Page 5 of Phoenix Academy: Mayhem

Fighting to make my tongue work, I try to stall for time. "Why does it need to be willing?"

"Because magic is bullshit. Now, put your bloody hand against this spot on the door," he taps a ruin carved near the handle impatiently, "and repeat after me."

My body obeys.

He says: "Elahayra pià moralis ci bhet."

My tongue obeys.

The words feel heavy and strange on my tongue, hot and salty, fiery and old. They seem to bring something ancient into being, something powerful. The odd wood of the door soaks up my blood, and I feel something happen behind me, something horrifying and terrible, great and grand.

Turning, I look over my shoulder and shudder as another door, identical to this one, comes into being just behind me. I can sense Hell on the other side of it. And I know instinctively that this first door will open and lead to Earth, creating a connection between the two of them and making a path possible.

First, the demons Ezriel brought with him to the Spirit Realm will escape to Earth.

Then the second, mirrored doorway will open all the way, and thousands—no, millions—of demons will come through, tear the Spirit Realm apart, and make their way to Earth.

Nothing could be more horrifying.

Nothing could be worse.

As the door creaks open against my hand, the demons all around us suddenly freeze. Turn. And begin to poor through the crack as it widens. First just a few fit through, then more and more, shoving both me and Ezriel aside, their horrifying pincers, tentacles, and bodies undulating through at impossible speed.

On the other side of this door is the Phoenix Academy campus, and they're wholly unprepared for what's about to happen to them. Something about the door sings against my palm, tells me its secrets. It was built by mages. It was created with magic. And only the truest, most base magic can close it: blood magic, the sacrificial kind, from those who were born in Hell. That means I won't be able to close it once it's open—I have to stop the second door from ever opening in the first place.

In the meantime, countless demons are pouring through. Lower demons, base demons, but demons nonetheless. I have to do something. Raise the alarm. Stop this somehow.

There's only one person I can think of who can truly stop this: Dani Carpenter. But she isn't around, and even if she were, I don't have a way to contact her. So instead I reach out, thinking of how Mage Auerbach contacted me telepathically, and mentally knock on his door, hoping that he'll sense me as he did before.

Ari!His voice in my mind is a welcome distraction from the horror going on all around me. What's going on?

Not much time. Demons are getting through. The Hell gate is open, and the other side of it is on campus. More will come soon... if I don't stop it. I think I can do something. Maybe. But you have to raise the wards, protect the campus. And get Dani! She's the only one who can help. Her, and her demons.

The Hell gate... my god.

I'm going to do what I can to stop it. But I don't know how long I can delay it, or how much, I can do. Is there any help you can give me?

He's silent for a moment, and I worry that our connection isn't strong enough. Then a single, clear image rings out in my mind: a rune, one deceptively simple, made with perpendicular lines and large dots that form a ring.

Use this. And Ari... stay safe.

I'll try.

As our connection comes to an end, the last of the lower demons Ezriel took with him to the Spirit Realm pour out the Hell gate and onto the Phoenix Academy campus. I send a prayer up to my foremothers that Auerbach will be able to put wards around them and keep the students safe.

What I need to do next, won't make it possible for me to follow the demons out this door and onto campus.

But my guys can at least get to safety.

Even though it pains me to think of parting from them.

In a short time, our bond has been strengthened. Tested. Grown. There's still so much we have to discover about each other, choices we need to make, conversations to be had. But when I lost my family I didn't think I'd ever find anything like this—and I did, despite everything.

I can feel Ezriel's hand on my shoulder. His will in my body. And I know that next, he's going to turn me around and have me open the gate to Hell. So I mentally push at his grip on me, feeling for little cracks. And I pray that Reggie, Xavier, and David will be able to get free after I've done what I'm planning to do next."

"You know," the demon says conversationally, as he pries my bloodied hand from the open door and spins me around to face the second, more ominous door, "I wasn't the one who made this path out of Hell possible. So don't go blaming me. It was mages who did it—greedy mages, who wanted power over life and death. Blame them for what happens next."

"Oh, I do," I tell him. He doesn't seem to realize that us witches have plenty of bones to pick with mages. "But that doesn't mean you're going to get away with this."

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