Chapter 20

CHAPTER TWENTY

Brody and Damon pulled the glass doors open, and the air hit us with a blast of cold that had nothing to do with the temperature. Justice’s reaction was instant and violent. He hissed, the sound more animal than human, pulling back his upper lip to reveal fangs that gleamed like daggers in the morning light. His eyes, once so gentle and brown, now burned blood-red with a hatred that pierced my heart. He crouched low, every muscle tensed to spring at us. At me.

Behind him, Maci’s transformation was terrible to witness. Her human form ripped away like tissue paper, revealing the massive shadow dragon beneath. Her wings unfurled against the pale sky, blocking out the sun. Her shriek shattered the morning and vibrated through my bones, making my teeth ache and my grip on the hourglass falter.

Rage moved through the chaos with casual confidence, each step deliberate and mocking. His crimson eyes locked onto mine as he swaggered forward, his lips curved in a smile that promised pain. He didn’t need to hurry. In his mind, he’d already won. Behind him, the demon horde moved as one writhing mass, their true forms no longer hidden, their grotesque features twisted with anticipation of the kill.

“Now!” Brody’s command cut through the chaos.

Lisa and Zara hurled their orbs into the midst of our enemies. The magical spheres exploded in blinding white light, making the demons shriek and recoil. A shimmering dome of energy expanded around us, pushing back against the tide of evil.

But Justice moved faster than the shield could form. He launched at me with inhuman speed, his face a mask of rage and hunger. Damon tackled me aside as Justice’s claws raked through the air where I’d been standing, and the shield closed us in. The hourglass nearly slipped from my sweating palms, but I clutched it tighter, my heart hammering against my ribs.

“Little sister.” Rage’s voice rolled across the courtyard like thunder. “Did you really think you could save him?” He gestured at Justice, who circled our shield like a caged tiger searching for weakness. “He’s mine now. Body, soul, and all that delicious anger.”

The phoenix’s song rose in defiance, making the shadow dragon rear back with a roar of pain. Maci’s massive form blocked most of our escape routes, her wings creating a canopy of darkness above us.

“Sawyer,” Lisa called, her voice strained from maintaining the shield. “Whatever you’re going to do with that hourglass, do it now!”

I held up the artifact, its glass warm and vibrating in my trembling hands. The ancient symbols carved into its frame glowed with an inner fire. “Take us to Rosslyn Chapel,” I commanded.

The phoenix swooped down, its feathers radiating heat and light, and touched a golden talon to the hourglass. The contact sent a shock wave through my body like lightning in my veins. White light exploded outward, so bright it turned the world into a negative of itself.

A vortex of power caught me up like a leaf in a storm. My feet left the ground as nameless colors whirled around me. The wind roared in my ears, carrying echoes of times past and future. My stomach lurched as reality itself bent and twisted.

Screams pierced the chaos, my team’s voices mixing with the inhuman shrieks of our enemies. Someone’s hand brushed mine in the maelstrom but was ripped away before I could grab it.

“You’re not escaping me!” Rage’s voice cut through everything else, a sound of pure fury. Then I heard him command, “Get her!”

A familiar snarl pierced the chaos. Justice, moving faster than I thought possible. Through the spinning colors, I glimpsed his face, twisted with Rage’s power but still achingly beautiful. He reached for me, his fingers almost grazing my jacket as the vortex pulled us apart and slammed us back together.

The world spun faster, colors bleeding into one another until I couldn’t tell up from down. My team’s voices came in fragments through the roar of magic.

“Sawyer!” Damon’s shout, desperate and fading.

“Hold on!” Was that Brody or Lisa?

A phoenix’s cry, high and piercing.

The hourglass burned so hot I thought my skin would blister, but I couldn’t let go. Wouldn’t let go. Through the kaleidoscope of power, I felt rather than saw Justice drawing closer, using his vampire speed to fight the magic trying to separate us.

Then, everything went black.

The darkness exploded into sudden, blinding light. My body slammed into cold, hard stone, the impact driving the air from my lungs. The hourglass slipped from my numb fingers and rolled across the rough surface. For a moment, all I could do was lie there, gasping, my head spinning with leftover vertigo from the transport.

Somewhere nearby, I heard groans and the scraping of bodies against cement. My team, scattered across what had to be Rosslyn Chapel’s courtyard. The phoenix’s soft glow pulsed weakly, illuminating ancient stone walls looming above us.

“Everyone okay?” Brody’s voice, steady despite everything.

“Define ‘okay,’” Damon groaned from somewhere to my left.

I pushed to my knees, every muscle screaming in protest. The harp dug into my back. That was when I heard it—a low, predatory growl from the shadows near the chapel entrance.

My blood turned to ice. I knew that sound.

“Sawyer, don’t move,” Lisa whispered urgently.

A pair of crimson eyes gleamed in the darkness of the chapel doorway. Justice had made it through with us, and we were still outside the chapel’s protection.

“Guys?” Damon’s voice had lost all its usual sarcasm. “Please tell me everyone else can see the homicidal vampire blocking the entrance.”

Justice stood at the top of the chapel steps like a nightmare made flesh, his movements liquid and deadly. The sun caught his face, highlighting the inhuman beauty Rage’s possession had twisted into something terrible. His gaze never left me, tracking my every breath like a predator savoring the moment before the kill.

“Sawyer.” My name on his lips was both a curse and a caress. “Did you really think you could run from me?” Rage’s power colored his voice, but I caught something else beneath. A flicker of the man I loved, drowning in darkness.

I scrambled to my feet on the rough cement, instinctively reaching for the harp on my back. Not yet, a voice in my head whispered. The timing had to be perfect. He had to be consumed by rage first.

We also had to get past him into the chapel, the only place that might offer us protection when the demons arrived.