Page 2 of Mending Mayhem

“It was stupid.” I pressed my thumb between my eyes to counter the pressure building in my head. “I never should have let him do that to you. I wasn’t thinking clearly.”

“I gave him permission to do it,” Ash said. “It wasn’t just you.”

“As did I.” Chaos leaned back on the sofa. “You are the first beings who have ever counteracted our magic with your own. It’s new territory for us all. No need to place blame.”

“Yeah.” My stomach roiled, my dinner threatening to come back for an encore appearance.

“The debt he owed you has been forfeited,” Chaos said, his expression grim. “When we bring him back, he’ll have to help us break the curse out of the goodness of his heart, and I’m afraid nothing more than a shred exists inside him. If any.”

“That makes sense. Sort of.” My knee bounced incessantly, so I laid my hand on it to stop the movement. “Of course he doesn’t owe me for freeing him last time…but I’m freeing him again. He’ll owe me for this time, right?”

“I’m afraid not.” He ran a hand down his face. “You are the one who imprisoned him. His jailer freeing him incurs no debt…merely his wrath.”

“Merely.” I laughed dryly. “Well, if that’s all…”

Ash furrowed her brow. “But we vanquished him before, and he still owed us a debt when we summoned him. Why then, but not now?”

He nodded, looking thoughtful. “A technicality. He had no corporeal form the first time, and you and Miles vanquished him, not Ember.”

“So if I summoned him…” Ash said.

“You were here, a part of the vanquishing, no matter how indirectly,” he said.

“I didn’t have a clue what was happening the first time.” I drummed my fingers on my knee, my thoughts racing. “Once we got him out of Chrys, my focus went to her. That’s why he owed me this time. I wasn’t a part of the initial vanquishing.”

We sat silently, contemplating the ramifications of what I’d done. At least, I assumed Chaos and Ash were contemplating too. They weren’t making goo-goo eyes at each other for once, anyway.

I stood and paced in front of the TV. “We’ll get Miles to draw the sigil this time. He’s even-tempered enough to work with a demon, right? Because Shade is out of the question.”

Ash shook her head. “It has to be you.”

I parked my hands on my hips. “I cannot deal with soulmate talk right now, so stop.”

“She’s correct,” Chaos said. “Whether or not you are soulmates doesn’t matter. Fate brought all of us together to fix this. Bringing in an outsider could be detrimental to our cause.”

“It’s a family affair,” Ash said.

I threw my arms into the air and dropped them at my sides. My sister, ever the logical one, was right again. Bringing Miles any deeper into the mix would be irresponsible. This was a family affair, and it was up to me to protect the rest of the coven from our curse.

“He’s going to kill me.”

She pursed her lips, giving her head a tiny shake. “No, he’s not, Em.”

“You don’t know that.” I continued pacing.

“I do, and so do you.” She rose and stretched her arms above her head. “But just to be sure, you’re going to bear his mark.”

“The hell I am.” I whirled to face her. Was she cuckoo? “Did you forget you almost died when you summoned Chaos that way? That Chrys did die?”

“Chrys and I had no idea what we were doing, and I didn’t have Chaos’s skull.” She padded toward the hall, pausing at the threshold. “We have Mayhem’s. We’ll summon him into you and then exorcize him from your body to let him reform in a containment circle.”

“Ash, no…” My hands curled into fists. I couldn’t do it. I wouldn’t.

“He’ll be incapable of causing you harm.” Chaos joined Ash by the hall, taking her hand.

I crossed my arms. “Yeah, right. He’s probably so pissed, he’ll burn through me the second I’m possessed.”

“We won’t give him the chance,” Chaos said. “Ash will exorcize him immediately. Then, when he reforms, you won’t have to worry about him killing you because you’ll be connected through his mark. He’ll be vanquished again if you die.”

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