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I ran faster.

“How did they get away?” Reginald Hubler shouted.

“I don’t know,” Samuel Castle snapped. “When I got here, I found the lockup empty and the demons feasting on one of them.”

“Get them back for me, Castle, or Anne will be the next one the demons feast on!”

“The human guards have them cornered in the abandoned church.” Castle sounded as mad and frustrated as I was, and Ireallywanted to know who Anne was. “I was on my way there when you and Darius ’ported in. Did you want to come, too, or are you going to hide here?”

I made it to the top of the hill and didn’t slow down as I charged the three men standing with their backs to me. I flung a net of power at Castle with one hand and clenched my katana in the other.

One of them was about to lose his head.

Castle went down hard, which startled Hubler. He stood there staring like an idiot, his mouth hanging open. Darius was quick, though, and whirled to face me. He looked like a young human guy with black hair and toast-brown skin, but I knew what he was from the fire burning in the back of his eyes.

“Finally. A good fight.” I grinned as we sized each other up. “All your other minions were too easy to kill, Hubler. I was almost bored.”

“You’re outclassed, boy.” Hubler had his ego back. He held up one hand and swirled a ring on his finger. “You sure you’re ready to join the big leagues?”

Heat blasted my face, plastering my hair to my head, and suddenly there were more djinn than I could count.

“Darius, to me!” Hubler called.

“Coward!” I hollered, but he and the first djinni were already gone.

45. Going to Get Ugly

Gemma

I watched Kerry’s night-light flicker and thanked God I’d managed to hang on to it. I didn’t want to die in the dark.

It was bad enough I was going to die alone.

He’s nearby,I tried to encourage myself.He won’t let me die. Not my Kerry.

I closed my eyes for a moment to picture his face and had to smile. I wondered if he’d remembered to shave recently, or thought to comb his hair. He’d probably been a terror these last few days and I almost pitied Gigi and the others. I could only hope he hadn’t killed Rome.

Don’t give up on me, Kerry! I want the chance to apologize. Then, if you’ll let me, I want to spend centuries making up for all the years you went unloved and thought you were unlovable.

When the bell dropped, the wooden supports had exploded in a shower of splinters that cut through my clothes like razor blades and a cloud of sawdust did its best to choke me. To make everything a thousand times worse, the heavy clapper, which was what had brained me, struck the bell and my eardrums had ruptured instantly.

I’d tried to scream for help, but knew they couldn’t hear me. Even after I healed my ears, I hadn’t been able to hear anything outside of my brass cell. And there was nothing they could do, anyway. Who could lift three thousand pounds?

Now, after tending to all my injuries, I was close to drained, which made me helpless and useless. Hysteria rose up in my throat. If someone didn’t get me out of here soon—

A rim of light formed around the bottom of the bell and I dodged the clapper to scoot back. Was someone setting up a circle? I didn’t want to go through another portal!

An inch at a time, the bell lifted until I could see a pair of red, laced-up boots on the other side.

“Gemma Shepherd?” The female voice sounded strained. “Can you crawl out on your own while I hold this thing up?”

I didn’t care if she was the foulest demoness of the Pit, I was leaving that space.

“Yes, I can do it.” My throat was so raw, I sounded like a frog.

I got to my knees and dragged myself forward as fast as I could, clutching my night-light in one hand. It seemed to take an eternity before I clunked my head on the underside of a pew and I realized I’d made it. Panting, I collapsed on the floor and rolled onto my back.

The red boots came back into my line of sight, then a girl a little older than me hunkered down nearby. She was tall and well-built and had the golden eyes of a cat.

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