12. Mayhem

12

MAYHEM

I t took three and a half earthly hours to reach the town they called Worcester. The sun sank behind the horizon, painting the sky in shades of deep orange and purple before it disappeared, making way for the moon to reflect its light in silver hues.

The motel in which Chaos and Ash had spent the night resembled a dumpster compared to our New York penthouse, but they assured us Hazel resided in the room next door. Ember parked the van on the opposite end of the building, out of sight from the main road…and Hazel’s view. Miles and Shade placed a ward on the vehicle, and we gathered weapons before creeping quietly to room one-twenty-seven.

Two beds, each barely large enough to sleep a single demon, took up most of the space, and a minuscule round table with two stained chairs sat near the shaded window. Ash spoke, though she emitted no sound. In fact, even the heated air blowing from the vent created no audible vibrations.

Ash waved her hand, and my ears popped, her voice becoming clear. “I brought you into the silencing spell so you can speak freely. I also put an amplifier on her room so we can hear her better.”

“She hasn’t left since we arrived,” Chaos said. “She had food delivered once, and she talks on the phone to a friend in New York.”

“Any idea why Adrian’s making her wait?” Ember curled her lip at the untouched bed and took off the thin, brown covering before sinking onto the edge of the mattress.

“We’re not even sure he’s the one she’s meeting,” Ash said. “She’s spoken to both a man and a woman about it, but we’ll find out soon enough. It’s going down in half an hour.”

“I’m glad we made it in time.” I sat next to Ember, and the mattress squeaked as it absorbed my weight. A red ring stained the faux-wood nightstand, and one side of the drawer handle hung loose. “I’m also glad we won’t have to stay the night in these sub-par accommodations.”

“You spent four centuries in prison, and you’re worried about sleeping in a seedy motel?” Ember adjusted her position, curling her lip as the mattress springs groaned. “Can’t say I blame you.”

“Any minute now.” Hazel’s voice sounded as if she were in the room with us. “You know how melodramatic High Priests can be. He probably wants to meet there for the aesthetic.”

I gave my brother a questioning look. “Adrian isn’t coming here?”

“He wishes to meet her in the cemetery across the street,” Chaos said.

“That tracks.” Shade laughed dryly and sank into a chair. “She’s not wrong about the melodrama. Remember his throne?”

“Why are we waiting for Adrian to arrive?” I asked. “Could we not break down her door and take the amulet now, saving all of us the trouble of dealing with the High Priest again?”

“Good question.” Ember patted my thigh. “Why are we just sitting here?”

“She doesn’t have it on her person,” Chaos said.

“She hid it somewhere before she got here.” Ash rose and padded to a sink at the back of the room. “Apparently, she wore it on the drive over and it’s already affected her. She’s been bragging to her friend about how strong the wards she put on the amulet and her room are.”

An array of bottles sat on the counter, and Ash arranged them in her bag. “I tried scrying for it, but she hid it well. We’ll have to follow her when she leaves and wait for her to uncover it. Shade can cloak us.”

“She can see through my shadows.” Shade drummed his fingers on the table. “Can’t you mind control her and make her hand it over?”

“We tried that too,” Ash said. “The wards she set up are stronger than anything I’ve experienced. If she hadn’t checked in under her real name, we’d never have found her.”

“Yet you were able to amplify the sounds of her warded room…” I arched a brow.

“The amulet made her stronger, not smarter.” Ash shrugged. “She’s not letting anything in, but she didn’t bother herself with noise getting out.”

“As far as she knows, we’re still locked in the vault.” Ember rose, turning left and right, but there was no room for her to pace. She sat back down. “She’s got dollar signs in her eyes. I doubt she considered someone might try to intercept it.”

“What about her?” Hazel’s voice drifted through the wall. “Unless she can conjure four times what she offered, she’s not a player in this game. The High Priest offered me twenty grand.”

Ember’s brows crept toward her hairline. “She has multiple prospects?”

“That explains why she’s been negotiating with a man and a woman,” Ash said. “I didn’t make the connection that it could be two different buyers.”

“I’m going to demand forty,” Hazel said. “Because, Mom, with forty, we can keep the house.”

We remained silent, waiting for her to speak again.

“I’d like to see them try,” she continued. “It made me so strong. You’ll see. I’ll be home tonight with fifty grand in my pocket and more power than all our ancestors combined. I have to go… Yes, I’ll be careful. Blessed be.”

Hazel’s lock disengaged. The door opened and closed. Miles pulled back the curtain slightly, watching her as she exited the motel. “She’s heading to the cemetery on foot. Maybe she hid the amulet there.”

Ember rose and stretched the tension from her neck. “Here’s the plan. Shade, you’ll cloak us. Like you said, seeing through shadow is active magic. She’s so distracted with the thought of money, she might not use her power.”

“And if she does?” Chaos asked.

“We’ll do our best to stay out of sight.” She slipped past me and stood at the foot of the bed. “Ash, can you make our bubble of silence mobile?”

“I can do that.”

“She is away from her ward of protection.” I stood and moved toward the door. “We could grab her now. Put her out of her misery if she refuses to cooperate.”

My witch held up a finger. “Everyone is keeping their misery intact. Understood? No more dead bodies.”

I spread my hands, conceding. “I understand, though she did attempt to kill us. You would have suffocated slowly had you not mastered the unlocking spell.”

“She’s in the cemetery.” Miles let the curtain fall into place.

Ember clutched our stolen dagger, filling it with fire magic before handing it to Shade. “Just in case.”

“I don’t…” He started to protest but clamped his mouth shut and accepted the weapon, also accepting his magical limitations. He was the only one of us who could not throw magic at a distance.

“Let’s head out. The moment she grabs the amulet, we move in.” Ember turned to me. “Subdue her, but do not kill her.”

If anyone else spoke to me in this manner, I would make a point to kill Hazel the moment I saw her. But Ember wasn’t anyone else. She was my witch, and I would gladly obey her every command.

Or do my best to obey. I could make no guarantees.

We filed out of our tiny room, and though Shade’s cloak turned the world gray around us, we kept to the shadows. Our team remained silent, the weight of the task at hand settling on our shoulders, the fate of this world a heavy burden on our backs.

How easy it would be to grab Ember and whisk her to the Underworld, ridding ourselves of the encumbrance. A witch of her power would survive the transition. Her sister had proven that. She would technically be dead when she reached Hell, therefore unable to return to this realm.

But she would be mine for eternity.

Though, if I took her against her will, she would be certain to make eternity a living hell for us both. I chuckled, wondering how Discord was fairing with Cinder. If she were half as feisty as her sisters, he would no doubt be suffering.

“Something funny?” Ember asked, drawing me from my rumination. We had crossed the street and now gathered behind a mausoleum, out of Hazel’s line of vision. She peeked past the wall, pressing her fingertips to the stone.

“Not at all,” I said, my thoughts turning to darkness. Their plan to mend the veil involved bringing Cinder back from the dead. They couldn’t possibly understand the consequences of such an act. Without Lucifer’s blessing, the feat would be nearly impossible, and even with his approval, necromancy was dark magic. They had already cast a phoenix spell to bring me back. What would performing the darkest of dark magic do to their vim…their souls?

“Your sister—” I began.

“Shit. Adrian’s here with his posse.” Ember ducked behind the mausoleum, leaning her back against the white stucco wall. I could see her heart pounding against her chest.

“There’s something—” I tried again to discuss the issue we’d have with Cinder, but she cut me off, holding up a finger.

“Shh. Listen.” She leaned her head against the wall and closed her eyes.

“Where’s the amulet?” Adrian asked, his voice grating on my nerves the same way it had when we’d encountered him last.

“Where’s my money?” Hazel answered with a question of her own.

I moved in front of Ember, the urge to pull her into my arms, open a rift, and run to Hell so strong, I nearly did just that. Instead, I leaned to my left, peering around the building to witness the attempted exchange.

The same witches we had encountered before fanned out around Adrian as he scoffed. “Gray, who’s with her?”

His shadow witch narrowed her eyes, and I stepped back, out of view. “She’s alone as far I can see, but…”

I waited a beat or two for Gray to finish—she no doubt had qualms about Hazel’s strength since she had the amulet in her possession—but she trailed off, leaving her opinion unspoken.

“We’ll wire you the money when you hand over the amulet,” Adrian said. “Where is it?”

I peered around the mausoleum again. Hazel had her back to us, and Gray no longer squinted, so I stepped closer to get a better view.

“Mayhem!” Ember whisper shouted, though Ash’s silencing spell still held strong.

“I’m not an idiot.” Hazel crossed her arms. “Set up the wire. Show me you have fifty K ready to send me, and then I’ll get the amulet.”

The High Priest laughed, the noise sounding like it belonged to an exaggerated movie villain. “Our agreement was twenty.”

She shrugged one shoulder dismissively. “I have another buyer lined up if you don’t want it.”

“Who?” Adrian asked. “Are they from Salem? I highly doubt they have the funds available to beat my offer.”

“The Salem witches tried to steal it.” Hazel shifted her weight to one leg, resting her hand on her hip. “I left them in the vault in New York.”

Ember tensed beside me, her energy shifting into fight mode. Good. I would love to tear Adrian’s head from his neck. Perhaps I could use it as a bowling ball in the Underworld. The Severed Heads League had invited me to join their ranks before Isabel imprisoned me.

“Does she have it yet?” my witch asked through clenched teeth.

“She has not revealed its location,” I said.

Chaos moved beside me, his expression grim. “Do you feel it? Focus on the veil.”

I shifted my attention from the imbecile witches playing with a force they could never fully comprehend to the energy around us. The low vibration of the Underworld registered immediately, making my arm hairs stand on end.

“A rift is forming.” I scanned our surroundings but found no visual clues. Not yet. “Wait. There are two.”

“I feel them both as well,” Chaos said. “Ready yourselves for company. We aren’t the only ones preparing to intercept the amulet.”

Ember unsheathed her sword while Miles and Shade clutched daggers in each hand. Ash rubbed her thumbs against her fingertips, making them spark before adjusting the strap of her bag.

“Bring it on,” Ember said.

“One rift is there.” I pointed to the shimmering line of red forming three feet away. It hadn’t yet opened, but the energy from the being wishing to cross over was palpable.

“Let’s seal it before anything gets through.” Ember gripped her sword in one hand and offered the other Ash. They spoke the incantation, and Ash dusted the tear with her potion. The red line faded, closing before it could fully open.

Adrian laughed again, drawing my attention to the exchange. “Did one of them have purple hair? And one with blue?”

“Purple, yes. A woman with two men. I didn’t see anyone with blue.”

He laughed harder. “You locked the High Priestess of Salem in a vault. I suppose I can give you a bonus for getting her out of my hair.” He snapped his fingers at a male witch. “Hector, pull up the wire transfer and change the amount to thirty thousand.”

“I want fifty or I’ll take it to the other buyer.”

Adrian arched a brow. “You’ll take thirty and hand it over…if you value your life.”

Hazel shifted her weight from foot to foot, crossing and uncrossing her arms. “Forty-five.”

Adrian inclined his chin, tilting his head in warning.

Hazel’s posture deflated. “Okay. Thirty. Show it to me.”

Adrian jerked his head toward her, and Hector showed her a phone. I was too far away to see the contents of the screen, but Hazel nodded and stepped away.

“It’s a deal,” she said.

“It’s about damn time.” Ember stepped around the wall to stand next to me. “You said two rifts were forming. Where’s the other one?”

I focused on the vibrations in the air. “Behind Adrian. I believe it’s from the fae realm.”

“I agree,” Chaos said. “The question is, did Adrian invite them?”

“Doesn’t matter.” Ember clutched her sword with both hands. “We’re here for the amulet. Let Boston deal with their own problems.”

A blast of power shot through the rift, blinding light enveloping us, the force of the wind so strong, Adrian and his witches stumbled. Three fae soldiers entered our realm, the first latching onto Hector so quickly he didn’t have time to gasp before the creature plunged his talons into the witch’s chest and ripped out his still-beating heart.