Chapter 30 #2
Except I don’t need to. Matt’s already got his phone in his hand, his body half-shielded by Ian’s as his thumbs fly over the screen. Hopefully he’s sending the trainee network the high sign. Because we’re probably going to need them soon.
Two seconds later, he looks up, meets my gaze, and his chin lifts in the world’s most subtle nod.
“Did you really think we’d just sit back and take it?” Connor demands. “Since when have humans ever done that?”
Cato smirks and slides his eyes sideways toward our parents. I try not to wince.
“It doesn’t matter,” he replies. “You can resist all you want. I won’t be defeated by beings such as you.” His voice drips with contempt. “I will have my dominion over a shared reality, and you… you will feed my followers.”
Every hair on my body stands on end. Tom’s hand fumbles for mine and grips tight.
With his other hand, he raises the sword Ewan made him, as if to shield us both, and in that second, I admit to myself that what I feel for him isn’t affection and attraction—it’s love.
I love him. I love his kind heart and good humor, his patience and reliability, his willingness to put his life on the line to defend the things that matter.
I love every part that makes up the whole of him.
And this isn’t going to be the end of us.
“You’re wrong,” I state, my voice flat and calm.
A pale eyebrow rises. “Is that so?”
I quaver a little, because the truth is, he could end me now and there’s not a lot I could do to stop him.
“Indeed it is.” The smooth, urbane voice I’ve come to hate a little less than before intervenes. “Your dominion will fail before it begins.”
As Marc leaps toward him, Cato raises a hand, rips open the biggest, ugliest gateway I’ve ever seen, and snarls something that strangely echoes through my head.
There’s no way for me to know, but part of me is sure that was a signal to his human accomplices.
In the next heartbeat, even as demons pour through the opening, the air around me seems to shiver.
My skin crawls, and it’s suddenly hard to breathe.
Fuck. It’s really happening. They’re ripping holes in the barrier.
My brothers and our friends from the Collective move forward to hold our parents back from interfering in the vicious fight between the higher demons.
Tom pushes me behind him even as I mentally begin the process of reaching out to all the trainees who volunteered to share power.
They’re waiting, ready for me, and my head spins a little as I whip through the steps faster than I ever have before.
We’ve only had a week to practice. I hope it’s long enough.
“You need to get out of here,” Tom orders.
That’s the plan—I hide somewhere safe and do everything I can to separate our worlds again.
But we weren’t expecting it all to happen here.
Where can I go? The demons are distracted right now, tearing into the barrier, but as soon as it comes down, they’ll be on us and every human nearby.
As though he knows what I’m thinking, Josh appears at my side. “Get to the basement, Gabe. The others have taken the guests there.”
It’s the most demon-proof place on the estate, if anywhere can be called demon-proof. The high quartz content in the ground around here, plus the measures we’ve taken, make it uncomfortable for lesser demons to go there. It really is my best bet.
But it won’t be secure if any of the demons follow me. Can I risk endangering my friends and the overnight guests?
Before I can decide, the whole world seems to shiver, and the barrier gives up. Too late.
The world becomes strangely double. I can’t explain it better than that.
More demons appear, but they’re not attacking.
Some seem startled. Pushing all that aside, I draw from the massive pool of power available to me and feel for the threads of the mingled etheric energy that will anchor the new barrier.
Distantly, I’m aware of Josh taking the sword from my hand and planting himself in front of me, even as Tom darts forward to meet a demon strike.
I can’t think about that now.
As I weave the first strands, it’s as though I’m being battered by a stormy ocean.
The waves beat at me from all sides, all angles, barely letting me catch a breath before I’m dragged under again.
But I’ve been doing this since I was a child—barrier energy is my happy place, and I could weave a guard in my sleep. I just need to push through.
The beginnings of the weave are ripped away from me and torn to shreds. Dammit. I take a breath and check in on the battle. We seem to be holding our own—Tom just sliced an arm off a lesser demon, and Randy’s swooping in to finish it for him.
Focus. I reach for the threads again, and again the barrier energy sweeps me under. It’s a struggle to think, to breathe—it’s never been like this before. This chaos makes me dizzy. Normally, the melded energies at a gateway are invigorating. This… It’s not supposed to be like this.
Again, my attempt to anchor the threads are ripped away. Frustrated, I—
The scream cuts through my focus, and I blink, spinning around.
“Jill!” Connor yells, cutting through two demons with one swing as he struggles to get to her. Two lamia demons have her in their grip, already feeding from her. I can see from here that it’s too late—Jill’s veins are bulging black with venom, her sword slipping from her grip as it numbs her body.
Randy, with a wordless, agonized cry, decapitates all three of them, the pulse of his power scattering the demons into atoms and freeing Jill’s soul before it can be consumed.
Hot tears track down my face, but I ignore them. I don’t have time to grieve. I don’t have time for anything. The longer I take, the more chance that I’ll lose my friends forever.
Determined, I draw more power from my volunteers. Dizziness washes over me, and I sink to my knees as I begin to weave again.
“Gabe?” Josh’s worried voice brushes the edge of my awareness, but I can’t spare him any of my attention. Barrier energy pummels me, snatching away the threads almost before I can grasp them. The waves crash over me, sucking me down, and it’s so tempting to stop fighting and just sink into it.
No. I start again. I need to make… the weave… hold…
It snaps into being.
Almost before I realize it, etheric energy begins knitting itself before me.
Power is sucked through me as I scramble to guide it, and an odd kind of hum vibrates through my body.
The double-world disappears, the surprised demons vanishing, and the barrier begins to form, slowly at first, then picking up the pace until it’s happening so fast, I can’t see it.
I can only hang on tight and hope I’m guiding it correctly.
I don’t know how long it takes. There’s no time in the etheric tides. My teeth ache from the constant flow of energy through me; and more than anything, I want to sleep. The weave races forward, seemingly endless, and I begin to despair that I’ve done something wrong.
But when the last thread bonds, the barrier is restored. The worlds are separate once more.
I blink, returning to Earth and my reality. Night has fallen, but the forecourt is lit by floodlights. Our parents are gone. Fine black ash litters the ground, the sign that a higher demon was killed—but who? Cato or Marc?
Or both?
There’s a blanket around my shoulders, and people sitting around me.
“Gabe?”
I blink. It’s Connor, peering at me worriedly.
My whole body is trembling. It feels like my gatekeeper magic is trying to crawl out of my pores. With a start, I remember that I’m still drawing power from the trainees. Sighing, I let it go, break the connection.
And the darkness rises to take me.