“Oh, well, that’s fucking simple.” I snorted.

He bobbed his head, still scribbling away. “That’s what I always say.”

Doran stood. “I’m getting the other shamans. They can help set up a circle of protection.”

I sat and crossed my legs under me. “Jonathan, how long will it take?”

“Don’t know, never do.” His eyes were moving in completely different directions as he drew strange symbols in the book. I leaned forward.

“Not yet, Rylee. When the time is here, you will put your hand on the book and I will work around it.”

“Then what are you doing right now?”

“Reading those around me. The threads are wild with danger and death,” he whispered. The only sound was that of the charcoal scratching on the thick paper in front of him. I looked at Deanna and she stared back at me.

“I don’t want Will to die,” she said, her voice pitched low. “He can bring our people back from the brink at home. He has the charisma to do it.”

“I can’t promise anyone their life in this, Deanna, you know that. Hell, I can’t even promise my own life.”

She closed her eyes. “I have seen his death, Rylee. I will do what I can to stop it, and if you can . . . please, if you can and I am already taken down, will you try?”

Fucking promises and all tied to me. For the first time, I knew I couldn’t even pretend.

“No. I won’t. I have one job here, Deanna. You know that. How can you even ask me to set his life above mine right now?” Gods above, I sounded like a bitch, and I was from time to time, but right then I knew I was right.

Jonathan leaned toward me. “She isn’t feeling herself, I think.”

“What the fuck do you mean?” I stared at him, when I should have been looking at her.

Deanna launched herself at me, a copper blade in her hands and her eyes a distinct shade of red. The blade slammed into my stomach hard and she jerked it out for a second strike as I rolled her under me.

“Fuck you, Orion,” I screamed as I wrapped one hand around her throat and the other around her hand with the knife. I didn’t even have to say the word “go,” the demon was thrown out of her with a mere thought from me. For a second, Deanna was back in her body.

“I’m sorry, Rylee. So sorry. Tell my brother . . . .” her body went limp and her eyes flickered closed.

“I will,” I pushed her off and tried to sit up. The pain through my stomach slammed into me as I clenched my muscles.

“Rylee, get over here, let me take a look at you,” Liam called to me from the darkness. Berget added her pleas to his.

“Rylee, it’s bad. I can smell the blood.”

“How long until sundown?” I didn’t look at them.

“A few hours,” Berget said. “You can’t mean to go into the battle wounded? Oh my god, that’s exactly what you’re planning to do. Why would you do that?” She was crying, and the sound gutted me as surely as Deanna’s knife had.

I twisted to glare at them both and had to bite back the groan that rose to my lips. “And who would heal me? There is no one here. And nothing either of you could do.”

Berget held her hands out. “That’s not true, the shamans—”

The door banged open and Doran strode in followed by Louisa and Crystal. They were the last two female shamans, the rest had all been killed by their own Guardians as they’d been possessed by demons.

“The shamans have to hold down the protective circle, and if they heal Rylee then they will not have the strength. It is up to you, Tracker.” Doran was being particularly formal and I knew why.

This was it. The final battle was hours away and the tension rose around us like an electrical storm on the horizon.

“Do the circle, I will wait for Pamela.” I bit the words out and scooted closer to Jonathan. Doran held the door open and in trotted the remaining unicorns, Mer the ogre, Charlie and a few brownies, and a couple other supernaturals I hadn’t met, but I was guessing were members of Will’s Destruction. Will, of course, was already in the barn. But what shocked the shit out of me was that India was there, walking alongside Calliope.

“No, India, you’re too damn young!” She wasn’t even ten years old. She could not be in this battle against the demons.

Her hazel eyes met mine. “This is my world too, Rylee.” Her hand clutched Calliope’s thin mane and I realized another bond had been formed. For better or worse, we were going into battle with children.

That was it . . . that was my entire army to battle Orion and the demons. A weird sense of relief flowed over me. There was no way I was going to make it out of this alive and the finality of that understanding brought with it a strange sense of peace.

Liam let out a snort and began to pace. “Rylee, don’t. You aren’t going to die and you sure as hell don’t need to speed the process up.”

I turned my back on him, though it hurt both my body and heart to do it. “I know what I’m doing and this is the last time I’m asking you to trust me.”

Jonathan reached for my hand and I gave it to him, dripping in blood from gripping my stomach. “Pull back your Immunity, Rylee of the Blood, and I will show you the two paths that will be your choice.”

I did as he asked, peeling my Immunity away from my hand first, then up my arm and over my shoulders and head. Like pulling off a long sleeved shirt, I mentally tugged at it until my entire upper body was without protection. Through gritted teeth I spoke. “Is that far enough?”