Shapes coalesced out of the dark. Two human shapes.
One of them was Leona. The other was Ashe.
Ashe was talking to Leona, but his voice was muffled.
Relief that Leona was alive flooded Bianca.
Leona didn’t look well. Her skin was ashy and dull, and her cheekbones jutted blade sharp in her thinner face.
Leona stiffened and looked around.
Ashe’s mouth moved as he spoke. His words echoed down a tunnel to Bianca. “What is it?”
“Nothing,” Leona said. “Go away.”
Ashe grimaced. “I am going away. I have to do something, and then I’ll be back.”
“I don’t care,” Leona said in a flat, hollow voice.
“Witch,” a voice boomed in Bianca’s mind, so loud she cried out. “How nice of you to join us.”
Oily satisfaction seeped down the connection.
Leona and Ashe were holding their heads as if they experienced the voice too.
“Bianca!” Eddie cried. “Break the connection.”
“And my Nephilim,” the voice said.
“Bianca,” Shade yelled. “Break it.”
Bianca tried to retreat.
An iron grip fastened around her mind. “Ah no, witch. Not leaving so soon, are you?”
“Bianca.” Leona gasped. “Get away from here.”
She was trying. Bianca struggled against the being who had her in an implacable hold. It felt so other, a jumbled mix of demonic and human and something else, something ancient and alien. So much power too. Not even the hell princes’ power was this vast.
She was aware of hands on her body, shaking her, trying to help her.
“So strong in your magic,” the being said. “You will be mine.”
Leona sobbed. “Get away, Bianca.”
Ashe’s face was frozen in a rictus of pain.
Bianca grappled with the force, her magic scrabbling against the indefatigable strength like fingernails against steel. Her head felt like it might explode. Her breath sawed in and out her mouth.
“You will be mine, witch,” the being said. “You and the third.” Its laughter ricocheted through her mind, lacerating her brain. “I will have all three, and I will have you.”
Another power source joined Eddie and Shade, and then a fourth. Bianca snatched for it.
The grip on her mind weakened.
Bianca managed to wriggle part of the connection loose.
The being roared with rage. “It’s too late. I will have the three, and I can’t be stopped.”
Bianca lurched free of the connection, and her magic recoiled like a whip.
She had a glimpse of her kitchen table, and then everything went black.
Lucifer caught Bianca before she hit the floor. Fury nearly burned through his skin. “What the fuck were you doing?” he yelled at Shade.
“Like you care.” Shade was holding an ashen Eddie. “You left.”
Lucifer had certainly tried to leave. He hadn’t lasted a day and had come through the hell gates five minutes before Shade’s panicked call had reached Sophia.
Bianca was so pale and limp in his arms. He checked for a heartbeat, and his own heart only started again as he detected the thready murmur. She was alive.
He strode through to her bedroom with her. Wrapping her in her quilt, he cradled her against his chest.
They’d almost fucking lost her. He’d almost lost her.
Shade and Eddie hadn’t been strong enough to break the connection between Bianca and whatever had held her captive on the spirit plane.
