Chapter 19
CHAPTER
NINETEEN
SAMANTHA
I was flying through the air, eyes closed, braced to crash, ready for pain and?—
Someone caught me. Strong arms around my waist.
I looked down and met Phoenix’s eyes.
“How can we help make this go faster?” he asked.
“I don’t know.” I took a breath. “Just don’t let me fall through that portal. He pulled me so hard, and I can’t go back there. Not again. Not in my body.”
He gave me a small smile. “I haven’t let you fall through one completely yet. I don’t plan on it now.”
The walls shook so hard, it felt as if the room was going to be torn apart. “The portal isn’t stable.”
“What does that mean?” Tessa’s eyes were wide, and I knew she’d been through some bad things. But this could get worse than she’d seen.
“If I don’t do it right, the portal could implode.”
“That would mean it would close, right? Is that a bad thing?”
“Yes. It would close, but the last time I saw that happen, it destroyed a massive apartment building. This…” I looked at the portal. It was bigger than that apartment building portal. So much more powerful. “It could take out the whole block. Maybe more. The people here…”
Phoenix set me on my feet. “Better get it closed the right way, then.”
“Yeah.” I stepped away from him and turned to look down into the portal. “Shit. Shit. Shit.”
Before, there had been demons running everywhere, climbing on top of each other, but now they’d stopped moving. At some point while I’d been working, they’d stopped and dropped down to their knees.
Now, they were making a keening noise, and I knew what that meant.
Astaroth was close.
I shoved everything back into my belt bag and pulled out my cross. I raised it in the air.
I was out of time. The symbols on the spell still gloweda little, but I couldn’t wait. I couldn’t spend another second trying to untangle the spell. This had to be good enough. I had to end this.
God, help me! Give me the power to fix this. I can’t do it on my own. I need your help.
“ Claudere! ” I yelled, throwing everything I had in me at the portal. I used all of the power I had, the prayers running through my head, the might of the sacred relic stored in the cross that I held out, focusing everything through it.
Dark power flowed up through the portal, knocking me back a few steps.
No. This wasn’t happening. “ Claudere! ” I pushed hard. My power felt like fire rushing through my veins. I hated the feeling, but I would use it.
I would use it.
The portal started shrinking—bit by bit.
“You’re doing it!” Tessa said. “Keep going. Keep?—”
But it swelled open again, and the power came pushing back at me. If I thought my power felt uncomfortable before, now it wasn’t just fire in my veins. It was acid running through me, eating me from the inside. The pain forced me to my knees, and I screamed as I reached my hand over the now dull and dead symbols.
But the portal wasn’t closing.
Why wasn’t it closing?
My father’s laughter rang in my ears. My heart raced and I felt like I was going to throw up from the pain and the exhaustion and the fear.
“Please!” I wasn’t sure who I was begging to make it stop, but I needed something more than just me. “ Claudere!” I groaned under the strain of fighting my father’s pull. The tie between us burned bright and thick, and I could see my power leaving me, flowing down the tie, powering him.
It felt helpless, but I kept pushing, pushing, pushing .
Hot tears rolled down my face, but I couldn’t feel myself crying. I just kept screaming under the pressure of it all.
If I’d the wherewithal, I would’ve cut the tie to my father, but I couldn’t cut the tie and close the portal. I had to pick.
I screamed as I shoved more power at the portal, and it finally started to close again.
“Don’t give up.” Phoenix put his hand on my back. “You’re doing it. I know it’s hard. I can see that you’re hurting.”
I leaned back into his hand and felt something warm and good flow through me. It countered the fire and acid feeling that made me want to crawl out of my skin. It started from his hand and spread like a balm through my body.
His arm wrapped around my waist, and I fell back into his lap.
I was so close. Please.
Please.
Please.
“He’s almost here. I can see him down there, but the portal is almost closed. It’s so small now. You can do this.”
For some stupid reason, I believed him, and I shoved what little power I had left at the portal, screaming with a force that I shoved through the spiritual realm. I took a breath.
Lord, help me do this. One more time. Please. “Claudere!”
The house shook.
Demons screeched as they were sucked through the closing portal.
A crash came from downstairs.
Oh God. I hoped the house could withstand this.
Because there were more coming. I could feel them, hear them, smell them all barreling toward the portal as it called them back to where they belonged.
But it didn’t matter. I just needed this over. How much longer could the portal last?
Just a second longer. Just one more second.
One more second of pushing my power to force the portal fully closed.
One more second of fighting my father.
One more second and this would be over.
The portal that used to be eight feet wide was now a foot across. Maybe less.
I was so close, but it wouldn’t slam closed like I wanted it to.
I gritted against the strain of it.
I could do this.
I would do this. I didn’t have another choice.
And then I yelled, “ Claudere! Aboleo!” I pushed what little I had left into the words, forcing my will through them.
The symbols on the floor burned with spiritual fire until they turned to ash.
With them, the connection to my father weakened to a low-level hum, and I knew I had it.
I was winning.
The portal was finally, truly, closing. With every breath, it closed another inch.
Yes. Yes!
I leaned back against Phoenix, my breaths coming in pants, my arms shaking as I held the cross over the portal. But it was enough.
It was tiny now. Two inches across. If that. Just enough to let heat and screams and the scent of sulfur through, but not big enough to let a demon through.
It would close.
Thank you, God. Thank ? —
“ Samantha! ” A voice yelled at me through the tiny portal. “ Help me! ”
Everything in me froze.
Oh no.
Oh shit.
Gabe !
“ Gabe! Hurry! ” Before I could think, I lunged for the portal, but I couldn’t get there. Phoenix’s arm kept me pinned tightly against him, but I needed to get to Gabe.
I wasn’t sure I could reverse what I’d done. I’d put everything I had into forcing it closed. Trying to bring all that power back would be impossible.
But I screamed as I tried.
My head swam, and my head lolled back against Phoenix’s shoulder. His arm pulled tighter, and his hand covered my mouth. “Don’t. Please , Sam. Don’t say the words. You can’t open it again. You don’t have the energy. You go get him now, you’re not coming back. You have to stay with me. You have to let go. Let the portal close.”
I struggled to get free, elbowing Phoenix in the stomach. He let out a grunt, but he held me tighter, keeping me pressed against him. Not matter how hard I tried, he wouldn’t let go.
Phoenix cushioned us as we fell to the floor in my struggle to get free.
I screamed behind his hand, hot tears running down my face, because I’d failed. I’d failed my best friend again. What kind of person leaves the one who saved them to suffer in Hell?
I had to do something.
If Gabe was this close, I had to do something .
I tugged at Phoenix’s hand, and he moved to away from my mouth.
I knew it didn’t matter. It was too late, but I couldn’t help it. “ Gabe!” I yelled through the spiritual realm. “ Hurry! ”
“ Sama— ”
The portal snapped closed. And with it, the little bit of hope that Gabe would make it out was gone.
But all the demons in the house were gone, too.
From what I could feel, none of the demons in the neighborhood had survived the portal closing. All of them were back in Hell.
I hadn’t seen anything that could’ve killed the werewolves fall through it though. Something was still out there.
I closed my eyes.
Gabe hadn’t made it out. He couldn’t fight against the push of the portal closing like that. No demon could. Not even my father.
I sagged against Phoenix. “Fuck. Fuck! ” I couldn’t help the curse from flying out of my mouth. Or the tears that came faster. Or the feeling of worthlessness that weighed down my heart.
“You don’t know that it was him,” Phoenix whispered in my ear. “You couldn’t keep the portal open with your father that close. It wasn’t safe and?—”
“I know.” I twisted in his arms so that I could bury my face in the crook of his neck.
I knew he’d been right to stop me, and for whatever reason, he was the only thing making me feel better. I tucked my face into his neck, trying to get my tears and breathing under control. “I know that. I do. But even if it was just a chance of it being him?—”
“But didn’t you say most demons can mimic other voices? Even your father?” Tessa asked.
He could. I knew he could.
“I know you want to find your friend, that you feel responsible for the danger that he’s in now, but isn’t it more likely that it was your father manipulating you? He wanted the portal open. He was almost here. We know that. We heard his voice. The way the walls shook. It was just like when you went to save Van. He would’ve come through, and then—” Tessa’s voice broke. “We got lucky the first time, but I don’t think I could beat him a second time.”
Phoenix rubbed one hand up and down my back, while the other held my head against him. “You just did some major work here, and you have to be exhausted. Just breathe. Don’t worry about anything. Just focus on my breathing.” He took slow, measured breaths, and mine eventually followed his.
There was a tingling weightless feeling in my body that I knew was exhaustion. I’d just spent what little strength I’d rebuilt since I saved Van. Which was frustrating because I hadn’t found whatever killed the werewolves. And still, I was sad.
Gabe had been close.
But had he? Was that really him?
I let the feeling of Phoenix rubbing my back, holding me, anchor me to what was real, and my head started to clear a little. I was lying on top of Phoenix on the attic floor, and I remembered it was gross up here, but I couldn’t get up. Not yet.
Tessa was right about how my father could change his voice. She’d fought him. She knew what he was capable of.
I did, too, but the sound of Gabe’s voice screaming my name through Hell…it haunted me.
If that wasn’t Gabe, then my father had known exactly what button to push. But it didn’t change the fact that for a second, I thought it was my best friend. I’d wanted it to be him.
“I know that it probably wasn’t Gabe, but it felt like him. The hope…” I swallowed down the shame I felt at leaving Gabe behind. Again.
I needed to get out of here. “The house is fine.” I didn’t blow up a city block closing the portal either, so that was a good thing. “There shouldn’t be any demons in the neighborhood anymore. We still don’t know what was killing your werewolves, but this was the start of fixing it. I have to get out of here. I need the sun and a safe, clean space, and I don’t know what else. But I have to get out of here.”
I rose up a little bit, and Phoenix ran his hand over my hair, brushing it away from my face. “Okay.” He sat up, pushing me up with him, and moved me off to the side as he rose. “You look wiped.”
I groaned. “That’s code for looking like trash.”
“Never.” He leaned down and lifted me up, wrapping his arms under me to hold me in place.
I wrapped my arms around his neck, my legs around his waist, letting my face fall in the crook of his neck again.
I let myself melt into him as he walked us down the stairs. This time, there were no demons pulling at my hair. No one yelling horrible things at me. Nothing but the smell of Phoenix’s cologne. It was nice. Calming. Masculine. Earthy. The feel of him carrying me made me feel treasured.
Maybe he didn’t think that, but it felt nice to be carried this way. Comforting. “Thanks,” I whispered to him.
“You don’t need to thank me. This is exactly where I want to be,” he whispered as he moved through the house. “Hey, Dastien,” he said a little louder. “Can we get the cars over here? I have no idea where we left them.”
“Yeah. I heard the guys downstairs. The two we left outside already went to get them. No one else was in the house. No normies. No supernaturals. Nothing but the demons.”
Good. Because I didn’t have much left in me.
Phoenix carried me outside, into the sunlight, and then knelt down, easing me to sit on the ground. I kept my eyes closed and let myself collapse back onto the front lawn of the house. The feeling of the sun on my face washed away the darkness of guilt and shame at having left my friend caged in Hell.
Phoenix squatted beside me, running his hand over my forehead again. “What can I do?”
I shook my head. “Nothing. Just tired. I’ll be fine in a second.” Probably more like a few days, but we didn’t have time for me to be down that long.
“Food? Water?”
I took a breath. I wanted neither, but… “Yeah. I probably need both.”
“Good. We’ll make sure to get you both.”
“What’s happening?” Max said from my other side.
I rolled my head to look at him, blinking my eyes open.
Max’s brows drew down as he scanned my face. “What’s wrong? I’ve never seen you like this.”
I didn’t know how to answer that.
“Are you okay?” Max started to press his hand to my forehead, as if checking for a fever, but Phoenix stopped him.
That wasn’t what was wrong with me anyway. Not even remotely. “Peachy.”
His eyes flashed wolf bright as he studied me. “You look pale. Usually, you come out of stuff like this jazzed.”
“Not today.” I probably looked like a zombie. No wonder Phoenix was worried about me. “Closing a portal to Hell when my father and some really nasty magic are trying to keep it open takes it out of me.”
“Your father?” It was his tone more than the question that had me closing my eyes and taking a breath.
Not everyone knew why I could do the things that I did. Just my closest inner circle—which didn’t include Max.
Way to make it awkward. I’d said too much because I was tired.
The sun was too bright, even for my closed eyes, so I put my hand over them.
Maybe I was more tired than I thought. “I need food and rest before we go looking for whatever has been going after your pack members.”
“You think you can still do it?” Max asked. From his tone, clearly he didn’t think so.
“Yep.” I had to.
Then there was a bright light—bright enough that I could see it through my closed lids and hand. It was different from sunlight. It was a white, cleaning, healing light.
“Just what in the high Heavens do you think you’re doing?”
I winced. “Eli…”
“I told you to stay put. To call me if anything came up. You disobeyed me why?” I knew that tone. It might’ve sounded like he was bored, but it meant the opposite.
Fantastic.
I was in so much trouble.