14. Ember

14

EMBER

"A sh, get downstairs," I shouted as I flung the door open and stepped into the kitchen. "And bring paper towels."

I darted down the steps and met Mayhem in the library, where he held the rolled parchment over a trash can, saving our floors from imp slime. A minute later, Ash and Chaos joined us.

"Is everything okay?" She tore off two towels and handed them to me. "I told the guys to stay upstairs in case…"

"It's fine. We talked." I waved a hand dismissively. "Look at this." I held out the paper towels, and Mayhem laid the parchment on them.

"What is that?" Ash peered at the scroll. "Where did you find it?"

"On the van. I think it might be a message from someone across the veil." I rubbed a towel over the parchment, soaking up the slime.

"And they sent it with an imp?" Her arched brow conveyed her skepticism.

"Remember Miles's friend Wendy saying Adrian sent messages back and forth with the lesser fae? Do you have tweezers?" I sank into the chair at her desk and turned on a lamp.

She opened a drawer and took out a fabric bundle before laying it next to the parchment and unfolding it. A set of silver tools shined in the lamplight, complete with scissors, a scalpel, and three different sizes of tweezers.

I chose the medium pair and a blunt instrument and carefully unrolled the parchment. Ash watched over my shoulder, and Chaos and Mayhem stood across from us, leaning forward to read the elegant script. I recognized the handwriting instantly, and my pulse quickened as I read the letter.

Ash and Ember,

I'm afraid the imp might devour my message before it gets to you, but I have no other way to send it. Halloween will be here before we know it, and the veil has already become too weak to bear its natural thinning. We're doing everything we can to keep it intact, but even the goddess can't hold it forever. There's an amulet somewhere on your side. You have to find it and summon Discord so he can return it to its rightful owner. I can't come home without it.

Blessed be,

Cinder

Ash laid her on my shoulder. "She's alive."

I released the parchment, letting it curl into a loose roll, and placed my hand over hers. "And we can bring her home."

"Did you find the amulet's missing piece?" Mayhem asked.

I smiled up at him. "We sure did. Let's go put that baby back together."

I wrapped the parchment in the paper towel and put it in Ash's desk drawer before leading the way upstairs, with Mayhem behind me and Chaos and Ash following. The moment I opened the door, Miles and Shade shot to their feet, their energy teetering between fight and flight.

"Mayhem has something he'd like to say to you before we put the amulet together." I started for my room, pausing at the hallway to listen.

He stayed in the kitchen, a safe distance away from the guys. "I no longer wish to kill you."

I crossed my arms. "That's not an apology."

"Princes of Hell do not apologize." He relaxed his stance. "However, my behavior was fueled by distress and rage, and I should not have acted before speaking with Ember. Please accept my humble apology." He bowed regally, though I couldn't tell if it was sarcastic or sincere.

Miles stepped toward him. "We would never try to come between you and Ember. Fate is fate, and we won't tamper with it."

Shade stepped to his side. "Fate or not, neither of us is interested in her like that. We never have been."

"I know. She informed me of?—"

I cleared my throat, stopping him from finishing the sentence. Just because I knew the bond between Miles and Shade, it didn't mean they had figured it out yet.

"Apology accepted." Miles offered his hand, and Mayhem shook it.

"Just don't mess with us again." Shade shook his hand as well.

"I will do my best," Mayhem said.

"And that's the best you'll get from him." I started down the hall but paused, turning back to them. "Are we all good?"

"We're good," Shade said. Miles and Mayhem nodded.

"Good." I strode into my room and retrieved the shard of amulet from my nightstand drawer. When I returned, Ash had set the piece from Patrice's house on the counter. I laid mine next to it.

No one said a word, but they all looked at me like I'd grown horns. "What?" I asked.

"Is that a mechanical penis?" Mayhem's face scrunched with confusion. "It's rather small."

"I cloaked it in case anyone tried to find it. Let me remove the spell." I held my hands over it. "What I've done is now undone. As I will it, so mote it be."

Nothing happened.

Ash pressed her lips together, holding in a laugh. "Em, that's your real vibrator."

"No, it's…" I looked at the object in question, and my cheeks heated. "Shit, it is. Hold on." I snatched it off the counter and speed-walked to my room.

My ears burned as I opened the drawer and traded the real deal for the fake one. I couldn't tell you why I was embarrassed. So what if I used it on the regular? I hadn't had a date in ages, and women had needs too.

But Mayhem had seen it. He'd called it small, which, from his point of view, I supposed it was. But it didn't matter. I had a sexy demon prince ready to worship me if I ever had time to fulfill my womanly needs again.

Oof. Was that a good thing or a bad thing?

"This is it," I said as I returned to the kitchen and laid it on the counter. "What I've done is now undone. As I will it, so mote it be."

The vibrator transformed into the plastic jar with the amulet shard. I opened it, spilling the contents, and Ash did the same with her piece before opening her toolkit and taking out a pair of small wire cutters.

"What did Patrice say about the amulet?" Shade asked. "Where did you find it?"

"It was buried in her basement where Chrys was holding her with the roots." I grasped the tweezers and held the shard still. "She buried it there to keep her spell in place. Patrice had no clue until we jogged her memory."

"Damn," Miles said. "I hope it wasn't there to temper her magic like the ward Chrys put on this building."

"If it was, it's gone now." Ash clipped the cage holding the piece of amulet, bending the wires so I could dump the shard onto the countertop.

"I don't think the chain belongs on this piece either." I gestured to the one we'd retrieved from Patrice, and Ash turned it over. "I guess the original one broke off. It looks like she used glue to attach it."

"Indeed, it does," Mayhem said. "The amulet used to hang from a chain of gold, forged in Hell."

"Do we have to find the missing chain too?" I asked.

Mayhem shook his head. "No, it is the stone that contains the magic. Discord wore it constantly, taunting me with its power."

I snapped my gaze to his. "Don't get any ideas. We're using it to summon your brother so he can return it to the Underworld. Period. Nothing else. Got it?"

"I understand." He held my gaze, and the purple in his irises seemed to undulate in a mesmerizing wave.

A sense of calm washed over me, and for a brief moment, I actually believed everything would be okay. Funny, I know.

I blinked, pulling myself out of the trance and landing firmly in reality. Everything would not be okay. The demons had to return to Hell. We had to stay here. Even if we broke the curse, there would be no happily ever afters for us. The thought pained me.

That was why it was best not to get attached. I made a mental note not to forget it, wadded up the emotions, and shoved them into the deepest corner of my mind. With any luck, they'd stay there.

"Ready?" Ash asked.

"As I'll ever be." I used the tweezers to pick up the shard and touched it to the amulet.

We held a collective breath as both pieces of the stone glowed deep red. Heat crept up the metal instrument I held, and while it couldn't burn me, life had taught me heat that intense would melt a mundane's skin. Hell, it would melt a witch's too if fire wasn't her inborn power.

I released the shard and set the tweezers down. The stone pulsed, and the broken piece moved across its surface, melding with the place it had been broken off. A flash of crimson light filled the room, blinding me for a few seconds.

When my vision returned, I blinked the amulet into focus. The glue holding the makeshift chain had dissolved, but the shard fit perfectly, no cracks or lines revealing it had ever been broken. It was rounded and smooth on the left side, creating one half of an oval.

On the right side…

"Jagged edges." My heart sank. "There's another missing piece."