“This waiting thing is kind of making me need to pee,” Charlie commented quietly.
Ari shot him a look over her shoulder. “I told you to pee before we left.”
“Yeah, I did. It’s funny how fear can shrink your bladder to the size of a walnut.”
Jai glanced back at him now. “You’re doing fine.”
“You won’t be saying that when I pee myself.”
Trey grinned and attempted to be helpful. “Actually, although fear can weaken the bladder, it can also tense it up. Let’s hope you’re that kind.”
“You have much experience with fear and tense bladders?”
Trey gestured to the clearing. “Had my throat slit right in this clearing. That was kind of scary.”
Ari winced and Jai shot Trey a disbelieving look. Charlie made an almost humorous squeak. “Is he kidding?” he asked Ari. “Please tell me he’s kidding. No one said anything about throat cutting. I’m rethinking this whole shark-chum thing. I’m not really a brave guy.”
“Yes, you are,” Ari told him sternly. “Now tighten up that bladder and be quiet. Please.”
He answered her with a minute of silence before murmuring, “A little gratitude would be nice.”
She’d just flashed him a shaky grin when the oak off to the side of her began to shimmer. All of them sensed it and her magic immediately sought Jai’s and Trey’s, ember colliding, sparks flying.
Lilif stepped out of the Cloak. She smirked and then narrowed cold eyes on Ari. “My brother abandoned you, then? You think you can take me on alone?”
Asmodeus! Now!
The tall, dark jinn burst out of the peripatos with renewed determination and as he lunged at a shocked Lilif, Ari could see the raw pain in his face fueling his need to end this once and for all. She almost thanked the heavens for it and hoped his expression meant this was the end. Lilif shot out a charm at the four of them before Asmodeus knocked her to the ground, but the charm bounced off the strong protection enchantment they’d created around them. With one last look at Jai, Ari blurred across the clearing and latched onto Asmodeus … and then the world was whirling and spinning and rushing and tumbling and sucking and squeezing and crushing …
She came to a crashing halt, her back on warm sand, a low sun casting heat across a darkening desert. It was a landscape she remembered from her visions when Lilif and the seal were inside her.
Asmodeus had taken them to an old battleground. He’d taken them to the place Lilif had once sought to kill him.
Lilif’s roar of outrage split the rapidly changing sky. It was almost indigo now. Ari jerked into a sitting position and saw Asmodeus and his sister wrestling, ember-glowing fists crashing into concrete air as they magically defended themselves against one another.
A dagger suddenly appeared in Lilif’s hand and Ari was on her feet, rushing toward them as Lilif brought the blade down into Asmodeus’s back. He grunted and rolled off, twisting his arm behind his back, his magic drawing the dagger out. Ari leapt at Lilif before she could disappear into the peripatos.
Lilif slashed long fingers as Ari descended upon her, and Ari felt the painful burn of stinging scratches across the left side of her face before she landed on the wicked sultana.
Ari’s hands immediately sought Lilif’s throat and she squeezed, trying to restrain her, weaken her before she brought down her final blow. But soon Ari found it was her own hands that were weakening as the tingle of alien magic wrapped itself around her wrists and crawled up her arms. She started to tremble as the magic ate away at her nerves and her grip loosened.
Roles instantly reversed. Ari found herself on her back with Lilif’s hands around her throat. Trying not to panic, Ari threw the heel of her palm up and caught Lilif in the nose, immediately following with a winding punch to the solar plexus. Lilif’s grip slackened slightly and Ari held both hands up, ember shooting out of her body as she blasted Lilif’s body off hers.
Ari cursed under her breath and shoved all the energy she had into flying after Lilif. She couldn’t let her get far enough away to disappear. She tangled with Lilif again, and thus began a dance of magical blows, scratches and cuts, heads banging against the hard, sandy ground, limbs kicking and colliding with bruising impact. The fight was exhausting, sweat pouring down Ari’s body, but she persevered, waiting for that in when she could conjure the sword from Michael Roe’s office and use it to end Lilif’s life.
If she didn’t do something soon, she was going to have to break her promise to Asmodeus. He would be the one who’d have to kill Lilif. Ari was weakening. She couldn’t keep up the fight much longer.
With the upper hand, Ari screamed with desperation as she yanked Lilif by the hair and smacked her face down into the sand. Seizing her moment, she conjured the acinaces sword and raised it to make the final blow when Lilif, as if sensing her imminent death, whirled around and plunged a dagger into Ari’s stomach.