Chapter 19 Chapter 18
I didn't meet Azrael at midnight.
Instead, I spent the hours until dawn in Kael's private chambers, poring over every text we could find about the Veil's creation. Not because I'd definitively chosen the vampires over the demons, but because I refused to make a decision based on fear and desperation. I needed more information. More options. More time I didn't have.
"This passage mentions anchor points," Kael said, his finger tracing ancient script. "Seven locations around the world where the original witches performed the ritual simultaneously. If we could identify those points, maybe we could reinforce them without recreating the entire spell."
"Reinforce them with what power?" I rubbed my exhausted eyes. "I'm still just one witch, Kael. Even if I knew where every anchor point was, I don't have the strength to reach them all, let alone repair them."
"What if you didn't have to go to them?" He pulled out another book, this one with diagrams of magical theory. "What if you could create a resonance? Use your connection to the original magic to send pulses of power through the existing network. Like jump-starting a failing heart instead of replacing it entirely."
It was creative, I'd give him that. But I could already see the flaws. "That assumes the network is still intact. If the anchor points have degraded too much, there might not be anything left to resonate with."
"Then we test it." Kael stood, pacing his room with the restless energy of someone who'd been sitting too long. "We go to the nearest anchor point. You try to connect with it, see if you can feel the original magic. If it works, we have a solution. If it doesn't, we know we need a different approach."
"And if the Council decides they don't have time for tests?" I asked quietly. "If they decide four days isn't enough and move forward with the sacrifice option?"
He stopped pacing, and through the bond I felt his conflict intensify. "Then I take you and we run. I've been making contingency plans. Safe houses outside the city. Allies who owe me favors. We can disappear long enough to figure this out on our own terms."
"You'd abandon the Court? Centuries of loyalty, just like that?"
"For you?" His silver eyes met mine. "Yes. Without hesitation."
The bond flared between us, amplifying the truth of his words until my chest ached with it. This wasn't just the magic talking anymore. Somewhere in the past month, between the training and the research and the forced intimacy of sharing emotions, we'd become something real to each other.
"Kael—"
A knock at the door interrupted whatever I'd been about to say. Kael tensed, and I felt his immediate shift to alert vigilance. Nobody knocked on his private chambers at this hour unless it was an emergency.
"Enter," he called.
A vampire guard stepped in, her expression grim. "Sir, there's been an incident. The Crimson Court has a rift opening in their territory. A major one. Queen Morgana is requesting the Shadow Witch's assistance immediately."
My stomach dropped. "How major?"
"Big enough that demons are pouring through faster than they can contain. Civilian casualties are mounting. If we don't close it soon, the entire neighborhood will be overrun."
This was it. My first real test. Not a controlled demonstration or a training exercise, but an actual crisis where lives hung in the balance.
"Tell Morgana we're on our way," Kael said. Then to me, "Get dressed. We leave in five minutes."
I rushed to my room and changed into the tactical gear the Court had provided. Black reinforced clothing that would move with me and, hopefully, protect me from at least some damage. When I emerged, Kael was waiting with a strike team of six vampires, all armed and looking ready for war.
"The plan is simple," Kael said as we moved through the Court toward the garage. "We get you close enough to the rift to work your magic. You attempt to close it using whatever method feels right. We keep the demons off you while you work. Questions?"
"About a hundred," I admitted. "But no time for answers."
"That's becoming a theme," he said dryly.
The drive to Crimson Court territory was tense and silent. Through the windows, I could see the Chicago skyline, and even from this distance, I could see the wrongness. A dark smudge against the sky, like reality itself was bruising.
As we got closer, the damage became apparent. Buildings with shattered windows. Cars overturned in the streets. And bodies. Human bodies that hadn't gotten away fast enough.
"Oh god," I whispered.
"Focus," Kael said, his hand finding mine. "You can't help them by falling apart. Save the grief for after we stop this."
He was right, but it didn't make it easier. These people had died because the supernatural world's problems had spilled into theirs. Because the Veil I was supposed to fix had failed them.
We pulled up to what looked like a war zone. Crimson Court vampires fought demons in the streets, their supernatural speed and strength barely keeping pace with the number of creatures pouring through a massive tear in reality. The rift hung in the air like a wound, pulsing with dark energy and growing larger with each passing second.
Queen Morgana appeared beside our vehicle the moment we stepped out, moving faster than I could track. "Shadow Witch. Finally. My people are dying. Close this rift now."
"I'll try," I said, looking at the massive tear. "But I've never done anything like this before. I need—"
"You need to succeed," Morgana interrupted coldly. "Because if you don't, everyone here dies. Including you."
Not exactly inspiring, but I understood her desperation. Through the rift, I could see the Shadow Realm beyond. A landscape of red sky and black stone, and shapes moving in the distance that were far larger than the demons currently attacking.
I reached for my power, feeling the shadows respond. But as I tried to extend them toward the rift, they recoiled. The tear was radiating energy that my magic recognized as wrong. Foreign. Incompatible.
"It's not working," I gasped. "My shadows can't touch the rift. It's like trying to grab smoke."
"Try harder," Morgana snarled.
"That's not helpful," Kael snapped back. To me, he said through the bond, "Stop thinking of it as something to grab. The Veil isn't made of shadows. It's made of intention. Will. The original witches willed reality to separate. You need to will it to reconnect."
"I don't know how to do that!"
"Yes, you do." His hand squeezed mine. "You've been doing it all month. Every time you pulled your power back from exploding, every time you shaped shadows into exactly what you needed, you were imposing your will on magic. This is the same thing. Just bigger."
A demon broke through the defensive line, racing toward us. Kael moved to intercept, but I was faster. I thrust out my hand and willed the demon to stop. Not with shadows or weapons or any physical force. Just with the absolute certainty that it would not pass.
The demon hit an invisible wall and bounced back, confusion flickering across its monstrous face.
"That," Kael said. "That's what you need to do to the rift. Will it closed."
I turned back to the tear in reality, and this time, I didn't reach for my shadows. I reached for that deeper well of power, the one that came from being a Shadow Witch, from carrying the blood of the women who'd created the Veil in the first place.
I looked at the rift and thought, with every fiber of my being: Close.
The tear shuddered. The edges began to draw together, slowly at first, then faster. Demons shrieked and dove through before it sealed completely, and the vampire forces rallied to contain them.
But the rift was closing. I was actually doing it.
Then something grabbed me from the other side.
A massive claw, easily as large as my entire body, reached through the diminishing opening and wrapped around my waist. I screamed as it yanked me forward, off my feet, toward the rift that was still large enough to pull me through.
"Seraphine!" Kael's voice was raw with panic. He grabbed my arms, pulling back, but whatever had me was stronger. Through the bond, I felt his terror mixing with mine.
Other vampires joined him, all pulling, but the demon on the other side was immense. Ancient. Powerful beyond anything I'd faced before.
"Let her go!" Morgana's voice rang out, and I saw her eyes begin to glow with power I'd never witnessed from her. She was a Queen for a reason.
But even her power wasn't enough. I was being pulled toward the Shadow Realm, toward a fate I couldn't imagine, and the rift was still open enough to drag me through.
Then, impossibly, the shadows around me surged. But not my shadows. Azrael's.
He appeared out of nothing, stepping through his own portal, his face a mask of fury. "Get your hands off her," he snarled at whatever demon had me.
He grabbed my other arm, and suddenly I was caught in a three-way tug of war. Kael and the vampires pulling one direction. The massive demon pulling another. And Azrael in the middle, using his demon strength to counter his own kind.
"The rift!" Azrael shouted at me. "Close it now! While I'm holding you!"
I gathered every scrap of power I had left and threw it at the tear. Close. Close. CLOSE.
The rift snapped shut with a sound like reality breaking and healing in the same instant. The demon's claw was severed at the closing point, and I fell backward into Kael's arms, the massive appendage still wrapped around my waist.
For a moment, nobody moved. Then Kael carefully pried the dead claw away from me, his hands shaking with a combination of relief and residual fear.
"Is she hurt?" Morgana demanded.
"Bruised but intact," Kael said, helping me stand. "The rift is closed."
"For now." Azrael stood separate from the vampires, his amber eyes fixed on me. "But that wasn't a random demon. That was one of my father's generals. He was specifically trying to capture her."
"How did you know to come?" I asked.
"Because I've been watching the rifts too." He glanced at the vampires surrounding us with distrust evident. "Monitoring demon activity. When I felt the surge of power from this one, I knew it was a trap. Knew my father would use it as an opportunity to take you."
"Then we owe you thanks," Morgana said, though the words clearly tasted bitter. "You saved the Shadow Witch when we could not."
"I don't want your thanks." Azrael's eyes never left mine. "I want her to stop walking into death traps. But apparently, she's determined to save everyone even if it kills her."
Through the bond, I felt Kael's complicated emotions. Gratitude that Azrael had helped. Jealousy that the demon had been the one to save me. Relief that I was alive. And underneath it all, growing certainty that this was only the beginning.
"We need to leave," Kael said. "Before another rift opens. Seraphine needs rest."
"Seraphine needs protection," Azrael corrected. "My father just declared war on her specifically. Nowhere is safe now. Not the vampire Courts. Not anywhere in this city."
He was right. And I could feel it through the bond. Kael knew he was right too.
Everything had just gotten so much worse.