Heir of Night (The Thorne Hill)

“Good-looking?” Lucas grumbles, and I shake my head. Now’s not the time to get jealous, mister. “What did he do?”

“Nothing,” I answer. “He stood there looking at me and then shimmered away. I’m pretty sure it was an astral projection.”

“Paimon is still trapped in Hell,” Lucas denotes. “Is it possible for him to project out?”

“It requires a lot of skill to project yourself into another dimension,” Julian explains. “Callie is able to do it with ease when she astral projects to her Covenstead. Other witches are able to as well. Though that dimension isn’t as tricky as a hell dimension.” He tips his head as he thinks. “You said you used to communicate with Lucifer through dreams, and that was back when he was chained and locked up.”

I nod. “He said it was more me visiting him, but then eventually I think he was able to visit me. Though dreams work differently, don’t they?”

“Yes. You can travel more freely when you’re using a dream as a medium to get from one plane to the next.”

I bite my lower lip, sensing my familiars closing in on the area. Scarlet barks, running along with them. They haven’t sensed anything demonic—yet.

“If he can project out, I can project in.”

“No,” Lucas and Julian say at the same time. Second time in a day they’ve agreed on something.

“It’s much too dangerous,” Julian goes on. “If your astral form is trapped, what would happen to your physical body if you go into labor?”

I open my mouth only to close it again. I hadn’t thought about that. “I’d skip feeling the pain.”

“And then you’d wake up halfway through an emergency C-section and feel even more pain,” Lucas grouses. “Stop being so willing to put yourself and our daughter in danger.”

His words hurt a bit. I don’t want to put myself in danger, and I certainly don’t want to do anything that puts our baby at risk. “Isn’t Paimon being here enough danger? He was watching me, Lucas.”

“That doesn’t mean you immediately go to Hell.”

“I could question him,” I counter. “Tell him to fuck off and leave me alone.”

“Oh, and you think that would work?” Lucas takes his arm from me, spinning around so he can glower at me. “Stop it, Callie.”

“You stop it.” Magic sparks around my fingers, and I bring my hand up to zap Lucas in the shoulder.

“Both of you stop,” Julian says loudly, holding up one hand in between us. Bright yellow light vibrates from his fingers, pushing us both back. “Fighting isn’t going to do any good. Dividing you would only do the demons a favor.”

“That’s what the chaos demon wanted,” I mumble, letting out an audible sigh. Elena kicks me right in the crotch, as if she’s yelling at me to get along with her father too. Wincing, I wait for the feeling of lightning striking my cervix to subside and put both hands on my lower back, stretching in an attempt to get her to move.

“I will patrol the woods,” Julian tells us both. “Stay inside, Callie.” His blue eyes meet mine, and then he disappears, popping right over to the spot where the demon had stood.

“I’m sorry,” I tell Lucas.

“So am I.” He brings me to the couch. “I don’t want to get angry at you, Callie.” He brushes my hair back. “We’re better together.”

“We are. I don’t want to get hurt, really, Lucas. I don’t. Even before I got pregnant, I didn’t want to. With Paimon spying on me and the Horsemen off the radar, something big and something bad is coming, and it scares me. What kind of world is our daughter going to be born into?”

“The same one we live in.”

“How?” I turn so I can look up at his handsome face. “I still don’t have a plan, and everyday it’s like what I thought I could scrape together is even more farfetched. War and Famine acted fast. So fucking fast, and that’s what we saw.”

“I know,” he says calmly. “The others did too.”

“Others? You mean Pestilence and Death did something?”

“I can’t say it with certainty, though it seems it would be so.” He puts his hand on my thigh. “A large cattle farm overseas lost half their herd overnight due to an unknown virus.”

A chill goes through me. “That’s exactly what Lucifer said would happen. They all lead into each other. Pestilence kills livestock, feeding into Famine. From there, I can only assume the fear of going hungry will cause tempers to flare, and War can sweep in and make it all worse. And then Death…he’ll cause an earthquake or something and hurt an already-hurting nation.”

Lucas doesn’t disagree with me. My heart starts beating faster, and I squeeze my eyes closed. I need something, I beg to the universe. Give me something. Please. Anything to help us win this fight.