Page 74 of Infernal

She let out a colorful string of curse words and then said, “Uncle Karl had a meeting there this morning.”

I swallowed the ball in my throat.

“Do you see him anywhere?” she asked.

My eyes scanned the scene, looking for signs of my uncle amid the crowd of injured and onlookers.

“No, I don’t see him,” I said on the verge of hysterics. I mean, I obviously hated my uncle, but I didn’t wish him dead, and certainly not like this. Burning alive was a fate I didn’t wish on anyone. Except maybe the Roderick sisters. “Are you sure he’s still here?” Maybe the meeting ended early. Maybe he stopped for a latte on the way.

She didn’t answer except to say, “I’m on my way.”

Tessa arrived less than fifteen minutes later, accompanied by a tall, dark-haired guy I’d never seen before. I wasn’t sure if he was her friend, Keeper, or boyfriend, but I knew he was definitely Anakim judging by the Marks on his arms, which were mostly hidden by extensive tattoos. They immediately parted ways, with Tattoo Guy going towards the building and Tessa running up to me and Nikki.

“Did you find him?” she asked, panting as she tried to catch her breath.

I shook my head. “They’ve stopped going in to save people,” I said without meeting her eyes. The flames had engulfed the building and rendered it too dangerous to enter.

“The building’s spelled,” she said, standing shoulder to shoulder with me as we watched the firemen fruitlessly douse the bluish tinged flames with water. “They’ll be okay.”

“It’s hellfire, Tessa.” I wrapped my arms around myself as tears trickled down my cheeks in bold, anguish-filled streaks.

“Hellfire?” she whispered, her voice almost completely lost in the noise. “How do you know that?”

I could feel her heavy eyes on me, scrutinizing me, but I didn’t turn to meet them. “Lucifer told me. It was his punishment to me for going to Temple.”

She swore under her breath, knowing exactly what that meant. The fire would not stop until nothing but ash remained. And there would be casualties—so very many of them.

“This is all my fault.” I could feel a heaviness pressing over my heart, pulling me down deeper into the darkness—into that place that was void of all hope and salvation. “People are dead because of me.”

I wasn’t sure how I was ever going to be able to live with that—to be okay with it. There was no coming back from something like this. That burden of guilt would remain with me for the rest of my days.

“Look, I’m not going to stand here and tell you I told you so,” said Tessa, her voice cold and flat. “But this is only the beginning unless you do something to stop it.”

My eyes squeezed shut as I struggled to take a breath.

This must be what drowning feels like.

“How many more people are you going to let die, Jemma?” She grabbed my shoulders and forced me to face her. “How many people are going to perish because you were too afraid to do the right thing? The hard thing? You can’t let this continue. Not when you have the power to stop it.”

More tears fell, because while I did have the power to stop this, to stop Lucifer, I would have to kill Trace in the process, and that wasn’t just a hard thing for me to do. It was the impossible thing—the thing that would inevitably slaughter my heart from the inside out.

I stared at the dark circles that had taken up residency under her eyes. She looked so tired and worn out, so small in the face of all we were going up against. I wondered where she got all her courage from? I wondered if she even still felt fear, or had she stopped feeling altogether?

I shook away the disturbing thought and crossed my arms over my chest. “Even if I wanted to, half of the Council is dead, Tessa, and the weapon is probably nothing more than dust by now.”

Or at least it would be once the Hellfire finished with it.

Even as we stood there talking, the fire continued ripping away at the building, piece by piece, room by room. The sacred Temple they’d spent decades building and protecting would soon be a pile of ash.

“The weapon is safe,” she said quietly so only the two of us could hear.

“What do you mean?” I searched her face for clues.

“Carter and I are its Keepers.” Her voice dropped as she held my gaze. So, Tattoo Guy had a name. “I can train you. I can teach you what you need to know to do this.”

A thick lump wedged itself at the back of my throat.

“You can still do the right thing, Jemma. It’s not too late.”

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