Lark nodded. “You wouldn’t be any more welcome here than me if they thought that, I’m afraid.”

With a quick wave, I sent the rest of the crew away. Or tried to.

“Wait for us with Eve and Marco.”

Pamela shook her head. “I don’t want to be separated from you.”

Berget nodded. “Me, too.”

Then Alex who crossed his arms over his chest. “Me, three.”

Liam’s mouth quirked. “I’d say me four, but you might hit me.”

Lark shrugged. “Your circus, my friend. Your monkeys.”

Shit, this was not going as planned, but then, when had any of my salvages? The truth hit me hard. That was what I was doing. I wasn’t saving a single child or person, but all of them. Orion was the bad guy I was going to save a lot of someones from.

“You can come if you all promise to hide if Lark tells you to.”

Bella cleared her throat. “We could take them to the Enders Barracks. That way they are close enough to help, but we won’t have to take them all the way into the Spiral.”

“That’s a good plan, but what about the Enders?” Lark said as she finished wrapping her head in the cloth.

Bella looked away. “There are none left. Father disbanded them after you and . . . Ash were killed.”

Lark stiffened. “He’s not dead any more than I am. They stuck him in an oubliette too, farther away than me.”

Bella’s eyes softened as though she thought Lark was fooling herself.

This was getting us nowhere. “Fucking hell, we are not doing a therapy session, Lark. Get your head in the game.”

If I’d thought she’d stiffened before, it was nothing to the way her back snapped to attention with my words. “Let’s go.”

“Finally,” I muttered. We walked down the center of the Rim. The name of the place was a bit deceiving since there was no real rim, so to speak. The elementals had homes around the edges of a large oval that ran at least three miles in each direction if the clearing I saw was accurate. The homes were quiet and we made it to the Enders barracks without any problem.

Lark pried the double-wide wooden door open with her spear. “The rest of you, wait here.”

Peta leapt from her shoulder and shifted into her snow leopard form. Lark shook her head. “No, you are too recognizable. Go to the Traveling room and make sure the armbands are there; guard them. I have a feeling we’re going to need them.”

Peta let out a long, low snarl but did as she was told, albeit with stiff legs and a hunched back.

Like that, we were down to three and we skirted the edge of a large tree that literally spiraled into the canopy. It looked a hundred feet across, maybe more. The Spiral wasn’t made up of a single tree, though, but dozens wrapped around one another in, duh, a huge spiral.

Steps led up to the main doors. Another set of double doors that two guards stood in front of, both wearing clothing similar to what Lark had been wearing when we pulled her out of the oubliette. Brown leather vest and khaki type pants that were tied around their ankles, boots, and several weapons visible on both of them.

“Let me try and talk us in first,” Bella said softly. She stepped in front of us. “Blossom, I need to get herbals from the kitchens.”

The woman, I assumed was Blossom, crossed her arms over her chest and shook her head. “You know the rules. No one in or out of the Spiral during the dark hours.”

In my head, Jonathan’s threads trembled, a vibration that I’d felt only a few times before. Most recently with Milly and India.

“No time, demons have John!”

Side by side we leapt forward. My swords cleared my sheaths and I was on the guard on the right before he could even draw his weapon. I slammed the butt of my right sword into his temple, dropping him to the ground. Beside me, Lark grabbed the woman, Blossom, by her arms and threw her out of our way.

“Bella, get the others, we need them.”

Bella spun and raced away. Lark lifted a foot and kicked the door open. “Lead the way, Rylee.”

Locking onto Jonathan’s threads I raced toward him. No one got in our way, and I had a feeling I knew why. What would a demon do in a home where everyone was sleeping?

Take them out, of course. The only question was, which demon were we dealing with?

I took a deep breath and reached out to the motherfuckers messing with our world. I Tracked demons and got pings all over the place, the red pulsing energy that was them made my head hurt, there were so many. But it was the one closest to me that I centered on. He was right on top of Jonathan. I ran as fast as I could, but it was like I was on an escalator going backward, like no matter how fast I went, I was going to be late again.

Just like with Blaz.

My jaw tightened. “No, not again.” I slid to a stop, feeling Jonathan and the demon he faced right underneath us. “Lark.” I pointed down and she gave me a tight nod.

With a flick of her hand the ground below us—no, the tree below us—split open wide as if an axe had been driven into it.

I stepped back and glanced down into a shimmering mass of water.

“Leap before you look,” I said and jumped.

I hit the water, shocked when the heat washed over me. Hot springs then, not an underground lake.

For a moment, time stilled and a soft voice whispered over me.

Those who are chosen for greatness rarely want it, Rylee. You are doing well, my child. Very well, indeed, with the burden you have been given. The voice of an entity I’d never met and yet I knew her.