Page 30 of Mayhem and Ember

We performed the summoning a fifth time, a sixth, and light flickered inside the circle. A stream of dark green smoke poured into the ring, the impression of a featureless face forming in the fog, reminding me of the scene in The Mummy when Imhotep’s face formed in the sandstorm…creepy AF. It moved around the perimeter, pausing first on Chaos and then Mayhem.

“Have you the amulet?” Discord’s voice echoed, sounding a million miles away.

“We have the means to avenge our imprisonment,” Chaos said. “Join us in the mortal realm so we can identify Isabel’s descendants and claim our prize.”

“I owed a debt to the witch who freed me, and no one else.” Something about the way he said it raised the hairs on the back of my neck… Past tense. Whatever Cinder had asked for, he’d already done it.

And she hadn’t come back.

“That’s our sister, Cinder,” Ash said. “She needs you to find our parents and bring them all here to break my family’s curse.”

His distant, ominous laugh sounded like it came from the deepest depths of Hell…which it did. “That was not the debt she asked I pay.”

Mayhem dropped my hand and stepped toward the circle. “Join us, brother. We have fae to battle.”

“Find my amulet, and I will consider it.” In a flash of light and a thunderous boom, the smoke dissipated, taking the demon to his own side of the veil.

“What the actual eff?” Ash looked at me with a furrowed brow. “In the journal, that’s exactly what she said she would ask for.”

I swallowed hard, the blood draining from my head to my feet as the realization sank in. “It was…”

“Too much to ask,” Mayhem said matter-of-factly.

“Too many requests,” Chaos added. At least he had the peopling skills to sound worried for us.

“But she freed him from four hundred years of imprisonment.” Ash’s mouth hung open as she looked from me to the demons. “How is that too much to ask?”

I ticked the list off on my fingers. “Take her to Hell, find our parents, save them from the demon who took them, bring all three of them back to this realm, break the family curse…and not kill any of us along the way.”

Ash covered her mouth, shaking her head before lifting her hand and dropping it at her side. “All she asked for in return for his release was a ticket to Hell.”

I nodded. “Because she thought she could do all the rest by herself.” Which was typical of Cinder. Our eldest sister excelled at everything…except asking for help.

Ash extinguished the candles and carried them to the storage cabinet. “We need a new plan.”

“We need to go to Hell ourselves and bring her back.” I swiped my foot through the salt to break the containment circle. Really, I just wanted to kick something, but whatever.

Chaos’s expression was so grim, I didn’t need an interpretation. “I’m afraid that isn’t possible. Your sister is lost.”

12

MAYHEM

“This doesn’t make sense. Why can’t we go to Hell and get her?” Ember paced the length of the library before turning on her heel and returning to the desk where her sister sat.

Ash’s fingers flew across the keys of her computer…a device they swore contained no magic, yet it had the power to access the knowledge of this realm as if tapping into the Akashic Records.

“And he won’t bring her back because we don’t have some necklace he lost eons ago?” Ember waved her hands in the air, clearly having a fit of hysterics.

I leaned toward Chaos. “Are you affecting her brain?”

“He wouldn’t dare,” Ash said, her eyes never straying from the screen.

I looked to my brother for confirmation, and he shook his head. He had been tamed…whipped…by a witch. How pathetic. Although…

I let my gaze wander over Ember’s form. I wouldn’t mind her attempts to tame me if it meant I could ravish her every night as she tried. Perhaps I should challenge her to a wrestling match so she could work out her hysteria…naked, of course.

“What does this artifact even do? Why does he want it so bad? We were this close.” She held her thumb and forefinger half an inch apart before turning and pacing again.

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