Chapter 23

Chapter

Twenty-Three

I lay in the dirt and awaited death.

Except… I squinted up at Belial's giant foot.

It was … gone.

To be precise, it was on the ground a few yards away with the other one, pointed toward the parking lot driveway.

" Identify yourself, creature of darkness, " he thundered.

Alpha Floyd ran into the SUV and jumped in. The witches peeled away from the circle, following the wolf alpha at a wary, slow pace. Joon sidled back, still chanting, though his eyes were open and watchful.

Ronan didn't notice—he was furiously digging around the edge of the outer circle. It appeared he was now trying to burrow under. If I'd had the ability to shout, I'd have told him it was pointless.

Ida held her ground. Her feet were anchored to the earth, shoulders back, head held high. Power flickered around her in stormy flashes.

A tiny flicker of light appeared in the darkness by Ronan's truck. I blinked, and it was beside Floyd's SUV. Another blink and it was beside Ida, cradled in the skeletal hand of Bertrand Sexton.

" Cease your ridiculousness, Belial ." Everyone, including Ronan, winced. Sexton's voice was the auditory equivalent to raking your teeth down a cheese grater. " Release the witch. She is my employee and, therefore, under my protection. "

Employee was stretching the parameters of our association, but this felt like the wrong time to bring that up.

" She summoned me, gravedigger ."

" Liar. She opened a portal. You saw an opportunity and took it. There was no summoning involved. " My ears popped.

From the corner of my eye, I caught sight of Ronan's wolf. He'd stopped digging and was now batting at his ears with his massive paws. Apparently, Sexton affected shifters even worse than he did the rest of us.

Belial opened his too-wide mouth and let out a high-pitched buzzing sound. He was speaking Celestial, a language understood only by demons and angels.

Sexton responded in kind.

I caught Ida's gaze. Her eyes seemed to be telling me to be still, shut up, and pay attention . I recognized the look because I'd turned it on her the night we'd summoned Gnath.

"The circle keeps you out as it keeps me in," Belial said, this time in language I could understand. "There is nothing you can do to stop me killing her. Unless…" He glanced at me, his blood-red gaze lighting up. "The witch breaks the circle."

"Not a chance," I croaked.

Breaking the circle would set Belial free. He'd kill everyone here then move on to the town. I'd die before I allowed that to happen—even if I was sure Sexton was trying to help, and I wasn't. Not entirely. Demons were duplicitous, self-serving, and power hungry. It was never smart to trust one.

Even if he was being sincere, there was a chance the gravedigger demon couldn't control Belial, and I couldn't risk my friends. I looked at Ida, who'd been joined by Fennel and Cecil. The cat was nestled against her leg, the gnome perched on her shoe. Ronan's wolf sat on his haunches on the other side of Sexton, intelligent golden eyes focused on me.

Not friends. Family . These were my people—and cat and gnome—and I'd be damned if I'd allow Belial to hurt them. Literally damned.

The pain I'd felt being shoved through the hell portal returned in a visceral flashback that gripped me in terror. Every cell in my body balked. I did not want to go back to that place.

Yet I would, if I had to.

I was really hoping it wouldn't come to that, though.

As Sexton argued with Belial, I began to chant. My body was starting to respond again but standing wasn't an option yet, so I crept on my forearms to the spot where Belial had broken the inner circle. If I could repair it, I'd at least delay his escape once the second half of my spell took shape.

Because that part of the spell was a hell of a long shot.

Joon's soil still glowed faintly on my chest. I reached for my magic, and the soil brightened like enchanted glitter, dusting over me from my torso to my fingertips. The spell took hold, and salt separated from the surrounding dirt and returned, grain by grain, to the circle. There was a muffled whomp , and the circle was back up.

Could Belial break it again? Maybe. It would hurt him, though. His charred finger was a testament to that. It hung uselessly from his hand by a scrap of flesh.

I flopped onto my back in the dirt and lifted my hands toward the portal between our worlds. Power flowed from me, what little I could pull from Joon's soil and the dwindling amount I innately possessed. It wasn't nearly enough. I was weak, and the soil here was dead to me. But it was all I had.

The demon jerked his attention away from Sexton. "What are you doing, witch? What is this magic?" He went to one knee beside me and gripped my throat.

I continued chanting.

" Did I not tell you to release her ?" Sexton's voice was much closer, but I didn't dare look.

I was nearly finished with the spell, plus, stars were bursting around the edges of my vision. If I got out of this, I was going to find a spell that would burn the shit out of anyone, corporeal or spirit, who put their hands around my neck. I was more than done with being choked.

Sexton let out a Celestial scream.

Belial dropped me and spun around. He backed away from the other demon, and one of his heels came down hard on my hipbone. I wanted to throw up from the pain.

Still, I chanted.

I finished the spell with a final push of magic. " Perdido . Lost ."

It wasn't a banishment spell. That would've taken far too much magic. Instead, I'd cast a lost and found spell. It would place what amounted to a beacon on the demon, signaling to Hades that one of its denizens had gotten away. Hell didn't like to lose. Demons or penitents.

The demon was hauled toward the opening, his heels carving ravines in the dirt.

"This isn't over. I'm coming back for you," he said, voice buffeted by the waves of darkness dragging him through the opening between my world and his. "As I did your mother." He made one last desperate grab for me.

Sexton popped up between us, Persephone's Ear held out in front of him. The flame was lower than before. Sputtering. " Go home, Belial ."

Hell gave a mighty wrench, and with the sound of a balloon being rapidly deflated, Belial was sucked through the opening, which then sewed itself shut. All that was left of the demon was the fleshy shell of the human form he'd taken. It lay in a sopping pile, like a discarded wetsuit on a stormy beach.

"He killed my mom," I rasped.

"No, he did not." Sexton's voice was quiet and cold. "Your mother died performing a spell. Belial's words were meant to distract you. He is a liar, as are all demons."

"Even you?"

"Even me. Never trust one of us."

There was no time to think about it, because the second Belial was gone, another slit opened inside the circle. Smoke poured through, forming a sigil. Mictlantecuhtli.

I'd never been so happy to see the image of the Aztec god of the dead.

Sexton left the circles, once again coming to stand beside Ida, who didn't look nearly as creeped out by him as I would've thought, given her feelings. The lamp's flame sputtered out, and the artifact disintegrated into dust in Sexton's hands.

"Thank you," I mouthed, knowing he would hear it.

" You owe me a lamp ," he said, and walked out the way he'd come in, crossing the distance to the street in two blinks before disappearing into the night.

I crawled to the other side of the inner salt circle, taking care not to break it.

Gnath poured into existence in much the same way Belial had. He formed smoke into a dark, human-shaped figure and tried his damndest to look scary.

"Never mind the theatrics," I said from below him. "Let's just get this over with."

He peered down at me. "You look like hell, witch."

"You don't know the half of it, demon," I muttered.

I sat up, waited a beat, then went to my knees and took a breather there. When I had managed to drag myself to my feet, I motioned the bookseller over. She exited the Lexus and came to stand two feet from the outer circle with the Weret-hekau Maleficium clasped to her chest, her expression emotionless.

Thankfully, my legs decided to cooperate, and I crossed the outer salt line and took the book from her. Before anyone could stop me—and Ronan's wolf looked very much like he might try—I stepped back into the circle and threw the book at Gnath.

He caught it and tossed the bookseller a gold coin, which hit the circle and dropped to the ground. I snatched it up and flung it to her—it wasn't my coin, so there would be no problem there.

As usual, I was but the humble go-between.

She tucked the coin into her pocket, got into her car, and drove out of the lot.

The large monetary exchange between her and Alpha Floyd had taken place earlier, for an entirely different book, sidestepping the curse. Gnath was the owner of the grimoire now. He alone carried the curse that damned him to Hell, and since he was technically dead—or at least, un-alive—the curse reacted instantly.

The opening that had brought him from Purgatory to the circle cinched closed, and another ripped open. This one was ragged-edged and covered with frost, a serrated slash in the pachyderm-thick hide between our world and what looked like an icy corner of Hell.

"No, please. Please," Gnath said, in the most unenthusiastic way possible. He was the absolute worst actor. How had Kale and Denzel fallen for his god act?

I began chanting loudly, my focus on the grimoire in Gnath's hands. If he decided to be a dick and take it with him, I was screwed. And so was Gladys.

"Help, witch. Don't allow me to be cursed to Hades," Gnath spoke the words as if he were reading from a cue card and chucked the book at me. "Take that, you beastly woman. I won't go. Never. Nevah , I say."

The book hit me in the chest, my breath whooshed from my lungs, and I sank to my knees. Fennel galloped over with Cecil on his back, staying on the right side of the circle in deference to the gnome, since the cat could cross any circle. He hadn't, because I'd told him earlier not to under any circumstances. He'd have been a dangerous distraction, and he knew it.

Speaking of… "This could all be a distraction," I whispered. "Secure the perimeter of the park."

The cat gave a brisk swipe of his tail and raced away, Cecil hanging on for dear life.

Lightning flashed, thunder boomed, and Gnath's lower half was sucked through the opening like a thick milkshake through a narrow straw.

"Nooooo. Please. Stop this horror, you vile witch." Gnath waved his arms in mock terror and winked at me. The demon was enjoying the pain of being forced into Hell, proving yet again that he was twisted in all the worst ways.

The remains of Gnath's smoke form atomized, hovered damp and cloud-like in the atmosphere for one final heartbeat, and then he was gone. The opening zipped shut, and I had an officially uncursed grimoire in my hands.

I tossed it outside the circles, pushed wearily to my feet, and pointed at Alpha Floyd, who was walking toward me.

"Gladys moves in tomorrow, and the money for this job, not for the book ," I said, in case the curse was listening, "hits my account by noon."

He picked up the book, dusted it off, gave me a brusque nod. "Done and done."

Margaux strode up and stood too close to me for her own safety. "Betty, you have to consecrate that soil. You cannot allow the demon Belial to return here. He's dangerous."

"And how do you know that?" I demanded.

"It's obvious, isn't it?" The witch's face lost all expression. The urgent fear dropped off as if spelled to do so. "I tried to get you to listen to me. That demon was dangerous, and you did not have him under control."

I was at the very end of my tether. Not a single drop of patience left in me. The gall of this woman had me balling my hand into a fist at my side.

"What are you hiding about my mom, you lying coward? " I snarled. I might not be a wolf shifter, but a stranger would've been hard pressed to tell the difference in that moment.

" Betty ." Bronwyn took a step forward, holding out a hand as if she meant to touch me.

Margaux gave her a warning look and she stopped. "I'm hiding nothing. There is nothing to hide," the liar said.

"Nothing to hide except your shame." I brought power into my voice, let it trickle off my tongue and wrap around my words. " Your permission to remain here is rescinded. Get off my property, Margaux Ramirez."

The spell didn't whisk her away instantly. That wasn't how it worked. I couldn't be that obvious in case a human wandered onto my property. What it did was make her sick and confused. The longer she remained in place, the sicker and more confused she got.

"Betty, this is ridiculous." She backed up, step by step, talking the whole way. "This grudge you're holding—I didn't have anything to do with Lila's death. She was my friend , for goddess's sake. Do you think I didn't try talking to her that night? She wouldn't pick up the phone."

"You have a car. Why didn't you drive over?"

"Because I knew what she was doing was dangerous."

"What kind of spell was she casting?"

"I don't know. All she said was that it was dangerous, powerful, and necessary. And to stay away." She continued reversing in the direction of the SUV.

"And you did it," I said bitterly, "even though you knew she needed help, and I was too far away to do anything."

"Consider for a moment my position, the danger I'd have put my coven in if I'd?—"

"You're a bad friend."

Margaux's dark brows drew down over her cold eyes. Pain streaked across her face, which meant my arrow had hit the bullseye. She had been a bad friend to my mom, and she damn well knew it.

"I'm responsible for all the members of the La Paloma coven. Lila knew the risk of what she was doing, knew you were coming home to help, knew it was dangerous to do alone, and she charged ahead with the spell anyway. The truth you don't want to face is she made a reckless decision and?—"

"One. More. Word," I said, drawing each syllable out. "One more word out of your mouth, and I'll kill you where you stand, betrayer."

Margaux wrenched open the door and barricaded herself in the SUV. Floyd followed, after flicking a meaningful glance at his son, who was now in hybrid form, which was mostly human, but with a light dusting of wolf fur covering his naked body.

I picked up the rake I'd discarded earlier and leaned on it for a long moment. Then I began slowly covering the salt circles with gravel.

Bronwyn approached me the way a person might approach a strange dog, making sure I saw her before she spoke. "Are you okay? After all this, I mean." She waved her hands over the place where the demons had appeared.

"Sure," I lied, with a straight face.

"That nearly got out of hand," she said.

"The demon would never have broken free of the second circle. You weren't in any danger."

"I know. But you were."

"Part of the job. I knew the risks."

"Speaking of risks." She lowered the tone and volume of her voice and smiled as if to soften her words. "For future reference, you might not want to threaten to kill Margaux in front of witnesses. Covens don't take kindly to threats."

I let out the entirety of the deep breath I'd been holding since confronting Margaux and faced the delicate, pretty witch. "I genuinely like you, Bronwyn. I don't feel that way about many people, so that's saying something."

"Why do I sense a ‘but?'" she asked.

"You're welcome on my property," I continued, "as long as you're not here on coven business. The La Paloma coven is unwelcome at the Siete Saguaros Mobile Home Park. Furthermore, and from this point on, if any coven member steps onto my property uninvited they will be brought to a rapid and complete understanding of how unwelcome they are."

Her smile faltered. "In other words, you want me to leave."

"Only if you're still here on coven business." I scraped the rake over the salt circles, breaking them, and took an over-the-shoulder look at the scene behind me.

The moon hung round and full in the clear night sky and seemed close enough to reach out and touch. It illuminated the area enough to see even without the parking lot lights.

Ronan paced like a raging lion in front of the SUV. His anger was a force so strong it felt like an entity separate from human and wolf. I was surprised he hadn't already stormed over to yell at me, but he was keeping his distance.

For now.

"Who's behind the wheel of the SUV?" I asked.

Bronwyn appeared nonplussed. "Mason Hartman."

"Thanks," I said.

"I didn't think it was a secret," she said. "It sounded like you already knew he was there."

"Just wanted confirmation." Mason's presence was evidence that Alpha Floyd had expected trouble and was more afraid of that trouble than breaking our deal and losing the book.

It was also evidence that he didn't fully trust his own son to protect him.

She went to the SUV, and Ronan strode up. Guess it was his turn to give me crap about how the night had gone. Well, I was pretty pissed at him, too.

Bring it on, wolf.