WILLOW
I stared down into the pit of Hell. Demons made for the stairs en masse, but I knew they would never reach us. Michael retreated into
the Covenant’s private quarters, emerging with Margot at his side. She’d been gagged, her hands tied in front of her as silent tears streamed down her face.
I bucked against Iban, fighting through my weakness. He held me steady, his strength greater than mine. It was the weakest I’d ever been since childhood, and my body felt entirely at his whims. “You’re going to be a good girl and stay put for me, Willow, or so help me, I will slit her throat and make you watch her die,” Michael said, the warning slithering beneath my skin.
I nearly collapsed onto the glass, staring down into the pit. The thought of letting myself fall in came unbidden to my mind, the knowledge that if I was gone, no one could ever use me to open the door again.
Gray would murder me himself.
Margot shook her head, her nostrils flaring with her anger. Her strength stoked the flame of mine higher, an understanding passing between us. We would fight.
We would die.
But we would never give up.
I knew something that Michael didn’t know. I knew why he was so desperate to get rid of me now. He didn’t have time to waste, for one day, my daughter would rise.
One day, my daughter would kill them all.
I stopped fighting against Iban’s grip, letting him grow comfortable in his hold on me. I sank into that touch, gathering what little strength I had and preparing to use it against him. The Source lingered at my fingertips, but I didn’t dare touch it until I was ready. Not with the way the knife felt like it took everything from me.
Not with the way the Source alone kept me alive.
“She shouldn’t be breathing,” Michael said, warning Iban as I let my eyes drift. I let them flutter closed, letting him see what he wanted to see in my weakening.
Iban stroked his hand over my hair, brushing it back from my face as he turned me slightly to look at me. “Sweetheart,” he said, the delusion in his voice nearly making me lose my grip and attack at that moment. I wasn’t strong enough to fight off Michael, and I needed to wait for Gray to reach me. I couldn’t feel him, the pain silencing everything outside of my body. But I knew he would come for me. “It’s not too late for you to repent.”
“You’re even dumber than I thought if you believe that,” I said, the words trailing off.
The Tribunal doors burst open as a male form flew through the air. Beelzebub landed in the room, staring at me and taking a single step forward. He paused as his gaze swept around the mostly empty space to assess the threat.
I knew the moment he saw Margot. Everything in him went solid, his body freezing as he was caught between his feelings for her and his loyalty to Gray.
I smiled at him when he clenched his jaw, nodding simply to communicate that I understood. He went for Margot, and I winced when Michael tossed her to the side. She tumbled toward the seal, unable to catch herself as she rolled.
“Margot!” I screamed, attempting to tear my hands off the seal to stop
her.
“She’s your friend!” I shouted, reprimanding Iban when he made no
move to help her. He held me steady as she tumbled onto the seal, trying to catch herself with legs she threw wide at the last moment. Her long legs were the only thing allowing her to hold on, but even those began to slip in the slickness of my blood.
She grumbled against her gag, the panic in her voice stalling my heart.
“MARGOT!” I screamed again, watching as her legs caved and slipped over the border of the doorway.
She fell into the seal, tumbling out of reach as I shouted at the top of my lungs. Beelzebub abandoned his fight with Michael, turning to meet my gaze as I silently pleaded with him. Shoving Michael off, he dove for the seal and slid through the hole, tucking his wings in tight to chase after my friend.
I watched in panic as he sped toward her, straining for her before she could hit the ground below. His wings unfolded at the last moment, wrapping her up in a tight embrace only seconds before they struck the red earth below. He twisted his body just before they landed, taking the brunt of the fall and covering Margot with his wings. Beelzebub hid her from sight, but it was also he who sank into the earth, denting it with the force of his fall.
Neither of them moved as I waited, shifting my attention to Michael only when he took a step toward me. His face was pitched in fury, his hands sweeping out to create a vortex of air. The storm tore through the Tribunal room, gathering the blood that had seeped from my wound and pressing it into the floor and the throne on the dais. I felt the call of the Covenant spread through me, summoning the Coven to the Tribunal room where Michael would send them to Hell.
“Iban, it isn’t too late to stop this. We can save Margot. We can save your family,” I pleaded, staring down below and waiting for any sign of life from Beelzebub or Margot, where they’d been swallowed up by the crowd of demons gathering to climb their way up the stairs that appeared to lead them out.
The Tribunal door flew open again, and I knew in my heart who I would find stalking into the room. He still wore his suit, having wasted no time in getting to me. His face was pure, undulated fury when he found Iban leaning over me, pinning me down, and the knife still stabbed into my abdomen.
A black ball of fur surged past him, darting between his legs. Jonathan raced toward me, leaping through the air. He shifted mid-leap, his body growing as his black fur lengthened. Smooth, fair skin peeked out from his legs as they extended. His snout curved out, his teeth elongating into fangs that hung out of his mouth. He shook his head as he landed on all fours, his
paws enormous as he righted himself to stand on both feet, taking his Cursed form once again.
“Please,” I begged, returning my attention to Margot. I didn’t know how much more time I could buy them to get out of there before I would have to succumb to the pain and death lurking just beyond the Source or fight back. “Consort,” Jonathan said, his voice startling me. It was deeper than his
human form, mesmerizing in the way it felt like a growl.
“Save her. Save Margot, please,” I begged, turning my teary stare toward him. With Gray here, I had to hope that together we would be able to close the seal.
However, I couldn’t do that until Beelzebub got her out of there. Jonathan nodded his wolfish head, bowing low in a parting gesture.
Losing him felt like losing a part of myself, but I couldn’t leave Margot to rot either. “As you wish, Consort.”
Jonathan leapt down into the pit, paying no mind to the drop that would have killed a human. He landed with bent knees, sprawling forward to lessen the impact. Curling his body to run on all fours below, I watched him fight to go to where Beelzebub still covered Margot’s body with his wings
—unmoving and silent.
“Michael,” Gray said, forcing me to look away from the scene below. His amber eyes turned to his twin in surprise, pain flickering over his expression as he looked between us and connected the dots. I realized he probably hadn’t seen his brother in centuries since his fall. What could have been a reunion turned terrible. “What are you doing?”
“He banished you to Hell. You must go back,” Michael said, his jaw clenching in something that I thought might have been remorse. Whatever had happened between them, whatever God had instilled in them, they’d been family at one point.
The closest family could be.
That didn’t stop Michael from approaching Gray and wrapping his hands around his shoulders as my husband stared at him in shock. He tossed Gray to the floor, angling him to the hole in the floor. Gray fought back as he snapped out of his confusion, driving his elbow into Michael’s stomach and cracking the back of his head against his face.
“The Devil belongs in Hell!” Michael shouted, grunting through the pain as he aimed his fist at Gray’s face. They fought, grappling with one another as Satanus and Mammon burst into the room to help.
Movement from below distracted me from the fight. The sight of Beelzebub unfolding his great, leathery wings renewed my hope. He sat beside Margot, tugging her into his lap as he fought with her gag and unbound her hands.
She was alive.
He touched her face, cupping it in his grip so sweetly that I wondered if I needed to reconsider my dislike for the massive demon. She frantically wrapped her arms around his neck as he glanced above, getting to his feet with her in his arms. Jonathan fought at their side, swiping and biting at anything that moved too close. The demons were vicious, attempting to cut him down where he stood.
The burst of air that Michael sent through the room nearly sent me tumbling down into the pit. Only the connection of the seal clinging to my magic kept me steady. Iban clung to me, shifting the knife within my abdomen so that it slid a little further out of my body.
“You could be free!” Michael shouted, and I twisted to watch him fight with Gray.
Satanus and Mammon were caught in his storm, lightning cracking through the tornado he’d formed with the wind. It dragged them across the floor, their hands clawing and grappling for purchase as it drew them closer and closer to the seal.
Gray fought, exchanging strikes with his brother that left both bruised and bleeding. Gray never reached for his magic, leaving the Source untouched.
Saving it for me, I realized as it coated my skin in power.
Saving it because it was the only thing keeping me alive as my lifeblood dripped down onto the seal to keep it open.
“Send him back! You could be free, Witch!” Michael shouted again, twisting Gray in his arms. He wrapped his forearm around the front of my husband’s throat, walking him toward the seal slowly.
I held Gray’s amber stare, fearing I might forsake him far more than what might wait for him in Hell. I held his gaze as I uttered my barely audible words over the cyclone as it yanked Satanus and Mammon back into Hell. They disappeared down the hole, forcing Beelzebub to drag Margot to the side.
They’d never make it in time.
Still, I turned my gaze back to Gray’s. “I already am,” I said firmly, speaking more for my husband than for Michael. If this was how it ended, if this was how I died, I wanted him to know.
I didn’t regret any of it.
He’d shown me what it was to choose.
And I chose him.
Gray bucked against Michael’s hold with renewed energy, jerking his head back as he threw his brother to the floor. Michael hurried to his feet as Gray shouted to me, his eyes communicating everything his voice didn’t. “Now, Willow!”
I slammed the back of my head into Iban’s nose, feeling it crack beneath the force. His hands lifted to grasp his broken nose, releasing me as I cut myself off from the magic with a scream of agony that tore the skin from my bones. Wrapping my ruined palm around the hilt of the bone knife buried inside me, I grasped it firmly and yanked it free.
Fresh blood swelled as I spun on my knees, sweeping my arm out in a single, smooth arch.
The blade caught Iban across the throat, the thin line taking a moment to show the blood swelling free. He sputtered, staring at me before his gaze dropped to the slow trickle that fell onto his shirt.
I bit back my sorrow at what had come of us, awkwardly stumbling to my feet with the knife in my hand. Its power slid through me, sinking back into the place where it belonged at my center. Everything came into focus as I felt Gray. Felt his own access to the Source strengthening as it stopped feeding through to me.
Gray kicked Michael in the chest with a fresh burst of gray magic, sending him staggering back. I shoved Iban’s body into his path, sliding him through his own blood and watching as Michael tripped and fell backward. His arms struck out, catching hold of the edge of the seal as it tried to close without my magic to maintain it open.
Even as it shut, I felt the pull on my power. On my soul as it demanded a life.
It would all be for nothing if I couldn’t satisfy the cost.
I grabbed Iban, shoving him on top of Michael’s body as Gray stepped on his brother’s hand. Michael dropped his grip on the seal, his body sagging beneath the border as Iban plummeted into the pit. His body
exploded into a mass of blood and flesh the moment he passed through; the sacrifice completed.
Glass covered the pit, cutting through Michael’s fingers and severing them from his body as the seal closed over my friend and my familiar who were still trapped below. A demon struck out, landing his blow with three slash marks across Jonathan’s chest as I watched. My familiar shifted into his feline form, racing for Margot where Beelzebub roared his rage and the demons quivered.
I fell to the glass on my knees, staring down at Margot below as her fear-filled gaze peered up at me. She held Jonathan to her chest, my cat bleeding but alive as his violet stare also met mine.
Stone-covered glass.
And they were both gone.
