Page 67 of Till Death

CHAPTERNINETEEN

Sleep left me in an instant and I pushed up on my side, still inside the demon trap. “What’s going on?” The words blurted out of me and Andre was at my side in a second, dragging me up from where I’d been semi-comfortable sleeping.

A good old-fashioned zap of adrenaline bolted through me. “Come on, Jade. We need you. Get up.” His eyes were hard and his face a stone mask giving nothing away.

My stomach sank low and twisted into a labyrinth. “What is it?” I asked impatiently.

I shrugged off the last of my exhaustion and focused on him until my vision cleared. Whatever it was, it wouldn’t be good.

“The demons are cracking through the Divine Magic’s safety wards.” Andre lifted his face in the air and drew in a long breath. “Brimstone. Do you smell it?”

I didn’t need vampire senses for the stench to permeate my cells. I scrunched up my nose.

“Trust me. It doesn’t take much to smell it. How are they getting through?”

We’d been safe. Safe enough for me to lower my guard and get some rest.

“Tamara and Arianna are trying to hold them back, but their spells are cracking. They’ll hold for minutes, tops.”

I’d done more with less time. Except right now, as my brain scuttled from one plan to another, I came up empty. Unable to remember a single one of those times. Okay, the magic was failing. The protections were going down. What did we do now?

A growl sounded from the left and I glanced over to see Cole still contained, his gaze on me as though he understood what all this meant, too.

That the demons were breaking through.

Basically it spelled disaster, and for some reason I couldn’tbring myself to panic. Maybe I’d already used up my allotted quota of panic for the year.

“It’s going to be okay,” I assured him with a tense smile. “I’m going to figure out a way through this.”

Really?How?

The voice in my head sounded equal parts hysterical and bitchy.

“Who are you talking to? Me, or him?” Andre asked, jerking his nose toward Cole. Without wasting another second, he tugged me forward out of the room to join the others.

“It can be both,” I told him.

Marla, Tamara, Arianna, and Kay stood near the front doors to the building with their hands raised in the air and magic pouring out from each of them. Even Lawrence was keeping up with the other spellcasters. My chest tightened, even as I watched on, impressed by his strength. And the strength of them all.

They weren’t giving up, even though the magic came from them too quickly. More magic than they had to expend. Kay shifted to shoot me a strained smile over her shoulder, but she’d gone pale and my worry increased tenfold.

We needed to get the humans out of there. Where would they run, though? Where would they go that would keep them safe?

“We don’t have a lot of time. They’re coming in,” Eli breathed. He swooped out his arm and crooked his hand for Kay and Lawrence. “Go in the back and hide.”

Lawrence allowed his relief to show for the briefest moment before he stuffed the emotion away. Kay was not about to back down.

“We’re here for a reason, Jade.” She spoke to me and not to Eli. “I’m staying to help.”

And I wasn’t sure what to tell her. I glanced at the doors anxiously, waiting for them to explode inward. If Eli and Andre were concerned, then I knew this was bad.

“We can take care of her,” Marla insisted. “We need her out here.”

“We’re going to be okay,” Kay assured me.

A sliver of ice shot down through my abdomen and embedded itself there. I wasn’t so sure. I reached over to pat the sword at my side to assure myself she was still there. My heart beat wildly at the thought of anything happening to my friends, especially Kay and her fiancé and their baby. They were all precious to me.

A resounding boom shook the room and the witch magic guttered. A candle flame flickering in a windstorm. I gathered all of my energy and crossed the room to address them before we ran out of time. Firelight flickered beneath the doorway from the outside and the boom came again. Dust fell from the ceiling along with the growing sounds of snarls and growls, a roar or two, and many more screams.

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