Page 6 of Phoenix Academy: Mayhem

"How will you stop me?"

My eyes go to the three shifters, who are shaking off their fierce battle with the demons. Bloodied and bruised as they are, they seem to be in one piece—thank Mother Earth. If I lost them, I'd never be able to forgive myself.

Deep within, I feel a crack in the control Ezriel has over me. A loophole, a break in the spider's web. He knotted me tight with my own magic, but what he doesn't know is that witch magic is primal. It comes from within. And it can be turned inside out if you know what you're doing.

As he pushes me against the door to Hell, eagerness on his face, I reach inside my pocket and grab the marble with my bloodied hand. The blood of my witch lineage on it awakens something within, and I feel words rise within me, the memorized spell on the tip of my tongue. Whirling away from the demon, I face the shifters and throw the marble with my mother's spirit inside it.

While it arcs through the air, I shout the words of the spell Ezriel used.

"Veyasa cordana eert!"

My mother's spirit bursts from the marble. As soon as her feet land on the ground, I shout to her and my guys, "Get out of here, now! Mom—get them to safety!"

Then I turn to Ezriel and grab his shoulders. He snarls at me, grabbing me back, his fingernails twisting into talons that dig into my skin.

"You will open that door for me!"

His voice is full of command. I shudder at the force of it, but continue to resist. "I refuse. You have nothing over me now. Xavier, Reggie, David, get out! Get to safety! Mom, please!"

Together the four of them break out into a run. As my mother's spirit races towards the door to Earth, he turns to her and throws a ball of energy at her that makes her fly through the air. The shifters keep running, but they don't head towards the door—instead they come right for me and Ezriel, and barrel on top of the demon, throwing him to the ground.

I scramble back, heart racing. The demon throws the panthers and wolf off him with a roar of anger. Yet again they go flying through the air; when they land, my heart feels like it's breaking at the sound of their cries of pain. Beaten and battered as their shifter bodies are, all three of them begin to shift back into their human forms, looking weak and half-dead, barely capable of fighting anymore. But despite that they rise to their feet again, staring at Ezriel as he grabs my wounded hand and yanks it towards the Hell gate.

"Open it," he commands, and I feel my magic twist and try to control me. "Open the door to Hell, or so help me, I'll gut you, eat your entrails, and choke you you with your own severed feet."

Creative, but I'm not afraid.

Instead, as I face the Hell gate, I feel a moment of clarity.

What I'm planning might actually still be possible—even though my plans have suddenly changed.

I was going to throw Ezriel through the gate to Hell and shut it behind him.

As he forces my hand against the opening rune, though, I realize I won't be able to. He's connected to me by my feral magic whether I want him to be or not. There's no changing that, not anymore. So if I send him to Hell, I have to go with.

I spare a moment to look back at my mother's spirit. She's gotten to her feet again. She's just as beautiful as I remember. Her eyes are sad and desperate though, and I know she stayed here to be with me.

It's time for her to move on.

Maybe if I do this, she'll finally be able to.

And maybe my familiars, who are already forcing their bodies to tense again, prepared to fight on my behalf, will survive if I'm gone.

Whatever is down in Hell can't be worse than what my father did to me and my sister. That day still haunts my nightmares. It makes the world around me feel a little less alive. Hell can't be much worse than that.

I willingly say the strange, ancient words that will open the Hell gate.

"Elahayra pià moralis ci bhet."

Ezriel crows in delight.

His hand is tight on my wrist.

As the gate begins to creak open, untold horrors surging on the other side, slathering maws and dripping fangs, I turn my fingers around.

I grab the demon's hand.

Feel for the connection that ties us.

---