Page 20 of Till Death

The will to survive did crazy things to people, and I spoke from personal experience there.

What other choice did I have?

Her hard glare burned into mine and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t understand her motives, because I was smart enough to figure out everything she refused to say.

I weighed the decision a split-second longer before deciding I’d cross the bridge much, much later. If I ever got to it. “Fine,” I spit out. “We have a deal. Although what you’re going to accomplish without all your magic, I have no idea.”

“Just trust me. Will you?”

I held out a hand to shake and the witch didn’t say a word, only took my palm, turned it up, and stared at the lines there.

“Prepare yourself for this,” she replied.

“For what?”

The fear in her eyes told me she knew what I’d have to go through and hated it for me. “This won’t be pleasant. Backdoor methods rarely are. But it will get you one step closer and we need all the help we can get. Doesn’t mean it’ll be easy. Or painless. The spell uses your blood and a few words I was lucky—or unlucky, depending on how you look at things—enough to stumble on during my travels.”

“Why my blood?” Honestly, I was getting pretty sick of bleeding.

“Because your light is the key. The veil is thin enough this shouldn’t be an issue.”

“Well, I wish you would have told me this before.” I glanced over her shoulder at the rest of the team. Eli stood in the center of the room, directing the movements of the others. Mentally telling them all goodbye, I returned my focus to Tamara. Knowing Eli and the others would absolutely tell me not to go along with this crazy plan. If Marla saw us—

Oh, she’d be pissed at me.

Fear sparked inside of me when Tamara used one of her long fingernails to slice through the soft skin of my wrist. Pain followed immediately after.

But it was too late to go back now, or wonder if I was doing the right thing by listening to her.

She opened her mouth wide and a slew of ancient words spilled forth, too fast for me to catch their meaning. The magic of those words had nothing to do with her, I realized as my brain automatically translated them for me. They were tied to the fabric of this world itself. They were older than us, older than time, there at the beginning when I’d been created. Not that I remembered.

The magic pushed out against me and demanded entry as Tamara smeared my blood into a circular symbol. Closing my eyes and gritting my teeth, I allowed Tamara to do what she needed to do, knowing it would get me one step closer to saving Cole. The power merged with mine, using the blood as a conduit. Saying a silent prayer would do no good now. Hank probably didn’t even listen to them.

Going back into Hell this time benefited everyone. If I managed to find a way to cut off the swarm before it came topside, it might give us a much-needed edge in this fight. That was the excuse I told myself. If I could just pull this off…

I’d save Cole and everyone else.

A curious wrenching caught me around the midsection. Ripping me apart and pulling me together. The power tangled with my lifeforce and pulled with such intensity it made my lungs burn.

What in the hell…

Power shot through me and I screamed, unable to help myself. Every atom of air sucked right out of my body.

Until I opened my eyes and saw nothing but darkness.

* * *

The darkness shrank back,the seconds ticked by and my heartbeat struggled to return to normal. I snapped back into myself eventually, the magic finally leaving me with enough force to have me keeling forward.

I watched until the room took shape. Three walls shimmered into being and appeared more solid by the moment until finally I stood in front of a metal door and knew from experience how it would sound when I opened it: a single loud screech of metal. Except I didn’t have time to be nervous about what I’d find on the other side. I’d already been here.

Tamara’s dark magic brought me right to the one place where I might actually stand a chance at finding Cole. Had she known where the spell would spit me out when she started it?

And what had taken her so long to give up that little gem of magic?

The woman might be the death of me yet.

I pushed out my hand and made direct contact with the door. My head was killing me.

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