Max failed, or if it took too long, or if Mason Diaboli's invisible pets figured him out before he managed to get us both out of here, we were done for, and Mason wins.

There was also Lucien to think about. He wasn't safe with his father any more than I was. The things his father had said to him tonight, the way Mason had addressed his son… I didn't think he was as oblivious to the situation between me and Lucien as I had hoped.

The Diaboli also had a knack for knowing things. Lucien had known what flavor of pancakes I liked, and what my taste in clothes was. With Mason, his insights were probably a lot more insidious, which was why I didn't trust this one bit.

Max was real, but this situation reeked.

"No," I said, shaking my head. "You can't come and get me."

Max frowned. "What? Why not?"

"Because it's not safe for you to do that."

"I'm here right now, the demons aren't around—it'll take me ten seconds to get there, get you, and get out."

"I wouldn't let you do it even if you could do it in three."

"Bee—"

"—Max, no. I know you want to help, but trust me, you're safer where you are. We can't let the Diaboli get their hands on your amulet."

"Why not?"

"Because they want what's in mom and dad's vault, and they think the only way to get into it is with that. If they get hold of you, or of that, it's all over."

Max clearly wanted to argue, but he shut his mouth. "Alright," he said, after a moment, "What do you want me to do, then? I may not get another chance to talk to you."

I took a deep breath, then exhaled. "I know you don't want to hear this, but I need you to sit tight."

"I've been sitting tight for a week. I need to do something! I want to help. I want to kill those Diaboli bastards for what they did to mom and dad!"

"I know. Trust me, I know. But I have a plan to get out of this house, and I'm going to do it tonight."

"Tonight?"

I nodded. "I just need you to wait until I'm outside. Once I'm away from this place, I'll reach out to you and come get you."

"How are you going to do that?"

"Same way you've done this. It shouldn't be too difficult for me if you managed to pull it off," I added a smirk to help ease some of Max's apprehension.

"Wow. I'm not sure I want to come and rescue you, now."

"Good. Don't. I can rescue myself, and once I do, I promise I'll reach out to you. Just stay safe, okay?"

"I haven't been found yet."

"Keep it that way. I won't be long."

Max nodded. "Bee…"

"Yeah?"

"Just in case… I want you to know that I'm sorry."

"Sorry? For what?"

"If I hadn't let you take me out that night…"

He blames himself.Fuck.

"Shut up," I said, taking one more step toward him, "Right now. None of this is your fault, understood?"

"But I'm the one?—"

"—no. You're not. Okay? I lost the amulet, not you."

Max nodded, but only after a pause. "I love you," he said.

"I love you too, twerp."

With a smile, and a twist of the amulet, Max's ethereal form vanished, leaving a gust of phantom wind to swirl around the room, ruffling the curtains. Max was alive. He was alive, and he was alright.

I wasn't sure whether to sit back down or jump for joy. All this time I had been worried about my little brother and his wellbeing. Not only was he safe and okay, he had also kind of mastered that amulet in a way I never had. His skills were growing so quickly, it filled me with a kind of older sister pride.

In my mind, Max was still the little boy I had helped growing up. The truth was, he was a man. He was resourceful, skilled, and far more ballsy now than he had been a week ago. Sneaking his ethereal form into the Diaboli household, a literal nest of demons? The old Max would never have even considered doing that.

But I was left wondering why the demons hadn't caught up to him, why they weren't bothering him. I didn't have long to think on it as the door to my room opened, making me spin around on my heel and face it. For some reason, I had been expecting Mason, or Carla, but it was Lucien peeking into the room through the crack.

He scanned the room with glowing red eyes and placed his hand on the wall. Crimson sigils spread from his palm, crawled into the wallpaper and began to pulse steadily.

"What is that?" I asked, keeping my voice barely above a whisper.

"It's time," he said, reaching a hand toward me. "Are you coming?"

I rushed up toward him and took his hand. "Wherever you want me to go," I said.

"I'll settle for anywhere but here. C'mon."

Lucien led me out of the room, leaving the door to shut by itself. It was dark in the house, but his eyes shone red, and wherever we went, he left more of these strange sigils about. I wasn't sure what they were, but if I had to guess, they were there to keep the demons away.

Maybe that was how Max had managed to find a gap and reach me.

"You realize," I said, as we reached a corner. "If you do this, your father will disown you."

Lucien turned his head to the side and looked at me. He didn't speak. Instead, he cupped my cheek and gently kissed the corner of my mouth. "I've already disowned him," he said. "I'm with you, Bee."

I nodded. "Then, let's go."