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QUIN YANKED THE DOOR open and the two hellhounds standing guard spun around to bare their teeth at us. She fired the rifle at the one on the left, blasting it in the chest. With a flash of white light and a yelp, it fell over onto its side. Jake shot the other one as it leaped at our boss. The holy bullet hit it between the eyes with another flash of light. The beast sailed through the open door when we stepped aside to let it pass. It landed on the floor with a thud. Neither animal faded away to heal so they could come back at us again.
“Now, that’s definitely going to come in handy,” Jake said with a hard grin, admiring his weapon. “I suddenly feel a lot better about taking on the demon and his minions.”
“Can you get us back to the kitchen?” Quin asked. With luck, we could use the portal to escape again.
“It shouldn’t be a problem,” he replied. Taking the lead, he sent his fae power ahead, shorting out the druidic enchantment that made the place a maze.
I brought the shield back up and turned us nearly invisible again. The master of the house knew we were here, but I wasn’t going to make it easy for his servants to find us.
Seeing the way ahead blocked by a wall of Dread Wraiths, Jake paused. He cocked an eyebrow at Quin, waiting for her decision on whether we should try to fight our way through them.
Moving to stand next to Jake, she glanced at her father when Xavier stood on her other side. He aimed the crossbow at one of the wraiths and waited for her order. “Fire!” she barked and all three unloaded their holy ammo at the specters.
Three of the lead Dread Wraiths let out wails of pain and flickered wildly before fading away. My shield muffled the gunshots and the crossbow made practically no noise as the trio decimated the wraiths that swarmed towards us.
“Let Mirra and me through,” Connor said, readying his sword. Mirra held her daggers nervously, but she was determined to do her part.
Moving to the sides, Quin, Jake and Xavier were careful to aim around the shifter and siren as they waded into the fray. Holy bullets could kill anything, including us.
My heart was in my throat as my mate gracefully carved his way through the small horde. Mirra jabbed at anything within her reach. One small scratch was enough to kill even these things. Our belts continued to protect us from the killing touch of the spectral warriors.
When the last phantom winked out of existence, we took stock. Jake checked his pistol to see the ammo had replenished itself. “I need to get myself one of these things,” he murmured.
Xavier ran a hand down the stock of the crossbow, just as enamored with his weapon. “These must have cost a fortune. I wonder where Von Hades got them from?”
“It’s a mystery we’ll have to wonder about later,” Quin said and nodded at Jake to get moving.
The next band of monsters we ran into was a group of hellhounds and undead felines. They stood in two groups down the hallway ahead, eyeing each other aggressively and snarling low in their throats.
“Wait!” I whispered when Quin raised her rifle. “I want to try something.”
“Here we go,” Jonah said with a grin of anticipation. “This should be good.”
Conjuring up an illusion of a hellhound and pony-sized cat behind the two groups, I made the hound snarl loudly. It drew the attention of both packs and they turned away from us. With a flick of my hand, the two beasts began to fight. Savage barks and snarls sounded as they bit and clawed at each other. It was enough to incite a battle between the two species.
Yelps and screeches rang out as they wounded each other horribly. The hounds faded away when they became too injured to continue. Much larger in size, the cats were victorious. Strutting around as if they owned the mansion, they were slow to react when Quin, Jake and Xavier opened fire. In seconds, the small pack were sent wherever the wraiths had gone after being killed by holy ammo.
Druids had left traps in some of the hallways. Jake pointed their spells out to me and I blasted them with my dispelling incantation. Sorcerers emerged from the rooms they’d been hiding in, but we were invisible to them and cut them down easily.
Jake managed to shorten what could have been a lengthy and frustrating journey to the dining room. He halted in the doorway and we crowded around to see what lurked within. Expecting to see Spencer and a horde of monsters, I was surprised to see Harrow standing there on his own.
The butler grinned slyly and beckoned us to enter. “Please, do come in,” he invited.
Jake looked for traps, saw none and sauntered inside. Quin and Xavier moved to flank him. All three had their holy weapons aimed at the Grand Druid. I sensed he was wreathed in protective spells.
“Where’s your master?” Quin asked.
“Spencer is currently in the druidic woods, slaughtering some poor defenseless humans and attempting to reopen the portal,” he said in a bored tone that reflected how little he cared about their plight.
“What do you want, Harrow?” Jake asked, sensing the druid had more than just our murders on his mind.
“Why, to talk,” Harrow said. He waited until we’d all entered the room before gesturing. The door slammed shut and I felt a complex spell spring into being. “There,” he said in satisfaction, “now no one can interrupt us.”
“You said you wanted to talk, so talk,” Quin said. She was curious enough to hold off on blowing his brains out.
“As you’ve probably already guessed, I have always been beneath my master’s control,” Harrow said. He folded his hands behind his back and his expression became contemplative. “As his thrall, I am forbidden to betray him. Several centuries ago, I found a way around his control by using pixie dust, but alas, he found out and banned me from casting magic.”
“You’re not telling us anything we don’t already know,” our boss said impatiently. We hadn’t known he’d used pixie dust to break the demon’s control of him momentarily for certain, but he’d confirmed my suspicions.
“Since I cannot betray my master,” Harrow said with an admonishing look at her for interrupting him, “what I’m about to say is purely hypothetical.” Judging our expressions, he deemed us to be suitably curious. “The mask has imbued Spencer with the power of a demigod,” he continued. “That alone would have made him almost invincible. Couple that with being bound to a Grim Reaper and he is now the most powerful sorcerer on the planet.”
I shifted impatiently, willing him to hurry up so we could kill him and escape.
Sending me a narrow stare, he continued. “As you know, dragon blood is the only thing that has the power to separate a reaper from the being they are bound to.”
“As you say, we already know this,” Mirra said flatly. “Unfortunately, we no longer have the dragon heart. Someone ate it.”
Harrow blinked at her in astonishment and his smug expression evaporated. “Someone ate it?” he repeated. “Did you harvest more blood from it before this occurred?”
“No,” Quin replied. “We didn’t have time.”
Putting a hand to his head, the butler seemed to shrink in on himself. “Then we are all doomed,” he said in a hoarse voice. “Without the dragon blood, there is no hope of defeating him.” He winced in pain at the mere suggestion that he wanted his master to fail.
“Will these weapons work?” Connor asked, holding up his sword.
Harrow spared the holy weapons a look and shook his head. “They will merely wound and weaken him for a short time. It would take a vast amount of magic to cause him any real harm.” He looked at me speculatively and assessed me with his druidic power. “You have the ability,” he said in a musing tone. Looking deeper, his eyes widened in realization when he figured out the power I had trapped inside me. “You can succeed,” he breathed as new hope blossomed on his wizened face. “If you choose to face my master in battle, you must not falter. It will take all of your strength to accomplish the impossible and to wrest the mask from him along with the reaper.”
Unspoken communication passed between us from one magic user to another. He knew it would take a huge sacrifice on my part and that it was the only way for us to succeed in our mission. Bowing his head, he swept his hand at the door to the kitchen. “Go,” he said as it swung inwards.
“Why are you helping us?” Quin demanded.
“Because I loathe the demon far more than any of you could possibly imagine,” he said, eyes blazing with the depth of his hatred. They faintly glowed blue with his magic. “I cannot kill him myself, he made sure of that four eons ago when he made me his thrall. It is ironic that the very team he crafted to be his minions will be the ones who will be his downfall.” His rusty chuckle followed us as we filed into the kitchen. I still wanted to kill him, but finding out he wanted the demon dead just as much as we did stayed my hand. “You must hurry,” he called after us. “If he manages to reopen the portal, he will unleash hell upon this world.”
