Chapter 23

CHAPTER 23

S he's right, I should tell the other gods, but if I do, they will come to Earth and hunt for the necromancer, leaving nothing unturned, and they will find her. They won't care about my reasons or my hopes.

They will slaughter her.

I cannot let that happen. It is selfish, but I have to protect her. I know I can hunt this necromancer alone, and I will do it quickly before it draws the gods' attention. No doubt Mors already senses something amiss. I will do everything I can to protect Freya.

My eyes fall on her. She's standing, silent and seemingly lost. She is sad and horrified by what she saw. It shouldn't make me happy, but it does. It shows me exactly why I'm doing this. She's not evil. She's not darkness, not like that. She cares, and she showed that much tonight. Even when the darkness took her earlier, she caught it and called to me. I still remember the panic in her voice. I'm just glad I was here to bring her back from it, but it had been close.

We need to be more careful because the closer we get to this person, the more her powers will react. We cannot lose her along the way.

She turns and walks to her bed, falling into it before wrapping herself in the bedding. I hear her soft sobs moments later, and my heart breaks for her, but I let her feel it as I meet the demon's eyes.

"We have to keep her safe."

"Then let them go, let them kill. I will not risk her," he snaps.

I wish I could give up on the rest of the world for her like he can. That is the difference between us. This demon would forsake this world for her, uncaring as it burns, but I can't. The best I can do is try to protect her.

As my eyes find her again, I cannot help but move closer, something nudging against my mind.

"Phrixius?" the demon snaps.

My magic screams, and as I lay my hand on her, I gasp, thrown into the dream—no, a nightmare is claiming her. It rings with truth and a touch of fate, as if we have already lived it.

"Now, little witch," the dark voice calls, the husky timbre making me shake.

For a god, he truly is a patient man, being held in my trap for so long. When I set it and cast a summoning spell, I didn't expect this, but I had nowhere else to turn. The magic in me called something dark, and I need help or it will be the downfall of my coven, my court, and the world as we know it.

"From the beginning once more," he urges, sitting cross-legged.

He disappeared a few days ago, and I panicked, but he returned, which begs the question—if he can leave, then why hasn't he?

"I told you," I say as I pace. "I don't know how I called it, and neither does the demon that feeds on our magic. When you left, I was trying to rid my coven of it. I thought if I could show them, I could banish the demon, and we would be okay, but I called something much worse." I peer at him. "I called something wrong, something dark and dead. Please, Phrixius, please help me."

I feel the demon I speak of pushing from the shadows as if the world pauses when such evil emerges. A cold chill goes over me as the demon's heat meets my back. The god stands then, anger furrowing his brow as he meets the demon's eyes—the eyes of the demon I've been haunted by my entire life .

"He cannot, but I can. I told you, little witch, just make one pesky little deal and I'm yours," he purrs in my ear. His voice is smooth and relaxing, making me sway into him. I want to give into the bargain he has been peddling since I turned eighteen, one I can never agree to, but for a moment, I falter.

"No," Phrixius snaps, his fury breaking me from the spell the demon weaves around me, and with a furious look at the chuckling demon, Phrixius steps from the spell circle, righting his suit, and doesn't stop until he stands before me.

Their powers surge through me, leaving me breathless.

"I will help you. You called and trapped me, after all," he counters.

"What could a god know of such dark, evil things?" the demon retorts.

"More than a lowly ground crawler," the god replies, my head aching from their power.

Something dark, evil, cold, and dead grasps my ankle and yanks me down, and with a scream, I reach for the demon and the god, but it's too late.

The thing I called forth rips me from my cave and into its grasp.

I yank us both from the dream. She gasps, jerking up, her eyes wide. "What was that?" she asks.

"That was magic. That was the past mixing with the future—a foretelling, a warning . . . like your déjà vu," I mutter, staring into her eyes. If that dream claimed her within seconds, then it means it was waiting for her.

"We should place some defences around this place." Standing, I turn to the demon. "The creature she called is coming for her. Help me."

We move to the cave entrance, both of us debating how best to protect her. "I can use my magic to create a barrier. It should even keep other gods out." It's something I should have done before. "I don't know how it will react to you though."

"If we add my blood, it should allow me to enter. Either way, I'm tied to Freya, so it might recognise me," he replies as I nod. With my hands raised, I begin to lay the protective ward. It's born from ancient magic older than even me, but as I do, something tickles my senses, making me freeze.

Something stirs the air, something dark, ancient, and powerful. We both turn in horror.

Freya is standing with her arms wrapped around her in front of her bed. She tilts her head as we both turn. "What?" she asks worriedly.

Suddenly, a long, midnight-black hand reaches from under the bed, wrapping around her ankle and yanking her down. She screams, clawing at the floor before she is dragged under.

I leap over, slamming my magic down to stop the creature, but it's too late. I don't feel it anymore. I flip the bed with the demon, and we both freeze, our eyes wide.

There, like a still glowing, healing scar, is a closed portal.

It's what the creature came through and used to steal Freya.