Page 11 of Mayhem and Ember

I stared over their heads at the plain beige wall behind them while they processed what I’d said. The carpet beneath their cushioned chairs, dark blue with a gray, swirly pattern, held flecks of glitter from some goddess-knew-what event that had happened earlier in the week.

Or hell…it could have happened six months ago. Glitter was the herpes of the craft world. You could never get rid of it.

“I don’t understand why she would do this,” Inga finally said from the second row.

“None of us do.” I paced across the raised platform, turning on my heel and returning to the podium. “But the damage has been done, and we need your help to keep the beasties at bay and the humans in the dark until we can mend the veil.”

“How are we supposed to mend it when the rifts are happening so fast?” Luis asked. “Why haven’t you done it already?”

My jaw tightened, and I cut my gaze to Ash, who nodded her encouragement. I didn’t need encouraging. I needed her to get up here and answer these questions before I said something I shouldn’t.

Why hadn’t we mended it already? Gee, why hadn’t we just gone ahead and done it? “Don’t you think we would have if we could? It’s a complicated situation.”

“It doesn’t sound complicated.” He crossed his arms. “Chrys thinned it by summoning the demon. She’s dead, and the demon was vanquished. Unless there’s more you aren’t telling us…”

“There’s nothing more.” My nostrils flared as I ground my teeth. “We’re working on it.” Heat rose up my neck to climb across my cheeks, my other set of cheeks clenching so tightly I could have cracked a pecan.

“We have to find Cinder first.” Ash stood and joined me behind the podium. “I’ve researched the phenomenon, and we need the power of three elemental witches to mend it properly.”

Luis sat up straighter. “Isn’t your boyfriend a fire witch?”

Ash looked at me, the poster child for the deer in the headlights expression.

“Three witches of the same bloodline,” I said. “Same element, same blood, powerful spell that will drain our vim to the point of near death. It’s complicated.” And not entirely true, but whatever.

“Oh.” He relaxed his accusing posture, and I let my glutes return to their normal, unclenched state. “How do you know she’s alive? She went missing months ago.”

“We have reason to believe she is,” Ash said.

“Reason which we can’t divulge,” I added before he could ask what.

We’d told so many lies since this started happening, both by omission and bald-faced, I couldn’t keep up with them anymore. “While we’re working on finding Cinder, we need you to be vigilant about the rifts. Binding and sealing potions are your friends, shadow spells when you can get them, distractions when you can’t, and when in doubt, stab them through the heart.”

I jumped off the platform and strode through the door before they could ask any more questions I couldn’t answer honestly. Ten minutes later, my team filed out and met me at the van.

“Thanks for leaving us to handle the rest of the interrogation.” Ash yanked the side door open and climbed inside. I slid into the driver’s seat while Chaos, Shade, Miles, and Patrice filled the rest of the seats.

“It’s all good.” Shade lowered the visor to check his hair in the mirror, sliding his hand over his blond locks and smoothing them back toward his manbun. “I handled it. Next time, I can run the whole meeting if you need me to.”

I caught Ash’s eyeroll in the rearview mirror before I put the van in gear and headed home. I would never let Shade run a meeting, no matter how much his ego wanted to. Ash, on the other hand, would be much better at keeping the peace. Maybe next time.

Actually, I hoped to Hecate there wouldn’t be a next time.

“They all seem to have bought the story that Chrys is to blame for everything,” Patrice said as I pulled into the lot behind our building.

“And I don’t plan to give them any more reasons to think otherwise.” I put it in park and opened the door. “No more side quests. It’s time for the next part of our plan.”

We entered through the back door, passed through the library, and gathered in Ash’s sigil studio. I motioned for Chaos to join me in front of the two grimoires I’d laid open on the table. “This is the one Ash used to contain Mayhem at the church.” I pointed to the book we’d confiscated from Chrys. “And this is the one I used to contain you after we got you out of Ash’s head.” I pointed to our book. “Which do you recommend?”

He chuckled and closed the second book. “You did not contain me in that circle. I complied for Ash’s sake.”

I reopened it and flipped to the page in question. “It says it’s for holding demons.”

He shrugged. “Lower-level fiends, of course. Possibly some mid-level. There isn’t much that can contain a Prince of Hell, but Chrys’s spell can. It worked on me…several times, I’m ashamed to admit.”

“Well, isn’t that peachy?” I drummed my fingertips together, silently berating myself for choosing a weak spell when I was supposed to be saving Ash. Things could have gone very differently if Chaos hadn’t already been enamored of my sister when we exorcized him.

As much as I’d hated their budding relationship in the beginning, we’d have been screwed hard and fast without it…and not in a fun way. But it didn’t matter now. What was done was done and all that jazz.

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