“Think of the void as a watering hole. All demons are connected to it. It nourishes us. I’m going to carve it out of you.” She holds up the black dagger. “No more water. What happens when your body doesn’t get water, kitten?”
Kriegen turns back to me and lowers to my level, the black dagger inches from my chest. “Any messages for my son that I can pass along after?”
“Go to hell,” I say. Her eyes get wider, like she’s about to say something creative, but I raise my arm toward her chest before she can realize I’m free. In my hand, the army knife I took from the Nucleus House twists into her skin. Her skin burns, smokes from the point of impact. I know it’s not going to kill her, but it distracts her enough to make her lose concentration and drop the magic that held me down.
I rush toward Carter, determined to wake him up. There’s another little scream and then Kriegen is laughing. When I look at her, she’s removing the army knife from her chest.
“Nice trick, but it’s going to take more than that to kill me, kitten. I’m a little offended.”
I don’t think; I act. I connect to the void, and it refreshes me. I feel stronger than the Hulk. Magic shoots from me toward Kriegen. It pushes her back a couple feet and she staggers. I charge at her, throw my body at her full force, and release another shot of power. She falls to her feet at the impact of my magic. I roll over her, squatting in a corner.
Kriegen laughs again, swinging toward me with a kick. I clench my fists and block the kick so I can grab her by the arm. Kriegen is quick, ducking my counterattack and landing on one leg as the other sweeps me off my feet.
I roll as she moves toward me, her fist coming toward my face. I turn my head to the side, and she misses. I grasp her forearm and try to yank her down. She’s too strong. Her arm twists mine and I dare her to break it so I can break her freaking neck with my other one. I shift my stance as she leaps over me. Her foot isn’t as fast as the rest of her body. I take her down, but I go with her. That’s when I see it: the black dagger, on the floor.
Kriegen sees it, too. She grabs my hair and digs her knee into my spine. I scream. I hear Carter yell, but I don’t know what he says. All I know is she cannot get that dagger. I won’t let her have it.
I access the void again and pulse out some power. Not toward her—toward the dagger. It flies across the room. She growls right before she leaps toward the knife. I leap too. Kriegen punches me, and my head is spinning a little. I struggle under her, but I let her hit me again. This time, I move left. Her fist pounds the ground; I ram my knee into her chest. She falls flat, but her magic attack rushes out at me, sends me across the room toward the army knife. My back lands against the wall.
Kriegen races after me, limping on her leg. She stands over me. I kick up my leg; she falls to the ground again, this time landing on top of me. I ram the army knife back into her arm, and she screams. I take the advantage, kick her in the shin. She curses me and pins me to the ground, her hands strangling my neck.
“That doesn’t work on me,” she snaps again.
“No, but this does,” Carter says.
She barely turns to get a glance at him when he thrusts the black dagger into her heart and out again. She falls to the ground as Carter grabs me. She gasps in air, black blood oozing from her wound. It looks more like tar than blood. Carter drops the dagger and pulls me toward him.
“Next time, do that a couple minutes sooner,” I say.
He looks exhausted. I pick up the black dagger and hold it between us in the air. Crazy how a little thing can do so much damage. Carter’s eyes drift to his mother as she dies on the floor. His jaw clenches and he scrubs a hand over his neck. As evil as she was, she was still his mom.
“I’m sorry,” I say.
Carter shakes his head and kisses the top of my head. A few feet from us, Kriegen cries out. Neither of us looks away from her, watching as all the black tar drips out of her, and she convulses with a last breath of air. Tears fill Carter’s eyes; I know this must be hard for him. He’s spent all his energy looking for her.
Then, she lights up in flames—the sound of her crying replaced with this annoying whistle and the smell of burning eggs. Carter helps me to my feet and we move closer toward the door. The last thing I need is burning demon guts exploding all over me.
“What are you going to do with that?” Carter asks, nodding toward my hand. I hold up the black dagger. I stuff it down my boot.
The mauve demon appears in front of us, and I grasp Carter’s arm. The demon holds up its hands in defense. “I’m here to help you leave,” it says.
“Why are you helping us?” I ask. It gives me an annoyed look, like I just asked it where babies came from.
“Not all of us are evil. The two of you aren’t evil,” it says, pointing between Carter and me.
“We’re not one of you,” Carter says.
It shrugs. “Maybe evil and good isn’t black and white. Do you have an exit plan?”
I bite my lip. I didn’t. It’s not like I had time to think through every move I made. Carter looks at me and I can tell he knows. He shrugs—he doesn’t have a plan either. I’m rubbing off on him! I probably shouldn’t be proud of that, considering where we are.
“Look, if you don’t want my help then you can wander around here until you die.”
Carter gives me a look. He doesn’t trust it. I get it, but I want to get out of here and never come back. Ever.
“You aren’t very trusting, are you?” it asks.
“You’re a demon,” I say.
It hisses. “Good luck then, because this isn’t over. Kriegen wasn’t the top. She was mid-level management at best. You think she was bad? Just wait.”
She’s mid-level? Now that is pretty motivating.
“If you take us out, what will you want? Nothing is free. Not with demons,” Carter says.
It smiles. Yup, he was definitely right. “That’s a conversation for later. I promise you won’t have to give me your firstborn or anything.”
I must be delirious. Demon or not, I kind of like its sass.
“Get us out of here,” I say quickly.
The mauve demon nods and heads toward the door. I start to say something else when Carter’s face changes into confusion. I look toward Kriegen, and watch as her body turns to dust. What happens when your body doesn’t get water?
You burn.
Chapter Thirty-One
The mauve demon delivers us a mile away from the Nucleus House, saying it couldn’t get closer than that. We could probably have used magic, but we’re both tired. And honestly, walking gives me time to replay the whole thing in my head, and all that power was intoxicating.
“Do you think we’ll regret letting it help us?” I ask.
“Undoubtedly.” Carter is quiet for a moment. “We should think of a story.”
“What?”
“The Triad will ask us what happened, and we can’t tell them the whole truth. They can’t know about Kriegen, not that we went after her and—”
“—not that she’s your mom? Got it. She took us, that was all,” I say. “As far as I’m concerned, we are both completely normal witches who were in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“I can’t believe you’re a halfling,” he says softly. “I felt really alone. My dad knew it would ruin us.”
“Gran too,” I said. “We probably shouldn’t mention that we made a bunch of demons disappear.”
“What was that, anyway?” Carter asked.
I shrug. “Kriegen says we killed them.”
“Not sent them back to hell?”
I shake my head. The whole thing is odd. Why did she need me?
I see the entrance of the Nucleus House when we turn the corner. We don’t have long to get a story together, and Carter’s right, there are going to be questions.
“Wait,” I say. I pull the black dagger out of my boot and step away from Carter. I have to hide this. I don’t want the Triad to have it, not until I know what it means. If they saw it, I would never get it back.
There’re directional signs that points to various routes for the parking impaired. I use magic to pull up a piece of the ground right next to the sign with the arrow pointing to Lot A on the left. I toss the knife inside, re-cover it, and guard it with a protection spell. I’ll come back for this later and then I’ll put it somewhere safe.
“So what will we tell them?” I ask, turning back to Carter.
“Not that you volunteered,” he says. “That was stupid, by the way.” Glad he’s still snappy even when he’s exhausted.
“I thought they had you!” I said.
He stops walking and presses a kiss to my forehead. “I overslept after being with Poncho in the library all night. Of all the possible scenarios, my mom being a demon wasn’t at the top of my list.” So that’s what Poncho told him. “I didn’t think you’d go to hell to look for me.”
“How did you find out, anyway?”
“Ric,” Carter says. “He was freaked when I showed up. I had to stun him so he wouldn’t try to follow me.”
That sounds like my best friend.
“So the story,” I start. “The demon in the woods was the same one who took you—which I found when I went to meet you and you weren’t there.”
“You called me but our call got interrupted and I came after you,” Carter adds. “The demon from the woods took us to De’Intero and we took it down with its own dagger, and then we fought our way out of De’Intero. Came straight here.”
“They’re going to ask details,” I say.
“Tell them the truth. Or most of it. The best lies are based around truth,” Carter says. “As long as we leave out the bit about your magic and the void and my mom, we’ll be fine.”
I knew what Kriegen said was true. They would never allow someone with that kind of power to exist. Carter’s existing, the direct son of a demon and a Triad leader and filled with two kinds of magic, is dangerous enough. If the Triad found out Mr. Prescott had been lying to all these years, it would make what happened in De’Intero look like a cakewalk.
Add in a girl with the same—except she has unlimited access to the void because her great-great-something-grandmother became a demon and then later some crazy demon stole her essence and left only the void behind? I’d rather them think me Static and be exiled from the witch community. They can’t know what Kriegen said I can do, even if I’m not sure how to do it.
“They’re here,” Carter says, pointing toward the Enforcers charging for us. He gives me a reassuring smile before we’re escorted inside.
I pace around the giant empty meeting room, the ends of my hair sticking to my neck with sweat. It feels like forever since the Enforcers found us. I don’t understand why the mauve demon helped us get out, but I know we haven’t seen the last of it.
I also know I’d kill someone for a cheeseburger.
The door clicks and I stop pacing. Carter enters the room with an Enforcer and hugs me before he takes a seat beside me. The Triad and the council enter on opposite sides of the room, and I guess I spoke too soon. Everyone stares us. No one moves. No one speaks. Ellore is the only one with a friendly face.
Do they know we lied?
Rafe Ezrati stands without looking at his counterparts. He bows to me, and then to Carter. Everyone, and I mean everyone, looks shocked. I feel like I returned to some alternate universe. “Thank you, Miss Grey and Mr. Prescott, for your valiant service and sacrifice. You are the reason my family has always believed in the Enforcer finals.”
Rafe sits down again.
“We have spoken with both of you and your stories match completely,” Mr. Prescott says. Carter meets my gaze and I know his father is in on our lie. I guess it’s his lie too, considering what he has at stake if anyone found out about Kriegen or Carter. “You’ve both done a brave thing.”
“With that in mind,” Sabrina Stone says, “we’ve decided that you both deserve your spots as Enforcers. You won’t have to complete the Partner Final.”
I blink. That’s it? Carter throws his arms around me, and I can’t believe it. They’re just giving it to us?
“The position is yours, if you would have it,” Rafe says.
“Why?” I ask. It’s the shock. The question sort of comes out on its own.
“You two went into De’Intero and took down a major demon. You took down many demons from the sound of it, and kept our people safe,” Sabrina says.
“As an Enforcer, this is your sworn duty,” Rafe adds. “Allegiance to the Triad, to the fight against evil, to the sanctity of magic and purity of life. To serve honestly, uphold the integrity of the badge, to protect and be willing to sacrifice whatever comes for the safety of your promise. These are vows that you will take—vows that you have already proven to value.”
I look sidelong at Carter.
“I’d be honored,” Carter says, avoiding my gaze.
They all look at me, waiting.
But the weight of it is too real. I’m not being honest or serving with integrity. I’m lying. We’re lying. I’ve lived a lie for years, and taking on this role means living the lie longer. Pretending to be someone I’m not, forever. I see it all now. All my dreams. The future. The past. The present. The things I’ve always wanted floating around in my head. To have magic again, to follow in Mom’s footsteps and be an Enforcer, to prove to myself that I am good enough. Then I see Carter’s smile, feel his lips on mine, hear his laugh, remember how hard he fought with me, for me. And I realize that the things I want have changed.
But the things I need have not.
I need to be an Enforcer. Now more than ever. I need the protection, I need Carter, I need to find Azsis, and if the magic I harness is truly related to the void, then it is evil magic and I still need my essence. I have to say yes. I have to keep lying.
Carter squeezes my hand.
“I’d be honored as well,” I say.
Everyone applauds. I smile, Carter smiles, and for once, for the first time ever, it’s good that we’re both so excellent at lying. Gran may have been right all these years: lying may be the only way to stay together, and alive.
I stop by the library on my way outside. Hyde is sitting on the desk, and he perks up when I walk in, his tail swaying. He lets me touch him, which is surprising. Beside Hyde, I notice a little bell and I ding it. Has that been there this whole time? The sound echoes throughout the library.
Only yesterday, I was here seeking answers; now I’ve found some of them. More of them than I expected to find. Now I have to figure out what I’m going to do with them, what they mean for my future—and if I can bear to search for the ones I’m still missing.
“Poncho?” I call out.
There’s a book on the table when I sit down to wait. I smile, because that means he probably knew I was coming. I turn the book to face me and look down at the page. It’s an excerpt on the Restitution, the ritual to return magic that I’d learned about before, but have yet to study. My eyes scan the page and one singular passage jumps out at me.
“Magic is a fine balance, and any tipping of the scales can destroy it all. There is no good and evil in magic, only ability and motive. Only the purehearted can serve the Void and the Essence alike, can treat them both as equal. The Restitution is the epitome of magic, and only those who balance the line in pure heart can succeed in performing it.”
I don’t want to read this. When I turn around, Poncho is there.
There’s a twinkle in his eye, and I wait. I had this whole speech planned out, about how I knew that he was really Vassago because of that stupid sock, and I demand to know why he is here. But now that I’m in front of him, I’m not really sure I want to know. It’s so ironic.
“I think the word you are looking for is
hypocritical,
not
ironic,”
Poncho says. He takes a step toward me and leans on the back of the chair. “And that would be a correct word.”
“How are you two people?”
He smiles. It’s so much like Vassago that it’s jarring. But then, he
is
Vassago. Somehow.
“Here, in this room, I am Poncho. Out there, I am Vassago. Decades ago the Triad came seeking me out, and I helped them with a problem. It’s a long story that I shall tell another time. In result of it, they gave me a job, and bound my magic to their DNE system. It’s been safer for me hiding out here.”
Protective custody for demons? That existed? “Why would the Triad help you?”
Poncho doesn’t move his gaze away. “When you know the things I know, both sides want to use you. I serve all, but sometimes that means you can only appear to serve one.”
I nod my head slowly. “How did they know they could trust you?”
“Intuition is a lot of it; proof is another. Miss Grey, do you know what happens when you rip someone’s magic away from their soul?” He doesn’t allow me to answer. “They fight back.”
I raise my eyebrow. “The soul or the magic?”
“Both,” he says.
There’s a silence between us so loud that when Hyde meows, we both look at him. “So you do have magic, but it’s bound. How do they even do that?” I ask.
Poncho shrugs. “Is there anything else?”
I want to mention Azsis, but I need a break. A short one. Without conspiracies. I want to celebrate this minor win for my side. If being a demon—half demon—is a win. This whole thing is weird, but I’m tired. I think I’m done digging for answers. At least for this month.
“Maybe later,” I say, standing up from my chair. Poncho nods and I move toward the door. “Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me yet, Miss Grey,” Poncho calls. I move toward the door and then pause as he continues to speak. “We are not through, you and I. Matters of the heart are often poisonous,” he says.
Why would he say that? I turn, about to ask a question, but he’s already gone.