Sorren #2
“Get over here, we need to see if Elizabeth’s parents see all the red flags we do.
” I pull her up and deposit her into the same position that started this whole detour.
She snuggles back into me easily. I hit play on the remote, but hardly register a single thing happening on the TV.
All I can think about is the witch plastered up against my side and how I’m the luckiest demon in all the realms.
“Don’t panic, just tell me what happened,” I tell Malachi who is currently pacing back and forth trying to catch his breath. I shove down the irritation from his early morning call.
“I didn’t know what to say. I freaked out,” he says through the bridge.
“Whatever it is, we can deal with it. I just need to know what happened.” The familiar stress pinches between my shoulder blades. The return of the sensation makes me realize it has been absent for days.
“Jeff really pissed them off. He burst into the meeting and demanded an allocation from the general fund. They had to call in security to remove him.” Malachi pauses and takes a deep breath.
“He does that all the time, it’s not a big deal. The Board will get over it.”
“Well.” Malachi runs his hand through his already messed-up hair.
“After he left, they turned their anger on me—well, technically you—but me by proxy. They said that if you didn’t show up at the next board meeting they were going to amend the bylaws and shift all decision-making over to themselves.
” The grief-stricken look on his face starts to concern me.
“What did you do?”
“I had no choice! They were going to fuck everything up! Dad would never want them making all the decisions for Mephisto.”
“Malachi, what did you do?” I question again, deadly serious.
His throat bobs.
“I told them about the witch,” he says, flinching before I can even answer.
My fists ball up on the workbench. Hot air blows from both nostrils. Kai’s lucky I am bound to this house right now because I would throw him in the deepest fire pit if I could get my hands on him.
“What did you say, exactly? I want to hear the words that came out of your mouth.” My jaw is clenched so tightly, my teeth could crack.
“I told them a witch summoned and bound you to her lair. That you got a message to me, and that we can occasionally communicate when she’s not there.”
“Lair? You said LAIR?! It’s just a cottage! Why did you make it sound like she abducted me?” I yell, rattling the gardening tools on the rickety walls of the shed.
“I panicked!”
“You have to fix this. Right now. Eva could be in danger.”
“Eva? You’re worried about the witch? While I’m over here facing a diabolical Board, who wants to undo our father’s legacy?” he yells back.
“Yes! Of course I’m worried about her. They could declare war on this realm and destroy everything in it!”
“You need to get your priorities straight.” Malachi practically spits the words before severing the connection between us.
“THEY ARE!” I bellow to the empty space where his face just evaporated.
I clear off the workbench in one violent swipe sending everything crashing to the floor.
I stomp outside and pace back and forth in the small yard.
Eva is out in the world while demons could already be on their way to capture her, and I’m stuck here, helpless. Thoughts of her being carried off kicking and screaming by shadows to the underworld fill my head. They could have this entire town in ashes before I could explain what happened.
“FUCK!”
I run for the fence and try to jump over, only to be knocked back onto my ass in the dirt. I try again and again, never getting past the fenceline. I run around the side of the house, already knowing what will happen, but I have to try. I need to get to her.
Eva. Please if you can hear me. Please come home.
I have no idea if she can pick up on my telepathic message, but I’m desperate and without any way of reaching her, I’ll try just about anything.
I pick up Catrick Swayze and hold him up to my face. “Catrick Swayze, go get Eva. She’s at work. Tell her she needs to come home. Now!” I set him down and nudge him toward the fence. He flops over and rubs his paw over his ear.
I give up on the cute, but unhelpful cat and run inside. I look everywhere for something, anything. A flare gun? A megaphone? I don’t know, but I’m losing my mind with worry.
Calm down. Think. There has to be some way to reach her.
I grab the first thing of hers I see, a tiny cauldron and a kitchen knife and run to the shed.
I pick up all the things I knocked off the bench.
Doing my best, I rearrange them how Eva first set them up for me to call Malachi.
Her little cauldron replaces my gold cufflinks.
I rearrange the rest of the sigil. It doesn’t look as good as when she does it, but it’s something.
With a shaking hand I pick up the kitchen knife, take a deep steadying breath and push it against the tip of my thumb.
A cold sweat breaks out over my body and my stomach rolls.
A bead of blood appears on my thumb, and I dunk it into the copper bowl of water with my eyes pinched shut.
In my mind, I picture Eva. I think about how she smells like lavender and tastes like dusted sugar. I imagine her at work, smiling at people while handing over their life-saving coffee. When I’m certain she is all I think of, I snap my fingers, and knock three times.
“Woah! Hey! Look at you doing magick,” she says with a carefree smile. In the background I see her coffee shop. It’s as cute and cozy as she described.
“I know you’re busy, but something happened. Can you come home, right now?” I ask, trying to control the panic building in my chest.
“What’s going on?” The blood drains from her face.
“I’ll explain when you get here.” I don’t want to say it where someone could overhear, or scare her while she is out.
“Oh, okay. Hold on.” Eva tells Riley that she needs to go, and promises to check in later. “I’ll be there in five.”
Five minutes has never felt longer. I alternate waiting in the living room and the kitchen, completely failing at dampening my fear.
The truck rumbles into the driveway, and I can finally take a deep breath. I run my hands through my hair and meet her at the front door.
“Sorren—”
I cut her off with a crushing hug to my chest. “I was so worried!”
“What happened?” she says, her voice muffled into my chest.
I pull away and hold her at arm’s length, looking her up and down. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Sorren, I’m fine! What is going on?” The usual calming presence of her magick feels frantic.
My anxiety is rubbing off on her, so I force myself to breathe and calm down.
“The Board is getting weird about my absence. They put some pressure on Malachi and he told them I’m up here with you. They think I got captured by a witch and being held in her lair.”
Eva laughs humorlessly. “It’s kinda true.”
“Well, they could take it as an act of war and rain hellfire down on the realm. They could take you in retribution,” I explain, concerned she isn’t understanding the full breadth of danger we all could be in.
“Oh. Shit.” Her smile fades as she understands how dangerous this situation could be.
I pull her close again.
“As long as you're with me, no one is going to touch you. I'll burn the world down before I let anything happen to you.”“
Eva inches up on her toes and presses a soft kiss on my lips. It stokes every protective instinct inside me. I deepen the kiss, a promise without words. I would do anything for her.