“So true,” Carmen murmured.
Christen meant her. Bianca’s previous attempt to summon a hell prince. The summoning that had brought Shade to this plane, and everyone knew how that had turned out. Eddie had surprised her before she could complete the binding, and Bianca had been forced to hide and watch as Eddie shoved Shade, or as the world knew him Asmodeus, back through the hell gate. Of course, he’d come back, and was now head over heels in love with Eddie. And Bianca’s coven still didn’t have a hell prince.
Carmen gave her a reproachful look, as if Bianca hadn’t gotten the memo on her failure loud and clear.
“To be fair.” Lynn fiddled with the zipper on her teal gym top. “Bianca did manage to summon Asmodeus.”
“Hot as fuck, that one,” Patty said.
Christen sniffed and stared disdainfully at Patty. “Judging someone by their physical appearance is shallow and objectifying.”
“I’d like to objectify dat ass.” Patty cackled.
A blushing Lynn giggled.
Bianca kept her heartfelt agreement with Patty silent. Asmodeus—or Shade as he preferred to be called—was sex incarnate. And as he was the hell prince of lust, that probably meant he was literally sex incarnate. And all that was 100% Eddie’s.
As much as she liked Eddie, Bianca knew the feeling wasn’t mutual. Eddie didn’t trust her, and with good reason as it turned out. She had manipulated the board into staging Macbeth at the Paradise Players so she could use the ancient witch’s curse to kickstart the summoning. And dammit! Lynn was right. The summoning had worked. Too well as it turned out because right after Eddie threw Shade back, Bianca had managed to haul the hell hounds through the hell gate. Only to stay hidden behind the propane tanks as the hounds had bonded with Eddie. Eddie two, Bianca zero.
Fresh from her latest breakup with him, Christen had used Bianca’s failure to turn the coven against her and get himself instated as head witch, which wouldn’t have happened if their previous head witch, Rebecca, hadn’t disappeared as mysteriously and suddenly as the eight other coven members before her. Their coven was in trouble, and they needed a hell prince, and Bianca had lost the one she’d summoned. With witches disappearing rapidly, the rest of the coven was jumpy, and Christen had moved in with his earnest brown eyes and soothing line of bullshit.
All of which was the why to how they—her, Patty, Lynn, Christen, and Carmen, because Bianca could deny her younger sister nothing—were sneaking around the Paradise Theatre basement summoning another hell prince.
Bianca had thought about approaching Wrath, but that hell prince scared the pants off her. So here they were.
Christen was using a repurposed Resolve spray bottle to spritz rainwater above the candles as he continued his ritual.
None of this was necessary. When Bianca had done the summoning, she’d come here alone, slapped the amulet around her neck, called her power, and spoken the incantation. Okay, she may have used a stick of incense to set the mood for herself.
Then she’d lost her hell prince, and then archangels, guardians, and hell princes had started popping up like bad hair days around the theatre, and in the most frustrating twist of all, the new hell gate guardian had been camping in the basement until Dee had finally relented and let Daniel sleep in the guest room upstairs.
Tonight was closing night for Macbeth. Dee was running the show, which meant Daniel was watching her work. Shade had persuaded Eddie to go to dinner with him. Wrath was back in hell with the gorgeous Haziel, and they had their opportunity.
Of course, Macbeth was a short play, and if Christen didn’t so mote it fucking be faster, they were going to have to talk their way out of more crap than any of them was ready for.
The power surge shuddered through her as the summoning locked into place.
“We summon thee, oh dark prince,” Christen thundered.
“Keep it down,” Patty whispered. “Nobody’s deaf in this bitch.”
“Inside voice,” Lynn said.
Even Carmen made hushing motions at Christen.
The summoning latched on a target, and power rattled through Bianca’s bones.
Christen’s eyes widened, and genuine fear turned him from his normal pale and interesting to translucent. “It’s working.” His voice quavered, and he glanced at Bianca with unadulterated panic. “It’s working.”
Patty clenched her fists and ground the words through her teeth, “Sure feels that way.”
Of course it was working, like it had for her, and this time Bianca was not taking any chances on losing her hell prince.
A tightening around her abdomen was all the warning she got before the being she’d hooked yanked back.
Bianca screamed as she slid toward the hell gate. The swirling vortex was whirring like a hypnotic spinning wheel as it pulled her closer and closer. The burrito she’d had for dinner threatened to put in an appearance.
“Grab her,” Patty yelled, holding out a knitting needle.
Christen leapt back and snatched his hands behind his back. “If I grab her, we’ll both get sucked in.”
“Bee.” Carmen lunged for her and grabbed her hand. “Do something,” she yelled at the others.
Bianca’s slide into hell slowed, and if that wasn’t a metaphor, it damn well should be.
Patty dropped her knitting needle—actually dropped her knitting needle for the first time in recent memory—and put both her hands on the selenite tower crystal. “You are summoned.”
“You are summoned.” Lynn lunged for the labradorite, dropped to her knees and hugged the crystal to her chest.
Her previous summoning had not been this strong.
With her feet two inches from touching the hell gate, Bianca’s forward momentum stopped. She motioned to Carmen that she was okay. “Christen.” She pointed to the gold flecked blue crystal. “Use the lapis. He’s resisting.”
Christen side shuffled, keeping as much distance as he could from the hell gate as the ten-by-ten-foot room would allow. When nothing further happened, he placed his palms on the lapis lazuli crystal and intoned, “We command thee, oh prince of darkness. By the force of this our spell and the power of the full moon—”
“Should we be commanding him?” Carmen whispered, eyes huge and frightened. “I mean, he’s still a hell prince.”
As Bianca eyed the two inches between her feet and the hell gate, the connection in her middle snapped taut again with the new influx of power from her coven. She butt scooched away from the portal. “Keep going.” The effort tightened her diaphragm and squeezed the words out her lungs in a pant. “We’ve still got him. Keep going.”
She took a base slide that would have made Pete Rose pay attention and grabbed the smoky quartz. “You are summoned,” she wheezed.
Their hooked hell prince gave another dizzying yank on the tether.
Bianca skidded toward the hell gate.
Screaming, Carmen grabbed her by one hand and fastened her free hand around the door handle. “Heave,” she bellowed.
If felt like Bianca was being split in half. Her right armpit burned as if it was in imminent danger of tearing at the seam.
“Heave,” Carmen hollered as she pulled.
“We summon you,” Patty roared.
“He’s too strong.” Christen whimpered.
Closing her eyes, Bianca fought past the panic and the being rend asunder pain and focused on her gift. Magic sparked and crackled through her solar plexus. She concentrated harder, fanning it into a flame. “You are summoned.”
Like maple syrup over snow, her power oozed and hardened into the bond. The tether from her to the hell prince swelled and solidified. Her ears popped, and her stomach felt like it was being yanked out of her throat as a scream tore free.
