the only one who can help. Her, and her demons.
The Hell gate... my god.
I'm going to do what I can to stop it. But I don't know how long I can delay it, or how much, I can do. Is there any help you can give me?
He's silent for a moment, and I worry that our connection isn't strong enough. Then a single, clear image rings out in my mind: a rune, one deceptively simple, made with perpendicular lines and large dots that form a ring.
Use this. And Ari... stay safe.
I'll try.
As our connection comes to an end, the last of the lower demons Ezriel took with him to the Spirit Realm pour out the Hell gate and onto the Phoenix Academy campus. I send a prayer up to my foremothers that Auerbach will be able to put wards around them and keep the students safe.
What I need to do next, won't make it possible for me to follow the demons out this door and onto campus.
But my guys can at least get to safety.
Even though it pains me to think of parting from them.
In a short time, our bond has been strengthened. Tested. Grown. There's still so much we have to discover about each other, choices we need to make, conversations to be had. But when I lost my family I didn't think I'd ever find anything like this—and I did, despite everything.
I can feel Ezriel's hand on my shoulder. His will in my body. And I know that next, he's going to turn me around and have me open the gate to Hell. So I mentally push at his grip on me, feeling for little cracks. And I pray that Reggie, Xavier, and David will be able to get free after I've done what I'm planning to do next."
"You know," the demon says conversationally, as he pries my bloodied hand from the open door and spins me around to face the second, more ominous door, "I wasn't the one who made this path out of Hell possible. So don't go blaming me. It was mages who did it—greedy mages, who wanted power over life and death. Blame them for what happens next."
"Oh, I do," I tell him. He doesn't seem to realize that us witches have plenty of bones to pick with mages. "But that doesn't mean you're going to get away with this."
"How will you stop me?"
My eyes go to the three shifters, who are shaking off their fierce battle with the demons. Bloodied and bruised as they are, they seem to be in one piece—thank Mother Earth. If I lost them, I'd never be able to forgive myself.
Deep within, I feel a crack in the control Ezriel has over me. A loophole, a break in the spider's web. He knotted me tight with my own magic, but what he doesn't know is that witch magic is primal. It comes from within. And it can be turned inside out if you know what you're doing.
As he pushes me against the door to Hell, eagerness on his face, I reach inside my pocket and grab the marble with my bloodied hand. The blood of my witch lineage on it awakens something within, and I feel words rise within me, the memorized spell on the tip of my tongue. Whirling away from the demon, I face the shifters and throw the marble with my mother's spirit inside it.
While it arcs through the air, I shout the words of the spell Ezriel used.
"Veyasa cordana eert!"
My mother's spirit bursts from the marble. As soon as her feet land on the ground, I shout to her and my guys, "Get out of here, now! Mom—get them to safety!"
Then I turn to Ezriel and grab his shoulders. He snarls at me, grabbing me back, his fingernails twisting into talons that dig into my skin.
"You will open that door for me!"
His voice is full of command. I shudder at the force of it, but continue to resist. "I refuse. You have nothing over me now. Xavier, Reggie, David, get out! Get to safety! Mom, please!"
Together the four of them break out into a run. As my mother's spirit races towards the door to Earth, he turns to her and throws a ball of energy at her that makes her fly through the air. The shifters keep running, but they don't head towards the door—instead they come right for me and Ezriel, and barrel on top of the demon, throwing him to the ground.
I scramble