“Old English word for bat.”

  “He’s binding himself to one of the bat-winged bastards? Why?” And which one? There were easily a dozen of them.

  “Good question. No answers.”

  “Helpful.” She sucked in a breath. “If I open the portal now, can you and Aidan drive the demons through before he’s finished.”

  “Portal?”

  “No time to explain.”

  Sebastian looked like he wanted to ask more but knew she was right about the time. “How close is he to being finished?”

  “Too close. Another few minutes.” The good and bad thing about a witch’s spellcasting was that it took time. Not instantaneous magic. No wizard bolts and energy bolts to call quickly and use as weapons. But witch magic, once cast, could pack a serious punch.

  In this instant, if the man finished, that would be bad.

  “Right.” Sebastian almost absently sliced his sword to one side, knocking an incoming bat-winged demon up and back, sending it screeching into the trees. One of the lava-skinned creatures was heading toward Aidan. And the other two men responsible for this mess had worked around to the other side of the still-bound blue blob demon, which meant they were attempting to free it again.

  Bad enough they had all these different demons to worry about, but the three humans working against them just made everything worse.

  The gray tentacled demon managed to slither up behind Aidan, though when it lurched at her, it came up hard against her will and froze in place.

  If Angie had a shield that worked that good against demons, she’d have it cast all the time. But Angie didn’t have the will of a demon hunter. Her will was strong, or she couldn’t control her own magic, but different to the will of a hunter, different to the will Aidan was exerting to hold off the demons converging on her.

  “We have to help her,” Angie said. “We have to do something.”

  The second sentence wasn’t even out of her mouth before Sebastian was off. But he didn’t head toward Aidan. He ran, sword at his side, toward the men at the back of the stone circle. And the three bat-winged demons coming up behind them.

  Too many demons. Three humans working to free more. Only two hunters. And her.

  And she was in over her head.

  She watched in horror as the freed demons in the clearing all converged on the stone circle, on the three humans and two hunters. None of them were coming for her anymore. That gave her breathing space, but also too much room to panic as she watched things unfold and didn’t know how to help.

  Distraction. That would have to do. The demons needed to be distracted from the hunters.

  “I’m triggering the second spell,” she shouted at Aidan in warning.

  The hunter’s only response was a slight lift of her hand, but she hadn’t taken her gaze off the man who’d cut himself and was attempting a binding with a demon.

  Angie, let out a long breath, murmured the last word of her spell and made the last hand gesture to release it.

  For a long moment, nothing happened. Angie watched as Sebastian engaged the gray tentacled demon with his sword. As Aidan raised a hand to hold back the bat-winged being that dropped toward her. As the man who was invoking the binding spell looked up and smiled.

  And then…

  Fireworks.

  Well, some fireworks. And sparkles. And a myriad of running rainbows. And butterflies that glowed in the dark.

  All dancing around the clearing.

  The moment’s pause. The looks of confusion from the human men. The way the demons turned to swat at the dancing, shimmering lights.

  Angie might have laughed if there hadn’t been so many demons still free and wandering around.

  The man who’d been about to set his binding spell fell silent as he spun in a tight circle, taking in the flashes of light and noise. The fireworks sounded like fireworks, high pitched whistles followed by pops and crackles and sizzles and occasional booms. The sparkles came with a little whizzing sizzle of their own. The running rainbows sang a song every time they jumped past.

  The only silent things were the illuminated butterflies which flittered suddenly around in front of everyone, seeming to come out of nowhere and ignoring all efforts to brush them away.

  “Now,” Aidan called.

  Angie didn’t hesitate. She probably should have. She hadn’t really braced for this. But they only had this narrow window.

  She faced the tree with the natural V in its trunk and looked through that V…

  Into a demon realm.

  CHAPTER SIX

  The realm beyond the V in the tree trunk was a fire and brimstone kind of place. Volcanic activity far off in the distance. The sound of black ground tinkling like glass as it cooled over rivers of rolling, red hot lava. Heat pulsed in the air, shimmering eddies distorting the views beyond. The stench of sulfur reached her, faint at first, then almost overwhelming as the rotten egg flavor coated her tongue.

  Angie swallowed her revulsion and kept her gaze on the realm breach she’d opened.

  As long as she stared, the portal stayed open. As long as she kept her gaze on the space between the V, things could move between the realms. Even without looking at it, she was always aware of these holes, these thin places, where the barriers between realms were little more than tissue paper.

  But until she looked directly, until she poked a hole in the tissue paper with her gaze, the barrier held. Nothing got through.

  No one even noticed the thinness was there.

  Her gaze highlighted it, broke it open. And let the demons on the other side see her. See the opening. She wasn’t sure why her gaze opened a portal into demon realms. She didn’t care much about the whys. She cared about controlling the ability—curse?—and not opening these breaches. Ever.

  Except now, when the hunters, when Aidan had called on her for help, she couldn’t refuse. And she couldn’t help in any better way than this.

  But the hunters had to drive the demons through. She couldn’t do both.

  The breach caught her, the compulsion or spell or whatever it was kept her staring at the opening, unable to look away. She didn’t dare look away yet, but instinct made her want to. She wanted to tear her gaze from that stinking, red, hot realm so badly she shook. Fisting her hands, she held her ground even as the first bat-winged beast flew past her with an ear-piercing screech.

  It crashed through the tree, sucked back into the demon realm with a gross slurping noise that made her want to gag. Why did the process have to sound so disgusting?

  Another creature, this one of the lava-skinned monsters, suddenly filled the V between the tree trunk. It scrambled at the air in front of it, but the realm beyond still sucked it through, retaking it. Like to like.

  They would try to escape again, through the hole Angie held open. Even as another bat-winged creature flew into the breach, the first was attempting to fly out again. They could see the opening, they could return, but Angie couldn’t take her gaze off the breach to close it and lock them out yet. Not until the rest had been driven through.

  She wanted to look away and see what Aidan and Sebastian were doing. She heard some shouts. Heard Sebastian yell something. Another bat-winged beast raced past in her peripheral vision, spinning at the last minute as it attempted to avoid the gateway back to its realm.

  It might have been able to avoid getting sucked through if tentacles from beyond the breach hadn’t shot out just then to grab the bat-winged demon. The demon shrieked and struggled. The tentacles pulled and jerked the demon back into the hellscape.

  The gray beast reappeared inside the V. It smiled, with all its rows of sharp sharp teeth, its momentum from flinging the bat-winged creature behind it carrying it half out of the portal again. Only for it to be hit in the face by the second lava demon slamming into it. That carried both demons back through.

  Angie let out a breath.

  More demons went through. She lost count, her focus on holding the portal. How many more? How many were left? Had the blue blob demon been released? Had the witch binding himself to one of the demons finished his spell or abandoned it? Were Sebastian and Aidan all right?

  Questions she couldn’t answer. She wanted to close the portal and lock in the beasts that kept trying to get back out. But Aidan hadn’t shouted the signal. Even without that, Angie was aware there were still demons behind her, screeching their protests.

  She was so focused on her part, on keeping the portal open, ensuring the other demons could be tossed through, the sudden appearance of Sebastian at her side startled a yelp out of her. She’d be embarrassed about that later.

  He swung his sword up and over her head and another bat-winged beast went through the gap in the tree, crashing into the demons already there as they attempted to climb out again.

  Angie let out another little sound, but she wasn’t sure what the sound meant. Combination of startled and grateful for Sebastian’s help and worried about what had almost just happened, what would have happened if he hadn’t been there.

  “How are you doing this?” he murmured. “What are you doing?”

  “Get the rest through,” she managed between clenched teeth.

  She couldn’t explain now. It took all she had to keep the gateway open while not losing herself. She had to hold onto herself so she could close the breach. To be able to pull back from the compulsion to stare and hold it open.

  She fingered the pentagram hanging from her bracelet, letting the cold metal pattern ground her, keep her inside herself. A little shiver of its protective magic vibrated through her fingers. She pressed the charm tighter.

  Sebastian stared at the side of her face a moment longer, glanced back at the tree just as the green-scaled demon tried to crawl back into this realm. Sebastian swiped the reaching tentacles and the demon screamed in protest as one of its limbs landed in a steaming heap on the forest floor.

  The green disappeared back inside the hellscape, and Sebastian left his spot by her side.

  Another bat-winged beast flew past her head. How many left now? She hadn’t seen a blue blob demon in her peripheral vision had she? Was the one in the circle still contained?

  More shouting from behind her. A human scream that didn’t bode well. She wanted to look. She wanted to help.

  She couldn’t turn her back on the gateway she’d opened.

  A moment of noise, shouting, another human scream, and then to her surprise, a blue blob demon went barreling past her, as if of its own according, running toward the breach between realms the way demons from the other side kept trying to charge into this one. The blue demon roared, a sound like a cross between a lion and an elephant, but deeper and with a hiss at the end. No sound an animal in this realm could make.

  In its hurry to go through the open gateway, it knocked her sideways. Angie stumbled and nearly looked away from the tree too soon, before the demon got through. Strong hands caught her shoulders, holding her in place, keeping her upright until she could find her own footing.

  “How many are left?” she breathed.

  “That was the last,” Sebastian said near her ear.

  “Close it,” Aidan called. “Now.”

  Angie pressed her lips together, tightened her hold on the pentagram. The pervasive stench of sulfur coated her throat. She focused on the coolness at her back, at the warm hands gripping her shoulders, the much more pleasant scent of Sebastian. She leaned into him, and with an effort that wrenched, dropped her gaze.

  The sounds of protests and screeches from the demon realm echoed in her mind.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Keeping her gaze down, Angie turned away from the maple tree with its convenient V-shaped trunk. The movement brought her face to face with Sebastian. They locked gazes, and for a long moment she felt as compelled to hold his gaze as she’d felt staring into the other realm.

  She didn’t dare reach up and touch him. She felt too raw and was afraid she’d accidentally read something from him. Which would feel like an invasion of privacy in that moment. Bad enough he was touching her, but she was better at controlling that kind of contact, preventing an unintentional reading.

  Despite knowing she shouldn’t touch him, though, she very much wanted to reach up and cup his cheek. The impulse left her a little breathless.

  “Are you willing to explain?” he asked quietly, a mere murmur. “What you did? What happened there?”

  “Aidan didn’t tell you?”

  He shook his head.

  “I’ll explain. But not here.” He was a hunter and there was no point in not telling him. Aidan would when he asked anyway, she was sure.

  She was a little surprised Aidan hadn’t already told him, though. Explained why she’d bring a witch on a hunt. Angie would ask Aidan about that.

  But not here.

  She finally dragged her gaze away from Sebastian. The wrench less painful than pulling away from a demon realm, but strangely just as disorienting. She was still acutely aware of his hands on her shoulders as she hunted the clearing for Aidan and the other humans.

  One of the men, the one who’d been invoking the binding spell, was flat out on the ground, his hands against his head, panting and shaking and muttering something under his breath. The other two men were on the ground next to him. One had a hand over his arm, and a little blood leaked through his fingers. The other had his head between his hands. He almost looked asleep.

  For the first time, Angie really looked at the men, taking in their appearances. Each seemed a lot younger now than she’d thought at first. Close to her age, early twenties, maybe younger even. The witch who’d conjured the binding spell didn’t look old enough to have the control for such a spell. From the looks of him now, he probably hadn’t.

  “The binding spell?” Sebastian asked.

  “I’m not sure what it’s doing to him,” she said, “but he finished it. So he’s linked to…one of the demons.”

  “Still?”

  “Still. And the demon he’s bound to is in a demon realm now.”

  The man screamed then, a piercing noise that made Angie wince.

  “That seems like a bad sort of binding,” Sebastian said.

  “Yup.”

  She headed toward the witch, ignoring her twinge of regret at the loss of contact with Sebastian. She wasn’t sure she could help. She hadn’t ever learned how to break a binding spell a witch had invoked on themselves. But despite the idiot’s efforts to unleash demons on this realm—and she would love an explanation for that stupidity—she didn’t want to leave him as he was. The binding would likely kill him, but probably drive him insane before that.

  Aidan stepped from the shadows at the edge of the trees and fell into step next to Angie. “Woods are clear,” she said. “You okay?”

  “Been better,” Angie admitted. “I haven’t done that in years.”

  “You did good.”

  Angie snorted. Good? Well, the demons had gone through and were still on the other side without a whole host of them running loose in this realm, so she supposed that was good.

  They all stopped to stare down at the demon-bound witch. His eyes were wide open, the pupils shrunk to a pinpoint leaving almost all dark brown iris and lots of white. His white skin was so pale he looked nearly translucent in the dim light from the candles still remarkably flickering around the stone circle. Sweat beaded his forehead and upper lip.

  He screamed suddenly, sharply. The sound made everyone but the hunters jump.

  “Help him,” one of the men on the ground demanded.

  Aidan raised a brow at him. He was another white man, his hair a pale enough brown to be almost blond, his features sharp and angular. He was the one with the slice on his arm that he mostly ignored.

  “He did this to himself,” Aidan said. “And I’m not a witch.”

  Angie sighed. She was. But she didn’t know how to help him.

  “This is your fault,” the man with the cut hissed. “Do something.”

  “You’re not helping your case, mate,” Sebastian said quietly, a rumble of anger in his response that wasn’t in Aidan’s.

  “You cut him?” Angie asked.

  “I did,” Sebastian said with no evident regret.

  “You want something to stop the bleeding?” she asked the man just to see how he’d respond.

  “Fuck you.”

  Okay. So not worried about the fact that he could bleed out.

  During all this, the second conscious man kept his head in his hands, never once looking up. Angie could barely tell what he looked like except that he had shaggy brown hair and his hands were pale and trembling.

  Aidan leaned close to her and murmured, “Anything you can do?” She nodded down at the man who’d bound himself to a demon. “He’s an idiot, but…”

  Yeah, Angie got it. Even an idiot probably didn’t deserve what was happening in that man’s head at the moment. He screamed again, raw and loud, and while she didn’t jump this time, she did flinch.

  “Not sure there’s anything I can do.” That wouldn’t kill him anyway. But she didn’t say that out loud. She could brute force break his spell, maybe. But the consequences to his mind weren’t likely to be good. And her attempt to break a spell by brute force might not even work. She was a strong magic wielder, but still needed a lot of training. She wasn’t sure she trusted her skills with this unknown.

  “Could you try?” Aidan said. “Leaving him like this…” She gestured just as he screamed again. “He won’t survive much longer.”

  “Stupid to have done the spell in the first place,” Angie muttered. She leaned over the man, keeping a little distance because he was thrashing around now, arms and legs flailing, his eyes rolled back into his head so only the whites showed.

  This was not good. She hovered her hands over him, but the twisting magics of his spell were…fuzzy and unclear that way. She had to touch him.

  She did not want to touch him.

  “I have to touch him,” she murmured out loud to make herself do it.

 

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