“Never. We end this now.”

Alex was at my side, but I knew it wasn’t enough. That didn’t matter. There was no going back.

“You would try and best me? After you saw the carnage of the red caps, you think you could do better, you and your pet?”

Alex let out a long low growl. “There is no try.”

Of all the times for him to quote Star Wars, of course this would be it.

“You heard the wolf. Come on, bitch. Let’s see what you’ve got.” I beckoned to him, every part of me knowing it was too soon, this wasn’t the time. But I couldn’t let him take Milly’s baby.

With a roar he came at us and I bent my knees, the wind pushing me back along the stair well. Alex dodged around the floating mass and Orion ignored him.

Alex dove into the mass with flailing claws, the symbols he’d etched into the air coming to life in a blast of white fire that slammed Orion against the wall. “No hurts Ryleeeeee!”

The wind died, I leapt forward, and the demon disappeared.

“What the fucking damn shit is this?” All the rage, anger and fear poured out of me in a breath, and I had nowhere to direct it. Orion was gone. Just like that? No, it couldn’t be that easy.

Alex puffed up his chest and lifted his lips up, exposing his teeth. “Bad ass demon scared of me.”

I wasn’t so sure, in fact, I was damn sure Orion wasn’t scared. But something Alex had done was enough to throw him back. Maybe Erik hadn’t been full of shit after all.

“He didn’t expect you to know the rules. The werewolf’s heart and intent are pure.”

We turned to face the crumpled necromancer. Her eyes were as colorless as her hair, rimmed in red. Her skin pulled tightly over her face like she’d been starved.

“What?” Yeah, I couldn’t come up with anything more pithy than that with the raging emotions dancing along my nerve endings. In fact, she was lucky I wasn’t ramming my sword down her throat. She was helping Orion. Maybe I should kill her. I stepped forward as she spoke, my hand tightening around my blade.

“Orion is a coward. He will only fight when he believes he will win. But he will be back for this doorway. It is how he will take over the world.” Her eyes slipped closed, but her chest rose and fell with life.

“Why would you tell me this?”

“Because I hate him and want him dead. I cannot do it. You can. You are the only one. Kill him. Save us all. He is here in spirit only, not in form. He can’t last long on this side of the veil without a body, none of the powerful demons can.”

“And you?” I lifted my sword and pressed the tip into her chest over her heart. “If he no longer has you to help him?”

Her eyes flickered. “He will find another if he hasn’t already begun training one on the off chance I am killed. I wish this on no one, but my death would be a release. I will not fight you.”

I gripped my handle, indecision rocketing through me. “It will buy us time if I kill you, even if there is another necromancer in the wings.”

She gave me a half smile. “Yes. He needs me, but he needs the door open more. Not all demons can cross the veil as I open it.”

Like with Liam—my mind grasped onto that. Some demons needed the physical crossing. Maybe that would help stall them.

I loosened my hand on my weapon. Shit, I didn’t have it in me. Not when I knew she was right. Orion would find another and another. I would have to kill every necromancer in the world to keep this power from him. I dropped the tip of my sword.

“Your heart rules you,” she whispered. “That is as it should be. I will do what I can to stall him. I must go.”

A spark of light bloomed behind her, the wall disappeared, and she fell through, the slash in the veil closing as soon as she was immersed in the darkness on the other side. The black that she fell into was so deep I knew in my heart it was the last point of the veil. The seventh level. Nothing would be deeper, and that was where Orion was.

Where Milly and Pamela were.

Shit.

Chapter 10

On the first floor of the castle, I stopped in front of the doorway to the room where India had almost been possessed. We’d rescued two other children that night. One alive, and one very much not.

I couldn’t even remember their names. I put a hand to my forehead. If I couldn’t remember them, what the hell was I fighting for?

“Rylee.”

I lifted my head. Liam and Erik stood in the doorway to the mine, one looking pissed, the other looking relieved.

“We have to make other arrangements. We can’t use the sealed door.” I stepped forward.

“I scared a demon,” Alex said, his golden eyes serious.

Erik laughed, but Liam didn’t as his eyes searched my face. “How bad was it?”

“Could have been worse. The red caps are all dead.”

Erik stopped laughing. “What?”

“They’re all dead.”

Silence for a heartbeat then I finally asked, “Why are you two here?”

“Came to save the helpless princess,” Erik said. “And maybe try to make things right that went so very wrong in the past.”

Liam gave a sharp nod. “Very touching, but I think this would be better discussed not in a castle full of dead red caps.”

We filed down the hallway and while a small part of me knew I should be upset that Liam intended on coming after me, the majority of me wasn’t. I’d been on my own for years, it was pretty damn nice to know someone gave a shit.

Didn’t matter now, it was a moot point.

Erik was first to the doorway and he tugged on the handle. “Sticky-assed doors.”

“Sticky?” That didn’t sound good.

“Won’t open. What have you got us into now, Rylee?” Erik did not sound happy. If I didn’t know better, I’d think he was scared. I wanted to groan from the irony. I was supposed to be trained by a Slayer, and I got the cowardly one. Fucking hell, that was just peachy.

I thought about the red caps, what the captain said when the hoarfrost demons had come through.

“Damn, they blocked it. You can only come in I bet. Which means we need to find another way out.”

“The only way out,” Liam said, “Is through the front gate. Assuming any other doors we find within the castle are blocked like this one.”

I led the way back up the stairs and into the courtyard. The two men froze when the dead red caps came into view. The slice of moon took that moment to peer out from the clouds and illuminate the ugliness of the scene, the horror of it etched in blood and gore.