Chapter Thirty-Five
THIRTY-FIVE
Eleonore was gone.
One moment she’d been tensed to run, eyes fixed on Isobel; the next the air was empty, as if she’d never existed.
Ben barely had a flicker of an eyelid to note the change before a lightning bolt zagged down and struck the leaves where Eleonore had been standing.
He closed his eyes against the painful light, but the afterimage was seared into his retinas. He opened them again, blinking against black spots until the clearing swam into view.
“Oh,” Isobel said, looking at the blackened, smoking patch of leaves with a frown.
Ben had never felt such fury. “Yeah, oh,” he snarled, marching toward the witch. “I saw what you were doing.”
It had been subtle, but the movements were there. Isobel’s empty left hand had twitched at her side while she’d waited for Eleonore to take the knife from her right, the fingers twisting in movements that could have been agitation but weren’t. At first glance her lips had been trembling, but closer inspection showed something more sinister. She’d been whispering so softly that only supernaturally gifted ears could hear it.
Isobel had been casting a spell, and Eleonore had been so focused on ending her imprisonment she hadn’t noticed.
Ben might not have noticed either if he hadn’t been paying such close attention. Werewolf senses were sharp. When Isobel had exhaled, seeming to accept her fate, a fragment of a spellword had drifted to Ben on the breeze.
Isobel wiped her teary cheek with the back of her hand, then looked toward the path Ben and Eleonore had taken to her door. “Perhaps that was a hasty choice.” Her mouth twisted as she switched her attention to Ben. “Do you think she’ll be angry with me?”
Ben was so dumbfounded he stopped in his tracks. Was this witch absolutely out of touch with reality? He’d assumed the tears were an act, but Isobel actually seemed distressed.
“Obviously she’ll be angry,” he said. “You tried to kill her!”
“I have a necromancer on speed dial,” Isobel said, reaching into the pocket of her dress and pulling out a phone. “It would have been fine.”
Ben was tempted to throttle her, but his ears picked up another sound in the distance—the firing of a familiar car engine. He swore, then glared at Isobel. “This isn’t over,” he vowed as he turned to sprint after Eleonore.
“Oh, good,” Isobel said.
Ben’s heart raced as he ran back down the path. Tree roots tangled at his feet and branches clawed his face, but he didn’t slow his frantic pace. Eleonore was already at the car, having moved with vampiric swiftness. He had to catch her so he could explain…
But when he reached the parking lot at the base of the slope, it was empty.
Eleonore was gone.
“Wow,” Avram said as he stepped out of his car and looked Ben up and down. “That bad, huh?”
Ben had been hiking for hours, heading back up the road toward Griffin’s Nest. His eyes felt swollen from crying, and his legs were about to give out. “I have to find her,” he said brokenly.
He’d called his cousin as soon as he’d realized Eleonore had stolen his SUV. He’d left the keys in the ignition in case they needed a quick getaway—a horrible choice in retrospect. He would have called Eleonore, too, but she’d left her tablet in Glimmer Falls, and he doubted she would pick up his calls anyway.
Avram grabbed Ben’s elbow and steered him toward the car. There was a bulky shape in the passenger seat—Kai, probably, who had been playing poker with Avram in Griffin’s Nest at the time of Ben’s frantic call. Thank goodness they’d been there rather than in Fable Farms, or Ben would have been walking for even longer.
Unfortunately, he’d now have to explain to both of them what had happened.
How had he been so shortsighted? He’d been desperately worried about the upcoming violence, and with his brain buzzing around all the ways their full-frontal attack might go wrong—torture couldn’t be easy to commit, another murder might traumatize Eleonore further, they could both go to prison—he’d failed to think rationally. He would have followed Eleonore into the woods a thousand times, a million, but by Lycaon , he ought to have insisted they go in with multiple backup plans.
Instead he’d failed on all fronts. He hadn’t supported her the way she needed. He had questioned her methods while offering little that was helpful in exchange. And then he’d committed the ultimate betrayal.
Even if it had saved her life…how could she forgive that?
Avram opened the back door of the blue Toyota Camry. Ben sank into the seat, then groaned when he realized there was someone else seated on the opposite side.
Lilith, the Mother of All Demons, was glaring at him with arms crossed over her chest. A naked sword rested across her lap. “I was about to win a thousand dollars off these bozos,” she complained.
Right. The poker game. “I would say I’m sorry,” Ben said as he buckled his seat belt, “but I really don’t give a fuck, Lilith.”
He’d hit his emotional and mental limit. He was done. Maxed out.
Kai sucked in a breath and twisted to look at Ben with wide eyes, but Ben ignored him. He stared Lilith down, willing her to either shut up or put him out of his misery.
Ben had promised Eleonore he’d never issue an order again, and then he’d broken that promise. She must believe he’d betrayed her at the last second, stealing her vengeance—and her chance at freedom—away from her. She must think him unspeakably cruel.
Nothing Lilith could do to him would compare to the pain he felt right now.
Lilith looked startled at Ben’s blunt words. She cocked her head, and her hand hovered over the hilt of the sword.
Ben braced himself, but he didn’t back down.
Then Lilith grabbed one of the braids dotting her red hair and started gnawing on it. “That was very nice, puppy,” she said around the mouthful of hair. “And here I thought you were the boring one.”
Kai exhaled on a soft whew and turned to face forward as Avram started the car.
“I don’t care what you think,” Ben said, slumping back into his seat. “I just lost the love of my life.”
“Damn,” Avram said, hazel eyes meeting Ben’s in the rearview mirror. “Didn’t realize it was that serious.” When Ben scowled, his cousin held up a hand. “Hey, you didn’t exactly talk about the details. Gigi’s the only reason I knew you and Eleonore were dating at all.”
Kai sniffed a few times. “Why do you smell like ozone?”
Where to begin? His panicked call to Avram had been light on details and heavy on crying. “Evil witch tried to kill Eleonore,” he summed up.
Kai whistled and ran a hand through his black hair. “Straight up? How’d that happen?”
Ben sighed. “It’s a long story.”
Avram adjusted the mirror. “Well, I hate to break it to you, but we’ve got time.”
Once Ben started, the words poured out of him in a flood. He explained how Isobel had treated Eleonore and Eleonore’s desire for revenge. How he loved her and wanted to free her, and how he’d chosen to accompany her to finish the mission. How he wanted her to be happy so they could maybe build a life together.
Then he shamefacedly admitted his hesitation regarding Eleonore’s violent methods, the bizarre confrontation at the cabin, and how the witch had been casting a spell so subtly Eleonore hadn’t noticed it, forcing Ben to violate the one promise she held sacred above all others.
“I violated her free will,” he said, eyes welling again. “And I did it right when she thought she was about to gain her freedom.”
“I’m amazed she didn’t chop your dick off,” Lilith said bluntly. “If that had been my vengeance you’d ruined, bits of you would be scattered across three counties.”
“Lili,” Kai said from the passenger seat, “remember that thing we talked about? It starts with an e .”
Her forehead furrowed. “Erotic asphyxiation?”
“Jesus Christ,” Avram said.
Kai looked over his shoulder. “Empathy, Lili. Empathy.”
“Oh. Right.” Lilith frowned and a look of concentration came over her face. “I’m supposed to listen to people who are unhappy and not demean or threaten them unless they deserve it.”
“Exactly.” Kai smiled like he was proud of her. “And in this case, Ben doesn’t deserve it. He loves Eleonore and saved her life by issuing that command. She just didn’t stick around long enough to hear his explanation.”
“I hope she’s okay,” Ben said sadly, looking out the window. “She was upset, and she’s only driven the car a few times before.”
“She’ll be fine,” Avram said. “She’s what, six hundred years old?”
“More like thirtysomething with long gaps between birthdays.”
“The point is, she’s got survival skills. She’s probably most at risk of getting a speeding ticket.”
Ben winced imagining that interaction. Threatening to tear out a police officer’s viscera wouldn’t go over well. “She’s hours ahead of us.” He swallowed, throat feeling thick. “I don’t even know where she’s going.”
“Does she have a cache of weapons in Glimmer Falls?” Lilith asked.
“Yeah, at my place.” Her dresser had a drawer of spare knives, and her clothing and PADD were there, too.
Lilith nodded decisively. “Then that’s where she’s headed. She’ll probably lay a trap for you—that’s what I would do in her position.” She grinned. “It’s wolf-hunting season.”
Kai cleared his throat.
“Right,” Lilith said. “That is an outcome we apparently do not want.”
“No, we do not,” Kai said. “Ben’s a good bloke.”
Eleonore could hunt him down if she liked, so long as she gave him a minute to explain himself before doing so. “We’re never going to make it there before she does,” he said.
“Not in this contraption.” Lilith cocked her head, giving him a devilish grin. “But you forget not all of us are constrained by geographical space.”
The car was silent for a few moments, air heavy with perplexity. Avram met Ben’s eyes in the rearview mirror, then made a face as if to say, “I don’t know what that means either.”
Then Kai snapped his fingers. “Brilliant, Lili.”
“Thank you.”
“Uh…care to share?” Avram asked.
“Lilith can portal to the demon plane from anywhere,” Kai said. “And then she can portal to anywhere on Earth from the demon plane.”
A magical shortcut. Hope flickered to life in Ben’s chest, a small and fragile flame. “So you could take us back to my house to wait for her?”
“You, yes.” She scratched a nail along the armrest. “This vehicle, no. My portals aren’t big enough, and I wouldn’t be caught dead in it around other demons anyway.”
“Thanks a lot,” Avram said dryly.
Ben could be home in a few minutes. The thought made him want to collapse with relief. He could make the place ready. Maybe craft a big sign to hang outside his house that would get Eleonore’s attention and explain the issue before she packed her weapons and left at warp speed.
It was Saturday, and considering driving time, Eleonore wouldn’t arrive back in Glimmer Falls until Sunday. Two days before Election Day, he realized.
“How’s Gigi? How’s the campaign?” he asked, forcing himself to think about something besides the total disaster in the woods.
Avram made a disgruntled noise as he pulled into the parking lot of a restaurant in Griffin’s Nest. “There’s an attack ad circulating that implies Gigi worships an ancient chaos entity and is planning to sacrifice children to it, but other than that it’s fine.”
“It says what ?” Ben had seen other commercials that implied Gigi was inexperienced, lax on crime, an enemy of capitalism, and unreliable because of the moonshift, but this was a new angle.
“I figure it’s a good sign. Cynthia must actually be worried.”
Ben pulled out his phone and looked up the latest poll numbers. The mayoral race was neck and neck. He rubbed a dried tear track with the back of his hand and sniffed a few times, then dialed Gigi.
“Hey! How’d the mission go?” Her voice was surprisingly chirpy for someone who had been accused of ritual child sacrifice.
“Don’t want to talk about it.” Gigi could get the rundown once the election was over—and hopefully once he’d convinced Eleonore to forgive him.
“Damn, that bad? Is everyone okay?”
“Well, no one died.” Ben sighed. “I seriously don’t want to talk about it.”
“Okay,” she said slowly. “What do you want to talk about, then?”
“I’ll be back in town soon. What’s the plan for your next rally?” There was a lot of time to fill between writing his apology all over the house and Eleonore’s eventual return, and he needed to keep busy or he’d lose it.
“We’re setting up a stage on the green on Sunday,” she said. “Music, speeches from the community, face painting, all that jazz. Dr. Salmerón and the Cartographers are doing the opening set and Themmie managed to snag The Pixies (No Not Those Ones) to close it out.”
He tried to feel some enthusiasm for her sake. “That’s great news.” The Pixies (No Not Those Ones) were a local grunge band who were poised to make it big. “What can I help with?”
“Don’t suppose you want to make an inspirational speech?”
Ben winced. “Not particularly.”
Gigi’s exhalation was gusty. “Ugh, no one else wants to either. Well, Astaroth does, but I don’t trust him not to say something ridiculous.”
“Rani would probably love to say something on behalf of the Glimmer Falls Resiliency Project,” Ben suggested. The local nonprofit was dedicated to protecting vulnerable communities and safeguarding Glimmer Falls’s future by promoting sustainable development, inclusive policies, and climate action. The nonprofit worked extensively with the Glimmer Falls Environmental Club, where Calladia and Mariel had met Themmie.
“Oh, yeah, she actually did sign up,” Gigi said. “I have a few others, but I’m missing a small-business owner to talk about community outreach and buying local and helping the economy thrive and all that, ya know?”
He did, unfortunately, know. Even if Gigi’s voice hadn’t taken on that wheedling little sister tone, it was obvious what she wanted.
Lilith tapped her fingernails against the armrest, looking impatient. Ben didn’t want to irritate his ride home even further—even if she did seem to like him better when he was being rude—so he sighed and accepted his fate. “All right,” he said. “I’ll make a speech.”
Maybe panicking about that would provide a good distraction during the interminable hours spent waiting for Eleonore to return home. If she returned home, that was.
If she didn’t…he had no clue. Would the binding spell compel him to find her? Would she be forced to return to his side eventually?
Gigi squealed, and Ben winced and pulled the phone away from his ear. “Thank you! Mom’s going to be thrilled.”
“She will be the only one in the audience who feels that way, I’m sure.”
Lilith cleared her throat.
“Got to go, Gigi,” he said. “See you later. Love you.”
“Finally,” Lilith said when he hung up. She opened the car door and hopped out, and Ben followed suit.
“Thanks, Avram,” Ben said.
His cousin waved a hand through the rolled-down window. “You can pay me back by finally bringing Eleonore to Shabbat dinner.”
Ben’s heart ached at the thought. He’d been remiss about going to his aunt’s Shabbat dinner lately—and not just lately, he realized. It had been…shoot, five months since he’d gone?
He missed his family. He missed the comfort and warmth, the food, the laughter. He missed putting work aside for a few hours to enjoy something simple and eternal.
“I will,” he said. “If she forgives me.”
“If she doesn’t, I still expect to see you there.” Avram narrowed his eyes at Ben.
Ben winced. “If I am still in possession of my head after she’s done with me, yes.”
Lilith motioned, and a shimmering, flame-edged oval appeared in the air. She stepped through the portal, then held a hand out and beckoned.
Taking a deep breath, Ben straightened his shoulders and stepped into the demon plane.
Ben had visited the demon plane once before during Astaroth’s revolt, when the half demon had overthrown his nemesis and pushed the conservative-leaning high council into both embracing demon hybrids and opening the plane’s borders to other species. He remembered it as a dismal place filled with ancient stone buildings and hostile gargoyles, with a plum-dark sky lit by the drifting orbs of human souls.
Lilith had opened a portal to the middle of a crowded market square. Vendors hawked wares from their booths—knitted shawls, shimmering daggers, steaming fire wine—while children with small, velvety horns sprinted past, playing a game involving sticks and a wooden hoop. There were no prices listed at the booths, since demons operated on the barter system.
Unlike the last time he’d visited, Ben spotted other species in the crowd: elves and centaurs, humans and pixies, even a griffin perched on a rooftop and lashing their tail as they eyed a bird in the distance. At one end of the square the land tumbled away to a river, and the banks were overflowing with vegetation.
“It looks more alive than I remember,” he said. “Did opening the borders do that?”
“Yes.” Lilith pointed at a warlock in a top hat who was juggling flaming bowling pins. “Turns out the soul doesn’t have to be separated from a human to bring life to the plants and people.”
“Are people still making deals?”
Lilith scoffed. “Obviously. As long as humans exist, there will be some willing to do anything for money, power, or love, no matter who they hurt in the process. Even if it’s themselves.” She drew another portal in the air. “Come on.”
Ben would investigate the other changes to the demon plane some other time; right now he needed to focus on winning Eleonore’s forgiveness.
Back at his house, Ben raced around, gathering markers, paint, paper, and a spare bedsheet. He started scribbling explanations on the papers, which he would tack up at every entrance. The bedsheet he planned to paint and hang in front of the house, like the sign in that “Welcome Home Cheater” meme, except this one would say welcome home i’m so sorry but the witch was casting a spell and trying to kill you which is why i issued the order . please forgive me and we can come up with a plan b?
He needed to trim that down a bit.
Lilith eyed the writing with distaste. “This is your grand gesture?”
Ben blinked up at her. “…Yes?”
Lilith scoffed. “Men.” Then she portaled away.
That was not the most promising reaction, but Ben kept writing, because what other choice did he have?
He just hoped Eleonore actually came home.