17. Ember

17

EMBER

F ear flushed through me, turning my veins to ice and battling with the pull of the Underworld. My nails dug into Mayhem’s shoulders as I tried to wrench myself free from his grasp.

He held onto me tighter. “That is the griffin’s fear, not yours.”

“The hell it is.” I turned, yanking my shoulder away, but he refused to loosen his grip. “Let me go.”

“Ember, stop.” He ducked down to catch my gaze. “Breathe for me, my love. Breathe and focus inward. What do you feel?”

Icy veins, nausea, full-on flight mode. “Sheer terror.”

“Ignore my sigil and look deeper.” He released one shoulder to press his palm to my chest. “What do you feel here?”

I swallowed the thickness from my throat and focused on the sensation of his hand against my heart. His irises returned to their normal amethyst hue, and my pulse slowed to a manageable speed. “I…”

“Have you ever been afraid of me?”

I gave my head a tiny shake. “No.”

“Mayhem…” Chaos’s voice sounded strained.

My demon raised a finger to his brother, his gaze never straying from mine. “Are you afraid of me now?”

“No, I could never. I want to be with you always. We can if…” I tried to move toward the rift, but he held me tightly.

“Release your hold on me. Close the connection before the Underworld drags you through.”

“I don’t want to. We need to go through.”

“You must. This is too much for your body to bear.” He covered the sigil on my arm with his hand. “I’m not going anywhere, and neither are you. Please, Ember, shut it off.”

I sucked in a shaky breath and focused on our connection, trying to close it, but the moment it grabbed my focus, I wanted nothing more than to run through the rift, taking my demon with me.

“Please, Mayhem. We have to go.”

“No.” His grip on my arm tightened, his brow slamming down over his eyes. “Close the connection, Ember. I demand it.”

“I can’t.”

“You can, and you will.” His eyes softened. “You must if you want to survive.”

I gasped as the sensation of a heavy door slamming rocked my system. A moment of clarity brought the world into focus before the door cracked and my desire to drag him to Hell returned.

“Do it, Ember.” He pushed the door closed once more.

My stomach churned and pain sliced through my veins like razors as I tried. I imagined the glow of his mark fading, leaving behind only the black ink from which it was created. Panting with the exertion, I mentally erased the ink, leaving my arm unmarred.

With another deep breath, I closed the connection, finally freeing myself from the grips of… whatever that was. “I don’t. I don’t understand.”

“I don’t have time to explain. I must help Chaos keep the rift in check.” He kissed my forehead and released my arm. “Don’t try to connect with me again. Not while this rift is open.”

“Okay.” My voice was barely audible over my pulse whooshing in my ears. “How…?”

He locked the imaginary door between us, severing our connection from his end and nearly ripping the breath from my lungs. I gasped and turned a circle, my lungs burning, my soul aching as if it had been torn in two…shredded. The rest of my team stared at me with concerned expressions. Even Ash.

“Did you not feel that?” I pointed at the demons.

Ash pursed her lips, her gaze flicking to my arm before she met my eyes. “I felt something, but definitely not whatever you felt.”

I huffed, my mouth hanging open as I stood there dumbfounded. What the actual eff had just happened? One minute, I was poised and ready to rodeo with a griffin. The next, I wanted to leave everything behind and jump into the rift.

“She is here.” Mayhem’s voice sounded normal. No straining since he shared the load with his brother, but I didn’t dare turn around to look at him. My legs felt numb, my mind mushy, and my insides tangled and twisted.

I squinted into the sky, but without Mayhem’s magic flowing through me, I couldn’t see the griffin above us. “Where?”

“She will arrive from the east,” my demon said. “You must capture her before she makes it through the rift.”

“That’s the plan.” Ash unwound her rope, holding the lasso by the loop. Miles and Shade did the same while Patrice mixed a healing potion.

My mouth still hung open, so I snapped it shut and shielded my eyes against the sun. I caught a glimpse of my forearm in my peripheral vision and sucked in the biggest, sharpest breath I had ever inhaled.

Mayhem’s sigil was gone.

I checked my other arm, in case I’d forgotten where my demon’s mark lay—as if that could happen—but only the speed and strength sigils Ash had applied remained on my skin. I rubbed my unmarred skin and glanced at Mayhem. The rift was now invisible to me, the urge to plow through it and spend eternity in Hell gone.

My brow crumpled as I caught Mayhem’s gaze. “What did you do?”

“Incoming!” Miles said, drawing me back to our current predicament.

The griffin seemed to glow in the late morning sun, her white feathers gleaming, fading into shiny brown fur. She screeched, sending the forest critters scampering, and I widened my stance, my muscles tightening, my thoughts narrowing, pinpointing on my task.

Because if I stopped to think about what just happened with Mayhem, I might crumble into dust.

The beastie circled above us, half-screeching, half-roaring her disapproval. Shade threw his rope, yanking it back to tighten the loop when it hit her paw, but she flapped her wings, ascending before he could get ahold of her.

A growl rumbled from her chest, and she did a little loop-de-loop above us before perching at the top of a tree. Its branches groaned beneath her weight, a few of the smaller ones snapping and falling to the ground.

“Here, kitty, kitty.” I crept toward the tree. “Pspspsp.”

“Her head is an eagle.” Shade rolled his eyes. “I doubt cat noises…”

“Reow,” the griffin replied, her eyes darting in their sockets.

“She’s scared. Can you calm her down?” I glanced at the demons.

“We will not harm you,” Mayhem said. “Give us the amulet, and you are free to return to the Underworld, where you can nest in peace.”

She let out a nervous mewl and adjusted her perch.

“Where is the amulet, guys?” Patrice inched toward the tree, pointing at each paw before circling her finger to indicate the griffin’s beak. “I don’t see it.”

“Neither do I.” I strode toward the beastie, my stomach souring. “She must’ve dropped it somewhere.”

The griffin let out an ear-splitting screech. Her claws extended from her murder mittens, her giant bean-toes curling around the branches, snapping them as if they were twigs. I stumbled back as she scrambled to grab another branch, but the tree couldn’t support her weight anymore.

She tumbled, smacking her head against the ground before sitting up, stunned. I tossed my lasso, using her temporary immobility to loop it around her neck. She scrambled to her feet, and Ash got a loop around one paw.

“Why are we trapping her if she doesn’t have the amulet?” Miles asked.

“She has it,” Mayhem said. “I can sense it nearby.”

“As can I,” Chaos said, “but you must act quickly. If this rift gets any larger, we won’t be able to stop the horde gathering on the other side.”

“Big demons?” I tightened my loop.

“Many big demons,” Mayhem said.

“It’s okay, sweet girl.” I inched closer, wrapping the rope around my hand to take up the slack as I approached. “Do you have a pouch somewhere or did you drop the amulet?”

She let out a nervous chuffing sound as she eyed our demons and the rift, stomping her paws like a bull ready to charge. I held up my hands, widening my stance and feeling an awful lot like the raptor-tamer guy from Jurassic World . There I was, trying to calm a ginormous animal that shouldn’t even be in this world, when she could take my head off with one snap of her massive beak.

“What do we do, guys?” I took another step forward, and she growled. “Okay, I won’t get any closer. Can you talk to her?” I looked over my shoulder at the demons.

“She’s an animal,” Mayhem said. “She understands as much as a house cat would.”

Patrice said something under her breath. I snapped my gaze to her as she tossed a pint of blue liquid on the griffin’s side. “She must have it!” Her voice took on a shrill edge, her eyes widening and her nostrils flaring as she recited a binding spell I’d never heard. “Ties that bind and control. With this spell, I have full hold.”

The griffin jerked her head toward Patrice, yanking Ash’s rope from her grasp. I’d coiled mine around my hand, so I kept my grip. But as the beastie roared and snapped at Patrice, she hauled me with her, knocking my feet out from under me and dragging me across the ground.

So much for the new binding spell.

Patrice screamed and stumbled into a tree. The griffin huffed and stomped, and Shade pulled out the enchanted dagger, pointing it at the beastie’s rump and releasing a blast of Miles’s energy.

She screeched and snapped at Shade, swiping out a paw. Lucky for Shade, the tip of her claw barely nicked his arm. Sure, she opened a massive gash in his biceps, but if she’d been five inches closer, she’d have sliced him in two.

“What happened to not agitating her?” I dusted off my pants.

The griffin unfurled her wings.

“Oh, shit.”

She flapped, taking to the sky and—since I’d so brilliantly coiled the rope around my hand—dragging me along with her. I grabbed it with my free hand as she ascended, and I hung from her neck like a human albatross, swinging in the breeze as she circled just above the trees.

At least I was right-side-up this time.

“Can you see the amulet?” Chaos shouted from below. “Perhaps it’s matted in her fur.”

I gazed up at the momma-to-be. Her white eagle feathers blended perfectly into sleek, brown fur. Not a mat to be seen. Her belly was even bigger than the day before, and her udders…or were they called nipples on a lion? Whatever the proper term, they looked painfully red and swollen.

Something in her tummy shifted, her eggs, I assumed, and she let out a deep, distraught bellow that nearly broke my heart. This poor creature needed to nest…now.

“I don’t think she has it,” I shouted as I climbed the rope. What I planned to do when I reached the top, I wasn’t sure, but I was too high to let go and fall. My legs would snap on impact from this altitude.

“She does,” Mayhem said. “Use your magic to sense it. She has it somewhere on her person.”

Oof. Yet another skill I hadn’t practiced in a while. Ash was the one who scoured the thrift stores and collected magical artifacts before the humans could get their hands on them.

The griffin bellowed again and swooped toward a tree. Branches slapped across my arms, cutting into my skin, and I buried my face in her feathers as she unsteadily perched in an oak. The blob in her stomach shifted again, moving closer to the exit, and she huffed out a mewling moan.

“Hey, sweet girl. I’m not going to hurt you.” I tentatively rested a hand on her shoulder, running it over her silky fur. “I just need to see if you have the amulet. I don’t think you do, but the demons down there insist.”

I grabbed a handful of fur and hauled myself onto her back. She made an irritated chuffing sound, and I stroked her, running my hands from her feathers to her fur and focusing on sending soothing energy into her.

“My love is wide, my caring deep. I wish you calm so you may sleep.” My mom used to say those words to me when I was a kid and was too wound up for bedtime. My palms warmed, my peaceful intent seeping into her as I recited the spell again.

I continued petting the griffin and glanced at the scene below. The demons no longer strained, which meant they had closed the rift they’d opened. Shade sat with his back against a tree trunk while Patrice stitched up his arm, and Ash and Miles worked together on a potion.

The griffin began to relax, the tension in her muscles easing as my calming energy soothed her.

Me, calm and soothing. Crazy, I know.

With the beastie subdued, I shifted my focus to sensing the amulet. I lay on the griffin’s back, resting my cheek against her feathered neck and spreading my arms, creating as much contact as I could. Her low, underworldly vibration registered in my psyche, growing stronger and stronger until my entire body hummed.

Wait. I lifted my head and smiled. That wasn’t her magical vibration I felt. She was purring.

“That’s a good girl.” I laid my head on her neck and tried again. “Confess, expose my magic sleuth. I call on you to reveal your truth.”

I didn’t think the spell would actually work. Not without a potion to amplify my intent. But the moment the last word crossed my lips, I felt it. The griffin’s magic was unmistakable, low and gray. She hadn’t come to this realm with ill intent.

I felt Patrice’s new binding spell too, though it was nothing like the one we normally used. This bind seemed to be more about controlling the receiver. Forcing compliance. It was an interesting choice for a healer witch, but we were all acting outside our comfort zones lately. Lucky for the griffin…and unlucky for us…she was too powerful to be subdued by Patrice’s magic.

The amulet’s energy was the strongest. The mix of Hecate’s high and Lucifer’s low vibrations registered in my being, and I scooted down the griffin’s back, following the magical pull and searching for a pouch in her skin where she might have hidden it. She was already an eagle and lion combo. Why not kangaroo too?

I kept moving down, running my hands over her fur until…

Oh no.

I moved up to her neck, straddling her back and leaning toward her ear. “I know the guys said you don’t understand words any more than a house cat does, but I think they’re wrong. I think you understand me, don’t you?”

Her purring intensified.

“We want to send you back home so you can raise your babies in peace, but we need your help first.” I dug my hands into her feathers, gently gripping them. “I promise no one on the ground will hurt you. Will you please take us down?”

She let out a noise that sounded half-chirp, half-meow, but the communication I received wasn’t audible. I couldn’t tell you if she put the words into my mind or if I simply felt what she wanted to say, but her message was clear. She just wanted to go home.

“We’ll get you home. I promise.” I focused on the strange connection we shared. Could all griffins communicate this way, or was it the amulet’s doing? At the moment, it didn’t matter. “Please take us to the ground so I can tell my team what’s happening.”

I felt her compliance a moment before she leaped from the branches. I squealed, tightening my grip on her feathers as she flapped her wings. She circled above the trees, and the chilly autumn air whipped my hair back, stinging my cheeks as we soared.

She swooped toward the clearing at a speed that would surely turn into a crash landing, and I forced myself to keep my eyes open. I was riding an effing griffin! Talk about your once-in-a-lifetime experiences.

We didn’t crash., thankfully. Instead, she landed softly in the grass and lowered her front end so I could slide off.

“Put your weapons away,” I said. “She isn’t going to hurt anyone.”

Shade and Miles hesitated, their expressions wary, but they sheathed their knives. “How did you tame her?” Miles asked.

“She was already tame. I only comforted her.” I glanced at Mayhem. “And she does understand words.”

“Amazing.” The look of awe in his eyes made my stomach flutter.

“Did you retrieve the amulet?” Chaos asked.

“About that…” I ran my hand down her silky shoulder. “She swallowed it.”