Chapter Twenty-One

CHARLIE

Ava had asked me to handle things. So I fucking would.

Marcus stood outside the door. He was still crying, but I heard him pause for a moment and take a ragged breath as I came out.

"We need to kill him." I didn't say anything else. I didn't need to. Marcus didn't reply, just stood there…. trying to handle it all.

He was falling apart right now, but he didn't have the luxury to. Not when this beast had hurt the woman that belonged to him.

When a few long moments had passed, I sneered, "Kallie vowed to kill the Dollmaker, and he nearly killed her. She can't do it, so we're going to do it for her. This bastard messed with the wrong family. No sick fuck does this to one of our girls and gets to walk away alive."

Marcus sniffed and cleared his throat. His voice grew closer as he wiped his face and said, "All right. Let's find this motherfucker and make him pay."

"I'm going with ya," Chancey mumbled. I hadn't realized he'd been there, but I didn't care if he was. He wanted to come along, fine by me. If there were three of us, it'd be a hell of a lot harder for Valen to slip away.

I didn't want Ava to see what we were going to do, because it wasn't going to be pretty. How I'd killed the vampire mobster I'd tortured to death was going to look like a pleasant death compared to what we were going to do to Valen once we found him.

"Where do you think he is?" Marcus asked. His voice was straight again, and I was glad to see he'd pulled himself together.

"I've studied this guy," I stated. "He'll return to the scene of the crime to get his fill. I'd bet anything he's still on that island, re-living what he did to Kallie over and over."

Marcus grabbed his pistol, and a click sounded as he released the safety. "He's going to wish he'd never been born," Marcus said darkly, and we headed out.

We portaled back to the island. I thought about what it'd felt like to give Kallie CPR. How easily her chest had caved in when I'd given compressions, absolutely no resistance, and how cold her lips were when I tried to breathe into her lungs.

I'd known she was dead the moment I touched her, or good as. I almost told Ava not to even try— that she was too far gone, and saving her was something that wasn't possible.

But Ava proved me wrong as always, and thank the ancestors she did, because we'd almost lost Kallie today. Observing Marcus as he completely disintegrated at the loss of his love was triggering beyond belief. It'd been like reliving the Infernal Underground all over again, except this time, it was Marcus pleading for Kallie to come back, instead of me reaching out for Ava beyond the grave.

The day the Underground had caved in on Ava was— and would always be— the worst day of my life. And I knew today would be the worst day of Marcus'.

But I could deal with my trauma later. I had to shut my emotions off in favor of winning at all costs. That's what my grandfather had taught me, and that's what I would do. We'd handle our business with this guy, dispose of him, then go after the key. It was as simple as that. Feelings would only get in the way right now. I was the leader, and I was the only one pushing this team forward. Get in, get out, get it done. That was all that mattered. If we let the Dollmaker go and allowed him to live, he'd come back. He'd find Kallie again, and make sure to finish her off next time.

No fucking chance. We were putting Valen in the ground— today.

Not to mention this asshole threw a wrench in my plans, and I couldn't let my grandfather down. We were eliminating this piece of garbage from the planet, then we were getting back to business and going after that key. We were already running way past our schedule, and the clock was ticking.

I wasn't a guy that lost. I won, every time, and this degenerate fuckhead had bested me once. I wouldn't let Valen live long enough to do so twice.

He'd know we were coming, but let him… this guy always wanted an audience for his work, and if he wanted to play games, I was willing to play. We'd show him he was nothing more than a pawn on a board full of powerful pieces, and it was checkmate, bitch.

We stepped out of the portal and headed to the place where we'd found Kallie first.

"Do you think he's around?" Marcus asked lowly.

"Oh, he's around," I replied. "In fact, I bet he's watching us right now."

"In that case, why not see if he'll bite?" Marcus seethed.

He took a deep breath beside me and began to yell. "Come on out, Valen! I know you can hear me! I only want to play… with your organs."

A hissing laughter echoed throughout the factory grounds, but I couldn't tell where it was coming from— the dickhead was using illusion magic to project his voice. "You'll never find me, warlock. I'll kill you one by one, then use your bodies as my toys. I need some new dolls."

Metal clanged loudly as Valen used a pipe to bang on the walls. It was distracting, and there wasn't a clear source of where it could be coming from.

"He's in one of these alleys," I noted, just as we turned a corner.

The metallic scent of blood filled the air, and I knew it was the same alleyway we'd found Kallie in earlier. My foot caught a rock, and I stumbled to catch myself on the side of the building. Cool, sticky liquid coated my hands, and I could still feel the remnants of Kallie's magic flowing through it.

It was Kallie's blood, smeared all over the wall. He'd painted the area with it after we'd left.

"Guys," Chancey said in a hoarse tone.

A noise of rage erupted from Marcus' throat. He immediately spun around and went storming out of the alley, screaming, "VALEN! I'm coming for you!"

Valen's haunting laughter vibrated around the area once again.

"What did he do?" I asked Chancey.

"He took Kallie's blood and used it to draw on the walls of the alley," Chancey told me under his breath. "Her name, gruesome pictures of what I think is her face. This character's really messed up."

That was a light way of putting it. I turned to follow Marcus, trailing the noise his shoes made as they crunched broken glass and discarded trash underneath his feet.

"Come out, come out, wherever you are!" Marcus sang. His voice had developed an eerie quality to it— one I hadn't heard in months, not since we'd left the Institute. A shiver ran up my spine as Marcus' breaths became ragged and shuddering. He sounded like some sort of monster hunting for his prey.

"I will never be found. The Arcanea Alliance failed to bring me in, and the woman who swore to kill me has fallen," Valen responded in a creeping resonance that made the windows on the buildings creak. "You cannot take me, little warlock."

"It's too late for you to run away!" Marcus conjured a high-powered battle orb, and it went sizzling to my left. The entire building beside us caved in and crumpled once the orb hit it, and the smell of smoke rose into the air.

Playing hide and seek with a serial killer wasn't how I'd planned on utilizing my morning, and recess was over. Marcus conjured another orb and tossed it into a different factory structure. I listened to one of the smokestacks groan as it toppled over and crashed into the lake.

"I know you're scared!" Marcus screamed. "Why not come a little closer, so I can enjoy watching the sparkle leave your eyes as you fucking die?!"

I think the falling buildings must've scared Valen and made him realize who exactly he was dealing with, because he didn't respond. He was definitely fleeing, and we couldn't let him do that. I turned on the spot, trying to get some sense of where Valen was or where he might've crawled off to.

I scanned the area with my magic, but I couldn't read a signature. My senses were fucked up by Kallie's blood, because her magic was stronger than Valen's, and it was everywhere. It made Valen hard to track.

"I saw a shadow over there," Chancey said, grabbing my arm to lead me. We ran that way, but Marcus sprinted past us. We ended up in some sort of epicenter of the factory's hub— I could tell, because the air was expansive here, and the wind currents had more space to move.

A barrel toppled over behind me, ringing out as it hit the concrete. Footsteps slapped against the ground as the fucker took off running. I instantly went for my pistol and raised it to fire. I gave three shots, and Air magic blasted outward. Dust and rocks hit my face as my shots made holes in the side of a building, and some of the residue cut into my cheek and made me bleed. Valen didn't cry out, so I knew I didn't hit him.

Marcus fired off his own gun, but he swore, so his shots must've missed. Chancey darted forward, but he let out an oof and stumbled to the ground. Valen had socked him in the stomach and kept going.

This fucker was fast. We had to be quicker. Valen's footsteps became soft, and I figured they'd turned into paws. He thought he'd shift into a wolven and run out of here. Not fucking likely.

"I don't think so," Marcus said. "It's rude not to play with your friends."

A yelp that sounded like it came from a hurt dog cut through the air, and I heard Valen scrabble his claws against the pavement as Marcus' telekinesis magic yanked him backward and threw him into a set of wooden boxes. They smashed on impact, and Valen groaned as he changed back.

He scrambled to his feet to make a run for it in the other direction, but Chancey and I blocked his exit before he had a chance. I reached out to grab one arm as Valen attempted to run by, and Chancey caught the other. Together, we rammed our shoulders into Valen's body and used all our strength to toss him forward. He flew twenty feet and smashed against a wall, breaking chunks out of a wall he slammed into.

My Air magic rushed up around us, and I noticed we'd tossed Valen down a dead-end alley, the only exit being the outlet where the three of us stood.

"Nowhere to go now," Marcus uttered, letting out a demented laugh. He staggered toward Valen, and I heard him crack his knuckles.

Chancey went to move in, but I put a hand on his chest to hold him back. "He belongs to Marcus. We're just here to make sure he doesn't slither away."

"Fine by me," Chancey said darkly. "I'm gonna get a kick outta watching this."

"You're awful at hiding," Marcus seethed as he circled Valen. "I've already found you."

"And?" Valen scorned. "Why should I give a shit about you?"

"Let me introduce myself. I'm the nightmare that lives inside of you, and I am going to haunt your fucking dreams."

Marcus kicked Valen in the face as hard as he could. I heard a smacking sound as his shoe connected with Valen's nose and broke it. Valen gave a cry of pain, which was quickly followed by the sound of fists pummeling into flesh. Blood spurted from his nose so far that droplets hit my pant leg. Marcus must've been covered in it. It made my heartbeat race and got me pumped.

"Wow, I can see why Charlie likes this!" Marcus cried as he pummeled Valen in the face again and again. "I'm having a great time!"

Magic pulsed through the area, an energy signature I was used to. It was Marcus' Curse Breaker powers, and his magic surged the way it did when he broke wards. Only this time, he wasn't breaking any ward. He was stealing Valen's powers, much like an Elf would, though Marcus couldn't utilize fae magic himself. Still, witch magic was similar enough to Valen's that Marcus was able to manipulate it and force it to change course. He drained Valen of his power so he couldn't fight back, making the shifter pathetic and weak.

A battle orb sizzled in Marcus' palm, and Valen's scream echoed across the island as the battle magic seared his skin. The smell of burning flesh filled the air.

Marcus' crazed laughter was even louder than Valen's screams. The dark side of Marcus— the deranged villain living inside of him— had returned. It hadn't emerged since we'd escaped the Institute, and I'd once thought it'd been a one-off psychotic break. But Marcus was losing it, and this time, he was remembering every moment of his missing sanity.

I understood now that this was who Marcus really was deep down. There was a part of him that lay deeply submerged unless Kallie was threatened. Now that darkness had been awakened, and Valen was going to experience the full wrath of the demonic rage that was Marcus' fury.

"You wanna fight back?" Marcus asked patronizingly, and he let Valen's body fall to the ground. "You weak, disgusting, sorry excuse for a piece-of-shit thing. I suppose I could let you try and stop me."

Valen gave an enraged yell, until his cries of anger turned to pain. There was a sloppy, gory sound, and I realized it was Valen's eye. Marcus was using Mentalist magic to puppeteer him, forcing him to claw his own eyeball out.

"Ew," Chancey said, sounding grossed out but not disagreeing. "Put that thing back in. It's hanging on by a thread."

Valen wailed in unimaginable agony before Marcus dropped him back to the ground, and the shifter gave a shriek.

"Oh, that's right. You can't fight back, because I'd never let you," Marcus taunted. "I'm not even going to let you get a cheap shot in. You won't put a scratch on me, but I sure as hell am going to fuck you up."

"Go to hell," Valen seethed. "I'm not afraid of you."

"What are you talking about? Everyone's afraid of me, because eventually, I come for you all. Haven't you heard? I'm the Lord of Death!" Marcus cried, giving a mock bow. "And death's knocking on your fucking doorstep. DING DONG, I'M HERE!"

Marcus fired his pistol twice. His magical bullets hit and blew chunks out of Valen's legs that splattered against my jacket. Off with the kneecaps, I guess. Valen's cries of agony were so loud, I figured they were going to crack the windows.

"If you're going to shoot me, be done with it!" Valen raged. He slapped a hand to his face— probably the side that was holding his dangling eyeball in.

"You think I'm going to kill you off right now? Like this?" Marcus cackled. "No fucking way. You've got a long way to go, shithead."

Marcus kicked him again, this time, in the stomach. Valen coughed a few times, and it sounded thick, like he was hacking up globules of blood.

"This was a good place to be a bad boy," Marcus said. He knelt by Valen, who was pathetically trying to crawl forward. "But it's a good place for me to be a bad boy, too. No one's going to hear you scream out here."

"You're fighting on behalf of some wench who swore herself to me before she even met you," Valen hissed. "I was the one she pledged herself to at our Choosing before the King's Contest even began. She swore to Neva, the Phantom Doe of Shadow and the goddess of time, to be my mate forever, and she turned her back on that promise. Don't forget, she was mine first."

"That's where you're wrong," Marcus spat. "No one is going to love her like I do, no one is going to understand her like I do, no one is going to fuck her like I do. You are a pathetic shitstain on the underside of her shoe, and I'm having a blast removing it."

Valen's fingernails could be heard as he drew them across the concrete. Marcus dragged him by his feet several paces away from us, and the magic in the air increased as my Air magic felt Valen be lifted into the air by Marcus' telekinesis, hanging him upside down.

Metal scraped as Marcus lifted a discarded metal pipe off the ground. Valen began to whimper. He was breaking already? How disappointing. He acted like such a big badass while he was on the streets murdering young women, but he sure turned into an overgrown crybaby when it was time to pick on someone his own size. I was loving that Marcus was torturing this bastard. I wanted to experience it again and again.

"You know, I was never very good at baseball. I always missed when it was my turn at bat," Marcus said, and the pipe whooshed as he twirled it in circles beside him. "But I don't see how I can't hit a home run with a target this big."

Marcus slammed the pipe into Valen's arm, and I rejoiced as it broke on impact. Valen didn't even have time to cry out before Marcus broke the other one. Marcus swung the pipe as hard as he could, breaking bones Valen probably didn't even know he had, beating the absolute shit out of him.

I was merciless. This sicko had made so many poor girls feel exactly like this— terrified, helpless and in unimaginable pain— before he'd taken their lives and humiliated their remains after. I had no sympathy. In fact, this was the most fun I'd had in a long time.

Marcus had busted Valen's skull open by the time he tossed the pipe to the side. I'd heard his head crack on the last hit. Blood dripped onto the ground like rain, and Valen gave a groan of suffering, though he didn't perish.

Valen was like a cockroach— hard to kill. No wonder people like him never died and continued to roam the earth poisoning society with their shadow. At least we could have fun watching him suffer. It would've been boring and dull to give this fucker the easy way out, and he didn't deserve a single ounce of mercy.

"Daddy's thirsty for blood," Marcus sang. "You know, Kallie taught me a lot about swords, though I've never used one before. Luckily, I happen to carry her sword with me in case she ever needs it, and it's her blade that's going to sever you apart. Isn't that poetic justice?"

The ringing sound of metal echoed throughout the air like a holy call as Marcus summoned Kallie's sword from his stash. "Let's see what your heart looks like, because I don't think you have one."

Metal sank into flesh, and Valen let out another howl. Bones cracked again, and I realized Marcus was cutting Valen open from the back, down the length of his spine.

I was impressed. Something like this would've grossed Marcus out even yesterday, caused him to vomit or cringe away. What Valen had done to Kallie had changed him, and there was no turning back from the evil he'd become.

Marcus nearly sounded disappointed. "Huh, your heart's not black. Color me surprised."

Marcus' fingers cracked as he crushed his hand into a fist, and I heard Valen's ribs buckle. The Dollmaker could barely utter a moan at this point. If he didn't die soon, he would any minute now.

We didn't have to wait long. Valen gave a dying moan, but Marcus cast a spell so strong I felt his Death magic ripple through the alleyway. It was like Marcus had shoved Valen's spirit back into his body. Marcus wasn't giving this fucker the satisfaction of death just yet.

"You're not going anywhere unless I say you are," Marcus hissed. There was the uncork of a bottle— a potion that Marcus carried, most likely— and a sizzling sound as Marcus poured it all over Valen's wounds. Valen cried out this time, his yowls high-pitched and louder than they had ever been before as the acid ate away at the open flesh.

"Burn alive," Marcus hissed, and the potion vial smashed against the ground as Valen continued to cry.

"Please," Valen pleaded. "Please, kill me."

"Oh, you're gonna beg, like a little bitch?" Marcus asked in a phony tone of concern. "Let me ask you a question. How many of those girls begged for their lives before you killed them? Did you ever care? No? Guess I don't give a shit, either."

Marcus stuck Kallie's sword into Valen's side and yelled, "Where are her wings?!"

"In a place… you'll never find," Valen rasped.

"Tell me!" Marcus demanded.

Valen gave a withering gasp. "Go… to… hell."

"Oh, I will," Marcus replied, and he gave another twisted laugh. "In fact, I'm going to be quite comfortable there, but I will never let you roam its halls."

The roar of hatred that emitted from Marcus was so terrifying, it almost made me cower. A powerful dark magical resonance, one that made my Elf magic marvel at how immense it was, ricocheted through the alleyway like a bolt of lightning. It made the earth quake and I stumbled forward, unable to catch my balance as I fell to the ground.

As I fell, I passed through some sort of spirit energy. Something materialized before me. I observed the soul that I knew had to be Valen's, giving a tortured wail as Marcus' magic held him in place, preventing him from escaping to the afterlife.

Then, in one exceptional magical burst, Valen's soul burst into ash. It exploded into an array of dust, coating me in his soul's energy. I wiped it off quickly, feeling disgusted, as the rest of his ether dissolved into the air.

Just before he'd died, Marcus had ripped Valen's soul out of his body and destroyed it. Valen would never go to the afterlife now, to any heaven or hell that would have him. He'd never reincarnate, and all of his past lives were gone. Marcus had effectively erased him from existence, as if he'd never been here at all.

But he had been here, even though Marcus had completely obliterated him. What he'd done to Kallie would continue to affect her for years to come. But at least now Valen couldn't hurt anyone else… here, or in any other lives going forward.

Marcus was absolutely raging, taking long and heavy gasps. I got to my feet and reached out to touch him. His shoulder was shaking underneath my hand. The psychotic part of him was gone. It had died down after he'd finished Valen, but he was still fuming.

"I didn't want to kill him yet," he said through clenched teeth. "I lost my temper and took it too far. I wasn't finished."

"He's gone now," I said firmly, squeezing his shoulder. "We took care of him, like we said we would. Now it's time to get back."

"You aren't still thinking about pulling off the heist, not after all this happened," Marcus insisted.

"We have to, Marcus. We still have daylight, and this is our only window," I said evenly. "I'm glad you made him pay. But Kallie wouldn't want us to miss out on the vampire key because of this."

Marcus sighed. "Guess you're right. I can't let Kallie down."

"No, you can't. Let's get back," I said.

We left Valen's body like the garbage it was behind us and portaled back to the hotel. Once we got there, Marcus immediately rushed back into the room where they were treating Kallie, and I followed.

"Did you get it done?" Ava whispered as I came to her side.

I nodded once, and Ava said nothing more.

"Marcus," Kallie wheezed. It sounded like she was awake again. "Where did you go?"

"I got him, pretty girl." Marcus sounded so sweet and gentle now. It was the complete opposite of the crazed killer he'd been moments before. "Valen's gone. I killed him, and destroyed his soul. He's never going to hurt you or any other woman ever again."

"He was mine," Kallie protested weakly. "I was supposed to kill him."

"He was ours," Marcus insisted. I heard him conjure her blade again, and lie it on the bedside next to her. "His blood is on your sword. I made sure to cut him open with it. He deserved to die just like all his victims did."

Kallie sounded astonished. "Marcus… there's no bigger honor for a fae, for you to kill their enemy with their sword."

"Of course there isn't. I was happy to do it for you."

Both of them got quiet, and I supposed they were off in their own little world. Ava tugged on my sleeve, and we left the room with Oberi to give them some privacy.

When the door closed behind us, I asked, "Is Kallie getting better?"

"She is, but there's no fucking way she can come on the heist. Kallie's down for the count," Ava said. "She can perform illusion magic, but she can't shift or stop time. I've healed her the best I can, but she can't come with us anymore. Even if she had access to her time powers, I don't think she can mentally pull this off. Not after what happened."

I wasn't expecting her to be well, but fuck, this sent our entire plan up in flames. "So what do we do now?"

"Mom and Ez are going to stay here and keep healing her. Once she's strong enough to make it through a long-distance portal, which should be by tonight, they'll take her back to Ilamanthe."

"And who's going to take her place?" I demanded.

"Come with me."

Ava led the way to the penthouse's kitchen, and I trailed her, but it was in silence. I was fuming. We should've had the vampire key by now, and we were running out of time to get it. We had to strike before nightfall, or this whole thing was a bust. I'd tried to account for everything, but I never thought the fucking Dollmaker would show up. The psycho was taken care of now, though, which meant we had to keep moving forward with our plan.

Max and Gavyn were waiting for us, surrounded by all kinds of tech noises, and the door to the penthouse opened. Two other voices halted me in my tracks as they entered, because I hadn't expected them to be here. It was Danny and Alistair. I just knew this was bad news. We were hours behind schedule, and now we had to account for these loose cannons.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" I sneered at Danny.

"Ava let me know about Kallie, and I came as soon as I could," he replied.

"Well, go home," I ordered. "We don't need you here."

"We just might," Ava countered. "Charlie, can I talk to you privately?"

Ava rolled out of the room, and I reluctantly followed her into the master suite.

"Pidge, you can't be serious!" I fumed. "You invited Danny and Alistair!"

"They deserved to know what happened," she said. "They're our friends."

I scoffed. "Alistair, yes, but that's a stretch for Danny. Forget about what happened with the Dollmaker; the fact that they're here has already compromised the whole mission. We might as well let Salvatore move the vampire key and hunt for it later."

"We didn't come all this way just to give up," Ava snapped. "Cassiel would riot if he knew we turned back now."

Ouch. She knew exactly where to hit me. I promised my grandfather I wouldn't let him down, and I wasn't going to let anyone— not the Dollmaker, and certainly not Danny— force me to go back on my word.

I paced around the room and ran my fingers through my hair. "We're running out of time. Getting that key is vital to the fate of the fucking world. It's now or never."

"Then we have to adjust our plan," Ava suggested. She reached out for me, and I stopped pacing. "We can do this. We just have to be clever. Together, we can pull this off."

I sighed heavily. "What were you thinking?"

"Take me with you. Kallie can't come along to crack the safe, so you'll have to rely on me."

"Pidge, you can't break open that safe the way Kallie can," I argued.

"I can," she insisted. "I've done it before. Back home, I used my water powers to break the lock on the safe in my parents' bedroom."

"You couldn't break into the bank vault, though," I pointed out.

"This is a different type of safe. The bank vault was a door, and this is just a box. I can break this tumbler system with my Water magic, and force my way in."

"And if that triggers alarms?" I asked.

"It's a chance we have to take," Ava pressed. "You planned for backups every step of the way except for cracking the safe. Let me come with, and we can do this together. We need to get the vampire key today, no matter what it takes."

The last thing I wanted to do was put Ava in any danger, but I didn't doubt her, either. I trusted that she could pull this off.

"You're our leader, Charlie," she added. "It's ultimately up to you, but I know I can do this."

Ava was right. I was the leader on this, and I had to get comfortable making tough decisions quickly. It's what my grandfather would do.

"Okay, you're with me, but we need to hurry," I conceded. "The longer we wait, the closer we get to sunset, and the vampires will be more active then. We have to move faster than we originally planned."

"Then let's discuss the change of plans with the others," Ava said.

We returned to the main room, where Max was clicking away at her keyboard. "Asa and Aries are ahead of us," she said. "We're already tapped into The Devil's City security feed. We have full control over the security system, so we can cover your tracks from here. Security won't know where you're at."

"Good, because it's time to move," I replied.

At the sound of my voice the others gathered around, waiting on my orders. Marcus left Kallie's room, taking my side.

"I'm with you, Charlie," he said. "Kallie wants me to do this with you guys, and though I don't want to leave her at a time like this, Ez and Ava's mom will take care of her. Kallie made me swear I'd get the vampire key and bring it back to Ilamanthe. She doesn't want our time in Chicago to be for nothing."

I'd say. If we missed out on the vampire key, Kallie's torment at the hands of the Dollmaker would end up being an unneeded sacrifice. We couldn't let that happen.

"Change of plans," I announced. "We're sending Kallie back to the palace once she's stable and getting her out of harm's way. Ava will be taking Kallie's place and accompanying us into The Devil's City. Everything else is remaining as close to the original plan as possible."

"I'm coming with," Danny insisted. "You're going to need me out there."

Fucking hell.

"You can take Ava's place and stay here on comms," I told him, because that was the safest place to put him.

"Like hell," Danny shot back. "I'm in on the action. I'm pretty good at causing a distraction when you need one, and something tells me you're going to need it."

"What kind of distraction?" I challenged.

Danny let out a cocky laugh. "Just trust me."

My grandfather had taught me that no job was bound to go perfectly, and that when faced with a problem, the best thing to do was work with it, rather than try to solve it.

You don't have time to solve problems when the clock is ticking, he'd told me. You can only pivot. Find ways to turn that problem into a solution.

I wasn't going to argue with Danny, because I knew he'd only cause more problems if he was left to his own devices. At least if Danny was with us, I could keep a close eye on him.

"All right, Danny. You're with us," I agreed.

"I'll take over the comms," Alistair offered. He plopped down in front of the computer. Pig jumped up on the table, and the keyboard clicked as the cat walked over it.

Alistair wasn't going to return to Ilamanthe, even if I dragged him there myself. Leaving him here where Max and Gavyn could watch him was our best option.

"Fine," I said. "Let's get moving."

We quickly gathered the last of our things. Gavyn supplied us each with an earpiece, so that we could stay in touch with each other.

Marcus placed a potion vial in my hand. "Everyone take this. It's a warding potion I made myself. It will disguise our scent, voices, and appearances. It will make us virtually undetectable."

I downed the potion, and the others followed. I felt the magic tingling across my skin, and I knew it was working.

"Danny, you'll need a sun-safe potion to protect you from the sunlight if we need to make a quick exit outside," Marcus added. "You're lucky I've got one on me. It should last up to twelve hours."

"Cheers!" Danny said, before downing the potion. I almost hoped it didn't work, because it'd be funny if his vampiric ass fried.

Oberi shifted into a unicorn. Ava left her chair behind, and I hoisted her onto Oberi's back. Rishi followed at Marcus' feet, and Eddie remained close by my side, braced to defend me at any moment. Chancey cracked his knuckles, ready for a fight, and Ivy walked alongside him. Danny followed us, but he thankfully kept his mouth shut. I think he finally realized how serious the situation was and that he couldn't fuck around right now.

We took a private elevator down to the lowest level of the hotel, which was deserted. I used my magic to shift the concrete and dirt beneath us, creating a sloping passage, until I felt my magic give way to a large tunnel beneath us.

"Quickly," I ordered. Oberi hurried through the hole I'd made, and the others followed.

I went last. The storm sewers were similar to long, circular hallways. They were tall enough to stand in, and although there were puddles of water beneath us, Ava cleared them aside with her Toaqua magic.

"It's a mile to The Devil's City," Ivy told us. "Come on. I know where we need to go."

We walked at a brisk pace and turned a few corridors until Ivy stopped in the middle of the tunnel fifteen minutes later. I knew we must be beneath The Devil's City, because I could feel the magic buzzing around us. It wasn't as strong as the magic in Ilamanthe, or even back at the Institute, because vampire magic wasn't as intense as the resonance given off by other supernatural races. That's why the vampires could still rely heavily on tech like security cameras when they didn't work so well at the Institute, because their magic didn't interfere with human technology as much. Still, there were enough vampires in the vicinity that I could sense them, even from underground.

"This is it," Ivy announced. "We should be right beneath the boiler room."

Gavyn's voice came through the comms. "We've got a visual on the boiler room. It's empty. You're clear to go."

"Everyone stand back," I told them.

They scurried back a few paces, and I lifted my hands. The ground shook, and debris rained downward as I shifted dirt, rock, and concrete above us. I was careful to make sure the earth was stable before ushering the others through. We crawled out of the storm sewers and into a large room whirring with equipment.

Goosebumps tingled along my arms, and I quickly scanned the room with my magic. I could feel Air moving in and out of the machines, but I felt no magical signatures nearby. The room was empty as expected.

"The service elevators are this way." Ivy started forward, and we all followed.

Though we were alone, we crept quietly past large machines and long pipes. I remained on keen alert, and I didn't pick up on anything until?—

"Eek!" Marcus let out a high-pitched squeal, and Rishi hissed. Danny grunted, like he'd been hit by a heavy force. My Air magic swirled around two swiftly-moving figures. The vampires were on us in a split second, before any of us knew it, and they'd grabbed Marcus and Danny.

Danny gave a primal growl, and Chancey moved forward to beat the vampires to a pulp. I threw my hand out in one direction to shove Ava and Oberi behind me with my Air magic. My other hand lifted toward the vampires to cast a spell, but before I could shoot it off, Marcus gasped in pain. I realized if I cast the spell, Marcus would be caught in the crosshairs and probably get hurt.

Danny threw a punch at one of the guys, but he didn't get away from the guy holding him before he paused.

"Brant? Krew?" Danny asked in a bright tone. "What the hell are the chances?"

"What the fuck?" I snarled at Danny. "You know these pricks?"

"We have a history," Danny admitted. "Not a great one, obviously."

Chancey hesitated, then backed down. Eddie took a stance beside me, awaiting my instruction.

"Well, well, well." One of the vampires laughed. "Never expected to see you again, Daniel."

"I don't want to have to hit you again, Brant," Danny warned. "We're friends, remember? You don't want to make an enemy out of me."

"If you're friends, you can let them go," I said. I really didn't want to leave a string of bodies behind if we could help it. It'd tip off Salvatore just as quickly as these two fuckers running back to him. The best option was to use Danny's friendship to our advantage, so these vamps didn't go reporting back to the boss.

"Friends?" the other vampire scoffed— Krew, I guessed. "We'd sooner kill these two than let them go. Salvatore will be very interested in speaking with you, Danny. And look, they brought the boss's little whelp. This day keeps getting better and better. Daddy's been looking for you, Junior."

"Fuck you, Krew," Ivy spat. "I'm not my father's tool."

"But you always have been," Krew replied. "Come with us now, or your friends are dead. Don't even think of casting any spells in here. Any rogue magic could hit one of these machines. An explosion like that would take all of us with it."

He was right about that, and I didn't want to risk hitting Marcus, either. I had to make a split-second decision, and the best thing to do was siphon the vamps of their powers. But when I tried, I couldn't sense their magic.

"Why can't I feel you?" I demanded. "You don't have any magic."

Krew gave a mischievous laugh. "We have good warding potions that make us undetectable to everyone, including our own cameras."

So that's why I hadn't felt them in the room with us, and why they hadn't been spotted by the Associates on the security cameras. An oversight I wasn't making again.

Ivy stepped forward. "You don't really want to keep working for my dad, do you? Come on, Brant. You looked the other way countless times when I was getting into mischief right here in this building. I know you hate it here."

Brant hesitated, like he couldn't argue with that. "Turning you in would guarantee one hell of a promotion."

"Or you could come with me and be free of my father," Ivy offered. "I made it out of this place; so can you. You told me the last time we talked you were sick of working for him, so come work for me instead."

"He'd have my head," Brant insisted.

"Not if he can't find you," Ivy said. "My father thinks he can beat us, but we've already escaped him once. We'll escape him every time after. So tell me, Brant… do you want to be on the winning side, or the losing? Because if you stay with my father, one way or another, you will lose yourself."

Brant's voice was small as he said, "I already have, Junior. If you really mean it, then take me with you."

"Screw you! You can't mean that!" Krew shouted.

"I do!" Brantley insisted. "Junior's right. Salvatore isn't what he used to be, and I ain't sticking around if I've got better options."

"Good choice, Brant," Ivy said approvingly. "What do you say, Krew? You going to join us, too?"

"Over my dead body," Krew sneered. "You're a fucking traitor, Brant!"

Krew let go of Marcus and leapt on Brant. Before Danny could get between them, I heard the snap of breaking bones, then the tearing of flesh as Krew yanked Brant's head off his shoulders. The vampire's body slumped to the ground.

So much for not leaving any dead bodies behind. We couldn't let Krew walk now, because he was sure to run off to Salvatore immediately.

I lunged forward and clamped my hands around Krew's head, then twisted. I didn't know where I'd found the strength, because I certainly hadn't siphoned it from Krew. But I'd pulled a supernatural power boost from somewhere. Krew's bones snapped, and his neck crackled like broken stone against my touch. He was gone in an instant.

Ivy stumbled to the side. "Whoa, Charlie. You've taken a hit on my strength."

I realized I'd siphoned the super strength from Ivy. I had to be careful, because they needed their powers for themselves.

"Wow!" Alistair's voice came over the comms. "That was impressive, Charlie! You show ‘em who's boss!"

"Stay off the comms unless you have information for us, Alistair." I tossed Krew's head aside, heaving heavy breaths. I turned on the others. "That was too fucking close! We can't let something like this happen again, or we aren't walking out of here with that key. We've got two bodies now, and we just got in. These bodies are going to be discovered quicker than we want them to be, because they'll be expected to report back to the higher-ups, and people will know they're missing."

"We can at least get rid of the evidence to slow Salvatore's people down," Ava suggested. She aimed her Fire magic, and warmth filled the air as her flames ate away at the vampires' bodies until there was nothing left of them.

I whirled on Danny. "You care to explain what just happened? How do you know these people? Every detail you leave out puts us at risk."

"There's not much to tell," Danny insisted. "I lived in The Devil's City for a while after my parents kicked me out. Ivy and I spent some time together, and they took me on jobs to help out. I never officially joined the mob, but I met a few guys along the way. That's it."

"You better hope that's it," I sneered. "Because if your mobster friends catch us off guard like that again, it's over. I won't hesitate to kill them, even if you're caught in the line of fire."

"Believe me," Danny replied darkly. "I won't be."

"I don't understand," Chancey said. "We shouldn't have been caught after taking Marcus' warding potion. It must've not worked."

"But I brewed it perfectly!" Marcus insisted. "I don't know what could've gone wrong."

"The spy in the palace," Ava sneered. "Someone must've sabotaged your potion. Just one wrong ingredient could make it ineffective, even if the magical signature remained."

That fucking spy again. We needed to figure out who they were, because we would never make any progress if someone was always sabotaging our moves.

I shook my head. "Nothing we can do about it now."

"What if the spy told Salvatore about our plan? Charlie, we could be walking into a trap!" Marcus panicked.

I paused. He was right. But we were already in the building, and the key was a hundred stories up. We were so close. Could we really turn back now, even if there was a risk?

Keep going forward, my grandfather would say. So that's what I decided we'd do.

"We don't quit until we have that key. Marcus, keep a close lookout for any potential wards," I warned. "Let's keep moving."

We hurried across the boiler room, but we didn't run into any other vamps. At the service elevator, Marcus and Chancey pried the doors open. I felt a column of air rising upward all the way to the top of the tower. Somewhere in the middle I could sense two elevator cars, but there was enough space around them that we could maneuver past them. This was our best way to navigate the building undetected.

"Let's move quickly." I ushered the others inside.

Ivy and Danny grabbed the side of the elevator shaft and began climbing. Marcus used his telekinesis to fly himself, Rishi, and Eddie upward, while I cast my Air magic to levitate myself and Ava. Oberi shifted into a phoenix to fly on her own, and Chancey spread his angel wings to follow up the rear.

Danny and Ivy climbed as fast as the rest of us flew. We moved at a quick pace, and I figured it would only take us a couple of minutes to reach the top. Floors flew past us in seconds. Ten floors, then twenty…

I sensed a shift in my Air magic, as if someone had opened a doorway overhead.

"Intruders!" a deep voice yelled.

"Fuck, we have company!" Ava cried.

I could feel her shock through the bond, and it was easy to read her. Two vampires stood several floors above us, peering out into the open elevator shaft. I reacted quickly, sending a column of Air upward to knock them off their feet.

"We have to move faster!" I shouted.

No sooner had I shoved those vamps backward did I feel another doorway open overhead. The sinister laughter of a vampire echoed off the elevator shaft.

"You have nowhere to hide!" the vamp called down to us.

Then the most horrible sound filled my ears— the sound of snapping cables, and the groan of metal on metal. The Air around me seemed to shrink. An elevator car was coming down on top of us!

"Everyone to the walls!" Chancey screamed.

I thrust my arms outward, and my Air magic pinned my friends against the corners of the elevator shaft. I lifted my arms to slow the elevator down, but my Air magic fought against it, like the vampires were using powers of their own to make it fall.

"Charlie!" Chancey panicked. He flapped his wings and threw himself on top of me, to push me out of the way. I landed hard against the side of the elevator shaft, squished between the wall and Chancey's chest. His wings spread wide, flattening us both there.

The elevator car swept past us, at a speed that seemed inhumanly possible. Chancey screamed in my ear… and then he was gone. His weight on me vanished, and his pained cry echoed up the shaft as he was dragged downward by the elevator car.

"Chance!" Ivy screamed, their cry echoing off the walls.

I leapt off the side of the shaft, free falling headfirst behind him as I used my Air to control my descent. Ava fell alongside me, trusting me to catch her fall. The others followed. Chancey's scream seemed to go on forever, until the crash of the elevator car sounded against the bottom of the shaft. Metal clanged and groaned as the elevator car crunched like a soda can.

"Ouch, that sounded like it hurt," Alistair said.

"Not helpful," I barked into the comms.

Ivy had gotten there before any of us, and their panicked cries could be heard all around the elevator shaft.

"Oh no, no, no," Ivy whimpered, and their pleas made my heartbeat race. What if the elevator car had crushed him?

I landed on my feet on top of the elevator car, which was nothing more than a heap of metal now. I heard Chancey gasp below me, somewhere off to the side. He was still alive.

The elevator shaft housed two elevators, and the vamps had only cut the cable to one of them. Chancey lay on the ground in the space between the elevators, groaning in agonizing pain. He had to be pinned under it!

"My wing!" Chancey cried out in agony, sounding in incredible pain.

I flew to the ground and guided my Air magic to lay Ava gently beside Chancey. Oberi landed in phoenix form beside him.

"I'm going to heal you," Ava told him, before I felt her healing magic surge through the bond.

"Better be quick about it," Danny warned. "We've got company."

Above us, the scurry of hands and feet sounded from all angles. There were hordes of vampires crawling down the elevator shaft to get to us. Rishi yowled loudly. Marcus and Eddie were already getting to work prying open the nearest door.

Ivy sounded completely broken. "His right wing is crushed," they whimpered.

I went to walk around him, and my shoes splashed in the puddles of blood that were seeping out from Chancey's injuries.

"Leave… me," Chancey rasped. He sounded on the edge of consciousness, like he was fighting to hold on just to convince us to leave him there.

"I need to help you," Ava demanded.

"You can't… heal this," Chancey moaned. "Healing magic won't fix a broken angel wing. My wing stays like this, I'm gonna die… and I know there's no fixing it now. Just… leave me here. I'll be okay. I'm ready to go."

"We've got to get the car off of him!" I demanded.

"There's no time!" Ava cried. The crawling of the vampires grew closer, and I knew it would only be a matter of time before they were upon us.

We had less than a few minutes before the vampires got to us. If they reached us, they'd drag us off to Salvatore, and this would be all over. We didn't have time to contemplate a decision. Even if we managed to get Chancey free, I knew his wing was too mangled to function properly ever again, and as an angel, he couldn't live without them.

As the leader of this operation, I was prepared to make tough calls. I'd hoped it wouldn't come to this, but I knew I had to make one of the hardest decisions of my life. I didn't want to leave Chancey behind, but we had to. There was nothing more important than getting that key, and as much as I hated to say it, that included Chancey's life.

The thought flickered through my head in an instant. I tried not to feel anything at all, because I had to keep pushing the team forward. We just had to pivot when we met snags in the plan, as my grandfather taught me.

Oberi knew it, too. She shifted back into a Fire unicorn and stomped her hoof. I grabbed Ava around the waist and hoisted her onto Oberi's back. "We have to go!"

Ava pushed against me. "Charlie, we can't!"

"You… have… to," Chancey begged. His life was fading. He wasn't going to make it, and I couldn't waste time trying to save him when everything was on the line.

The vamps were closing in on us— and fast. I could hear their deranged laughs as they approached, scuttling down the walls like spiders closing in on their prey.

"We ain't leaving him," Ivy demanded. They shoved past me so hard I flew off my feet and landed against the side of the shaft with a heavy oof. "Chance, baby, I'm sorry. But I'm not letting you die on me."

"Ivy, don't!" Ava cried, but it was too late.

I heard the unsheathing of a blade, then the tearing of flesh. Chancey's agonized screams grew louder than ever. My stomach churned as I realized Ivy was slicing off Chancey's wing in order to save his life.

"Don't… Leave me… Kill me!" Chancey yelled, before his wails became even louder as Ivy sawed through the bone.

"I will never let you go," Ivy wept, though they continued slicing through the sinew on Chancey's wing. "Even if I have to hurt you to make you stay."

To lose one of your wings was one of the worst things to happen to an angel. To lose them both was a death sentence. Chancey would live if he kept one wing, but he'd forever be broken because of it. Half an angel, never able to fly again.

I didn't think Chancey would want that— in fact, I was certain he would rather be eaten alive by vampires.

Ivy, though, wasn't willing to allow him to die. Ivy kept going, using their blade to saw through Chancey's wing bone and feathers in order to cut him loose. Chancey's screams grew louder as he begged and pleaded with Ivy to stop, but it didn't do any good, because Ivy kept going. More warm blood trickled out along the floor, soaking my shoes.

There was a creaking noise above, and I realized with horror that the vampires had cut the cables of the second elevator car, which was now free-falling in mid-air. We had thirty seconds or less before it landed on us and crushed us all.

"Keep going, Ivy!" Ava yelled. "I'll take care of these vamps."

Intense magic laced in rage swept through the bond as Ava aimed her hands upward. An icy chill crept over my skin before being met with a blazing inferno as her blue Fire magic swept past me. Vampires screamed in pain as her flames licked up the sides of the elevator shaft. There were very few things that could slow a vampire down, but Ava's Fire was one of them. Her blue Fire was the most powerful of all.

The vampires turned to ash, the remnants of their bodies raining down on us. Marcus and Eddie yanked the elevator door open the same time Ivy hauled Chancey upward. We hurried out the moment the second elevator car crashed to the floor. It smashed against the spot where Chancey had been laying only a moment ago.

"Good thinking, Ava!" Alistair praised through the comms. "Just like barbeque."

I ignored him. "We've got to keep moving. Ava slowed the vamps down, but more will be coming. We can't keep going this way, because they could come from any floor before we make it to the top. We'll have to go another way."

And we had to move fast, because now we had even more dead vampires that would tip Salvatore off on our location.

We were back in the boiler room, the machines whirring from all angles. Ivy dragged Chancey forward and gently set him on the ground. Chancey didn't make a sound; he'd passed out cold. Blood dripped from his back as a result of his severed wing.

"Heal him, Ava!" Ivy yelled. "Bring his wing back!"

"I…can't," she insisted weakly.

"You replaced your father's lungs!" Ivy screamed, like she was being unreasonable.

"This isn't like that," Ava said. "I can heal Chancey's wound, but I can't regrow magical appendages, and angel wings are the hardest thing to fix!"

"It's no use, Ives," Danny said. "Once an angel loses their wings, that's it. They're done for."

"No!" Ivy raged. "He's still got one left. I'm not giving up on him."

"You have to, for the sake of the key," Danny argued. "He knew what he was risking when he signed up for this. We all did."

Ivy shot to their feet and began pacing back and forth. "This is my father's fault. I'm going to kill him; I swear it!"

I grabbed Ivy by the shoulders. They shook beneath my touch. "Ivy, you can't, not now. You'll get your revenge on your father, but we need to get that key first."

"Then I'll burn this place to the ground the second we get it!" Ivy shouted.

"No," I stated firmly. "If that's the way you feel, then you're off the job. I'm sorry, Ivy, but you can't come along if you're set on revenge. You're going to get someone hurt."

"Fuck you, Charlie. You wanna play boss, but this job is already fucked all to hell. Screw the plan— I ain't taking your orders no more. I want to see him get hurt!" Ivy raged. "I want to hurt my father. I want to watch him suffer."

"Charlie's right," Marcus said. "You're bound to fuck up because you're so pissed."

"Believe me, if I get my father in my sights, I won't miss," Ivy insisted.

Ivy wasn't going to listen to me right now, and I couldn't have someone like that on my team. "I'm sorry, Ivy. This is going to hurt."

Before Ivy could react, I siphoned their vampire strength and punched them across the side of the face as hard as I could. Ivy went down, and they didn't get up.

"That sounded like a nice swing!" Alistair praised. Ancestors, he acted like he was listening to a wrestling match.

"Sire, you've knocked him out!" Eddie gasped.

"Ivy will be fine," I said. "Danny, drag Chancey back into the tunnel."

I spoke into my earpiece. "Max, can you send help to the storm sewers? Ivy and Chancey both need medical attention."

"Asa and Aries are on their way," she replied.

I leaned down to pick Ivy up, then hoisted them over my shoulder. I hurried back over to the tunnel I'd created to get us in here, and I tossed Ivy inside.

Danny set Chancey down in the tunnel. Chancey made a ragged noise as he slowly came to.

He coughed a few times and rasped, "Thanks… for not leaving me behind… boss." His head slumped to the side again as he faded out.

That comment should've fucked me up. But to be honest, I didn't feel much of anything.

I used my magic to cover the hole so that Ivy couldn't use it to reenter The Devil's City, then I turned to the others. "New plan. Salvatore's men are going to be looking for us through maintenance access points, so our best chance is to take the route they'd least expect. Pidge, can you use your Spirit magic to turn us invisible?"

"If everyone stays close, I should be able to hold the spell," she said.

"What's our route?" Marcus asked.

Ivy must've gone through the building layout with me a hundred times before we portaled to Chicago. The staircase down to the boiler room didn't connect with the stairwell to the other parts of the hotel. To get to the staircase leading us upstairs, we had to ascend a level and cross the casino floor. It sucked that we'd lost our guide, but we didn't have a lot of options right now.

"We're going through the casino," I replied. "I hope you all like card games and slot machines, because we're about to gamble for that key."

Danny laughed. "The house ain't winning today. That's something I'll bet on."

We were all betting our lives on it. Ava hadn't turned this many people invisible all at once, and her magic could falter at any time, but it was a risk we had to take.

"Are you sure about this, Charlie?" Marcus asked. "Vamps have other senses. We could still be detected. They'll smell us before they see us."

"We're out of time, and it's a crowded place," I replied. "Our best option is to blend in with the crowd and move with them to get to the other side of the casino. If Salvatore already knows we're here, he's going to find us, which means we don't have time to debate on what to do. We just need to do it and get to the key."

Nobody else questioned me. Warmth surrounded me as Ava's invisibility magic enveloped us all.

"Looking good on our end," Gavyn said through the comms. "We can't see you on the cameras."

"Everyone be quiet and stay close," I warned. "If you wander too far outside Ava's magical range, you're on your own."

Marcus and Eddie took the lead, and we moved as a unit up the stairs. We came out in a deserted hallway, which I could only assume was filled with all kinds of maintenance rooms for employees only.

"We're approaching a door," Marcus whispered under his breath, for my sake as well as for the comms team back at the Scarlet Grand.

I heard a door creak open, and then came voices behind it. We entered a large foyer that must've been the entrance to the building. There were a few people crossing through, and several others behind a registration desk.

"Still looking good," Gavyn said. "Make your move… now."

We hurried across the foyer, until the sound of voices grew even louder, along with the pings of slot machines. The air seemed to close in around us as we neared the casino entrance. The casino was crowded, and there were at least a few hundred people inside, but there was no other way to get to the stairwell we needed; the guest stairs didn't go all the way to the top of the tower.

"Approaching the casino now," Marcus whispered. "Hang on… I sense some sort of ward here."

Marcus paused, and I could feel magic swirling around him. A slight buzzing sound whirred in my ears, until Marcus breathed a sigh of relief and it disappeared completely.

"That was it?" I asked. "You broke the ward?"

Before, Marcus had to transform spells in order to break them, but now, he just dissolved the ward without any effort.

"That was it," Marcus said proudly. "Easy as could be."

"There's a group entering the casino now," Gavyn told us. "The doors are narrow, so Ava's going to have to concentrate to move you each through single file. There's a group coming up behind this one. You'll have a ten-second window. And… move."

We moved quickly at Gavyn's instruction and slipped past the security guards and onto the casino floor.

"Something doesn't smell right," one of the security guards told the other. He sniffed the air, and I knew he was preparing to strike.

"Fuck, they've caught you. Run!" Alistair screamed over the comms.

"Stay calm," I started to hiss, but it was already too late. Rishi panicked and leapt from Marcus' arms, tearing across the casino.

"Rishi, no!" Marcus yelled.

"There!" the guard screamed. We'd certainly been caught now.

"Go!" I shoved at the others. The security guards raced after us, but since they couldn't see us due to Ava's invisibility magic, they had difficulty pursuing us at super-human speed. One of them rushed by so fast that Air billowed around us, but he was past us in a split-second. The other jumped toward us, but he landed flat on the ground.

Eddie yelped as he ran into someone, and I realized it was one of the employees at a blackjack table. Cards went flying into the air, raining down all around us. The warmth of Ava's magic disappeared around me, and I knew I had to be visible.

"There he is!" a guard yelled.

Ava's invisibility magic enveloped me again, and I took off running. I must've appeared to the guards for only a split-second, and they were already in pursuit. By now, there had to be at least five security guards tailing us.

We ran as fast as we could. Danny bumped into a poker table, and chips went flying across the floor. Oberi must've slipped on the chips, because she fell to the ground with a heavy crash. Ava gasped and tried to catch herself on the lever of a slot machine. An award-winning chime went off, along with the simulated sound of coins clanging together.

"Oh, hey!" Ava said brightly. "I won a jackpot!"

"No time." I shoved Oberi upright, and Ava clung to her mane. Rishi yowled as he rejoined us.

"There's a restaurant along the outer wall, straight ahead of you," Gavyn informed us through the comms. "Inside, there's a hall through the kitchens leading to the stairwell."

We raced through the restaurant and into the kitchens, pots and pans clanging as we passed through. In here, it smelled of copper, and I realized it was a blood bar. Two cooks stood in the kitchens, and they fled in fear when we entered. Someone else came through the back, and I sensed strong magic rolling off him. It had to be one of the security guards.

Marcus didn't even hesitate. The crackle of a high-powered battle orb came, then the vampire was blasted into the wall so hard that it crumbled around him. Before the vamp could get up, I heard metal slide across the countertop. Marcus grabbed a large knife— a cleaver, I guessed. He swung it at the vampire, and the bones in his neck snapped. The vamp was done for. Marcus really wasn't kidding when he said he'd been ready to do whatever it took to get the key.

"All right. Go Marcus!" Alistair cheered through my earpiece.

"Someone get Alistair off the comms!" I snapped.

"Aw, but I'm having so much fun—" he started to protest. I heard a brief scuffle, like Max had yanked the equipment away from Alistair.

"Marcus, you good?" I asked. I worried how he'd take killing someone, after everything we'd talked about.

Except Marcus didn't seem bothered at all. "Never been better, boss. Let's get this done."

Shouts came from outside the kitchen in the restaurant. Other vampires were coming.

"You've got four more goons coming your way," Gavyn said.

I quickly barked orders. "Eddie, Danny, and Marcus, go ahead and clear a path upstairs. Ava and I will take care of these assholes."

The others went on ahead, while Ava and I faced the opposite doorway. The vampires burst through the door so fast it blasted off its hinges. I thrust my Air magic upward, sweeping all four of them into a fast current that halted their super-speed in its tracks. Ava blasted her Fire at them, and their screams instantly died as they perished in the flames.

"Marcus and Eddie have cleared the stairwell," Gavyn said through my earpiece. "Ava, Charlie, move now."

Oberi and I took off running, and we entered a tall, narrow stairwell that was only ever used in emergencies. I could feel a column of air swirling upward, and I knew there was enough space between the stairs that we could fly straight up. Marcus, Eddie, and Danny were already long gone, so I could only assume Marcus used his telekinesis to hover everyone else to the top.

I cradled Ava in my arms. Oberi shifted into a phoenix and took off flying above us. My Air magic swirled beneath my feet, and we began to ascend.

We were almost to the top when a massive explosion rocked the building. Drywall cracked overhead and hit our heads. Ava and I were nearly knocked out of the air, but I caught us with my magic before we could go spiraling downward. An alarm blared, and Ava clutched me tighter.

"Looks like Danny really knows how to make a distraction," Ava said.

"What the fuck was that?" I barked into the earpiece.

"I'm getting the vamps away from the target," Danny replied. "Took twelve of them out at once. You're welcome, by the way. I'm headed to Salvatore's gala right now. Gonna work some of my manipulation magic on those fuckers."

He was going to make them fight each other. Now that the alarms were blaring, we needed the extra distraction.

"Whatever keeps them out of our hair," I replied.

Ava and I reached the target level, and Oberi shifted back into a Fire unicorn as we came out into the main hallway. I placed Ava on Oberi's back again, and spun around, trying to get my bearings.

Gavyn's voice came through my earpiece. "We've got a visual on you, Charlie. Marcus and Eddie are two halls ahead, and a path has already been cleared."

I guided Ava and Oberi into the hall. In the distance, magic exploded off the walls, and I could hear Eddie and Marcus screaming in rage as they fought off the vampires. The alarm overhead continued to blare.

We were out of time. We'd definitely been discovered, and if we didn't get to that key now, Salvatore would beat us to it.

By the time we reached the hall where I heard the fighting, Eddie and Marcus had already gone on ahead. The bodies of decapitated security guards lay sprawled out before us. I pressed a hand to the wall to climb over one of them, and my fingers met the hard chest of a vampire. He was stuck in the wall— like Eddie had used his powers to phase him there and trap him, before siphoning his strength to rip his head off.

"We just took out the last of them," Eddie said through the comms. "Your path is clear, Charlie."

"Eddie and I will stay on this level to take out anyone else who dares come close to the target," Marcus added.

"Marcus, you've got six vamps headed your way," Gavyn warned.

"On it," Marcus confirmed.

Ava and I reached the target room, and I felt around for the keypad. I entered the code we'd gotten from one of the men at the circus, and the keypad made an angry sound.

Either Salvatore had changed the code since we picked up the intel, or the alarm had put the area on lockdown. Didn't matter. We were getting through that room one way or another, and we weren't fucking around trying to get this keypad to work.

I placed my hands flat to the door, and magic surged all the way up my arms. I could feel a ward protecting the room. If I siphoned the magic, I was sure I could?—

Magic exploded from my palms before I could finish the thought. The magic I'd siphoned had backfired, and the ward blasted a hole straight through the door. The floor shook, and dust hovered in the air.

"We've lost your feed!" Gavyn barked. "The blast blew out the nearest security cameras."

"It's okay," Ava replied through the comms. "The safe is just ahead. I can see it."

"Eddie, on your left!" Marcus shouted down the hall. More yells and sounds of attack came over the sound of the alarm, but Ava and I ignored them as we entered the room.

The moment we stepped through the crater I'd blasted in the wall, something changed. A clang came from overhead, and I stopped in my tracks as I felt all my energy whoosh out of me, completely draining my magic. There was only one thing that could make me feel that way.

Inferichite.

Oberi whinnied and stumbled back a few steps, but she crashed into something. I couldn't make sense of what was going on, because without my magic, I'd completely lost my bearings. I reached outward to feel my surroundings, and my hands clamped around cold bars.

Nausea slammed into my gut, and it became abundantly clear that a cage had fallen from the ceiling to trap us inside an inferichite cage. I could even feel the crystal sucking my power from beneath my feet.

"I've lost sight of Salvatore," Danny barked through the comms. "Hurry up, because he'll be on you any minute now."

Elyx's voice came through my earpiece. "I've got my sights on his men. I can slow them down."

I heard the click of a trigger through the comm as Elyx shot off his first bullet. People spread throughout the casino wailed in terror as the sound of shattering windows rang out over the building.

We were down to the last minute, and no amount of magic was going to get us out of this cage. We had to think fast.

"What are we going to do, Charlie?" Ava panicked. "The only way we've broken through inferichite before is with Marcus and Kallie's help."

"We can't use our magic," I said. "The only way out of here is through brute force. These bars are thin and brittle. The cage isn't made very well. There's got to be a way through."

Allow me, Oberi offered. She gave a high-pitched whinny and reared up on her hind legs. Ava clung to her back to hold on. I ducked out of the way as her front hooves came down on the bars so hard that the crystal shattered. In her unicorn form, Oberi weighed a thousand pounds or more, and the bars couldn't support her weight. Shards blasted everywhere, and several inferichite fragments hit me in the leg, cutting deep into the skin. I gasped in pain, reaching out to feel the blood that was seeping through my pants.

I couldn't stop now. I had to keep moving, no matter if I was hurt or not.

"Good work, Oberi," I said as I quickly slipped through the bars. Immediately, my Air magic swirled around the area, though I wasn't nearly as strong with inferichite in the room.

Oberi squeezed through the hole in the bars she'd made, and we rushed across the room to the safe. A chill spread over my skin as Ava summoned Water from the air. She filled the locking mechanism with water, then froze it, until we heard a crack. The door creaked open, and Ava gasped in delight.

"It's here!" she cried.

A loud whine erupted across the room, reverberating off the walls. It was louder than the alarm blaring overhead, and I was forced to cover my ears with my hands as the noise raked like nails on a chalkboard across my hearing.

A dark, chilling energy rose from the safe. It was some sort of curse, or perhaps a demon; it had to be. Before I could make sense of it, the energy swept past me— straight toward Ava.

"Charlie—!" she started, but her words choked off the same time I felt her energy change, and she was knocked off of Oberi's back. The link between our bond seemed to slam shut in an instant.

Oberi whinnied loudly. A dark cloud rose out of the safe and went into her! She's been possessed!

Rage filled my entire body. Not on my watch.

I reached for Ava where she sat on the ground, because whatever that dark energy was, I was going to siphon it out with my Elf powers. The moment I touched her, an ice-cold chill followed immediately by a blazing heat seared my fingers.

I jumped back. Ava had burned me with her blue Fire!

A deep, ethereal laugh bubbled up from Ava's throat. In a voice that wasn't her own, Ava said, "You think you can steal from me?"

Charlie, you have to get that demon out of her now! Oberi snapped.

"I'm on it!" I ducked to avoid a fireball the demon threw at me. It smashed into the wall behind me, and the room ignited into flames. The fire grew intense, licking up the walls and consuming the carpet.

I reached out with my Elf powers, but the demon resisted. I couldn't get a firm hold on him with my magic. I'd never tried using my powers on a being like him before, and it wasn't the same as manipulating a living person. There was something there I couldn't quite reach, like he existed on an entirely different plane than I did. His dark energy was complicated, and hard to manipulate.

I thought quickly, recalling all I could about demon possession. During our training for the Darke Games, Ava had frozen an allure demon out of Marcus. Maybe I could try that.

I immediately siphoned Ava's Water power and forced her body temperature to drop. I couldn't go too far, or I'd hurt Ava, but I had to push her limits to freeze this demon out.

Nothing happened. The demon only started laughing. It was a strange, terrifying laugh that overlaid a demonic voice over top of Ava's.

Obviously, this idea was a bust. Ava had told me most of her powers hadn't worked on the lichen during the Darke Games, either. I tried to create the blue Fire that was Ava's signature, but I couldn't pull it off. Even if I could borrow some of her magic for my own, I couldn't combine two separate elements like she could.

Whatever we were dealing with was a powerful demon. The more time we spent in this room, the more the inferichite drained my powers. We had to outsmart this bastard; otherwise, we weren't getting the key and we were probably going to die.

"Your punishment for theft will be death," the demon warned, before raising another fireball.

I dodged out of the way again, rolling across the ground. "Simultension, Oberi!" I barked. "My energy manipulation with your Spirit powers. Go!"

Oberi knew what I was thinking immediately. Our powers combined, creating a massive spell that latched on to the demon inside of Ava. With Oberi's Spirit magic, I could finally access the same plane the demon operated on. I grabbed a hold of him and yanked his spirit forward, using my Elf magic to manipulate his power.

The demon tore out of Ava's skin, and its smoky, ethereal form swept by me. As it touched me, I saw it for what it was— a dark cloud of black magic, with razors for teeth and claws that were a foot in length. He had no real form here, and he wasn't solid.

"Charlie, we have to banish him," Ava gasped, still sounding out of it. Demon possession was no easy thing to handle, and the demon's temporary hold on Ava had momentarily stunned her, making her unable to fight back.

We weren't witches. We had no spells that could banish a demon to hell the way Marcus could. And I wasn't sure it'd work anyway, not with the way things were going in the afterlife right now. If spirits couldn't make it to the Blessed Haven, then I didn't think they could make the journey to the Eternal Torment, either.

But there was one place outside our realm I could send him.

I grabbed the pocket mirror from my jacket and shoved my arm straight into the middle of the demon's form. A portal opened within the mirror, and a terrifying screech filled the air as the demon was sucked inside, transported straight to the Mirror Realm.

I gasped a breath of relief as I felt the demon's dark magic leave the room. The second he was gone, I threw the mirror to the ground and smashed it with my foot. Glass crunched beneath my shoe, trapping the entity. That fucker was stuck in the Mirror Realm now, and there was no getting out.

Except now I'd just eliminated our way out, too.

"It's like Salvatore to put a curse on the safe," Ava spat. "He didn't trust his men enough to keep the key safe, so he trapped a demon inside to guard it. Asshole."

"Forget about it." Flames licked up the wall, and I coughed as the smoke filled the room. I was getting sicker with each passing second we remained near the inferichite.

"Grab the key, and let's go!" I barked.

Ava was close to the safe, and I heard the clink of metal as she grabbed the vampire key. "Take it," she said, shoving the key into my hand.

I clutched the key tightly. We finally had the vampire key in our grasp— literally. We weren't letting it go for anything.

"Pidge… any mirrored surfaces around?" I asked between coughs.

"None."

We needed to find another way out, because mirrors were the one illusion I always failed to create. I couldn't portal us out on my own.

I pressed my finger to my earpiece. "Mirror portal is a no-go. We need extraction now!"

No response came, and I realized our magic must've blasted out the comms. Ava and I were going to have to find another way.

Shouts came from down the hall. Salvatore was coming. We didn't have time to think about it.

"We're taking the windows," I decided. I pulled Ava upward and cradled her in my arms. I took off running out of the room, smoke from Ava's Fire billowing behind us.

"Straight ahead, at the end of the hall," Ava instructed.

Footsteps sounded behind us as Salvatore's men pursued us. Oberi galloped ahead, while I focused all my energy on creating an illusion. A harness wrapped around my legs, becoming solid in response to my thoughts. Another harness securely attached Ava to my front, so that he was straddling me.

Ready? Oberi warned. One… two… three!

The sound of shattering glass filled the hall as Oberi smashed through the window. Immediately, her shifting magic swelled through the bond, and she became a phoenix.

"Now!" Ava shouted. She turned her head into my shoulder, squeezing me tightly.

I jumped through the window, and for a moment, we were free-falling, nearly toppling in slow motion through the sky. I turned in mid-air, and a grappling hook appeared from my illusion, shooting upward until it snagged on the top of the building. A long rope connected us to the side of The Devil's City, and we went swinging back in the direction of the building like a pendulum. I braced my feet against the side of the building and kicked off again. We repelled downward at a rapid pace, leaving the vampires behind us.

Ava drew away from my chest and turned her gaze upward. "I don't get it. Salvatore's men aren't following us. Where'd they go?—?"

Ava barely got the question out before a massive explosion detonated overhead. The blast rocked the whole building, and shattered glass fell to the city streets. A scream echoed through the air, coming closer, until it was gone a second later, the sound fading below us. Someone had thrown a vampire out of the building.

I dared to smirk in satisfaction. "Well, that answers your question. I guess Danny isn't so bad after all."

Ava's arms wrapped tighter around my neck, and she let out a ragged breath as we continued repelling off the side of the building. "It's hot, isn't it? Escaping with you— the key in our hands."

"Hot as fuck," I growled.

Then, Ava and I were kissing. It wasn't just kissing. It was a full-on, hot make-out session on the side of a skyscraper. Her tongue rolled over mine, and her hands moved downward to cup my ass. My stomach tingled in my abdomen as the thrill of the free-fall ignited a more intense desire for her. We'd fucking did it, and there was nothing more of a turn-on than pulling off a heist and getting away with my pidge in my arms.

I was born for it.

The ground came near, and Ava and I were forced to draw away from each other to catch our breath. I slowed our descent, and I landed softly on the sidewalk. Oberi landed beside us and shifted back into a unicorn. The street was deserted, because everyone had fled when the explosions started going off.

I undid the harness and placed Ava on Oberi's back. The key was still clutched tightly in my hand. "All we have to do is get to your car."

It should be this way. Come on, Oberi said.

She turned and started galloping down the street. I took off running after her.

I only took a few steps before something heavy came down on me. All my energy siphoned out of me in an instant, and I sagged under its weight. I swiped my elbows out to shove the thing off me, but it moved with me, like some sort of heavy-weight net. The nausea that hit me told me it contained inferichite, like tiny crystals had been embedded up and down the fabric. I tried to run, but I tripped over the net and crashed hard into the pavement. The inferichite touched my skin, siphoning all the strength I had left.

Footsteps sounded behind me— dozens, by the sound of it. Oberi was already several paces ahead, and I knew if she came back for me, she'd be caught.

We were already spent from the inferichite we'd faced earlier. If Salvatore didn't have another net for Oberi and Ava, the vamps would still take them out.

I said I wasn't letting this key go for anything, but I guess I was wrong. I knew at that moment that I'd sacrifice this key for Ava.

"Run!" I screamed.

"I'm not leaving you!" Ava shouted back.

"You have to, pidge!" I yelled. Then I turned my thoughts inward, and I spoke directly to Oberi. You get her out of here, no matter what. I don't care what these keys mean to the rest of humanity or the afterlife. Nothing is worth giving up my pidge. Keep her safe, Oberi.

I will, Oberi promised. I could feel the sinking in her gut through our bond. The last thing she wanted to do was leave me behind, but Ava's safety was a priority above all else— for both of us.

Her response didn't surprise me in the slightest. Turns out Oberi was a villain as much as the rest of us. She fled, leaving me behind.

"No!" Ava wailed. Her fists pounded against Oberi's side, begging her to fight the vampires to save my life.

It was already too late. The vampires caught up to me, and Oberi had disappeared around the side of the building. Ava's protests echoed down the street, but nothing she said could make Oberi turn back.

Vampires surrounded me at all angles. One of them pressed a heavy foot to my back so that I couldn't stand. I lay sprawled on the sidewalk face-down, the inferichite net over top of me.

Then came the slow, confident footsteps of a man who thought he knew it all, and the brush of silk fabric from his tailored suit. I already knew who it had to be— Salvatore Bianchi.

Salvatore gave a cold laugh. "I thought you might try to steal from me, Prince Charles. I didn't think you'd get all the way to my safe, though. I thought for sure that the inferichite cage would trap you for good, if you managed to make it that far."

"You were expecting us this whole time," I rasped beneath the heavy boot of one of Salvatore's vamps.

He gave a chilling laugh. "Of course. Who do you think hired the Dollmaker to capture you? A foolish mistake on my part, unfortunately, as he went rogue and targeted only one of you. But perhaps it all worked for the best in the end."

I gritted my teeth. This bastard had been responsible for Kallie getting hurt. He'd been working with Valen, probably for years, giving him compulsion tools to use on women in exchange for the Dollmaker doing his dirty work. He was a merciless fucker. "Why try to catch me? Why not just kill me, and eliminate the threat?"

"And let all your power go to waste?" he scoffed.

Salvatore squatted down to my level, like he and I were old friends having a chat. His skin didn't sizzle in the sun, so he must've had some power to protect himself from it.

"Ophio Taurus used you and your friends to make himself all-powerful," Salvatore said. "If I'm to go up against him properly, I need power like his. I've already been obtaining my own inferichite for a while now, biding my time until I could use it against a demigod… or two."

He laughed greedily as he turned to his men. "Go after the girl. Don't let her get away."

Most of the vampires left, racing around the side of the building at superhuman speed. Only two remained, along with Salvatore. I prayed to all the ancestors and the gods that Ava was already gone.

"You leave her alone!" I screamed. I struggled against the vampire holding me down, but the inferichite prevented me from siphoning his strength.

Salvatore chuckled, like he found this amusing. "You aren't calling the shots anymore, Charles— or Charlie, is it? From now on, you work for me. I believe this is mine."

He leaned down and snatched the vampire key straight from my hand. I tried to clutch on tight to it, but with his vampire strength, it was like nothing more than stealing candy from a baby.

Salvatore had caught me. My grandfather said I had to use each problem to my advantage, to think fast on my feet, because according to him there was always a way out. It didn't look like I had one here.

"Take him away," Salvatore said, nearly sounding bored as he got to his feet.

The squeal of tires came as a large van pulled up beside the curb. Two security guards grabbed me by the arms and hoisted me upward. I tried to fight them off, but my strength was completely gone. Doors opened, and I was thrown into the back of the van tangled within the inferichite net.

Salvatore walked away, and the van doors slammed, shutting me in. The van lurched forward, and my heart raced as I was driven away from The Devil's City and deeper into the city.