Page 19 of The World Undone

He tilted his head, like he was searching for the words. When he finally landed on them, they came out clear, sharp, full of warning. “That kind of magic feeds on blood, on violence. It’s why hell is such a chaotic, dangerous world. Why this one is mirroring it at a rapid, accelerating pace. The barrier is warped, that violence is echoing and reflecting in this world now too.”

“This world has always been a violent one,” Wade said.

Jace smiled. He seemed oddly relaxed for someone discussing the end of the world. Then again, that kind of disarming demeanor was the razor-sharp weapon of an incubus.

They were better at controlling their emotions, at reading others than most.

“You’re not wrong. But it’s gotten worse and will continue to get worse. We don’t fully understand why it’s happening, but we can no longer deny that we are on the edge of some sort of existential threat. All of us. And while it was caused by The Guild long before any of us were around, it’s clear that The Guild has no intention of cleaning up their mess—as per usual—nor do they likely have the power to do it even if they wanted to. Their strength and their numbers have been diminishing for years—a sacrifice and consequence to the power they’ve long misused.”

Max glanced at me, then the others, all of us silently checking in, unsure of how much to tell them. She took a deep breath then nodded. “The barrier between realms is collapsing. It’s possible that when it reaches a tipping point, everything—and everyone will be destroyed. Sucked into some kind of magical black hole.” She exhaled, eyes darting from face to face in the heaviness. “We don’t really know our odds of keeping that from happening but we’re doing everything we can to try.”

The room was silent, heavy, as they all took in the blunt statement. It was the kind of doom and gloom announcement that seemed almost humorously exaggerated. Only we knew now that it wasn’t.

I wasn’t sure we could truly, unequivocally trust these people. I’d never forgive my mother for what she did to my father, but that didn’t mean she was evil beyond our personal dynamics.

If we were going to live and work with them, it was only fair that they knew what they were up against, I supposed.

Clearly Max did too.

Haley still watched Max, unblinking and ethereally still, but she didn’t flinch at the direness of the message. If anything, she only sat up straighter, a fighting fire growing in her dark eyes.

“You seem confident in the validity of this information.” Bishop unconsciously swiveled his chair a few inches closer to Charlie. “We’ve guessed at it, naturally. Jace and some of the others who’ve traveled between realms in recent years have mentioned the fluctuations. And of course, we’ve been tracking fractures and tears between the realms when we hear about strange activity—” his focus locked on Max, distrust clear in the tension lining his body, “but how did you come by this information?”

Max met my eyes, then the others. We all nodded.

The decision was clear—surprisingly easy to communicate with just a glance—conceal what we needed to but share as much as we could.

Everyone’s life was in danger, we were past the point of keeping things secret from those we could trust. Miscommunication only ever created more problems.

And while our trust could only extend so far, Charlie, Bishop, and the others here had taken us in and created the kind of community The Guild had only pretended to foster.

When we’d brought them a bunch of injured and tortured demons, and voluntarily exiled protectors, they bent over backwards offering their resources and help.

They deserved the truth, the chance to decide whether they truly wanted a part of this war or not. Because honestly, that was the truth—this was a war. We just weren’t entirely sure on how many enemies there were, or how to fight the ambivalence of unstable magic. But if we wanted to survive, to save as many people as we could, we’d have to try.

Because while The Guild was the most tangible threat at the moment, the real battle was going to be against the unstable magic—a disaster they’d created through greed, one that we’d be responsible for preventing further fallout from.

I saw Max fidgeting with the hem of her shirt out of the corner of my eye. “We’ve been to the hell realm; we’ve seen what’s happening.”

“What?” Charlie’s eyes widened. “How?”

“Several times, actually, because—” Max took a deep breath, “because, the thing is,” she cleared her throat, “the thing is, I’m Lucifer’s daughter. Most of my power comes from him, some from my mother’s line of protectors. Something about my birth might have triggered things, we aren’t really sure on the details. Most people who have them are dea—” she paused for a beat, the five of them stunned. She took a deep breath and pressed on. “Um, right. But we also know how to fix it. To keep the barrier from taking out both realms.” She scrunched her nose. “Maybe.”

Jace opened his mouth and closed it a few times, the first to recover from Max’s revelation. After a few seconds, he finally pushed out a word. “Maybe?”

“The devil is real?” Charlie’s complexion dipped into an ashy gray, so at odds with the usual warmth. “Seriously?”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Evelyn was preternaturally still, her expression not revealing surprise or much of anything really. She was always so good at swallowing her emotions, spitting them back out as an empty canvas when she needed to.

Max smiled sheepishly.

“Yes, but not like you think,” Wade clarified. “He’s not evil or anything. At least we don’t think so. His motivations are slightly unclear, but we think we can trust him. For now. And if his predictions about the hell realm are true, we don’t really have a choice.”

Charlie took a deep breath. I could see her wrestling with the information, her mind moving a mile a minute. She wasn’t really born into this life, hadn’t even learned about the supernatural world until a few years ago. I imagined this was especially jarring for her to hear.

She exhaled, long and deep. “Okay. Well, assuming he’s not as evil as I’d imagined my entire life, does Lucifer have an actionable plan for how to fix things?”

Fear was etched into every line of her face, but there was also determination. It was damn impressive how well she was handling things. How well they all were.

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