5. Mayhem

5

MAYHEM

B etrayal didn't begin to describe what Ember had done. I growled as I flowed out of her home, reining in my smoke to blend with the air around me…the one and only benefit of this fluid form. I had only hours to find a host before the dark prison sucked me back across the veil, trapping me in nothingness for eternity.

How could that witch…my soulmate…do this to me?

In the time I'd spent alone, devoid of all my senses, with nothing but my thoughts to occupy myself, I had resolved to forgive her. Ember and her sister had a special bond. Of that I had no doubt.

I also had no doubt that my brother would have torn off my head and clawed out my heart had Ember not acted so quickly. I much preferred her blade to Chaos's talons.

Her decision to end my time on Earth had come from a place of love and devotion, and I would have expected nothing less of her. I had hoped that, perhaps one day, she would find in herself the same love and devotion for me.

Instead, she destroyed my skull and then summoned me back to torment me with her betrayal.

How could I have been so stupid?

It was Isabel all over again, yet this time, for some reason, the witch's treachery cut deeper than I ever could have imagined.

My mission now was simple: Find the strongest witch in the coven—after the three involved in Ember's villainous plot—and possess and burn through him, gaining as much power as possible. I would steal the amulet shard to increase my strength and put an end to the Holland bloodline.

Then, I would take out my brother too. Damn him for his involvement.

I poured down the main street, opening my senses and searching for the high vibration of witchcraft. I had met their healer, Patrice, but she was far too weak. I wouldn't waste my time on anyone who only possessed such passive magic.

My first choice would have been their shadow witch, had he not been involved in the destruction of my skull and the resummoning. Miles, with his underdeveloped energy manipulation ability, would have been my second choice, but both men needed to suffer along with the women.

Humans lurked about everywhere, peering into windows and snapping photos with their phones. Even with the threat of a serial killer in their midst, they risked their lives to post their images and measured their self-worth by how many others liked them.

Idiots.

The only reason the species had survived so long was because their damned souls provided the most potent fuel in the Underworld. Lucifer knew I'd take pleasure in eradicating them otherwise. He'd threatened to end my existence multiple times because of it.

I traveled out of the downtown area and headed toward a residential section of Salem. Surely, I would find powerful witches living amongst the mundane here. A tickle of energy pulled me to a white building with blue shutters on the windows. I stilled, absorbing the essence of the being inside, sifting it through my metaphorical fingers to gauge his power. He was nothing more than a kitchen witch.

I moved on, searching and feeling until a sharp spike of magic gripped my psyche. I fought it, certain the dark prison was already calling me home, but the power was too great, the pull too strong.

This wasn't the prison. No, the vibration was too high to have come from Hell. Before I could contemplate it more, the energy ripped me through the fabric of reality and slammed me into the mind of the one who had summoned me.

Darkness engulfed me. Then piercing white light blinded me. Raw elemental magic, stronger than any I had felt before, surged through my soul, enrapturing me. I reveled in it, rolling in the power like a hellcat in a field of catnip, feeling as though, at last, all the missing pieces of my existence had snapped into place.

My host blinked, her vision still blurred, and she clutched her head. "Whoa. My skull feels like it's going to crack open."

Her warm honey voice soothed me, tempering my rage as I opened myself to all her senses.

"Hold on. I have a spell for that," a familiar voice said. "Shade, slide that trash can over to her. She'll need it."

My host's stomach retched. She dropped to her knees, clutching the rim of the bin, and vomited. Her last meal mixed with bitter acid, burning her throat, and bringing me to my senses. Of course it would be her. No one else would be strong enough to force a demon of my level to possess them.

"Ember…"

"You don't have to shout. You're literally in my head." She accepted the napkin and water Miles offered, taking a sip and swishing before spitting into the bin and wiping her mouth.

"Here." Ash set a grimoire on the floor beside her. "Cast this one. It doesn't require a potion."

Her vision swam, tears blurring her eyes. She blinked them away, bringing the page into focus. "May the light of the goddess lift my pain. My headache will ease like a cleansing rain."

She sat back on her heels and rolled her neck as the pressure eased into a dull ache. "I seriously thought my skull was going to split."

The fury, which her essence had eased in me, returned with a vengeance at her words. "You dare mock me with talk of your skull after you destroyed mine? I should burn through you right now and take Salem as my own."

She rose to her feet, gulping down the rest of the water as Miles whisked the trash can out of the room. "You need to calm your hysterics, buddy. If you make my headache come back, there will be hell to pay."

"How dare you tell me to be calm? I demand you release me immediately."

She sucked in a breath through her teeth. "First of all, I'll release you when I'm damn well ready and not a moment before. And second… It doesn't feel good to have your emotions dismissed, does it?"

"The witches have a plan to help you reform without killing a host," Chaos said. "But you must remain inside Ember until it is complete."

"Treacherous witch. You destroyed my skull."

"I told you that was an accident. Now, hush so I can think." She paced the length of the room.

"You speak with a forked tongue. It was no accident."

She sighed heavily. "Chaos, will you tell your brother we didn't do it on purpose? The vanquishing, yes. I meant to do that, but I planned to bring you right back."

"It's true." My brother looked into her eyes, squinting as if trying to see me in her irises. "We were called away to battle a fae. When we returned, your skull had been pulverized."

"And burned to ash. Only magic could have destroyed it by fire, and you are the only fire witches in Salem."

"He's saying only we could have burned it." She pressed her fingers to her temples. "We don't have time for this."

"We did burn it," Ash said, "but I promise it was an accident."

"We were trying to glue it back together," Miles said as he returned to the room. "We didn't know Cinder had enchanted the glue."

"Come on. We've got research to do." Ember strode out of the studio, stopping in the library by Ash's desk.

"What kind of enchantment?"

"It dissolved the bonds holding the bone together. After your skull turned to powder, it started smoking. We rushed to summon you before it burned out, but we were too late."

I remained silent, contemplating her story as the others joined her in the library. A large part of me desperately wanted to believe her, but hope belonged to the inexperienced youth. History had proven, time and again, that witches could never be trusted.

"A phoenix spell." She stood facing the desk, drumming her fingers on the surface. "Do we have one?"

Ash screwed her mouth to one side and sank into the chair. "There could have been one in the dark grimoire Mom and Dad gave to the demon."

"A lot of good that does us now." Ember strode to a bookcase and ran her finger through the dust on a shelf. "What about in the ones we took from Chrys or the teens who summoned the shedim?"

"It's worth a shot. Let me grab them." Ash rose and strode to the back of the library.

"Tell me about this phoenix spell. What is your plan?"

"It's dark magic, a type of necromancy…and it's forbidden."

"We know that," Shade said.

"I'm talking to Mayhem." Ember tapped her temple. "If we can find one, we can use it to resurrect your skull and bring you back to the land of the living."

"And face the wrath of the Higher Power if they find out." Shade picked up a book from a stack on the floor and flipped through the pages before tossing it onto a shelf. "I'm not a fan of this idea."

"You don't have to help." Ember dropped into the chair and crossed her ankles on top of the desk. "But there's no other way to do it. I refuse to sacrifice a living being."

"What is the punishment if your Higher Power catches you?"

She shrugged. "A few years in prison at best. At worst, we could be killed…or stripped of our magic and banished to Arkansas." Her body shuddered.

"You would take that risk to save another witch's life?"

"And to save yours. As long as you behave yourself, that will be the last time you go to the dark prison. You're starting to grow on me." Her breath caught as if she didn't mean to say the last words aloud. "Like a fungus, I mean."

She peered at her arm, where my mark glowed a soft red, and ran her finger over the sigil. The sensation felt like warm silk running through my psyche and caressing every inch of my nonexistent body.

"Mmm… I like that."

She jerked down her sleeve.

"I'm not sensing a phoenix spell in either of these." Ash returned with two grimoires clutched to her chest. "I'll double-check to be sure."

Ember stood, giving her sister access to the desk. "If you don't sense it, it's not there."

"I still need to look. It's a forbidden spell, so it could be cloaked." She opened one book and pushed the other toward Ember. "Check this one."

Ember flipped through the pages, running her fingers over each entry. I felt her psyche open to the energy around her before she focused it into the grimoire. Her magic called to me, my demonic form begging me to take it as my own.

But the man in me didn't simply want her power. I wanted everything. Her body, her heart, her soul. My raging fury cooled to a slow simmer, but I had to be certain of her intentions before I extinguished it completely.

"I believe I can remain inside you for two weeks without burning through your form. If you focus on finding the amulet, you can summon Discord and we can lift the curse without risking your life and your magic."

She sighed. "Not a chance, Your Royal Pissiness. I did this to you. I'm going to make it right."

Hope sprung alive inside me once more as she perused the pages, ready to risk everything to save me from the dark prison. Perhaps her words were true. Maybe my skull's destruction really was an accident.

"I don't sense any cloaking magic in this one. Trade?" She closed the book and turned it toward her sister.

"Nothing in here either but check again." Ash handed her the grimoire. "Better safe than sorry."

"What about you? Do you feel anything that could be masking or cloaking a sinister spell?" Ember turned the page.

"I'll give it a shot," Shade said.

"Mayhem?" Ember turned another page. "Do you feel anything through me?"

I focused on the coarseness of the parchment beneath her fingertips, searching for energy in the ink. "I do not."

She stepped away from the book, and Shade flipped through the pages. "I highly doubt we'll find one on the witchy web."

"It's worth a shot." Ash typed on the keyboard. "I'll use a double-encrypted browser to search."

Her fingers flew across the keys as she chewed her bottom lip. A few minutes later, she slumped in her seat. "Nothing. No one would advertise it if they had one."

"I'd bet my left boob someone in Boston does. We can't risk breaking into their library again, but do you think you could sense the spell if we walked the streets? Maybe we could borrow one from a dark witch."

"You're overestimating your sister's ability. Take me to their High Priest and allow me to burn through him. It will solve two of our problems."

"Zip it, dude." She tapped her temple.

Ash inhaled deeply, a look of uncertainty furrowing her brow before she wiped it away and nodded. "If there's a phoenix spell in Boston, I'll find it."

"Fabulous. Another side quest." Ember rubbed her forehead. "I hope we can at least battle a beastie along the way."