Lark slumped against me and I caught her. Berget went to her other side, helping me pack. “She’s solid, isn’t she?”

Lark’s eyes flicked open. “You calling me fat, tiny fangs?”

Berget laughed. “Never.”

Lark gave a bare smile as her eyes fluttered closed. We carried her to the main cavern.

Alex hopped around. “Wow, you found someone! Who is it?” He stuck his nose right in her face, breathing her scent in. “Kinda smells like Griffin.”

Her eyes popped open and Alex scrambled back. She sat up. “Is Griffin here?”

“No. He said you would be pissed at him. Look, I know you probably have a shit ton of questions, and we can discuss it all later, but things are going from bad to worse at the moment.”

“I don’t have a lot left, Rylee.” She looked at me and I saw the pain there. The hurt and need for rest.

“Can you get us up top? Three hundred feet? The way you did in the labyrinth.” I was hoping to hell I was right and she could; otherwise, we had to wait until dark when the vampires could climb out.

Or someone came to get us.

Above, the ground shook and a sharp wind whistled down and through the mine, bringing us Blaz’s roar.

His pain lanced into me. I went to my knees, “Blaz hang on, I’m coming.”

You better hurry then, I’m about to have my ass handed to me alongside Pamela.

“Lark, send me and Alex through the earth, can you do that? Please.”

She tottered as she knelt. “Stand next to that wall there.” She pointed to the right. “Hang onto him, and hold your breath.”

Berget and Faris were arguing that I couldn’t go alone. I grabbed hold of Alex and he wrapped his long arms around me. “Here we go!”

“Close your eyes, Alex,” I said as the earth reached out and jerked us into it. I’d done this once before, and while it had been a long time ago, the memory was somewhat fresh. The ground churned as it pulled us upward in a wave of tiny organisms all working to push us where Lark directed.

Three hundred feet was a long fucking way to be shoved through dirt. My clothes tore and Alex’s back rumbled under my hands. Hang on, I wanted to tell him, we’re almost there. Ten seconds later and we were shoved into the bright North Dakota summer sun.

I couldn’t see, though. Around us the wind was whipped into a frenzy that looked like three tornados going at once. And inside one of them was Pamela. I latched onto her threads and my heart stuttered.

She was dying.

CHAPTER 26

Pamela

I jerked awake, my body on the ground at a weird angle. I wasn’t dead. How was I not dead? I put a hand to my head, the lump there evidence that I had been hit, I recalled that much.

Blaz roared, his snarls tearing at my ears.

Pamela!

I stumbled to my feet to see Nimbus floating above Blaz, directing a windstorm around the dragon.

He’d broken Blaz’s wings, ripped one part way off. Peta, Eve, and Marco were being held at bay within a tornado that danced off to one side, spinning them almost lazily.

I lifted my hands, Nimbus wasn’t even looking.

A voice came behind me. “Oh, no. That isn’t going to happen, my witch.”

I spun, shock hitting me almost as hard as the spell that wrapped itself around my body, holding me down. “Orion!”

He stood there, in Milly’s body, grinning down at me. “You didn’t think we were done yet, did you? Frank here was able to raise a nice, compliant spirit that knew where the Tracker went. Didn’t you, boy?”

She flicked her fingers, and Frank stumbled forward. His glasses were broken and he had cuts all over his face. Three of his fingers on his right hand were missing, the stumps dripping blood, the others were broken and hung at strange angles. My heart thumped. “Frank, I’m so sorry.”

“No, you did the right thing. Rylee is all that matters now.” His words were slurred and I realized his jaw was swollen and hung awkwardly. Orion had tortured him for the information. For the help he wanted.

I didn’t move, didn’t do anything but look over my shoulder. Deanna had taught me so many things. Things I didn’t think mattered. But I was wrong, they all mattered. I didn’t need to move my hand to direct my magic. I looked straight at Nimbus, throwing everything I had into knocking him flat. My power erupted out of me, shattering the hold Orion had.

Nimbus was hit square on, and flipped out of the sky. He hit the dirt hard, and lay there.

I spun to face Orion, but already he had recovered. “You will abide by your vow. To serve and obey me, on pain of your soul being cast into the deepest level of the veil.”

A gut wrenching pull yanked through my body. “No. I will not serve you, I renounce my vow!”

“It was made in blood, you fool!”

I shook my head, grabbed the fire elemental’s knife from the ground and slashed it through my left wrist. One last tool from Deanna. I could only pray it would work. “I renounce my vow, blood to blood, fire to fire.” I called up a bloom of fire and let it dance down my wrist. Searing, scorching pain lit my nerve endings, but I didn’t care. Orion screamed his fury, but only got one step forward. Hands shot up out of the ground grasping the demon around the ankles. “Leave her alone,” Frank said, standing beside me. I touched his back, sending everything I had through him in a desperate attempt to heal him. He straightened his back and I knew I’d at least helped a little.

The zombies continued to pull from the ground, clamoring over each other to get to Orion. They would pull him apart, limb from limb.