4. Ember

4

EMBER

"B ring the box downstairs." Ash shot to her feet. "All the supplies are in my studio."

I scooped the shoebox into my arms and carried it down, my insides tying into knots with each step I took. The bone powder glowed red as the burning spread from the center outward. By the time I reached the studio, half of it had turned to ashes.

"Here's the containment spell." Shade picked up the grimoire. "Does everyone remember it?"

"We don't have time for that." I poured a ring of salt and set the box on the floor as I kneeled to draw Mayhem's sigil. "And we don't have time to do it your way," I said to Ash.

"This is dangerous." She set candles at the five points of the pentagram and lit them with her magic.

"Do you have a better idea?" I drew his mark from memory, the familiar pin-pricking sensation dancing up my arm as I completed the final swoop.

"It must be done," Chaos said.

I set the shoebox on top of the sigil and rose, dusting my hands against my pants before scanning the summoning spell. We joined hands around the circle in our usual positions, and the smoke thickened in the box, the bone burning until only a thin ring remained.

"Hit me with all you've got." I squeezed Chaos's hand, and he opened to me, a blast of demon magic surging through my psyche and making my head spin. I gave some of it to Shade, and we recited the incantation in unison.

Still clutching each other's hands, we stared at the box, waiting for Mayhem's purple smoke to consume the bone powder.

Nothing happened.

"Try again." Panic tinged the edges of my voice, and my stomach felt like it was crawling into my chest.

We cast the summoning again. Still, nothing happened.

"It's not working," Ash said.

"No shit." I focused on the sigil, an image of Mayhem's face forming in my mind. "One more time. Don't hold back."

Another tidal wave of magic coursed through my system, the essence of three other witches and a demon spiraling through me, mixing and melding until I thought I might burst. "Hecate, please help us."

We recited the summoning a third time, and I reached as far into the ether as my mind would allow, searching for the low vibration of my demon. I found nothing, and the black smoke in the shoebox faded as the last of the bone powder incinerated, leaving behind a single glowing ember.

Shade loosened his grip on my hand, but I held him tighter, refusing to give up. This had to work. Mayhem had to come back.

"Please," I whispered. "I need you."

The final ember dimmed, taking my hope with it.

My posture deflated, and I dropped my hands to my sides. Pressure built in the back of my eyes, but I blinked back the tears threatening to fall. I would not get emotional in front of my team. Not now. Not ever.

I strode to the table and slammed the grimoire shut. "I'm sorry, Ash. I…"

"Ember…" She grabbed my arm and spun me toward the summoning circle.

A thick stream of purple smoke poured through an invisible rift, billowing inside the ring before swirling around the box. My breath caught at the sight, and I pressed a hand to my chest. My heart sprinted beneath my fingers as I stepped toward him, a mix of relief, wariness, and elation swirling inside me.

"Mayhem?" I reached for the demon.

He recoiled, his face forming in the smoke. "You burned my skull?"

"It was an accident." I held up my hands. "We were trying to bring you back."

"Liar!" He slammed into my chest, and I careened backward, crashing into the wall. An arm formed, pressing against me with nearly enough force to crack a rib, his smoky face two inches from mine as he spoke.

"Now I cannot reform without a host," he growled.

I shook my head, wheezing as I sucked in a breath. "We'll figure something out. Give us some time."

His lip pulled into a sneer. "I cannot exist in this realm without a corporeal form. You, dear witch, just condemned one of your coven members to death."

His smoky form jerked away, billowing toward the door.

"Take me." I stepped toward him. "I'll be your host."

His menacing laugh echoed as if it had formed in the bowels of Hell and traveled across the veil the moment he opened his mouth. "I will deal with you after I reform."

He shot through the door, knocking the books off Ash's desk on his way out the back, and all I could do was watch him leave.

Silence filled the room like someone stuffed it with cotton, no one moving a muscle as what just happened sank in. My mouth hung open, so I snapped it shut and waited for my brain to process it all. The skull was gone…completely ash…before Mayhem crossed the veil.

"How…?" I turned around to find my team with the same perplexed expressions. "There was nothing left. The skull was mostly ash when we started. We shouldn't have been able to bust him out of prison without it."

" We didn't." Chaos leaned against the table and crossed his arms. "You did."

"No." I picked up the box of ashes and set it on the table. "We all recited the words. We shared our magic."

"If that was all it took, it would have worked the first time." Ash picked up the candles, extinguishing them one by one. "Any chance of using his skull to summon him died when the last grain went out. Hell, we probably lost our chance when it first started burning. This was all you, sis."

I shook my head. It didn't make sense.

"Did you do something different the third time we tried?" Miles swept the salt ring into a dustpan.

"No." I racked my brain, trying to remember, but the adrenaline from getting slammed against the wall by a smoke demon hadn't dissipated from my system. "I don't think so."

"You connected with him through the veil," Chaos said. "I felt it happen."

"I didn't… How?"

"The same way Ash connected with me. Through your bond." He set the salt canister in the cabinet. "You are two halves of a whole."

"Then why wouldn't he possess her?" Shade asked. "Not that I wish it on her, but wouldn't he want to burn through Ember and bring the two halves together for good?"

"They're soulmates," Miles said. "Of course he wouldn't."

"Do you believe us now?" Ash carried her tattoo machine to the table and pulled up two chairs. "Only you could summon Mayhem without his skull, just like only I could summon Chaos."

Shade laughed, disbelieving. "I supposed that means Cinder…"

"And Discord, yes," Chaos said. "The six of us coming together was written in the stars long before any of you were born."

I looked at Chaos and then my sister, who raised her brows, giving me her get over yourself and accept it look. "You feel it," she said.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Yes, that was a lie. I did feel it, all the way down to the core of my being, swimming in my blood and penetrating my bones.

It didn't mean I had to like it.

"Come on. Sit." Ash poured magical ink into a well and sat at one of the chairs. "You need to catch your demon before he hurts someone else."

"What are you thinking?" I took the chair across from her. "I'd say speed and strength, but I don't think those would help with wrangling a giant puff of smoke."

"No." She dipped the needle into the ink. "You're going to make him possess you."

"You're the only one who can survive it," Chaos said. "He'll hold back as long as he can while you formulate another plan."

Ash swiped open her phone and pulled up Mayhem's mark. "And if we can't reform his skull, we'll exorcise him and send him to prison. We won't let him hurt you."

"I don't need convincing." Because I would not sacrifice a coven member…or anyone else…to bring him back. I laid my arm on the table. "Let's do it."

"Focus on Mayhem while I draw it. Don't think about anything else." She pressed the pulsing needle against my skin. "Picture him in your mind and feel the emotions he stirs inside you, whatever they are."

That was easy-peasy. The infuriating, sexy-as-hell demon hadn't left my thoughts since the moment he arrived. I closed my eyes, imagining the way he looked at me, feeling the adrenaline spiking in my system every time he tried to put me in my place. Even when his smoky form had pinned me against the wall, my fear had bled into…arousal?

Gross. No, that wasn't the right word. Excitement, maybe.

I was so lost in thought, I didn't feel the tattoo until Ash reached the delicate skin on the inside of my wrist. I winced at the burning, stinging sensation and opened my eyes. "Don't forget it goes left."

She chuckled. "I won't."

With the final loop complete, Ash turned off her machine and carried it to the counter. She wiped the excess ink from my skin before admiring her work. "It looks good on you."

I agreed, but I didn't dare say it aloud. "Is there anything special I have to do before I activate it?"

"I don't think so." She emptied the ink well and washed it in the small sink next to her supplies. "I had no clue I was summoning a demon when I did it."

Chaos laughed. "She wanted help organizing her library."

"Which we will do when this is all through." She wrapped her arms around his waist and nodded at the sigil on my arm. "It's time."

I took a deep breath, centering myself. "Let's light this baby up."