Chapter 18
Chapter Eighteen
The energy of the river seemed to flow all around her. Delia drifted within it, feeling as suspended in its power, its strength, as if she’d been floating in its actual water.
Why had she been so frightened when August brought her here?
This was beautiful.
Everything was beautiful.
He’d told her she only needed to speak to the river, to hear it in her mind the way she could hear other people’s thoughts. The river would show her the way to open the gate and let all of August’s friends in.
He’d seemed lonely when he told her he wanted his friends to be here, that it had been too long since he’d been surrounded by others of his kind. Delia thought she could understand that, since she’d sensed the same loneliness in Caleb, a man who had no one else truly like him in this world.
Caleb.
Was that his voice she heard now?
No, she must be imagining things. All she was supposed to do was float on the river’s currents of power, letting them show her where she should reach out and open the passageway between two worlds.
In fact, she thought she could see the gate shimmering off in the distance. It wasn’t open yet, had only begun to materialize, but soon enough, it would yawn wide, and all of August’s friends would come through.
But then she thought she heard Caleb again.
“Delia! Delia!”
Her eyes flared open, and she saw she was suspended in midair in a room whose walls were made of earth. Off to one side, Ty Carter seemed to be in the battle of his life with August, wild scatters of white energy splashing everywhere.
Alarm flared in her.
She was supposed to protect August, wasn’t she?
“Delia!”
Then she looked down and saw Caleb standing a few feet away from her, handsome features tight with worry, that one lock of dark blond hair falling over his forehead just as it always did.
The sight of him somehow made her come back to herself, as if seeing his face had awoken the deepest, truest part of her.
Of course.
She wasn’t supposed to be helping August. He was a demon. He’d kidnapped her, kept her suspended outside time until he was ready to use her to further his own ends.
But Caleb….
He’d come here to save her, just as she’d prayed he would.
She reached out, and her fingers touched an invisible barrier. Of course — August had guided her in creating it, but because it had come from her, she should be able to remove it just as easily as she’d brought it into being.
When she focused on doing so, however, nothing seemed to happen. The barrier continued to shimmer around her, even as she did her best to imagine it crumbling away to nothing.
Maybe this was one time when she needed some help from a friend.
Caleb….
His head went up at once, so she knew he’d heard her.
And then there was the welcome sound of his voice in her mind.
Delia! Are you all right?
Hanging in there, she thought back at him, and he grinned, that flash of white teeth she knew she’d never get tired of.
Ready to get down?
Yes, she replied. But I think we need to do this together. We need to think of the barrier dissolving and floating away into nothing. Can you do that?
Absolutely.
He moved closer and placed his hands against the barrier, and Delia did the same. She couldn’t feel his fingertips, but somehow she sensed the way the shimmering veil seemed to shudder, as though something had struck it.
Good.
I think it’s working, she told him. Keep going.
Another shudder, stronger this time. A flash at the corner of her vision told her Ty and August were still going at it, and she prayed they’d stay occupied until she was well out of this containment field or whatever you wanted to call the invisible wall that surrounded her.
And then the barrier shivered away into nothing, falling apart into shiny specks like a handful of glitter thrown on the wind.
Caleb’s fingers closed on hers, strong, reassuring.
Real.
“Thank God,” she said, and knew the words had come out almost as a sob. “How did you know where to find me?”
“A bunch of supernatural detective work,” Caleb replied. He continued to hold onto her hands, almost as if he feared she would disappear again if he let go.
Somehow, she didn’t mind too much. However, she also knew she couldn’t allow herself to get distracted. “We have to work fast,” she said. “I think the portal is already starting to open.”
At once, his brows drew together. “Where?” he demanded, looking around as if he expected to see a gateway opening on the other side of the earth-walled room where they stood.
“It hasn’t touched this plane yet,” she replied.
“But it will soon if we don’t stop it.” She paused there, trying to think of the best way to describe what she was feeling.
“It’s like a wound in the fabric between worlds, and it’s getting bigger.
August is using the river’s energy to tear it open, but if we — ”
A roar of fury from across the room cut her off. August had broken free from Ty’s hold and was advancing on them, his human facade finally cracking. Otherworldly fire blazed in his blood-hued eyes, and the air around him seemed to shimmer, almost as if he gave off as much heat as a furnace.
“You will not interfere!” August snarled, raising his hands. Dark energy crackled between his fingers and blazed here and there pure red, like magma breaking through a volcanic crust. “The gateway had already begun to open, and there’s nothing you can do to stop it!”
Caleb stepped in front of Delia, as though he intended to use himself as a shield, but she moved to stand beside him instead. “We’ll do this together,” she said, her voice firm.
At least, she hoped it sounded firm. Inside, she was shaking like the proverbial leaf, although she couldn’t say for sure whether that was because she was scared shitless or because her body was merely reacting to being released from the binding spell.
The demon’s power bore down on them, inexorable as an approaching tsunami, but Delia reacted instinctively, raising a shield not so very different from the one that had held her suspended in the air only a few minutes earlier.
This time, though, she knew she was firmly in control, with the last dregs of August’s dark magic ebbing away, and dark fire bounced off the invisible barrier.
She had no clear idea how she’d done it, but desperate instinct had somehow shaped her chaotic new abilities into something useful.
“Nice work,” Caleb commented, still wearing that same fierce grin. “But we have to focus on that portal.”
Delia closed her eyes, reaching out with her newfound abilities beyond the earthen chamber. There — she could feel it now, a ragged tear in reality itself, growing wider with each passing second. Through it, she sensed something vast and hungry pressing against the boundary, eager to break through.
“It’s almost big enough,” she murmured. Better not to advertise what she’d learned too loudly, just in case August didn’t know exactly what was happening with the portal. “Caleb, we have maybe minutes before — ”
August lunged toward them with inhuman speed, reminding Delia of nothing more than those frightening “fast zombies” from the 28 Days Later films. Somehow, Ty managed to intercept him, and the two of them slammed into the earthen wall hard enough to make dirt rain down from the ceiling.
“Now would be good!” Ty called out, face taut with effort and strands of hair coming loose from his ponytail.
Bony fingers tight around his arms, August Sellers snarled, baring teeth that were now nothing close to human, and instead looked like the fangs of some terrible creature of the ocean’s depths.
Delia’s mind raced as she fought to come up with a solution to an utterly unprecedented situation. How could they seal something that existed between dimensions? She was just a real estate agent with a few special powers, not one of the Avengers or something.
Self-defeating thoughts like that wouldn’t help, though. She needed to focus on a solution, no matter how crazy it might seem.
Looking away from Ty, she saw the curving patterns carved into the packed-earth walls. She’d been so focused on the river’s energy that she’d barely noticed them, but now….
“Caleb,” she said, “look at the walls.”
He followed her gaze, taking in the intricate patterns carved into the earth around them. “What about them? Those are the same patterns August used to bind his minions to him. They’re not going to help us.”
“That’s where you’re wrong,” she returned, and Caleb frowned, clearly not understanding what she was trying to get at.
“They’re binding patterns, right? So why can’t we use them to bind the portal and close it forever?
Just because August made the things doesn’t mean we can’t use them for our own purposes. ”
Understanding warmed Caleb’s cola-brown eyes. “How are we supposed to get them to work for us?”
“They need to be powered by someone with the right kind of energy.” She paused there before adding, “Someone with demonic blood.”
August must have overheard their discussion despite their best attempts to speak quietly, because his struggles against Ty became more frantic. “No!” he roared. “I will not be denied again!”
With a surge of desperate strength, he shoved Ty off him, throwing the half angel to the ground, and began chanting in harsh, guttural words that made the air itself writhe.
Now Delia could see the shape of the portal beginning to grow solid on the far side of the chamber, even as the boundary between worlds grew thinner and thinner.
Somehow, it felt hard to breathe, as if the emerging gate was starting to suck the oxygen out of the air itself.
“Do it,” she told Caleb, her tone urgent. “I’ll help you.”