Okay, do you guys feel protected?”
“I do,” Archer said. “Also, a little violated, but that’s neither here nor there.”
I rolled my eyes. “You two?”
“Yeah,” Cal said. “Whatever you did, I think it worked.”
“Same,” Jenna added.
“Awesome.” I started walking forward, the other following. “Archer, any helpful factoids about demonglass you’d like to offer up?”
“Um, okay. Well, after the war in heaven, the angels who fought on the wrong side were stripped down to just their most basic level.”
“Right,” I nodded. “Dad told me that. Demons are just pure dark magic, nothing more. Until they’re put in a body, obviously.”
“I don’t know, there are times when you seem like you’re just pure dark-ow.” Archer broke off as I poked him in the ribs. “Anyway, the demons were forced into another dimension. What people call hell, or the Underworld, or whatever. Supposedly-and for us, hopefully-that’s where you find demonglass. Which, really, is nothing more than rock that’s been permeated with all that dark magic. Demon Kryptonite, basically.”
“So we’re going into another dimension?” Jenna asked, her voice wavering a little. “Like what the Itineris does?”
“That’s the idea,” Archer replied.
Seeing as how the Itineris almost always left Jenna trying not to cough out her inner organs, I understood why she sounded a little freaked out.
“This doesn’t feel like another dimension, though,” I said. “It just feels like-“
“A cave,” Cal said.
“Yeah, a cave.” As soon as I said that, my heart started to pound. Ugh, this new claustrophobia thing was highly annoying.
We’re not in shock,” I told her, even as I clutched the material tighter around my neck.
“Well, you all look awful,” she said.
“Hell does wreak havoc on the skin,” Archer quipped, but I could tell his heart wasn’t in it. Under the table, I put my hand on his knee, and he covered my fingers with his own.
What else did he say?”
“Just that. He’s going to The Eye, and he’s sorry.” She screwed up her face. “Oh, and some weird thing about telling you that he still feels the same way about that tent, and he promises to say it to you in person next time he sees you.”
I gave a bark of laughter that was more of a sob, “That asshat,” I blubbered.
Elodie nodded in sympathy. “Such an asshat.”
When I’d left Thorne Abbey, I’d held Archer’s sword and had a sense that somehow things would turn out all right. Please, I thought. The rest of my magic is back, so let me have that power, too.
But there was no reply except the whistling of the wind.
You wear knee socks every day?” Izzy asked, scowling. “That’s reason enough to take this place down.”
Even though I was scared and worried, I chuckled. “Just wait until we get there and you experience the torture that is wool in humid weather. You’ll wanna sink the whole island.”
“It’s not so bad,” Cal said, and Jenna hooted with laughter.
“Yeah, says the guy who wears flannel in August.
Is that true?” I asked Dad. “Are they gone for good?”
Dad shifted in his seat, uneasy. “Not necessarily. But Sophie, the risk involved in bringing them back…It’s almost too great to fathom.”
“I can fathom all kinds of things,” I told him. “Try me.”
I think I might have seen pride in Dad’s eyes. Or maybe it was just a gleam of Why is my offspring so insane? Still, he answered me. “If you destroy both the ritual and the witch or warlock who used it, the spell itself can be reversed.”
I shrugged. “That doesn’t sound so hard.”
“I wasn’t finished. They must be destroyed simultaneously.”
Swallowing, I tried to sound cheerful. “Again, not so bad. Get Lara to hold the piece of paper, zap them both with, um, some fire or something, and bam! Instant demon reversal.”
“And they must be destroyed in the pit where the demons were raised,” Dad continued, as if I hadn’t said anything. Seriously, he had to stop doing that. “Oh, and as the piece de resistance, you’ll need to do a spell to close the pit itself, with both the ritual and the witch inside it. And that’s such an intense ritual that it could actually pull whatever’s around the pit into it as well.”
“Like, the person doing the spell?”
“Like, the whole damn island the put is on.”
“Oh. Okay. Well, that is definitely…challenging. But not impossible. And we have the grimoire, that’s one bonus, right? Even if the demon-raising ritual isn’t in it.”
“Sophie Alice Mercer,” Mom said warningly, just as Dad said, “Atherton,” and Aislinn said, “Brannick.”
I threw my hands up. “Look, it doesn’t matter what you call me. I’ll hyphenate, how about that?
There will be Casnoff butt kicked and all sorts of names taken. And hey, maybe I’ll get some new scars."
Both of them hugged me tighter. "We love you, Soph," Mom said.
"Quite right," Dad added, and I laughed, even as my stomach twisted itself into a balloon animal.
We’ll manage it,” Cal said.
“Yeah,” Jenna said, smiling shakily. “We’re kind of badass in our own right.”
I gripped her hand. “Damn straight.
Have you ever been in a demon rumble before, Jenna?” I asked.
Hoisting her own demonglass dagger, she shook her head. “Nope. I have a feeling it’s going to be super violent.”
“Maybe we can talk to them,” I said, rubbing my nose with the back of my hand. “Have a little sit-down chat.”
“With tea.”
“Ooh, yeah, with the nice china, and those little sandwiches that don’t have crusts.”
Cal came to stand with us. Aislinn and Finley were getting to their feet, but I could tell they were far away from optimum Brannick strength. “I don’t want to kill these kids,” Cal said.
“Neither do I. But I don’t want them to kill me, either.”
“Not sure what we want is going to matter that much,” Jenna said. I stared out into the trees, hearing my fate move closer.
And here’s the thing: I knew I was supposed to be courageous. I was supposed to use my magic for as long as I could, and be all Braveheart about it. But I didn’t want to. I wanted to cry. I wanted to hug my mom and dad again. I wanted to see Archer. And I wanted to know that I’d done more here than just delay Aislinn’s and Finley’s deaths by a few minutes.
So there was no stoic badass facing down the demon hordes. There was just a teenage girl with tears streaming down her face, her two best friends on either side of her, as all kinds of hellish creatures rushed forward.
Oh, God,” Jenna said. She didn’t have to say any more. Jenna and I had seen that weapon before, when The Eye raided a Prodigium club in London.
“It’s The Eye,” I said, disbelievingly. And then, for probably the first time in Prodigium history, a demon, a warlock, and a vampire all beamed at one another as I repeated, “It’s The Eye!”
And sure enough, streaming through the woods from the general direction of the Itineris were several dudes in black. “How?” Cal asked. And then one of the guys in black started running toward us. I guess it’s possible that it could’ve been some other kind of lanky Eye with dark curly hair, but I leaped at him anyway.
Archer and I collided with enough force to knock the breath out of me, but I didn’t care. I could breathe later.
“Thought you could use some assistance,” he said against my temple. “There are only about twenty of us-the only guys I could get to come with me. But still. It’s something, right?”
I held him tighter. “Better than something.
This is nothing more than a freaking temper tantrum with a body count, and I am done with it. Nobody else is dying for this.
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