Chapter 11 Cinder
CINDER
“Discord, talk to me.” I imagined squeezing his hand while sharing my energy with him and attempting to block Hecate’s at the same time.
But the goddess’s magic was too strong. I clamped down on the thread my mom had shared, stifling the flow, but I couldn’t stop it completely. It trickled into my demon, assaulting his psyche and disrupting his magic.
“I’m here.” His voice was a faint whisper in the ether. “But not for long. Your sister is summoning me. You must let me go.”
“I would if I could.” I tried to release him, tried to break the bond with both my mother and my demon, but Hecate’s magic wove through us, tightening more and more the harder I tried to let go.
The tether connecting my soul to Discord’s tensed, vibrating and heaving, warring with my mom’s grounding energy. I felt like the flag tied to the middle of a tug of war rope, inching one way before being yanked the other, the pull threatening to tear me in half.
Threads of the veil snapped. The pressure shifted. Discord’s magic, my mom’s, and Hecate’s surged through me. Then an undercurrent latched on, snaking around my psyche and tugging me toward the veil.
My mom gasped. “I feel Ember.”
“So do I.” But I didn’t just feel Ember. Mayhem was there, and Shade and Miles. “Where’s Ash?”
“The curse has come to fruition.” Discord sounded distant, like he was already halfway across the veil.
“Holy Hecate.” My dad’s frantic voice cut through the cacophony of buzzing energy. “What can I do? Scorsha, tell me what to do.”
“There’s nothing you can do,” my mom said, but Dad couldn’t hear her.
I felt my sister’s command in the very core of my being, demanding my demon cross to the earthly realm. My muscles screamed, my heart and lungs contracting and expanding as if they were being ripped from my chest.
“Let go!” I shrieked to Discord, but the roar of the shredding universe swallowed my words.
“I can’t.” His panic slammed into my mind, a cold, sharp spike of fear. “The bond…it’s pulling you with me.”
It wasn’t just pulling. It was obliterating.
Every cell in my body vibrated until I was certain I would dissolve into stardust. The summoning hook—that relentless, magical claw of my sister’s spell—dug deep into Discord’s essence, dragging him upward.
Because my soul was melded to his and my mom was channeling the very goddess who held the realms together, we were a package deal. All three of us.
But only one of us would survive.
It felt like we were being squeezed through a straw. My bones liquefied, my skin stretching and turning to mist. The pain was absolute, a blinding, searing agony that eclipsed thought, love, everything but the primal need to scream.
“Hold on to me,” my mother’s voice boomed in my head, sounding like a chaotic symphony of wind chimes and thunder.
I didn’t have a choice. We were tumbling through the void, a tangle of limbs and magic and terror. The cold of the space between worlds bit into my marrow, a sudden intense heat replacing it in an instant as the heaviness of the universe surged around me, threatening to crush my very soul.
Then, with a sound like a cracking whip that shattered the sky, the pressure vanished.
I hit the floor hard.
My lungs seized, refusing to draw air for a second…two…three. Finally, I gasped, flailing, dragging my hands across the hardwood and finding broken glass and…chalk?
“Cinder? Mom?” The voice was frantic, familiar. “Holy shit!”
I rolled onto my side, coughing violently as air rushed into my burning chest. My vision swam, blurry shapes slowly morphing into faces.
Ember. Mayhem. Shade. Miles.
We were in the studio. Or…what was left of it. Splintered glass lay strewn about the shelves, and Ash’s tattoo equipment lay in disarray on the counter, some of the ink bottles having shattered on the ground, leaving splashes and streaks of blue and black on the hardwood.
“Mom?” I croaked, pushing myself up on trembling arms. “Discord?”
My mother lay next to me, gasping, her gray hair wild and static-charged. On my other side, Discord groaned, pushing himself to his knees, his eyes glowing a fierce, protective green as he scanned the room.
We were alive. Holy Hecate, we were alive!
The amulet sat in the center of the circle where we’d landed, pulsing with a rhythm that matched my own racing heart. Its power washed over us, a soothing balm that knitted our cells back together, grounding our souls to this plane when we should have been ripped apart by the journey.
“Thank the goddess you’re here, but…” Ember dropped to her knees, her hands hovering over us as if she were afraid we were hallucinations. “Where’s Dad?”
“The veil.” Discord scrambled to his feet, his taloned toes scraping on the hardwood.
I followed his gaze. The tear we’d just punched through hadn’t closed. It hovered in the center of the room, a jagged, shimmering window into the nightmare we’d just escaped.
On the other side, amidst the gloom of the cave, my dad stood frozen, his hand outstretched toward the empty space where his wife and daughter had just been.
“Dad!” I screamed, scrambling toward the rift.
“Cinder, no!” Discord grabbed my waist, holding me back from the unstable energy. “The rift is collapsing.”
The edges of the tear were already fraying, the fibers snapping shut like a zipper pulled by an invisible hand.
“He can’t stay there.” Tears blurred my vision.
“The amulet,” Discord said, his voice layered with demonic command as he pointed to the glowing pendant on the floor.
I dove for the necklace, my fingers closing around the warm metal, and I scrambled back to the tear. The wind from the closing rift whipped my hair across my face, blinding me for a moment before I shoved the strands aside.
“Dad, catch!” I wound up and threw the amulet with everything I had left.
It sailed through the shimmering window, spinning like a star. My father caught it, clutching it to his chest with a look of pure shock.
“You must return it to the goddess,” Discord shouted through the closing gap.
“I love you, Dad,” I screamed, my voice cracking. “Find Hecate. You’ve got this.”
He opened his mouth to speak, but the tear slammed shut with a finality that shook the house, leaving only a faint hint of sulfur in the air.
And just like that…my dad was gone. Again.
Silence descended on the room, heavy and suffocating.
Then, a sob broke from my mother’s throat. She crumpled forward, and Ember caught her, wrapping her arms around her before reaching out to snag me by the sleeve and drag me into the pile.
“You’re okay,” Ember whispered fiercely into my hair, squeezing me so hard my ribs ached. “You’re home.”
I clung to her, burying my face in her shoulder, breathing in the scent of smoke and spice that was purely Ember. Discord’s hand rested on my back, a solid, warm weight that anchored me to the earth.
We were safe. We were together.
Mom pulled back, wiping her face with trembling hands, looking from Ember to me. “Your father. I…I’m not supposed to be here.”
“Yes, you are, Mom,” I said. “The coven needs you.”
“Not when it has you.” Myriad emotions played on her expression—sadness, despair, pride, hope. “You succeeded where I failed. You freed all three demons and returned the amulet to the Underworld.”
“I didn’t do it alone.” A tear rolled down my cheek, and I looked at Ember. “We worked together, as a family. The way it should’ve been from the beginning.”
Mom nodded. “And together, you can end the curse.”
“About that…” Shade leaned against the counter, drumming his fingers on the surface, and my mind finally caught up with everything that was happening.
I glanced at Discord in his full-demon form, my eyes widening in alarm. “Why are they here? Does the whole coven know about…?” I waved a hand, gesturing to my demon. “Where’s Ash?”
“Ash is sleeping.” Ember swiped her boot through the salt ring, breaking the circle, and jerked her head toward the door. “Mayhem, take your brother upstairs and get him some clothes. I need a minute with Mom and Cinder.”
We followed her into the library, and Discord pinned me with a concerned look, hesitating to leave my side.
But we were in my realm now. My territory. My home.
“Go ahead.” I patted his arm. “I’ll be fine.”
He went upstairs with Mayhem, and Mom sank into the chair at Ash’s desk. “Where is she?” she asked, her voice thin.
“In the closet,” Ember said. “This is Chaos, her demon, and to answer your question, Cin, only Shade, Miles, and Patrice know who these guys really are.”
She paced in front of the door. “Well, Adrian knows too, thanks to Mayhem going full demon on him when he kidnapped me, but that’s a tomorrow problem.”
I rubbed my forehead, willing the gears in my brain to turn faster and catch up with everything that was happening. A million questions bounced around like pinballs in my mind, and the shock of being here, of being alive…of everything…made my head spin.
“Why is Ash sleeping in the closet?” I sat on the corner of the desk and pressed my fingers to my temples. “And Chrys? Is she tending to the ritual bonfire? What happened while I was gone?”
Ember cleared her throat, cutting her gaze to Chaos before focusing on me. “Chrys…didn’t make it.”
I blinked three times, my brows knitting over my eyes. “What do you mean she didn’t make it?”
Ember opened her mouth, but whatever words she’d planned to say stuck in her throat. She pressed her lips together and muttered something about working on her tone, and Mom’s expression pinched, sympathy softening her eyes.
I clenched my teeth. “What do you mean, Ember?”
Chaos crossed his arms. “She means your friend is dead.”
His words felt like a slap across my face, and I froze, unable to breathe for a beat or two. Finally, my lungs expanded, and I raked in a shaky breath. “What…?” I shook my head. “She…? How…? I don’t understand.”
“Chrys formed a coup,” Chaos said as if it were nothing more than a matter of fact. “She murdered Ginger, attempted to take over the Boston coven, and nearly killed all of us. Then, she summoned Mayhem into her body and did not survive the exorcism.”
“Nice delivery, doofus.” Ember rolled her eyes. “You couldn’t soften it a bit? Chrys was Cinder’s best friend.”
“She’s dead? And she murdered Ginger?” My head shook rapidly of its own volition, my stomach souring and twisting. Ember wouldn’t lie about something like this, but… “That doesn’t make sense. Chrys would never.”
“Yet she did.” Shade lifted his arms and dropped them at his sides.
“It’s true.” Miles shoved his hands into his pockets and cast his gaze to the floor, his shoulders inching toward his ears. “It was…awful.”
I couldn’t stop my head from shaking as I wrung my hands in my lap. None of this tracked. Chrys was the nicest, kindest witch in the coven. I knew her better than anyone, and there was absolutely no chance… She couldn’t. She wouldn’t.
I slapped my hands on my thighs. “There’s just no way.”
“She had the amulet, Cin.” Ember’s voice held more sympathy than I’d ever heard from her. “A piece of it, anyway. It messed with her mind.”
“No, that can’t…” I stood, clenching my fists and splaying my fingers over and over. “How did she find the amulet? I didn’t even know it existed until I got to Hell.”
“It wasn’t in the dark grimoire,” Mom said. “It’s the reason Lucifer imprisoned us.”
None of this made a lick of sense, and I refused to believe it. “Chrys is not a murderer. She wouldn’t kill one of our own. You guys don’t have your facts straight.”
“It’s all true.” Ember rested a hand on my shoulder. “We don’t know how Chrys found the piece of the amulet, but she did and it corrupted her. We’d have found it ages ago if not for her.”
“Ages?” The room threatened to tip onto its side, and I sank onto the edge of the desk again. “How long have I been away?”
Ember tilted her head, the sympathy in her expression morphing to pity. “You’ve been gone for two months. We thought you were dead.”
My mouth dropped open, my brain struggling to comprehend the time difference. “It was only a few days.”
“What the actual eff?” Ash’s voice, layered with disdain and malice, sounded from inside the closet. “Are you kidding me?”
A thud sounded, and the door rattled as if she’d slammed her shoulder against it. “Chaos! Let me out of here right now.”
“I cannot, my love.” He rested his palm on the door.
“Someone, please explain this.” I gestured toward the closet. “Give me something that makes sense.”
“The curse has taken her,” Chaos said, his voice pained. “She wishes to kill you all.”
More banging sounded from inside the closet. Ash screamed like she was ready to burn the world. “Let. Me. The. Eff. Out.”
Fire billowed from beneath the doorway, setting a bookshelf ablaze.