9. Ember

9

EMBER

“P lease tell me that’s not what I think it is,” I shouted over the blood-curdling screams as I scanned the room, searching for anything I could use as a weapon.

“It’s the fae. They’re here for the amulet.” Shade said as he rushed toward me.

“No shit, Captain Obvious.” I grabbed a handful of fruit kabobs from the buffet, but the wooden skewers were as light as balsa sticks. If steel broke upon impact with giant insect armor, these would turn to splinters. I shoved a melon ball into my mouth and tossed the rest into a yogurt bowl.

“What is happening?” Hazel pressed a hand to her chest and backed up until she smacked the wall. Her gaze bounced around the room, her brow furrowing in concentration as if she were attempting to see through shadows that didn’t exist.

“Those are fae.” A growl rumbled from Mayhem’s chest, and his talons protruded from his fingertips.

I grasped his hands, covering his built-in Freddy Krueger knives, and whispered, “Put those away, Wolverine.”

He growled again, but he did as I asked. “We have no weapons.”

“Yes, we do.” Shade tossed me a butter knife he’d snagged from the buffet. It had a rounded tip and a dull blade, but it was better than the fruit skewer I’d found.

“What the hell?” a man shouted.

“I can’t see them,” another one said.

A woman slammed against the wall, her throat collapsing before her stomach ripped open. Her insides spilled onto the floor as the invisible fae wrenched out her liver. The crowd silenced, watching in sheer horror, the sounds of bones breaking and flesh tearing echoing through the room as the soldier plunged his claws into her chest and ripped out her heart, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom style.

The squelching and munching that followed made me gag, but the gasps of terror from the other witches spurred me into action.

“Where’s the rift?” I shoved the knife into my bra and finally adjusted my boobs. I was tempted to whip the damn thing off, but it was the only clothing I had on that could hold a weapon.

“Above the chandelier.” Mayhem pointed, and another shimmery Predator monster dropped onto the fixture. “I count three.”

“Three rifts?” I grabbed more butter knives, creating a bouquet of blades in my cleavage.

“Three soldiers.” He gathered fire in his palms. “Make that four.”

“How?” Hazel’s eyes grew to the size of salad plates.

Mass panic ensued, making the spacious buffet room feel like a tiny, overcrowded closet. Grunts, rips, screams, and gurgling last breaths created a cacophony of horror as the fae wreaked their havoc on the unsuspecting witches.

“This was a setup.” I clutched two metal shrimp skewers and kicked off my shoes, scanning the room for the telltale shimmer of overgrown flies.

To my left, someone shouted a binding spell. I waited for a fae to freeze—or hell, I’d have been happy if it affected the entire room—but no magic built in the air. Her words were as mundane as a vampire was thirsty.

“We could use your spell kit about now, Ash.” I pressed my fingers to the earpiece, not giving a flying flip if anyone knew I was wired. “We’ve got a rift and four fae that need freezing.”

“Magic won’t work in here.” Hazel eyed Mayhem’s fiery hands. “It shouldn’t work.”

I ignited a fireball, heating the metal skewers until they glowed red. “What do you mean?”

“I guess they didn’t count on elementals.” She poked at her phone screen, frowning. “Once you pass the foyer, there’s a ward to bind magic on every room. No one can cast a spell, but apparently, elementals can use their inborn gifts.”

“She’s right,” Shade said. “Shadows aren’t elemental. I can’t create one.”

“There should be a door in the back left corner, hidden in the wall,” Ash said over the coms. “If you can get through it, we can guide you out.”

A guard blasted his assault rifle into the chandelier. The bullets lodged in—or passed through—the ceiling, but glass rained onto the throng of witches, making them panic more. The fifth fae, who’d dropped through the rift at just the right time, took a hit in the neck. He screeched, his shroud slipping as he thudded on the floor, revealing his ghastly nature to the crowd.

“Find the door, Em,” Ash reminded me.

“We’ll get right on that.” I stormed toward the injured fae, elbowing people out of my way and shoving a shrimp skewer into his ear hole. The bug goo inside him sizzled with my heat, and I lifted a layer of his armor and jabbed a butter knife into his heart.

Another fae grabbed the guard with the rifle and hurled him upward, into the ceiling. Sheetrock cracked and bones crunched before he fell, smacking the floor. Blood oozed from a gash in his head, and I cringed as the fae tossed him onto his back and ripped out his organs.

Rising to my feet, I spun toward Hazel. “Can you lift the ward? These witches aren’t fighters. Without their spell powers, they’ll be massacred.”

A fae shimmered three feet behind her, and Mayhem hurled hellfire at him. The bastard screeched, losing his glamour for half a second as he backed away to find an easier target.

Hazel squealed and clutched Mayhem’s arm. “I can’t. I didn’t cast it, and even if I was strong enough to break it, my magic doesn’t work in here either.”

“Hecate on a hellhound. Your people didn’t think this through. You’ve trapped us in a barrel. We’re the fish, and the fae have the guns.”

“Get to the door, Em,” Ash said in my ear. “I’ll see if I can lift the wards from the foyer.”

“Don’t you dare come into this building.” I grabbed Hazel by the arm, dragging her to the door in question. “Open it.”

“I can’t.” She blubbered, tears streaming down her face. “The seven-five-seven protocol means the doors are bolted by the security system. Only an admin can unlock them.”

“Miles?” I asked.

“On it.” The sound of his fingers clicking keys filled my ear. “Ash is on her way inside. I tried to stop her, but you know how those two are.”

Yes, I knew all too well, and I couldn’t fault her. Had our roles been reversed, and she’d ordered me to stay outside, I’d have come in anyway. “How long will it take?”

“A few minutes.” He continued clicking.

A fae shimmered to my right and slammed a witch in a blue sports coat onto the ground. Shade hurled a butter knife, but, big surprise, they weren’t weighted right for throwing. It bounced off the side of the fae’s head and landed on the carpet.

Mayhem threw hellfire, charring a wing, and the fae dropped his shroud to reveal his pincers opening and closing half an inch from his prey’s face. Poisonous saliva dripped onto the witch’s mouth.

“Help me,” the man squeaked.

“Any time now, Miles.” I clutched a knife, heating it as I marched toward the fae. Mayhem shot a solid stream of fire at his back, and his wings fluttered, raining bits of char onto the witch as he plunged his hand into the man’s gut.

Grabbing a tuft of white hair, I yanked the fae’s head up and jabbed a knife beneath his chin. It passed through his open mouth and lodged in the front of his brain, hopefully lobotomizing the bastard.

I kicked the side of his head, and he fell onto his back at Shade’s feet. “He’s all yours.”

“I’d like to draw the life out of you slowly, but I’ll make do with a knife.” Shade lifted an armored plate and put an end to fae number two.

“Doors are opening,” Miles said. “Go out the back and make a left down the service hall, take the second right, go through the third door on your left, and take the stairs to the basement. The vault will be on your right about twenty yards down.”

“You expect me to remember all that?” I moved toward the door, still scanning the room for our invisible foes.

“What about the three other soldiers?” Shade asked.

“I’m almost done with the wards,” Ash replied. “Get the amulet and get out. The other witches will have to handle them on their own.”

“I don’t like leaving people to die.” I whirled toward Hazel, ready to drag her to safety, but she had already darted out the door.

“Imagine how many more will perish if we don’t complete our quest.” Mayhem gently touched my elbow, guiding me toward the back exit.

Across the room, the massive double doors swung on their hinges, opening to the foyer, and I caught a glimpse of my sister and her demon holding hands. Ash’s eyes were closed as she recited an incantation.

“I will keep her safe,” Chaos said in my earpiece.

“You sure as hell better.” I slipped through the back door with Mayhem and Shade, yanking it closed behind me.

The sweet bliss of silence engulfed us as we made our way down the wide service hall. The speckled white linoleum felt cool on my bare feet, taming the heat of adrenaline rushing through my veins. A bead of sweat from beneath my left boob rolled down my stomach, and my heart hammered so hard in my chest, I thought it might bust through my ribs.

We turned down the second hallway, and I stopped. “Wait. Is this right, or were we supposed to take the third left?”

“You’re good,” Miles said. “Keep going.”

“The wards are down,” Ash said. “We’re going in to close the rift.”

“No.” I turned around, ready to run to my sister’s aid, but Mayhem caught me by the shoulders.

“They are capable.” He pinned me with a pointed gaze. “We’ll do our part. Let Ash do hers.”

I ground my teeth. “It’s not supposed to be her part.”

“And battling fae wasn’t supposed to be ours.” He squeezed my shoulders and let them go. “The circumstances have changed, but the outcome must remain the same.”

I wanted to argue. I really did, but once again, the demon was right. Ash was capable. We would all do what we had to do. “Where next, Miles?”

“Third door on your left.”

We followed his directions and headed downstairs to the basement, but a sickening sensation formed in my stomach as we approached the vault. A pair of black boots lay just inside the open door, and as we crept closer, I realized they weren’t just boots. They were still attached to someone’s feet.

“This whole thing was a setup.” I swallowed the bile from the back of my throat. “The so-called security breach, locking us in the buffet room… We were the buffet for the fae.”

I stopped outside the vault and toed the person’s boot. They didn’t react. With a deep inhale, I steeled myself for whatever we might find—or not find—inside and stepped around the person’s legs.

A single bullet hole marred the center of the guard’s head. Blood pooled beneath her, and her hands still clutched a rifle, her finger on the trigger. She never got the chance to fight back.

Mayhem strode into the vault, stepping over the dead woman, and examined the shelves. “It isn’t here.”

“Are you sure?” I joined him inside, though I knew he was right. We weren’t simply a smorgasbord for the overgrown bugs. The fae wanted the amulet as badly as we did. They’d feasted on witch hearts and lifted the artifact in one fell swoop.

“Would they have taken it across the veil?” Shade joined us, scanning the shelves in vain.

Hazel’s clicking heels preceded her appearance in the doorway, and she glanced at my bare feet. She clutched a pistol in one hand, and the amulet dangled from the golden chain entwined in her fingers. “The fae want this too?”

“As if you didn’t know.” I took two steps toward her, cursing myself for falling for her act. I should have trusted my intuition about her from the start.

She retreated two steps back and adjusted her grip on the pistol. “I don’t know anything about those creatures. They weren’t part of the plan.”

Nervous tension rolled off her in waves, her gaze bouncing around the room before it landed on the dead guard. Her breath caught as she gestured at the body. “I didn’t want to do that.”

“What plan?” I moved toward her again, raising my hands in a show of fake innocence.

She backed out the doorway and lifted the gun, so I stopped my advance. If I’d practiced spell-casting as much as Ash had, I could freeze her without a potion, grab the amulet, and we’d be on our way. Maybe I’d have time to work on that when all this was through. For now, my choices were burning her or hurling the improperly weighted butter knife still nestled in my cleavage. Neither option sounded appealing.

“You didn’t steal the amulet for the fae?” Shade moved beside me. I lifted a finger, silently telling him not to advance. Hazel was on the verge of either killing us or tucking tail and running.

Mayhem stood behind me, not saying a word, but I could feel his anger building. Maybe that was why I didn’t want to hurt Hazel. Hecate knew she deserved whatever it would take for us to get the damn amulet.

I ran my finger over his mark on my arm, and he inhaled deeply, calming just enough for me to begin feeling rage.

Hazel’s expression pinched. “I don’t think so. The man who hired me said he was a High Priest. At first, when you asked to see it, I thought it was you. But why would you tell me to meet you in Worcester if you were coming to New York, anyway?”

“Worcester?” My eye twitched. “Did you get his name?”

She laughed. “No, but now that I know how valuable this is, I’m going to renegotiate my price. What’s it do?”

“Bad things.” My legs tensed, my muscles coiling, ready to spring. There were three of us and only one of her. Sure, she had a gun, but we could take her. We’d subdue her and get the amulet before she handed it over to Boston. I had no doubt Adrian was the High Priest who’d hired her.

“You can’t sell it.” I lunged toward her, but she slammed a heavy metal gate in my face, the lock engaging with a thunk as my forehead struck a bar. Oof.

“You have no idea what’s going to happen if you do this.” I reached through the grate, but she stepped farther back, tucking the gun into her waistband. “Hazel, please. We need that amulet. The fate of the world is dangling from your fingers.”

She cocked her head, shrugging one shoulder. “I need the money.”

I was done being nice. Mayhem and I gathered fire in our palms, ready to throw it, but before we could, she slammed the massive vault door, six clunks sounding as she spun the dial and locked us inside.