Chapter 24

 

Mom used to tell me I was an obstinate child. It wasn't that I was bad, I was just stubborn. I was a boss, always ordering my three older brothers around as if they were little toy soldiers rather than big, growing young men. I was, in all actuality, a complete and utter control freak.

 

~Monroe's Totally Wicked Book of Shadows~

 

 

Relief, hope, and joy had just begun to fill my veins when my body was suddenly lifted into the air and slammed against a tree on the opposite side of the clearing.

"Monroe!" Dayton screamed.

I crumpled to the ground, the grimoire falling from my grip.

"Stay low!" Lilith ordered, and I went down on my stomach, my cheek against the grass.

I could just make out a group of small insects marching in front of my eyes as a tear slid down my cheek onto the soil below my face. Lilith was going to kill me. She was going to break my body until there was nothing left to put together the same way she'd done to Maggie. Even now, I could feel the blood seeping through my sweatshirt where my side had gone into the tree, the skin scraped by the bark.

"What business do you have here, Marcas?" Lilith asked.

The hybrid king said nothing at first, and I managed to roll my head just enough to make out the group opposite me. Marcas was perusing the clearing, his eyes raking the victims tied to the trees before they made their way to me.

"Monroe," a male voice said in my head.

Lilith roared, one fist lifted into the air.

"No!" she screamed, her finger pointed at Marcas. "This one is mine. You understand me? Mine! And she is mine by right. As a king of Hell, you know that."

Marcas' head lifted, his gaze going to his mother.

"Then release the ones who owe you nothing. The seer and the black-haired witch."

I took deep breaths through my nose, my side hurting so badly, I began to wonder if I'd broken a rib. My fingers dug into the damp soil.

Lilith's head rose. "The seer. He can go, but the others die."

The she-Demon's voice filled my head, and I rolled onto my back, my hands going over my ears as I screamed. It wasn't a natural scream. I knew it before it even exited my mouth. It was a desperate one, the kind you find yourself wanting to scream in the middle of a nightmare right before you freeze. Only I didn't freeze, I screamed, and I fought, my side on fire as I dug my fingers and toes into the ground.

Her voice entered my head again, and I sobbed as I found myself getting onto my knees, my body propelling itself forward slowly. And I fought, digging my toes and fingers into the ground with each forward creep until the pads of my fingers began to bleed, and my toes began to cramp.

And still her words persisted. Awful, horrible words.

"Stop this!" I heard Dayton yell.

Lilith laughed. I was getting really, really sick of her laugh.

"Your lover here may not have told you, dear, but he can't stop me. When a Demon is summoned, sacrifices must be met."

"Luther!" Dayton begged.

Nothing. No sound. No protests.

My gaze went to Luther's as I crawled, his steady, confident face completely unreadable. But his eyes, they said so many things he was never willing to say.

"Whatever you do," he'd told me at Henry's house. "Fight like hell."

I was fighting! Couldn't they all see that? I fought even as I crawled, my fingers so raw now, they'd gone numb.

And still I crawled until I was in the center of the clearing, my eyes locked on Eta's athame. I reached for it, sobs racking my body.

"Please," I said, my gaze going to NeeCee where she was tied to the tree. NeeCee shook her head, her eyes wide as my hand closed over the athame's handle.

I sobbed.

I sobbed, and I cursed.

I cursed Eta. I cursed myself. I cursed Lilith, and I cursed everyone in the clearing for not saving me. Once more, my eyes went to Luther. He said he'd fight his mother, so why didn't he?

A million thoughts bombarded me, like a broken image from a damaged reel of old film. Even as I stood, even as I began to open the brown bags at my feet, I wanted to laugh. Even my thoughts were like old black and white movies. Lucas' voice was in my head. "Your family sold a soul to Lilith by summoning her. Whatever soul she pleases. It means that by helping you, all of us are breaking the rules. It means that right now, as much as we all hate to admit it, Luther is your best chance."

I stood. There was no need to cleanse the circle. Nothing positive was going to happen here, so I marched instead, drawing a circle in the soil with the tip of Eta's athame.

Bernice whimpered against her gag, and my vision blurred once more with tears.

To the middle of the Circle, I moved, plunging the athame into the ground as I lifted the four pouches.

Out of one brown bag, I lifted two bound feathers.

Again, my body moved, lowering the feathers into one quarter of the Circle. Air. The feathers represented air.

"Oh, Monroe," Dayton breathed.

I barely heard her over Lilith's whispered demands.

"Please," I begged.

Lilith laughed.

Lucas' words echoed. "It means that right now, as much as we all hate to admit it, Luther is your best chance."

Luther.

I looked up again, my eyes finding his as my body moved once more to the Circle's center. Another bag. In this one, rock salt. Earth. The salt represented Earth.

Another quarter of the Circle, the salt sprinkled, my body once more in the center. And all Luther did was stare, his face still unreadable. The heat of tears against my cheeks was getting old.

I closed my eyes. What was the point in looking when my body wasn't even my own any more. Another bag. A bowl.

I kept my eyes shut. I knew this bowl. It was the same one Eta has used to represent water. And as I lowered this into yet another of the Circle's quarters, I felt my heart grow cold.

"No!"

This time when I felt my body start to return to the center of the Circle, I threw myself on the ground, my fingers once more in the soil.

"Oh no, Monroe! You can't stop now," Lilith's gleeful voice said in my head. My arms and legs shook, and I screamed again. I screamed until my throat was raw and my voice was hoarse.

Lilith laughed.

"Please!" I heard Dayton beg.

No one else said anything.

And as my body was dragged by Lilith's power once more to the center of the Circle, more thoughts plagued me. "It means that right now, as much as we all hate to admit it, Luther is your best chance," Lucas had said.

My hands closed over the final brown bag.

"Tell my son this is a war even he can't win. Thorns are only good if they come attached to a rose," Lilith's voice echoed.

In my palm, there fell a fire opal. It wasn't a flame, but the jewel represented the element of fire all the same. Fire. Luther. "Tell my son this is a war even he can't win. Thorns are only good if they come attached to a rose." The fire opal fell to the final quarter of the Circle.

For the last time, I returned to the center, my hand going to the athame's black handle. My fingers wrapped around it, and I pulled it from the soil.

There was screaming and when I looked up, I saw that Bernice had come untied, her body dragged by some invisible force toward the Circle, lifting so it would leave the Circle's boundary untouched before she landed at my feet.

A tear caught on the edge of my chin before dripping onto NeeCee's upturned head. The athame lifted.

"No, Monroe!" NeeCee begged. "Please."

Lilith's commands ran furiously through my head. And with them, other words. Luther is your best chance. Thorns are only good if they come attached to a rose. Luther. Thorne.

My eyes widened, and my head lifted, my gaze going one final time to the Demon at the edge of the forest. Luther. Thorne.

My mouth began to move, repeating the same chant Eta had once said long ago. I held the athame steady, the blade gleaming in the moonlight. Eta. My heart broke all over again, and I looked down at NeeCee.

Bernice's eyes were swollen, her nose red as I chanted, and I kept my gaze on hers as the athame lowered. I lifted my hand, running the blade across my palm. Blood fell to the ground.

And in that final moment, I made a choice. I made a choice that would change my life forever.

I looked up, and with every bit of strength I had left in me, I fought Lilith's commands, a cold sweat breaking out along my skin as I summoned the only other Demon I knew.

"Thorne!"