“Maybe a power grab by one of the older witches wouldn’t be such a bad thing.” She bumped her shoulder against mine.
“Don’t say that. Leading this coven is our birthright. We can’t help it if we weren’t prepared for all hell to break loose. A little fire, please?” I held the bowl up, and she pointed her finger, shooting out a controlled flame as if it were the easiest thing in the world to do. For her, it probably was. I rose to my feet and brushed the leaves from my jeans.
“Don’t step inside the circle.”
“Thanks, genius.”
Ember clambered up next to me. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Crap. Recover! “Gorgeous? It means you’re beautiful, silly.”
“Oh.”
Holding the bowl in front of my face, I whispered the incantation and blew the smoke into the circle. It spiraled upward, coating the inner rim in a translucent haze. Near the opposite side, not quite in the center, the smoke gathered, darkening into a thick mass before disappearing through the rift. “Found it.”
Ember’s mouth dropped open. “How in the hell…?”
“Back up,” Chaos demanded. When I didn’t follow his order, he boomed, nearly splitting my skull, “He is drawn to my power. Back up now!”
“Who?” My gaze snapped to the smoky tear in the veil, where a charcoal arm with thick talons protruding from each finger jutted through. “Oh, crap! The demon!”
I backpedaled, grabbing Ember’s arm and dragging her away from the summoning ring. A muscular shoulder appeared next. Then the side of a thick neck, and finally the fiend’s head. He had a wide face with a flat nose like a pug. A set of four-inch spiraling horns grew from his forehead, and as he snarled and pulled the rest of his body through the rift, black drool dribbled down his chin.
Ember yanked from my grasp and stalked toward it—typical Em—while my heart lodged in my throat and my feet froze to the ground—typical me. “Ember, you’re unarmed!” I shouted, and then I whispered, “What should we do?”
“Don’t move.”
“I couldn’t if I tried.” Ice flushed my veins, and my knees wobbled. I had never come face to face with a demon before, and let me tell you, I was not reacting the way a witch should. I should have been casting spells and kicking butt. Instead, my knees nearly buckled, and every spell I’d ever memorized evaporated from my mind as if I’d set a pot of my memories to boil on the stove and forgotten about it.
The demon growled, stepping one clawed foot back and shifting his weight, preparing to lunge at my sister. Em stood literally two feet away from the monster. It would take three seconds for him to fillet her. I couldn’t let that happen.
“Hey, ugly,” I shouted, my feet still glued to the ground. “When was the last time you brushed your teeth?”
The demon’s eyes snapped toward me, and his lips peeled back over jagged fangs, showing me no one had ever introduced him to a toothbrush.
“Careful, Ash. I cannot protect you without my corporeal form.”
“Holland witches don’t need protection.” I don’t know why Chaos’s statement rubbed me the wrong way, but it did. I must’ve been channeling Ember’s ego because I stomped forward, rubbing my palms together, ready to burn this bastard to the ground.
My fingers sparked, and I curled them toward my palms, lighting flames in both hands. Ember held a fireball the size of a cantaloupe.
“Fire won’t harm a demon.”
“This is magical fire.” I wound up like a baseball pitcher and hurled the biggest flames I could create at the demon. They bounced off the circle and landed in the dried leaves.
The demon roared and lunged. His horns smacked the perimeter, jarring him, and he careened back, falling on his butt. Don’t you know that pissed him off? He shot to his feet and rammed into the magic again. A shockwave pulsed from the circle.
“The cage holds.”
“Not for long. Ember, go get your sword. We’ve got to banish this sucker before he breaks free.” Grabbing my bag, I stomped out the flames, backed away from the circle, and dropped the kit on the ground. I wiped the copper bowl with an enchanted tissue to neutralize the magical residue and assembled the ingredients for a binding spell. I added the final component—a single drop of peppermint oil—and the concoction released a puff of purple smoke before turning to a fine powder.
I held up my hand and whispered a prayer to the goddess before casting my spell. “Standing tall or on your knees, in the name of the goddess, I force you to freeze.”
I blew the powder toward the demon as Ember bounded back with her sword clasped in both hands. But the spell hit the circle’s perimeter and shot back toward me. “Son of a bison!”
The enchantment wrapped around me like a magical boa constrictor, squeezing just tight enough that I couldn’t move my arms and rooting my feet to the ground.
“Interesting.” Ember reached for the circle, and her fingertips pressed against the invisible barrier. “Nothing can get in or out. I’ve never seen a ring like this cast before.”
“That is because the magic used was meant to trap a demon. Only those who practice the dark arts use it.”
“It’s a demon cage. Of course you haven’t.” I struggled against the spell, which was pointless. I’d cast the strongest one I knew, and no, I could not unbind myself. What would be the point if it were that easy to escape? Another witch would have to release me, but my sister was preoccupied.
Ember pretended to lunge at the demon, laughing as she feinted right, then left. The fiend was not amused in the slightest. He roared and rammed against the magic. A sound like cracking glass reverberated through the clearing.
“Would you mind unbinding me before that creature kills us both?”
My sister winked at the demon, getting in one last taunt before she recited the unbinding incantation. Lucky for me, Ember had that one ingrained in her vim and didn’t require a potion. The hold on me disintegrated, and I stumbled, dropping to my knees.
“We’ll have to break the circle before we can banish him.” I dumped the contents of my bag on the ground, scrambling to find the right ingredients—again—to make the potion. “I’ll bind him; you stab him.”
“The shedim has two hearts. Both must be pierced to vanquish him.”
Well, wasn’t that hunky dory? “Where? Side by side?” I whispered under my breath.
“In the center of his chest, one above the other.”
I crushed the herbs with a pestle and looked at Ember. “I’ve been learning about demons. If this is the kind I think it is, he’ll have two hearts in the center of his chest.” I pointed to the two spots on my body where I imagined they would be. “You have to pierce both to vanquish him.”
