The Lure of the Devil (The Demons' Muse #4) - Auryn Hadley Page 0,185

I saw, and a smile touched my lips. That was my flutterbee.

"What are you doing, little thing?" I asked, lifting it higher.

The butterfly-looking creation flapped its wings, but didn't respond otherwise. It wasn't supposed to be smart. It was simply meant to be eternal. My gift to this world to help balance the punishment of locking it. It also reminded me that I could do anything.

With a gentle flick of my hand, I sent it flying. "Go back to the plant where you're safe," I said as I rolled onto my hands and knees. "I have to go fuck some guys up."

Because, for all I knew, my legion was still locked in a fight in that church. The odds I'd left them with were unwinnable, so hopefully, they'd retreated. If not, I knew their bodies would be at the cottage on Tyrnigg. Either way, I had no intention of making them suffer alone. They'd gone there because I was the one who wanted to save Earth. Now, I had to save my legion first.

Exhausted but determined, I forced myself to stand one more time, and dusted my hands off on my thighs. I couldn’t go back to the church. The angels definitely had it surrounded, which meant slipping in would do nothing more than throw myself into their clutches. So, the next logical destination was my house.

Stepping back, I slipped through the veil, thankful it worked like it was supposed to. Then I pushed. The colors sped by in reverse of my last trip until I stopped on the other side of my home. Without hesitation, I crossed the veil onto Earth, coming out in the hallway across from the living room.

"I just checked Tyrnigg," Sam was saying. "Sia's not there, so -"

"I'm here," I said, kicking off my heels as I staggered towards the dining room.

I didn't even care that they were left in the middle of the floor or that I had to balance against the wall to keep from staggering. I just wanted to see my men, and from the sound of feet moving towards me, they felt the same way.

"Sia," Bel gasped, grabbing me in a bear hug and lifting me up. "You had us worried!"

"How long was I gone?" I asked.

It was Sam who answered. "Twenty-seven minutes," he said.

I let my head fall against Bel’s shoulder and hugged him back. "It felt like a whole lot longer than that. I need to talk to God."

"Let her sit at the table," Nick ordered. "Luke, get her a coffee."

Bel lifted me up like a baby and held me against his chest. I just curled into him, not even caring that it was only a handful of steps before he eased me down into the chair that Ron had pulled out to make it easier. All of the guys were looking at me like they couldn't believe I was here, which was enough to convince me that the fight had been very, very bad.

"Did anyone get hurt?" I asked.

"No," Bel assured me. "As soon as Gabriel pushed you, we retreated. Sam and I made sure that Ron got through the angels in the corridor, while Luke and Nick had to drive back."

I looked over at Nick. "Did you learn anything at all?"

"Mostly that they had a real angel as bait. They let a few people see him, and those lucky few convinced the others to have more faith. Ron already told us all about Stieviel, so we know about that, but we don't know how to work against thousands of years of mythology."

"Oh, I do," I assured them. "Guess there's an upside to being an atheist, huh?" Then I looked at the butterfly pacing the length of the table. "Hey, God? What's the deal with the corridor between Daemin and Angelis?"

It is where everything started, she said. It expands as my ideas grow. It is also where everything returns.

"Yeah, because I'm pretty sure I saw unused sprites dissolving into aether. There were also some things that looked like planes and an overly dark spot at the center. Do I want to know what that is?"

The source, she said. The void, the abyss, or anything else you want to call it. That is where aether goes when it is done, to be prepared to be used again. It is the source of all of our abilities, ideas, and imagination.

"Yeah, that makes my brain hurt to think about," I admitted. "But I got a really nice front-row seat to it.