CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE

Ahorrific screech ripped through the room as Priscilla took to the air, wings beating a flurry of wind that forced Asterin to grapple for Quinlan to keep him from sliding backward.

Eadric’s hands glistened scarlet, shards of his affinity stone imbedded in his palms and littering the ground.

Priscilla trembled with rage, raising her shadowstone above her head. “You dare lock me up like an animal—”

A blast of ice knocked the stone right out of her hand, sending it skittering across the floor. “Shut up, you bitch!” Orion hollered. He flicked his wrist and the black stone came whizzing to his feet. He brought his heel down upon it with a satisfying crunch.

“No!” Priscilla screamed.

Orion grinned, razor-sharp. “Oh, yes.” His next surge of ice struck Priscilla between the shoulder blades, shooting upward and encasing her wings. She plummeted to the ground, shrieking.

“Orion!” Asterin exclaimed, staring at the thick slab of ice coating his entire backside, mirroring what he had just done to Priscilla. “She’s cast a reflective spell upon herself, you can’t—”

Orion ignored her and raised his palms to fire another blast, binding Priscilla’s legs together as she tried in vain to shake off the ice on her wings. More ice raced down her shoulders to her fingertips, but even immobilized, she still attacked, hurling shadow arrow after shadow arrow at Orion. All of them missed by leagues.

In turn, Orion was buried to his chest in ice.

Eadric growled, raising his sword and smashing the hilt on the ice over and over until it splintered and Orion could wriggle free.

Then a sleek blur tore over their shoulders and struck Priscilla. The ice surrounding her disintegrated in a shower of black frost. Another blur hurtled by from behind them, and Priscilla staggered backward, a thin blade hewn from darkness piercing clean through her shoulder.

Behind them stood Harry, snarling in pain while silvery fluid leaked from his own shoulder.

“Harry!” Orion cried. “Stop! Rose, heal him—”

“Get away from me!” Harry shouted. Dozens more blades materialized around him, all aimed for Priscilla.

His intention dawned upon them. The blades were not just meant to stop her … but to kill.

“Harry, the reflective spell!” Rose exclaimed.

“I know,” he answered simply. “The time Priscilla borrowed from Eoin isn’t quite up yet, but I’m taking her to a place that she’ll never come back from. Where no one will find her. Where she won’t be able to touch any of you ever again.”

“And you?” Asterin demanded.

The demon didn’t respond. Instead, he raised his hand, clenching it into a fist as he conjured more shadow blades—until an army of terrifying darkness had assembled above his head. He began to shift uncontrollably from his human form to his demon form, his ears popping out from his skull and his fingers extending into claws before retracting again. A black silhouette rose from his shoulders—wings, looming over Priscilla, his own promise of eternal damnation.

Priscilla blanched at the sight and shrieked, “If you kill me, you’ll kill yourself!”

“See, the problem with killing an immortal,” Harry growled, his hellish wings continuing to grow, “is that you can’t.”

He snapped his wings to their full span and the blades flew, ripping into her body, her tortured screams shattering the air.

“Harry!” Orion yelled as the demon doubled over, silver blood gushing onto the floor. Orion scrambled forward, only to be knocked off his feet by a jerk of Harry’s chin.

“I said, stay back!” Harry bellowed, face twisted in agony. His eyes blazed pure white, brighter than the sun. A dark spiral formed behind Priscilla, who lay spread eagle on the floor, twitching in a growing pool of her own blood. The spiral swirled and widened, caving inward and beyond itself, leading to nowhere and everywhere all at once.

“Harry,” Orion snarled.

“I’ll be back,” Harry swore. “But this I owe to all of you.”

And with that, he surged into the air. He clutched one last dagger in his fist.

As the portal of darkness yawned open, Harry swooped down and grabbed Priscilla by the neck. She flailed pathetically, a final attempt to escape, gurgling and foaming at the mouth.

And just before the shadow portal swallowed them whole, Harry plunged the dagger into Priscilla’s heart.

In her shock, Asterin hardly heard Orion shout. When he bolted forward, her hand shot out by pure reflex, latching onto his wrist to yank him backward, but he wrenched himself free and lunged for the rapidly shrinking portal.

“Orion!” she screamed, racing after him, fingertips brushing the fabric of his sleeve, so, so close—

He dove into the darkness headfirst. The shadows enveloped him, sucking him away, and in less than a blink the portal ceased to exist.

Vanished. Right into thin air, taking Orion and Harry and Priscilla with it.

As the dust settled, no one spoke.

The seconds ticked by, filled with tension as they waited. Waited—for something.

Anything.

And then, just as Asterin lost hope, a pinprick of black appeared midair, spreading outward like a bleeding blot of ink.

She exhaled in a choked rush, stumbling toward the swell of darkness.

Vaguely, almost as if from another universe, she heard the sound of boots thundering up the stairs. Guards—her Elites were coming.

The portal opened and out lurched a bleeding, bedraggled, but very much alive Harry.

“Stand down!” Eadric ordered as the Elites burst through the door, weapons drawn.

Asterin ran to the anygné, supporting him as his strength left him, his legs wobbling and chin slumping to his chest. Meanwhile, her eyes darted to the portal, wondering anxiously how long Orion would take to come back through.

Panic stabbed through her when the portal began to swirl closed and Orion had yet to reappear.

“Harry!” Asterin exclaimed, shaking him. “Where’s Orion?”

Harry’s head snapped up, eyes suddenly alert. Confused. “What?”

“Where is Orion?”

Rose came up beside them, face pale. “He followed you through the portal.”

Harry froze, his lips parting as he stared into the portal, looking … afraid.

Asterin’s blood turned to ice in her veins.

“Why didn’t you stop him?” Harry breathed.

“She tried to, Harry,” Rose said, when Asterin found herself unable to utter a single word. “She really did.”

Asterin’s tongue finally began functioning. “Can’t you … can’t you just go in and get him back?”

Harry swallowed. “No. He wasn’t in physical contact with me when I went through. Where I took Priscilla … he … he could have ended up anywhere.”

“Oh, Immortals,” Asterin whispered.

“Where did you open that portal to, Harry?” Eadric demanded.

Harry stared at them, stricken. His mouth began moving, but no sound came out. When he finally managed to speak, it was no more than a devastated rasp. “The Immortal Realm.”