Page 133 of A Witch-ish Guide to Protectors and Pendulums

Our camp downwind from Göbekli Tepe.

Our camp downwind from Göbekli Tepe.

Our camp downwind from Göbekli Tepe.

It took everything I had in me to move a group this size and weighted down, but we needed this to work and so I fought through the pain to deposit them where they needed to be. On our third trip to the camp, Shafira grabbed my arm before we could leave.

“Luc was here but he could not stay. He is ‘working his angles’ whatever that means. He wishes Connor to call him when he needs him again.”

Connor turned to me, “Working his angle?”

“He’syourfriend. I have no idea.”

As a fallen angel, Luc could do whatever he wanted. We still had witches to move. Trip after trip, dozens of them, Connor and I moved the witches and Lilium to the camp. By the end, my head throbbed and I needed to recharge. Lily Joy and Agatha met me with a yummy rum tea cake and a mug of healing brew. I welcomed their offerings, hardly taking time to chew. I mean, it wascake. One didn’t get a booty like mine by hating cake.

Scouts volunteered to go out undercover, counting the growing numbers of demons and reporting back—a dangerous but necessary job. We needed the demons all present and totally unaware they were about to die. Hearing about the numbers of humans camped along with the demons hurt my heart, but I had to remind myself that not all humans were good and wanted the best for the world, but also, that most of them were forced to be there by possession or enslavement.

Connor’s phone rang with Luc on the other end. He asked Connor to put it on speaker so I could hear too. “You good?” he asked.

“So far,” I answered.

“Right. So I got tired of waiting for Connor to call. You need to know what I’ve been up to.”

“What have you been up to?” I asked.

“I’ve been creating wards, gathering up all the hellhounds and rounding up more witches.”

“Wow.”

“Wow is an understatement, but I need your help—you and Connor. I need to know your exact coordinates to set up ourcamps in the right spots. We’re surrounding the demons from all sides.”

“Two camps of witches?” Connor asked.

“Not even close. I popped back to Antarctica and guess who’d been eaten?”

I swallowed hard. “Kimaris was eaten? By what?”

“Remember that monster who scared the demons? It’s real. Ancient. They call him ‘Átahsaia.’ He was created by a few of our disgruntled upstairs neighbors who didn’t much care for the creation of Hell or the offices of Hades. As I was busy setting up shop, he flew under my radar. When the continents broke apart, he ended up down in Antarctica because they’d neglected to give him anything useful like flight. For a bunch of Kevins and Karens who were always up in everyone else’s business, they certainly weren’t that smart.”

“So how did you get away?” I asked.

He chuckled. “Not a demon, sweetheart. He’s actually a decent guy, but he’s ravenous after all these years of fasting.”

Átahsaia. A demon eater. We had a demon eater on our team. I left Connor to the coordinates, then he and I manifested to meet Luc. Maybe I was biased, but hellhounds were a good-looking bunch. Several men took their lives in their hands by turning their swagger my way. Everyone of them knew the Baghests were hellhound royalty—well, practically. They didn’t actually have a monarchy, but if they did—all hail the Baghests. Still, Baghests or not, it appeared that hellhounds thought highly of themselves. I laughed and laughed at their antics and Connor’s reaction to them. I kept them cloaked while the wards got put in place. We’d left Sim back at our camp. I thought it best not to risk tangling up a bunch of unruly hounds in poisonous vines as that sort of screameddisaster waiting to happen.

“Witches next,” Luc said. “They’re coming up through a portal.” Connor shot me one of his smug, ‘what did I say?’ looks,to which I responded with a ‘don’t go there’ of my own. He shook his head, snickering. And on that note, we gave our ‘goodbyes’ and ‘be safes’ to the hellhounds, then I manifested Luc, Connor, and me to the area of the portal. This one was trickier because we had to place wards inside the tunnel to keep demons from entering the camp that way, along with placing them around the perimeter.

More witches than I’d realized existed started funneling up through the portal into the basecamp we’d set up. But it was when regular non-magic humans started following them up that I just about lost it. Men and women with no abilities aside from courage and love for their children and grandchildren, who were willing to put their lives on the line to make a safe future for their loved ones.

“Connor,” I cried in his ear. “They can’t be here.”

He held me tight to my spot. “They volunteered.”

“But they’ll be slaughtered. I can get them safe.”

“Everyone has a stake in this fight. They understand the risks and are willing to fight for what they believe in.”

I gasped as I remembered the protection stones—plus, you know, my brother. Along with Sim’s plant protection duty, our crystal witches had spent hours creating necklaces with protection stones. “We need to head back to camp. The witches—they made things that could help them.”

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