1. Ember

1

EMBER

W hat had I done? That was a loaded question. Physically, I had vanquished a demon prince to a dark prison, saved my sister's life, and stopped the family curse from coming to fruition in my living room. Metaphysically, I'd probably caused the veil between our worlds irreparable damage and ushered in Armageddon with a slice and a jab of my sword.

Interpersonally, I'd dissolved any type of trust or bond—or whatever was happening—with Mayhem and set our journey to salvation back so far, we might never recover.

But, hey, at least Ash was back to her normal self. I hoped. "Are you okay?"

She blinked twice. "I'm fine. Are you?" Her gaze drifted down to my left hand, where Chaos's eyes were also locked. No, not my hand. They were focused on the severed head spilling blood onto the hardwood.

My brain finally received the message from my fingers, recognizing the soft tuft of hair clutched in my fist. Mayhem's body had turned to smoke when I pierced his heart, the veil opening and whisking him away to the dark prison we'd freed him from only days ago.

But his head, which I'd lobbed off in one stroke, hung from my grasp, his eyes wide with shock, poisonous blood dripping onto the floor from his neck. Well, Ember, what now?

"If we summon him again, he's going to kill me." I lifted my sword, resting the flat side of the blade against my shoulder. "Get a bowl. If we collect his blood, maybe we can use it in a spell to harness enough of his power for Chaos and Discord to break the curse."

Neither of them moved.

"Okay, I'll get it myself." I tried to turn around and make my way to the kitchen, but my feet remained rooted to the floor.

My head spun, the gravity of our situation reaching my nervous system and making my muscles tremble. What had I done, indeed. "I bet there's something in Chrys's dark grimoire. If we just…"

Hellfire erupted in the puddle of blood, the flames licking upward, engulfing Mayhem's severed head. The blood on the tip of my blade incinerated, and the scent of burning hair and flesh made my stomach turn. As the fire consumed him, his skin turned to ash along with the silky locks still clutched in my fist.

His skull tumbled to the floor, the jaw disconnecting from the upper part when it thudded on the hardwood.

Damn. It looked like we wouldn't be collecting demon blood after all.

"I can't believe you did that." Ash sank onto the couch, holding her head in her hands.

I gazed at the skull. The smooth bone almost glistened in the ambient light. "That was hellfire, not witch fire."

"Not that." She jerked her hand, gesturing at me, my sword, the skull…everything in my general direction. " All that."

"It wasn't unexpected." Chaos sat next to her, resting a hand on her knee. "She warned him she would do it several times."

Ash tilted her head, looking at him like he'd grown a second set of eyeballs. "She vanquished him. Again."

"He was hurting you." Chaos shrugged. "I would've done the same if Ember hadn't acted so quickly."

She rubbed her temples. "He released me the second you took off his head. You didn't have to vanquish him."

"I didn't know that." Besides, what good would a headless demon do? He'd have to carry it around tucked under his arm, which would freak people the eff out. This was Salem, not Sleepy Hollow…and he didn't have a horse.

My sword suddenly felt like it weighed a hundred pounds, so I set it on the counter, my hands trembling with nothing to hold. "I was protecting you."

"Thank you," Chaos said. "You acted when I didn't. He could have caused permanent damage to her brain."

I picked up Mayhem's skull, trying my best to ignore the magical pinpricks dancing across my skin as I balanced the top part on the jaw and set both pieces on the coffee table. I lowered into a chair, my entire body convulsing as the cushion absorbed my weight. What the hell had I just done?

I raked a hand through my hair. "I'm sorry. I screwed up. I…"

Ash sighed. "It's okay. Luckily, he's immortal. We'll summon him again."

I nodded, words escaping me.

"Thank you," she said after a long pause. "It was scary feeling that much rage. If Chaos hadn't held me back, I don't know what I would have done."

"It was stupid." I pressed my thumb between my eyes to counter the pressure building in my head. "I never should have let him do that to you. I wasn't thinking clearly."

"I gave him permission to do it," Ash said. "It wasn't just you."

"As did I." Chaos leaned back on the sofa. "You are the first beings who have ever counteracted our magic with your own. It's new territory for us all. No need to place blame."

"Yeah." My stomach roiled, my dinner threatening to come back for an encore appearance.

"The debt he owed you has been forfeited," Chaos said, his expression grim. "When we bring him back, he'll have to help us break the curse out of the goodness of his heart, and I'm afraid nothing more than a shred exists inside him. If any."

"That makes sense. Sort of." My knee bounced incessantly, so I laid my hand on it to stop the movement. "Of course he doesn't owe me for freeing him last time…but I'm freeing him again. He'll owe me for this time, right?"

"I'm afraid not." He ran a hand down his face. "You are the one who imprisoned him. His jailer freeing him incurs no debt…merely his wrath."

"Merely." I laughed dryly. "Well, if that's all…"

Ash furrowed her brow. "But we vanquished him before, and he still owed us a debt when we summoned him. Why then, but not now?"

He nodded, looking thoughtful. "A technicality. He had no corporeal form the first time, and you and Miles vanquished him, not Ember."

"So if I summoned him…" Ash said.

"You were here, a part of the vanquishing, no matter how indirectly," he said.

"I didn't have a clue what was happening the first time." I drummed my fingers on my knee, my thoughts racing. "Once we got him out of Chrys, my focus went to her. That's why he owed me this time. I wasn't a part of the initial vanquishing."

We sat silently, contemplating the ramifications of what I'd done. At least, I assumed Chaos and Ash were contemplating too. They weren't making goo-goo eyes at each other for once, anyway.

I stood and paced in front of the TV. "We'll get Miles to draw the sigil this time. He's even-tempered enough to work with a demon, right? Because Shade is out of the question."

Ash shook her head. "It has to be you."

I parked my hands on my hips. "I cannot deal with soulmate talk right now, so stop."

"She's correct," Chaos said. "Whether or not you are soulmates doesn't matter. Fate brought all of us together to fix this. Bringing in an outsider could be detrimental to our cause."

"It's a family affair," Ash said.

I threw my arms into the air and dropped them at my sides. My sister, ever the logical one, was right again. Bringing Miles any deeper into the mix would be irresponsible. This was a family affair, and it was up to me to protect the rest of the coven from our curse.

"He's going to kill me."

She pursed her lips, giving her head a tiny shake. "No, he's not, Em."

"You don't know that." I continued pacing.

"I do, and so do you." She rose and stretched her arms above her head. "But just to be sure, you're going to bear his mark."

"The hell I am." I whirled to face her. Was she cuckoo? "Did you forget you almost died when you summoned Chaos that way? That Chrys did die?"

"Chrys and I had no idea what we were doing, and I didn't have Chaos's skull." She padded toward the hall, pausing at the threshold. "We have Mayhem's. We'll summon him into you and then exorcize him from your body to let him reform in a containment circle."

"Ash, no…" My hands curled into fists. I couldn't do it. I wouldn't.

"He'll be incapable of causing you harm." Chaos joined Ash by the hall, taking her hand.

I crossed my arms. "Yeah, right. He's probably so pissed, he'll burn through me the second I'm possessed."

"We won't give him the chance," Chaos said. "Ash will exorcize him immediately. Then, when he reforms, you won't have to worry about him killing you because you'll be connected through his mark. He'll be vanquished again if you die."

Ash chuckled. "She isn't worried about him killing her. Are you, Em?"

I narrowed my eyes, refusing to acknowledge her ridiculous statement.

"Sleep on it." She rested a hand on her demon's chest. "We have to re-summon him tomorrow morning, and you know this is the best way to do it."

"I don't know anything." I shifted my weight to my right leg, jutting out my hip in protest. "If we get the amulet first, we can get it over with all at once. We don't need to summon him until we find it."

"Yes, we do." She flashed a knowing smile, though what she thought she knew was ludicrous. "I'll see you in the morning, bright and early."

"Good night, Ember." Chaos followed Ash down the hall, leaving me alone with Mayhem's skull.

I eyed the hunk of bone, debating whether or not to pulverize it and be done with the insufferable demon. If my sister's life…and the lives of every witch in the coven…weren't at stake, I wouldn't have thought twice.

Much to my chagrin, however, we needed him. Dammit.

Even more chagriny…chagrinish… annoying … I owed him an apology. As usual, I had acted before my brain could warn me of the consequences. Hell, sometimes I wondered if I had a brain at all.

I closed my eyes, taking two deep breaths to center myself. This whole ordeal had to be one long-ass dream, right? When I opened my eyes, there would be no skull sitting on the counter, no demon in my sister's bed. Cinder and my parents would be sleeping down the hall, and I could sit on the couch and binge the last season of Why Women Kill like a normal person.

"As I will it, so mote it be." I lifted one lid, then the other. Mayhem's eyeless gaze stared back at me. "Oh, for Hecate's sake."

This was my life now. Might as well get used to it. I locked the door and turned off the lights before scooping up the skull in one hand, my sword in the other, and padding to my bedroom.

"You really gave me no choice." I set Mayhem on my nightstand and hung my sword on the wall before sinking onto the mattress. "I won't say I was starting to like you, but I was tolerating you better. You were growing on me."

And my body enjoyed the way touching him made me feel, despite my protesting brain.

I reached for the skull but stopped, fisting my hand and jerking it back to my lap. "What is it about you that burrows into my psyche and makes me feel things no mortal should feel for a Prince of Hell?"

My sigh came out more like a growl as I stood and headed to the shower. When I finished and put on my PJs, I opened the door and steam wafted into my bedroom, dissipating before it reached the ceiling.

Settling into bed, I turned off my lamp and brushed my fingers over the skull. It still gave me the same not-unpleasant pin pricking sensation that spiraled up my arm and warmed my chest.

"What is it about you?" I shook my head, attempting to chase away the intruding thoughts taking up residence in my mind, and lay back on my pillow. "If I had a type, you would be the exact opposite."

Well, personality-wise, anyway. Looks-wise… Let's just say my body wanted him to bang me like a screen door in a hurricane. "What the hell is wrong with me?"

I rolled over and put my back to him, closing my eyes and begging Morpheus to grant me a dream-free slumber. Sadly, my prayers went unanswered.

His purple eyes glittered with mischief as he trailed strong hands down my arms, turning my skin to gooseflesh. Lacing his fingers through mine, he lifted my arms before taking the hem of my shirt and tugging it over my head.

His pupils dilated, blackness spreading outward until only a thin ring of purple remained, and he inhaled deeply, his lips curling upward in approval. His tongue slipped out to moisten them, and warm shivers ran through my body in anticipation of him moistening mine.

He glided his fingertips up my stomach, cupping my breasts and brushing his thumbs over my nipples, hardening them instantly. My breathing grew shallow, every nerve in my body firing on overdrive, making my ears ring.

He moved closer, his cheek scant centimeters from mine, and he took another deep breath. A contented growl rumbled in his chest, but I barely heard it over the incessant ringing in my ears.

The culpable sound grew louder as he turned his head toward me, his nose brushing my skin.

Louder yet, the annoying sound yanked me away from him, my lids flying open, the ceiling coming into view. My breath came out in a huff, though I wasn't sure if it was irritation or relief that the dream didn't go any further.

I swiped my hand down my face and lightly slapped my cheek to wake myself up fully. Rolling to the nightstand, I grabbed my phone and answered the call. "Hello?" My voice sounded like I'd swallowed gravel.

"There's a ghost in the library," Higgins said. "Take care of it."

"What? What time is it?" I sat up and rubbed my eyes. "A ghost?"

"It's tearing the place apart. Security footage looks like it's reading some of the books too." Rustling sounded on his end. "We've never had a problem with ghosts before. Invisible bastards."

I held in my groan. "I don't think it's a ghost."