“I can’t.” We dropped to our knees. Pain ripped through us. Not hot. Not cold. Searing.
“Oh, yes you can.” She tried to drag us up, but the pain overwhelmed us.
I could not go out this way. We’d come too far. We had the friggin’ skull for Hecate’s sake. If only Ember had teleportation powers, we could…wait.
“Can’t demons portal through space?” My voice sounded strained even though my failing body didn’t utter the words.
“Not in this condition.” We dug our fingers into the dirt as another wave of pain crashed through us.
Ember paced in front of us. “C’mon, Ash. You’re a problem solver. How do we fix this?” She dropped to her knees in front of us, pleading with her gaze. “How, Ash? Please?”
“Okay. Umm…” My thoughts swirled, scattering like billiard balls every time I tried to grab hold of one. If only I could freeze them in place for half a second so I could pluck a useful one from the fray. Yes! That was it!
“Tell her to freeze us.”
“Will that work?” he asked, his voice thin.
“It’s the only idea I’ve got, so let her have it.”
“She says freeze us.” We collapsed onto our side and curled like a fetus. I could feel his effort. The strain. He really was trying not to split me open and crawl out of my belly like an alien.
“Right. Of course.” Ember turned my satchel upside down and shook it. Bottles clattered to the ground, and she spread them out. “I’ll never make fun of your label maker again.” She uncorked the bottle, said the incantation, and tossed the dust onto us.
Normally, the binding spell stilled the mind along with the body. I assumed since I was three-quarters of the way to becoming a full-blown demon, Chaos’s magic fought against the enchantment. I wasn’t completely coherent, but the feel of dirt and grass across my backside as Ember dragged us to the van set my nerves on edge. Too many friggin’ fae bites to count sent screams of agony to my brain. I’d need to bathe in antibiotic ointment when this was done.
If I survived.
Ember leaned us against the front tire and opened the van door. Hooking her arms beneath our pits, she hauled us into the backseat. Bottles clanked against bone as she dropped my satchel, filled with potions and Chaos’s skull, on the floorboard, and if I could have winced, I would have. No doubt she’d dumped everything into the center pouch, not bothering to organize anything, but I would deal with that mess later. Hopefully.
“Please let this spell last.” She peeled out of the field, flinging gravel in her wake, and floored it.
“How’s it going?” I asked Chaos, but he didn’t respond. Ember’s spell had rendered him mute like it should have, which was a good thing. The fact I was coherent enough to see the streetlights pulsing through the windows as we whizzed past, not so much.
It should have been a forty-five-minute drive back to Salem. Ember made it in thirty and thank the goddess she did. Right when she stopped in the alley behind our building, my pinkie twitched.
“Just hold on a little longer, Chaos.” I had no idea if my words could soothe the savage beast he—we—were about to become, but I had to hold on to myself too. Talking in my head was the only thing I could do, so I turned into a chatterbox. “Once this is done, I’ll take you out for a steak dinner. Your resurrected body will be starving, right? Do you like beef? We could do seafood if you prefer, but I figure there aren’t any oceans across the veil. Or are there?”
“Here we go.” Ember slid open the door and scooped me into her arms like a baby. If I’d had the use of my words, I’d have asked her why the hell she dragged me across the field if she was strong enough to carry me like this.
She finagled her arm just right so she could punch in the unlock code on the back door. She shoved it open and stepped through, but she didn’t take my lolling head into account. My temple slammed against the jamb, and man, I wished I could groan.
“Sorry.” She turned sideways and slipped inside, slamming the door shut with her foot before carrying me through the library and into my sigil studio.
Ember laid me and the skull on the floor and disappeared into the library before returning with her arms loaded down with supplies. “I’m going to put you in a circle before I unfreeze you.”
Smart move. Who knew what condition Chaos would be in when he was finally free?
“I have to grab the exorcism grimoire. Give me two seconds.” She darted out of the room again.
“One Witchissippi. Two Witchissippi. Huh. She’s late.” Three fingers on my left hand twitched. Sadly, I was not the one controlling them.
My hand curled into a fist. “Chaos…” Molten lava churned in my chest. “Please hold on.” Hellfire rolled through my veins.
“Got it!” Ember raced in and opened the book on the table before flipping through the pages. “Here we go.” She tapped the book and grabbed a canister of salt.
Speaking in Latin, she poured a ring around me, and I prayed to Hecate she was pronouncing the words right. Heaviness built inside the circle as she lit a bundle of sage and wafted it into the four corners of the room. Her voice grew in intensity. The energy inside the circle was suffocating.
“Okay.” She set down the book and her supplies. “That should keep the demon in, but allow a witch to pass through. Is this the exorcism spell?” She held the book toward me, but I couldn’t respond. “I’m unfreezing you in three, two…one.”
She drew her magic inward, and we gasped. “Yes, that’s the spell.”
Dammit. Chaos was still in control. “Let me take over.”
He groaned, tensing every muscle in our body. “I can’t. I can’t stop it.”
“Then I will.” I focused on whatever energy I had left. My own magic mixed with his, making it nearly impossible to tell my fire from the demon’s. Maybe I could use that to my advantage. Did it really matter where the power came from as long as I could claw my way to the top?
No. No, it didn’t.
I latched onto the heat, letting it fuel my consciousness. The hellfire raged, trying to consume me, but I rode it like a wave, letting it raise me higher.
“What. Are you. Doing, Ash?” Chaos ground out.
Ember lips curved into a half-smile. “She’s digging her way to the top.”
“Don’t fight it. Let go.”
“If I let go…” he said through teeth clenched like a vise. “You’ll die.”
