Page 114 of A Witch-ish Guide to Protectors and Pendulums

“He’snotthe leader,” Connor snarled. And I got it but this wasn’t helping.

“Why did they call the meeting here?” I asked.

He turned his head to me. “Because of Lucifer. It’s his quadrant.”

My stomach dropped and I felt all kinds of nauseous. “We have to get to Shafira and Karro,” I said.

“We need the amulet,” Connor returned.

He was right. I could drop Luc with my Taser fingers, but to end this, we needed to unite Lilith’s blade.

“You’ll forget all about this meeting the moment we leave,” I said to the man, manifesting that into reality. He neither nodded nor shook his head—more he sat in his chair staring at us like he’d missed our entire exchange. I grabbed on to Connor and popped us out of Monnie’s.

We touched down in the field next to Lily Joy’s cottage, the place I’d last seen my dear cousin. The house looked empty. I ran for the front door, using magic to push it open. “Lily Joy,” I shouted. “Lily Joy, it’s Simone and Connor. We’re back.”

Nothing. No one. Abandoned.

“Where could she have gone?” My heart hurt. “I feel like we take one step forward and fifty-seven steps back.”

“She’s okay. I know she is. Lily Joy is a powerful Lilium. But we don’t know where she is or what we’d be landing in if you manifested us to her. We want her unhurt, but the worldneedsyou alive, babe. We can’t risk it.”

“Don’t be logical with me, Baghest. I’m not in the mood.” I made the sorry attempt to lighten the atmosphere. It didn’t work.

“Let’s go upstairs and get your backpack.”

“What if it’s not here?”

“I highly doubt demons searched the place after we left. Their mission was to kill us. We got away. They were scrambling.”

That gave a little comfort, given how things kept going from bad to worse and I had no idea what came after worse. I didn’t want to know. What I wanted and what I got always seemed to fall at the far ends of the spectrum from each other. Pulling up my big-girl panties, I marched upstairs to the bedroom Connor and I had shared while staying here.

I immediately saw my backpack squished between the bed and the bedside table, where I’d stuffed it before all literal hell had broken loose and I sighed all the sighs. Every single one. The universe allowed us to take a big step forward.Thank you, universe!

Connor made it into the room right behind me, but I’d already bent down to retrieve the pack. I could be quick too, when I needed to be. With Connor next to me, I crawled onto the bed, leaning back against the pillow to open the pack, reaching inside to find the amulet. I pulled the ruby-red gem out, holding it protectively in my hand—not that I thought Connor would try to take it, we just had no idea when some janky demon might appear out of the floorboards and snatch it after catching us unawares.

At this point, we couldn’t discount any scenario, no matter how ridiculous it sounded.

“It’s hard to imagine that little thing will kill demons as powerful as the leaders of Hell.”

“Hades might be a nicer place to work, then,” I replied.

He shrugged. “I guess depending on who you work for. I know there’s a high rate of job satisfaction in Asmodeus’s quadrant—and I’ve always enjoyed working for Luc.”

We both fell silent. Luc. How could he have been involved? It didn’t make sense. The man had far too much pride in the Hell he’d built.

“What do we do now?” I asked.

“He’s not involved. He’s not. He’s being set up. You know Luc has the most territory. It’s a perk of creating the realm for yourself.”

“You have to be prepared if he is involved?—”

“He’snot,” Connor snapped.

I wrapped an arm around his waist, leaning my head on his bicep. “I have to get ahold of Sim. We need to meet. We need to join the hilt of Lilith’s dagger and the amulet to activate it. Then we need to end this.”

The grimoire poked painfully into the skin of my back in this seated position. I reached behind me to pull it from the waistband of my jeans, dropping it on my lap.

“So much trouble for this thing,” I said, casually flipping it open. And it appeared Lilith answered me in the form of an entry not there before. “‘Once the witches be slain, the world shall crumble in pain.’”

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