Storm (23 page)

“Penelope,” she yells back, her eyes wide and the demons keeping her back. She looks from me to Lia to Azsis and back. “Where are we? What’s going on?”

“Poor dear,” Azsis says, his breath next to my ear. “It must be a shock to wake up here after all these weeks. I wonder if she’d have the strength to survive me taking her essence, performing the ritual, and direct contact with the void. Or would it consume her entirely? Even I am not certain of that answer. Shall we try?”

“You said it was me,” I snap, whipping around to face him.

“It is you, but I will use her if I need to. That’s the bonus of having two halflings in one generation on the same bloodline—they’re replaceable.”

“What’s happening?” Connie yells. Tears fall down her cheek, and I can’t think. One of the demon’s claws presses into my sister’s throat, and she cries out as a single drop of blood falls.

“I can’t kill them all for her. I can’t.”

Azsis snaps his fingers, then Gran and Pop appear instantly held down by more demons. He has my whole family. I can’t do this. I can’t think. I can’t…

“Tick tock, Miss Grey,” Azsis calls over Connie’s screams.

“Fine, whatever you want,” I shout.

Azsis’s hand freezes in the air toward the demons, and the one with its claw on my sister’s neck drops its hand. I close my eyes and inhale. I’ve traded everyone for my family.

“I knew you’d come around, love.”

I stare into the void, and my entire body responds to the power of it. Azsis stands a breath away, and we both stare into the void. “The ability to harness both sides is only a portion of the deal. The willingness to do it is another, and someone who has done it before, that’s the winner. It’s why you’re perfect,” Azsis says, and he turns me toward the glass room.

The magic beyond the wall is crazy, like someone set it into overdrive. I can almost feel it coursing through me with the reckless abandon. Lia looks intently at me, so much that I can almost feel her eye, but I refuse to acknowledge her. She was using me too, for this. All of it was for this. The destruction of the other side. My friends, my family. Witches everywhere.

“Let my family go,” I say.

“They’re insurance, love,” he says, shaking his head. “Once you enter the void, you will perform the ceremony the same way Lia taught you. You enter alone, do the Restitution, and then it’s over.”

I stare into the void. If I don’t do the Restitution, then they can’t try this again for a century.

“Now, my dear,” Lia whispers.

Azsis’s eyes are a surprisingly dark shade of orange. His hand presses into my back, and he pushes me through the glass. I don’t fall, or get cut, or bleed. There’s no wall for me anymore. It’s only air and my body beats against it into the void. I feel like I’m standing perfectly still, but I’m not.

Then, I feel it. This burning sensation that’s lava in my veins, way more intensely than when the void was trying to make a connection with me. It’s eating at me, peeling me apart, hollowing me out, and replacing it with cotton, with silk, with bubbles. I’m brimming over and I can’t explain the feeling. It’s painful and exotic and powerful and exhilarating all at once.

When I open my eyes, Azsis is staring at me from behind the glass. “Radiant,” he says. I try to see what he’s seeing, but everything around me is white and bright, foggy and clear, nothing and everything.

“Do it now,” he says.

I look past him toward my sister and my grandparents. Their eyes are wide. Gran looks worried, Connie’s jaw is dropped, and Pop’s face is hard to read. I wonder what they’re seeing. What are they thinking? There’s some awe in Connie’s eyes and remorse, but not betrayal. She doesn’t hate me for this, and she should.

Panic fills my chest and my eyes dart between my family and Azsis.
I can’t do this. I can’t have their blood on my hands, every single witch. I have to stop this. I’m not ready to sacrifice myself or Carter or my family for demons to thrive.
But I’m standing in the middle of the void, and I’ve let it come too far. I’m lost. I can’t turn around anymore.

“Now, Penelope,” Azsis shouts, pounding on the wall.

I take a deep breath and try to push away all my feelings of uncertainty. I am bigger than this. I can figure a way out. Mind racing, I start the ritual with the Dragooni as Lia showed me. The ritual starts out with a scattering of the Dragooni ashes in a circle around me. As I move, I think. The void is mine, and now that I’m not marked I can harness both sides. What happens if I use them both inside the void? That’s it. Azsis has basically given me a power boost. I can use it to my advantage.

The circle now complete, I lower the Dragooni to the ground. After the spell, I’m supposed to use the dagger to join my blood with the herbs. A completion of the cycle. I can feel Azsis watching me, even though I’m not looking at his face. Good. Watch me.

“
Renascentia redivivus, restituere, non est corpus
,” I start. Rebirth, recycle, restore, release. The words from the dagger. I glance toward the window, where Azsis and Lia watch excitedly. I fight down the feeling in my gut. It’s now or never. “
Vita duo unum finem. Quid perditio haec verba factum invocábo.
”

The void seems to respond around me, the speed and power of it increasing. It’s ready for the end. I’m not ready to end it. I’m just getting starting.

Azsis pounds on the glass. “The blood,” he yells.

I meet his gaze this time and the void swirls around me like a vortex. I kick the herbs away from me and break the circle I made on the ground. If there’s not a cycle, then there’s not a ritual. With no blood to tie it together, this is simply dust on the floor. “No,” I shout.

His eyes grow darker. Even through the magic of the void I can see that clearly. “No?”

“I won’t do it.”

There’s a flash from the other side, and then a scream as he appears next to me. The magic flows freely through me, so much that I can literally see it dancing in and out of my pores as if I’m fog and not solid. But it bounces off Azsis. Each time he moves, the direct contact with the magic makes his skin seem to change colors and peel away the Non-flesh. This is why they needed me, someone who could handle the purity of the void because for whatever reason, none of the demons could stand it in here. All the more reason my new plan could work.

I take the moment to conjure up the essence. Hopefully my family is close enough that I can pull from them. Be stronger. It takes a moment to remember how to do it—it’s been so long since I’ve used it—but then the power comes. I feel it tunneling into me, even though the void meets it with resistance. They’re playing tug-of-war with my body.

Azsis knocks me to the floor, and breaks both my concentration and hold on the essence. His talons are at my neck. “Say the words, girl. Finish this.”

“Make me,” I say.

“With pleasure,” he says. Then my feet are off the ground and he tosses me across the room. I’m on my feet again quickly, trying to pull in the essence again. Azsis rushes toward me, swinging at me with nails extended. I duck under the movement and kick, taking his legs out. He’s fast too and he’s up, barreling toward me. I block it in time to avoid his knuckles meeting my mouth.

I’m stronger than him, he’s said that. I close my eyes and let the magics pour through me. The void is more powerful, but I can feel the essence, too. They still fight with each other, but both want out. A tangle of good and evil. I focus all my energy, all the hatred toward this demon, the loss of my parents, of my power, the last few weeks of lies, of all this stuff with Carter toward the magic. Lia was wrong. Emotions aren’t a liability—when I can channel them correctly, emotions make it better. They’re another tool that I can use to make the magic stronger. The magic pours from me, straight toward Azsis.

The magic meets his form with a clash of light so bright I hide my eyes. His screams fill the air and I look up to see the magic levitate him into the air. He gurgles, spitting. A sound like a laugh squeezes through his half destroyed, melted, burned off face. The thing in front of me doesn’t look like Non or demon. The magic is practically eating him, peeling his skin away from his bones, as it courses through his body like he’s not solid. In one side and out the other. He’s a melted toy, half of two things and not fully anything.

“You’ve lost. You’ve ruined yourself,” he says, spitting black demon blood. “You’ve destroyed your people even if you do nothing. The magic needs a sacrifice—it can’t be stopped once it’s started. If you don’t release the void, then you destroy yourself and everyone here. You need me now, love.”

Is he right? My plan was to stop the ritual, but the magic is still in the Statics. I try to think back on the things I read about the Restitution. I can’t remember reading that anywhere…but the only solution kills the witches, and I can’t do that.

“I don’t need you,” I say. I think I say it. It doesn’t sound much like myself. How is he still bargaining when he’s about to die?

“Do this and I can give you the one thing you’ve always desired—magic. I have your essence, intact.” He says the words slowly and then smiles. I look at him as his skin literally melts off onto the floor. The orange demon skin underneath turns black. “That’s right. I kept it. I’ve been saving it for you as a souvenir. A token of good will.”

“It’s a part of you. That’s how it works.” I yell.

He releases a crackling, breathy laugh. “I’m an old demon, and I have control that others don’t. Your essence is in a jar on my shelf with all of my most prized possessions.”

That’s when I hear another bang from the other side of the wall. From the corner of my eye, I see Carter.

Chapter Forty-Four

Carter

Pen is standing in a ring of fire with a demon. Her eyes find mine for a second, and then I see she’s not standing in fir
e, she is the fire. It’s beautiful. I almost can’t be sure where I should look. Staring at her is bright, but she’s too commanding to look anywhere else.

“Behind you!” Someone shouts and I roll out of the way and then slash my blade through a demon’s neck. Guts everywhere. My eyes search the room for the voice and find Connie with her grandparents, Frank and Deborah Warren, being held by some demons.

Three demons leave Connie’s side and head toward me. Only Lia stands next to Connie now, but I’m getting her after I finish with them.

I pull up my shirt where four iron knives laced with salt are shoved into my belt. Before the first demon reaches me, I toss one of the salted knives straight at its heart. Bullseye. The demon explodes on impact.

The second demon, hazel colored, and the third demon, in Non form, don’t give me much time to act after that. I pull a salt pellet gun from my boot, but the hazel one kicks it away from me. It slides across the room, and I don’t have time to search for it before the Non-wearing demon jumps me. I grab a second knife and slice through its arm, leaving it screaming in pain as the salt burns. The other tackles me.

Stupid move.

I plunge the knife into its heart. The hazel-colored demon dies.

All that’s left is Lia, the Non-demon, and me. I pull the final two knives from my belt and smile. Demons are weaker in a Non form, and there’s no way it could shed its skin faster than I could kill it. I throw some magic toward the demon’s feet and it tumbles to the ground. It hisses, and I throw another knife. The demon jumps out of the way to miss it and charges toward me. Before it’s about to hit me, I toss some salt from my pocket on it, right in the eyes.

The demon stumbles backward so I run, knife ready, and stab it.

I win.

Lia claps her hands slowly. “Good job, halfling. You have a knack for killing demons.”

“Demons have a knack for pissing me off.”

Lia smirks. “Kriegen may have been right about you. It’s not too late to join us,” she says. She points toward the window. “Penelope has signed on.”

“One problem with that,” I start and pull out the salt gun in my pocket. “You’re going to be dead.”

Lia hisses and charges me. The gun shoots out of my hand, landing across the room, and now it’s the demon and me. I really hate her.

Lia charges toward me, throwing magic at me as she runs. It finds my body at full force, and sends me back into the wall. She’s stronger than I expected. Lia swings her leg at my face, but I block the kick and grab her by the arm. She ducks my counterattack and lands on one leg as the other sweeps me off my feet. I roll as she moves toward me, her fist coming toward my face. A shot of magic zooms against my shoulder.

She sends some magic toward me, and I roll across the floor, trying to stay out of the line of fire. She growls, then hurls her body toward me and flattens me. I struggle but the magic keeps me down. She sits on my stomach. I really hate this demon.

Lia has me pinned down, her nails pressing into my temple. I try to maneuver around her, but I can’t. She bares her teeth and leans in toward me before I can process the chance to scream or fight anymore.

Then there’s a gunshot and she freezes, her teeth inches from my neck. She rises slowly, and blood bubbles from her mouth. A second later, she explodes, guts flying across the room. I scamper backward in order to sit up, and then I see it.

Deborah is pointing the gun I’d lost in our direction, hands shaking. She saved my life.

There’s a scream, and we both look over to the glass window.

Chapter Forty-Five

Penelope

Azsis falls to the ground. His Non-form is completely gone, and his scales separate from his skin. They fall to the ground like corn flakes,
dry and brittle, and shatter into dust when they land. What’s left of his body is paper-thin and discolored. Parts of him are burnt away, leaving holes in his what used-to-be solid form. His eyes are tinged in black, wide, and bug-eyed from his skull. But it’s the scream, the way he wails, that’s the most jarring.

A green trail of fog rushes in the void, mingling with the gray that already exists. Azsis tries to reach out for it, but after a few seconds, the green changes into the same gray. Beyond the glass, Lia’s body is a crumpled heap next to Carter and Gran. The magic was hers.

This is my chance.

I pull the black dagger from my boot, and use the void to prop up Azsis. His eyes are wide, staring at me.

“We can still do this,” he says, but his voice lacks the same confidence. It’s barely a whisper. “You and I are one, Penelope. We are cut from the same. I wanted to be loved, but God chose his humans. You want to be loved, but they all chose others. Not you. Never you.”

I shake my head. “You’re wrong. All those people out there, they chose me. And I choose them.”

His eyes widen when he sees the black dagger. He mutters incoherent words, but what he has to say isn’t relevant. Not anymore. Without my lifting a finger, the dagger tunnels into his chest. He falls to the ground and a high-pitched whistle fills the room. His body lights up in flames and the smell of burning eggs fills the void. I see his magic rejoin the void, and then he’s ash and the dagger clatters against the floor.

I stand there and the void takes over my body. Where’s the essence? I try to pull it back, but there’s nothing that comes. Even with my family outside the window, I can’t connect to it. I’m too late. It thinks I’ve chosen the void. A cry bubbles in my throat, but like a switch my worry fades. The void calms me. I could stand here in its center source and let it flow from me forever. In and out. The magic is a seduction, and as much as I shouldn’t, I want it. I want the magic to be part of me. To never let go or leave.

“Penelope,” Pop yells, pounding on the barrier between the void and that room.

I find Carter’s gaze next to him. “Pen, stop. It’s nearly dawn.”

Dawn. I only have until dawn to make the sacrifice, to choose one side of magic to survive.

I push the void away so I can be in control, but it doesn’t work. I can’t make it stop. The void gets stronger. Burns hotter. Blows faster. Then, I don’t want to stop, even though I should. This isn’t what I want to happen, but the magic coaxes me. It tries to make me forget the stakes. To bask in being this powerful. To being the sole witch who can stand in its presence.

“Come out here,” Gran yells through the glass. Gran, Pop, Connie, and Carter are all staring at me. For them, I try to push the void out, but it refuses to leave. To let me move through it. I can’t do anything. It’s too powerful.

I didn’t perform the ceremony, so the witch world is safe. My family will live, but I won’t be with them. I’ve made my choice, even if I didn’t mean to, and my fate is here. Sealed. The void won’t leave me and the essence won’t come to me. I can’t stop this. Not now. I’m not a witch anymore. The void has claimed me, forever.

“I can’t go out. Just leave.”

“We’re not leaving you,” Carter calls.

“Go! I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” I look at Carter. “I love you. Go.”

A new feeling rushes into me, knocking the breath from me. The essence. I try to reach for as much of it as I can access, and it flows in. The void and the essence pull at my insides, both trying to reclaim me. They twist together my stomach, latch on to my nerves, fight inside me—and I scream.