Page 1 of Mending Mayhem

1

EMBER

What had I done? That was a loaded question. Physically, I had vanquished a demon prince to a dark prison, saved my sister’s life, and stopped the family curse from coming to fruition in my living room. Metaphysically, I’d probably caused the veil between our worlds irreparable damage and ushered in Armageddon with a slice and a jab of my sword.

Interpersonally, I’d dissolved any type of trust or bond—or whatever was happening—with Mayhem and set our journey to salvation back so far, we might never recover.

But, hey, at least Ash was back to her normal self. I hoped. “Are you okay?”

She blinked twice. “I’m fine. Are you?” Her gaze drifted down to my left hand, where Chaos’s eyes were also locked. No, not my hand. They were focused on the severed head spilling blood onto the hardwood.

My brain finally received the message from my fingers, recognizing the soft tuft of hair clutched in my fist. Mayhem’s body had turned to smoke when I pierced his heart, the veil opening and whisking him away to the dark prison we’d freed him from only days ago.

But his head, which I’d lobbed off in one stroke, hung from my grasp, his eyes wide with shock, poisonous blood dripping onto the floor from his neck. Well, Ember, what now?

“If we summon him again, he’s going to kill me.” I lifted my sword, resting the flat side of the blade against my shoulder. “Get a bowl. If we collect his blood, maybe we can use it in a spell to harness enough of his power for Chaos and Discord to break the curse.”

Neither of them moved.

“Okay, I’ll get it myself.” I tried to turn around and make my way to the kitchen, but my feet remained rooted to the floor.

My head spun, the gravity of our situation reaching my nervous system and making my muscles tremble. What had I done, indeed. “I bet there’s something in Chrys’s dark grimoire. If we just…”

Hellfire erupted in the puddle of blood, the flames licking upward, engulfing Mayhem’s severed head. The blood on the tip of my blade incinerated, and the scent of burning hair and flesh made my stomach turn. As the fire consumed him, his skin turned to ash along with the silky locks still clutched in my fist.

His skull tumbled to the floor, the jaw disconnecting from the upper part when it thudded on the hardwood.

Damn. It looked like we wouldn’t be collecting demon blood after all.

“I can’t believe you did that.” Ash sank onto the couch, holding her head in her hands.

I gazed at the skull. The smooth bone almost glistened in the ambient light. “That was hellfire, not witch fire.”

“Not that.” She jerked her hand, gesturing at me, my sword, the skull…everything in my general direction. “All that.”

“It wasn’t unexpected.” Chaos sat next to her, resting a hand on her knee. “She warned him she would do it several times.”

Ash tilted her head, looking at him like he’d grown a second set of eyeballs. “She vanquished him. Again.”

“He was hurting you.” Chaos shrugged. “I would’ve done the same if Ember hadn’t acted so quickly.”

She rubbed her temples. “He released me the second you took off his head. You didn’t have to vanquish him.”

“I didn’t know that.” Besides, what good would a headless demon do? He’d have to carry it around tucked under his arm, which would freak people the eff out. This was Salem, not Sleepy Hollow…and he didn’t have a horse.

My sword suddenly felt like it weighed a hundred pounds, so I set it on the counter, my hands trembling with nothing to hold. “I was protecting you.”

“Thank you,” Chaos said. “You acted when I didn’t. He could have caused permanent damage to her brain.”

I picked up Mayhem’s skull, trying my best to ignore the magical pinpricks dancing across my skin as I balanced the top part on the jaw and set both pieces on the coffee table. I lowered into a chair, my entire body convulsing as the cushion absorbed my weight. What the hell had I just done?

I raked a hand through my hair. “I’m sorry. I screwed up. I…”

Ash sighed. “It’s okay. Luckily, he’s immortal. We’ll summon him again.”

I nodded, words escaping me.

“Thank you,” she said after a long pause. “It was scary feeling that much rage. If Chaos hadn’t held me back, I don’t know what I would have done.”

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