Page 71 of Till Death

Arianna crowded closer still, dropping her forehead within an inch of Sean’s, her lips pinched. “He’s got to pull through,” she whispered. “It’s not fair. Sean. Sean? You’ve got to stay with us.”

“Moving him is impossible right now,” Marla confirmed.

“The beasts are only going to follow you. They will make sure not one of us escapes this place today,” Andre answered.

I gasped at the flow of blood and added my palms to Tamara’s, calling the light like it would somehow help heal what was broken. Not that I’d make much of a difference.

They were all right. We weren’t leaving this place alive.

Smoke continued to curl from the fissure in the floor. Sean coughed and blood spewed from between his lips. He had another wound somewhere, not just the one on his head, and I mentally crossed my fingers it wasn’t internal. I couldn’t lose him, too.

For the last time, I needed a miracle and came up short. It hit a girl hard to realize every action she’d taken meant nothing in the grand scheme of things.

“Okay,” I said out loud, struggling not to read too much into his ashen skin, the blood spatter, or the way Arianna struggled to keep her tears in check.

His eyes fluttered behind closed lids and his chest rose and fell a bit too rapidly for my liking.

The way Marla stared at her sister and subtly shook her head.

Or those screams outside.

I continued to throw light at Sean, a kid tossing paint on a canvas and hoping something would stick when every part of me trembled in terror. Demonic laughter rose along with the smoke and the disgusting stench of brimstone. The darkness of the room seemed to deepen with each passing second.

Eli and Lisa ran forward and stood back-to-back to form a wall in front of us but we were too close to the opening. We were too unprotected.

“Okay, so what do we need to do? What miracle can I pull out of my ass?” Not for me. Not for Cole, either.

But for Sean, and for Andre. For Wyatt, and Lisa, and every one of the people I’d gathered close to me to make a new family.

Sean’s breathing evened out as I watched and my shoulders caved in relief that only lasted a single moment, some kind of brief respite. My lungs strained and filled with smoke, but unless I was mistaken, Sean had a little bit more color in his cheeks.

“He has to be okay.” Arianna rocked back on her toes and repeated those words like a mantra.

“At this point, I’d say we cut our losses and find somewhere else to hide. The veil isn’t closing even though Hell’s numbers have shrunken,” Andre said. “We are sitting ducks here and the protections we thought would keep us safe have disappeared.”

I hated that he sounded so matter of fact in the middle of this chaos.

Good versus evil.

Light versus dark.

What else was needed for the veil to close completely?

Think,think,think,Jade.

They needed me to fight, especially with Michael gone. Except I’d done my fair share of fighting and the balance was still skewed and the doors between the worlds open.

The demons closed in on us and I was forced to drag my hands away from Sean and react, turning my hip and using my bodyweight to send my fist into the jaw of the closest beast. It yelped and skidded back a few steps, shaking its head.

Fire flowed from the beast’s nostrils but I twisted at the last minute and brought my sword down on its head.

The demon hit the ground on its nose, reaching around to clutch the area between its ears with a snarl. I gathered every bit of strength and brought my sword down once again but the demon rolled out of the way with a burst of speed.

A curse made its way past my lips.

I tried to follow the blurs of movements in the room to find an opening to make a break for it and get Sean out of here. Instead, I saw a wall of bodies. It made no difference how many of them fell. Another rose up to take its place.

The demon who’d gotten away was suddenly there. It hit me between the shoulders from behind and took us both to the ground. Fire swam around the sides of my head as I yelled, bucking to dislodge the thing.

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