Page 135 of A Witch-ish Guide to Protectors and Pendulums

I sighed. I knew what he meant. “Can anyone truly feel ready for something like this? But it seems a little too late to catch a bus to Hollywood and try to fulfill my secret dream of becoming a famous actress. So I might as well do this.”

“You wanted to be an actress?”

“No. Just trying to?—”

“I know what you’re trying to do, babe. No one will get to you. On my life, no one will get to you.”

On his life. We’d hardly had time to be a couple, yet here we were ‘on my life’ing. It sucked. We were mated. What kind of life would I have without him around, being all grumpy andbossy? I leaned in to press a kiss to his lips. I wanted him to know everything in my heart at this moment. He wrapped an arm around my back, tucking me in closer to his body. We sat that way for a little bit. Not speaking, just being together, right up until Lily Joy approached us.

“I’m sorry to interrupt, but it’s almost time.”

Almost time. Right. I stood first, pulling Connor to his feet. I supposed they needed me to say something. Luc had gone back to the other witch camp. Where was Bill Pullman and hisIndependence Daypresidential speech when you needed him? Five hundred years from now, that would still ring true as one of the most iconic inspirational speeches in movie history. But right now, all these people had was me.

“Everybody,” I called out and the groups of witches and Lilium stopped talking, turning to face me. I looked as many people as possible in the eyes. They deserved to see my sincerity. “When the alarm goes off, we will launch an offensive the likes of which the world has never seen. All of us magic holders. You were given your power for this reason.Thisreason.” I paused for effect. “We will fight a threat greater than humanity has ever seen. A demon uprising has never been recorded in all of human history. Today, we must put aside our differences and cling to what bonds us. Life. Love. Future.” I paused again to swallow and just breathe. “We stand together or we fall apart.”

At that moment, the alarm beeped.

War.

Chapter

Thirty

Both Connor and Madigan dropped into their hound forms. Come hell or high water, this was it. “For Sparta!” I shouted, because300. It seemed relevant to the situation. I ran for the opening we’d kept clear from poisonous vines exiting the camp with Connor at my side. I saw my brother and Madigan run through a different opening out of the corner of my eye.

All around me, witches, Lilium, humans, and hellhounds ran into battle. Átahsaia moved with graceful quickness. The whole of the world magic holders—we had to be at least a million strong—rushed into battle, taking the demons completely off guard. We descended into their camp just outside Göbekli Tepe in an attack they never saw coming.

Demons scrambled to organize and retaliate, but they came out swinging with everything in their arsenal. Blades, bombs.

I heard a scream and turned in horror to see Adalaide, the leader of the Western Australian Coven, fall. “No!” I screamed and brought down a half dozen demons at once. Átahsaia double-fisted two demons. Ripping the head off the first, he sucked the insides out, dropping the lifeless body to the ground to disintegrate into ash as it hit the dirt. He tore the head fromthe second demon consuming his insides and dropping him almost on top of the first.

Hellhounds ripped into demons, shredding them.

But this was far from a slaughter. Demons fought with a fury that rivaled the deadliest wars in human history. When a winged devil launched into the sky, I shouted to our fighters below it as the beast dropped black powder onto them. It burned through the flesh of everyone it touched. So many of them dropped, writhing in pain. My brother shot his hand up to the sky, causing dark-gray clouds to form, and he let loose a torrent of rain to wash away the demon poison. But he wasn’t done. He shot lightning from those clouds, disintegrating that winged devil.

Holy hell, my brother had power.

The other demons got that too and turned their attack on him. Madigan jumped in front of him in time to save him from the dagger that would’ve taken his life. She dropped. He screamed. I screamed, manifesting every destructive painful way to die my brain could come up with in the moment, directing my hits to the ones who’d hurt my sister-in-law.

Humans rushed to Madigan, lifting her. My brother, in a state, tried to fight them off, but they knew their job and they would try to save Madigan. Given what I’d just thrown out, the demons turned their attack on me. Three hellhounds surrounded my brother to give him protection and I watched as Lily Joy and Karro ran to his side. My family fought hard. I had to fight just as hard.

Demons kept pouring out of their camp. We had to be outnumbered ten to one at least. I found it hard to accurately math in times of crisis. Connor stayed at my side. A gaping, jagged cut on his shoulder that badly needed stitches oozed blood. I took my attention from the fight for just a moment, enough time to seal his cut, and got knocked on my ass. Connorlunged, ripping the demon’s throat from their body. It turned to ash. My tailbone smarted where I’d hit the ground hard.

While the chaos ensued around me, I felt him, and whipped my head around to find Beetle. He’d shown. I’d known he would—it was only a matter of time. But I had him in my sights and wouldn’t let him live. Not this time. I took off in a dead run, parting the sea of demons like a modern-day Moses.

“What are you doing?” Connor barked at me in my head.

“Beetle,” I yelled back, not letting up. Beetle was going down. Lily Joy, Karro, my brother, and Shafira must’ve seen me take off—I mean, I’d parted demons, that was probably hard to miss—and they ran alongside me. Simeon caught up to Connor and me. He needed to be here for my plan to work.

Luc held off the legions of demons while we raced to take out the man himself. When we’d just about reached him, Beetle raised his arms, and bringing them down fast, captured Connor, Sim, and me in this transparent cube-like cell along with him. Neither Lily Joy, Shafira, nor Karro was able to penetrate the invisible barrier muffling all the outside sounds.

“Beelzebub?” Connor said, shocked. “You’re Beetle?” He stood there completely naked, so I manifested him clothing because I felt like it put my mate at sort of a disadvantage. But manifesting was all I could do, as I found myself unable to even move a pinkie. Somehow, Beelzebub managed to immobilize us with this cage.

“Ah… Lucifer’s little pet,” he said, sneering at Connor. “So nice of you to join us.”

“What are you doing this for? You control the second-largest quadrant behind Luc.”

“Oh, you dumb dog—why have the second largest when you can have it all? Humans have everything, yet they still fight each other for more. Lucifer lost control of them years ago.”

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