CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Abranch hit the tree beside me with such force that it shattered, splintering in every direction.
Collith shifted, casually blocking most of my body. For once, I let him. I wasn’t interested in dying with a stick in my chest, or losing an eye to flying debris.
Moonlight shone down on the clearing where we had finally stopped.
My sides still ached from how far we had run, but it didn’t feel like far enough.
We couldn’t have put more than a few miles between us and Lucifer’s camp.
The car was nearby, and if I’d had any say, we would’ve been getting in it right now. It hadn’t been my choice to stop.
It was Lyari’s.
While she continued her rampage, I took stock of the others, making sure they were all right.
Laurie stood behind a tree nearby, his lips turned down in a thoughtful frown.
Savannah and Seth were also tucked in the shadows, positioned where they could avoid the destruction.
Only Gil stood in the open, his back pressed against one of the trees.
Despite the danger, his eyes stayed fixed to the ground, a cigarette burning between his fingers.
The road was close, and they’d been in the car, just as we planned. But they’d both come running when Lyari started.
Reassured that no one had gotten hurt, I turned my attention back to the figure in the center of the clearing. Well, no one is hurt physically, at least, I thought with a wince.
My friend was almost unrecognizable in her grief.
When she’d begun to regain consciousness, we had paused for a brief rest …
and to prepare for whatever was coming. It didn’t take long.
The second Lyari was coherent, she had tried to go back.
Collith got in her way and said something I couldn’t hear, his voice low and solemn.
He’d blocked Lyari from sight so none of us could see her face. Whatever he said had made her go still.
Then, with an enraged cry, she’d bent and grabbed the first thing she could find—a rock the size of a cantaloupe. It had soared through the air and hit the ground so hard that grass and soil sprayed. Lyari bent to find something else, then threw that, too. She’d done it again, and again, and again.
Now the ground was littered with divots and rubble. The trees around us had been torn or broken. Every strike and enraged cry echoed through the night.
“She’s going to bring the entire horde down on our heads,” Laurie muttered.
I didn’t think Lucifer’s army would be coming after us, but I also didn’t want to take the chance.
Laurie was right. So I inhaled through my nose and released the breath slowly, then edged out from behind Collith.
A clump of dirt sailed past me, followed by another rock.
I flinched but kept going. When I was almost struck by a heavy piece of bark, Laurie cursed and sifted out of sight.
He reappeared beside Lyari and grabbed her wrist in a vise-like grip.
Unlike Collith, he didn’t speak. But Lyari froze as if he had, and for a long moment, she just looked at him.
Laurie looked back at her, and after a few tense seconds, he slowly retreated.
Lyari stayed in the center of the clearing, her chest heaving.
Tears shone in her yellow eyes, bright as diamonds.
I couldn’t bear it. I closed the distance between us and stopped in front of her, hesitantly reaching for Lyari’s arm. She jerked away as if my touch had burned her.
“He didn’t deserve this,” she spat. “He was good, he was. You didn’t see, you didn’t believe, but I knew.”
“You need to let me make you part of the Shadow Court,” I said quietly. It wasn’t normal, this kind of display from Lyari, no matter how brokenhearted she was.
But she acted like I hadn’t spoken. She covered her face, and her voice was muffled as she cried, “You said we’d save him!”
“I know I did, and—”
Lyari dropped her hands to glare at me, and I went silent. There were … ridges above her eyebrows. No, they were thorns. Small, fleshy thorns sprouting from her forehead. I stared at them, and the truth hit me in the gut like a fist.
Lyari was a goblin. A fully fledged, completely transitioned goblin.
Whatever she saw in my expression made Lyari go cold. She bent to snatch her sword off the ground.
“Lyari—” I started, but she shouldered past me and stormed into the darkness.
She must’ve expended too much energy healing to sift, or maybe she couldn’t anymore now that she’d made the transition.
I stopped at the edge of the trees, my hands clenching as I considered whether or not to follow.
But Lyari wasn’t destructive like I was. She didn’t succumb to her impulses.
That was before, a small voice reminded me.
“She’ll come back when she’s ready,” Gil said. “She always does, right?”
I swallowed. “This is different. She’s not …”
“Not what?” Seth asked. His expression was calm, and he looked back at me steadily. But I felt the silent challenge. The dare to finish my sentence.
He was right to challenge me. Whatever I was feeling was just old prejudice. Lyari was a goblin now, but she wasn’t gone. She’d just changed, like all of us did. Like we were meant to.
“We should go,” I said finally. “It’s not safe here.”
The others moved in silent agreement. We started walking again, heading in the direction of the car.
An hour later, we emerged from the woods at the edge of the homestead. The barn came into view, bright and welcoming, and the sight of it made something in me loosen. Emma had left the lights on for us. We followed the gentle glow, silent as we climbed the stairs single file.
As soon as I entered the loft, I went over to the refrigerator and took out a pitcher of water.
Everyone trickled into the kitchen while I moved to the cupboard where we kept the glasses.
I returned to the island and poured from the pitcher, then took a long drink.
My swallow was audible in the silent room.
“What happened?” Gil asked finally. He knew we’d failed to rescue Thuridan, of course, but there hadn’t been time to tell him and Seth where everything had gone wrong.
Collith’s eyes darkened. “He was expecting us.”
“Are you going back again?” Seth ventured. “Will you try another way?”
“There’s something else,” Savannah said. She stood with her arms crossed over her body, and her jaw was clenched with tension. “If we do go back, this will be important information to have.”
I sighed. “Do I want to know?”
“It’s about the spell I sensed. It took me a while to figure out—I’ve never encountered anything like it before.
The magic was strange, similar to hearing a new language.
But on the way home, I noticed this.” Savannah pulled a smartwatch out of her pocket and held up the darkened screen.
“I know the same thing happened to your phones. The Dark Prince’s camp is surrounded by a powerful boundary.
I don’t know the exact parameters of the spell, since only the witches that cast it can tell you that, but it obviously keeps out anything modern or advanced. ”
That word triggered a memory. I thought back to my secret meeting with Lucifer outside of Adam’s shop. When I’d asked him about the demon on the road, he’d told me, Their magic is incredibly useful. For the most part, it involves shielding and blocking. Their presence can even affect technology.
Lucifer must’ve used the yar demon for his spell.
It was probably another reason why he was creating tears like the one in West Bengal.
Which meant that even if we did go back with reinforcements, we could only use swords or magic to fight.
Guns and bombs would’ve evened the playing field, but of course Lucifer had thought of everything.
“Is the boundary spell why they stopped like that? All in a straight line?” I asked Savannah.
“The boundary spell probably answers to the Dark Prince’s wishes,” she said, nodding. “He’s keeping the demons contained, and everything else out. But for whatever reason, he allowed us into his camp tonight.”
My grip on my water glass tightened. I stared at the counter as I murmured, “I think … I think he just wanted to see me. He knew I’d come for Thuridan. He let us waltz inside just so he could offer me a deal.”
“What deal?” Laurie asked.
My gaze rose. “He said he’d set Oliver free and let the rest of you live if I stayed with him.”
Laurie made a low, humorless sound. “I hope you told him where he could shove that offer.”
“Actually, I just spit at him.”
At this, Laurie gave me a slow, secret smile that made my stomach flutter. “That’s my girl.”
“So we can’t get back in, and we can’t nuke the camp.” Gil hesitated. “I guess that means the Gate is opening, then.”
The enormity of what I’d done crashed over me. By bringing Lucifer into the world, I had single-handedly brought on the apocalypse. “We failed. It’s over,” I said.
There was a pause, and then Collith replied, “Not if we’re there when he opens the Gate. We’ll stop whatever comes out of it.”
I made a soft sound of hopelessness and shook my head.
My limbs felt heavy with defeat, and I forced myself to move.
I didn’t want the others to see the depth of my despair or try to comfort me.
I found myself at the end of the dining table, staring down at the meaningless shapes and symbols that Michael had left behind in my brain.
I’d left the drawing here in hopes that the more I looked at it, the more it would make sense. So far, no such luck.
“You’ve never seen the seven cities,” I said, tracing one of the lines with my fingertip. “You have no idea what we’d be up against. We would need an army. And I don’t know about you, but I don’t have any of those lying around.”
“I can arrange meetings. And I’m sure Laurelis—”