Rage and Ruin (The Harbinger 2)

“Deal with her.” Roth spun toward the dining area. “I’ll deal with them.”

Them happened to be the other twenty or so witches who were also levitating.

Faye lifted a hand, and the air seemed to vibrate above her palm. Her lips moved in a low, quick chant I couldn’t make out. A ball of fire appeared.

I darted to the side as the softball-size ball of flames hit the booth I’d been sitting in. The wood caught fire, swallowing the entire booth way too fast, reminding me of the fire the demon Aym had wielded.

“That was so not nice!” I spun back to the witch.

Instinct kicked in, and I could feel my grace powering down my arm, demanding to be used. I couldn’t. Not yet. Not with Bambi still on the witch. If I killed her, it would kill the familiar.

Another ball of flames formed above her hand as a shriek of pain and a blast of heat came from the direction of Roth. Faye’s gaze darted to our right.

I charged her, catching her in the stomach with my shoulder. She shouted as I brought her to the floor. The ball of flames flickered out as her body bounced off the hardwood. I went down with her, digging my knee into her stomach. She grunted as she swung her hand toward me.

“Oh, Hell no.” I caught her arm at the wrist and then the other. “No more fire tricks. Release Bambi.”

Faye tried to buck me off, but she wasn’t trained to fight, at least not physically. I easily restrained her, pinning her arms at her head. “Get off me!” she screamed.

“Not going to happen.” Another burst of hot air exploded, from Faye this time, and the air around her began to distort. Her skin heated under my hands, and holy crap, she was about to light up like the Human Torch.

Oh, Hell to the no.

I grabbed her by the throat, cutting off her air before she even realized she’d taken her last breath. “Don’t even think it.”

With her concentration broken, the heat evaporated from her body. Her lips peeled back, but no air was getting in or out. Not with my fingers digging into her windpipe. I needed to let up, or she was going to asphyxiate, but my hand stayed there. Rage consumed me, causing the fine hairs on my body to rise. It was like the night with the Ravers. The need to split skin and tissue was replaced with the desire to crush the fragile bones of her throat. I could do it. Easily.

Faye’s eyes bulged, her skin turning a violent shade of red as she opened her mouth, gulping for air that wasn’t coming.

Stop, I told myself. You need to stop or Bambi will die.

I forced my fingers to loosen and watched her drag in lungfuls of air. A tremor rolled through me. Cursing under my breath, I glanced at Roth and saw him holding a man several feet off the floor. There was no one else left. Nothing but piles of ash and piles of...

Oh, man.

Stomach churning, I quickly looked back to Faye. My gaze met hers, and as close as we were, I saw the panic behind the brimstone. It made her eyes look like orbs of fragile glass.

My fingers twitched, loosening even more. Faye had betrayed us—betrayed me. She needed me dead to be able to use parts of me for spells or whatever. She’d just tried to turn me into a great ball of fire. I’d known she had to die the moment I showed her what I was. Maybe I’d known that when Roth came to collect on his favor. Hell, I could’ve already known that deep down when we’d realized she’d betrayed us.

But she was afraid.

I could see it in her eyes. Fear and panic. Had Ryker’s eyes been like that? Everything had happened so fast then, but even if I had seen fear in his eyes, it wouldn’t have stopped me. Not after he’d killed my mother.

The shock I’d seen in Misha’s eyes hadn’t stopped me, either.

It wouldn’t stop me now.

Faye reared up, breaking my hold. She swung at me, her fist catching me in the jaw. It was a weak punch, but it got my attention.

Catching her flailing arms with one hand, I got her back where I’d had her before, arms pinned and hand around her throat.

“Release Bambi now,” I ordered, digging my fingers into her throat, putting just the right amount of pressure on her windpipe. “Say the words. Do it.”

Faye gagged as her eyes bulged. “If I do, you’ll kill me. You won’t with her on me.”

Appearing at my side, Roth knelt. “Just so you know? If Bambi dies because of your actions, I will drag out your death until you beg me to end it. And when you beg? I will hunt down every living family member of yours and they will pay for your transgressions. Then, and only then, after you’ve watched everyone you know and love die because of you, I will end your life.”

“Really?” I said to him.

He didn’t respond to me, still focused on Faye. “Do you understand me?”

The witch shrieked as I eased up on her throat. “I’ll be dead, so why would I care?”

“Really?” I repeated, staring down at her.

Faye took a deep breath and then stopped straining against me. Her body went limp against the floor. “Do it. Kill me. But I will never release the familiar.”

“Why?” I demanded.

“If I can’t have her, no one will.”

“Are you serious?” Furious, I jabbed my fingers into her side, cracking at least two ribs. She screamed. “Sorry. My fingers slipped.”

“Did they, though?” an unfamiliar voice demanded.

Looking up, I about choked on my own breath. A little old lady stood between two broken tables, only a foot or so from us. And she wasn’t just old. She appeared to be well over a hundred years old and then some. Tufts of snow-white hair framed a dark-skinned face. She was close enough for me to see how creased and wrinkled her cheeks and forehead were. Her pale pink shirt read WORLD’S BEST GRANDMA and matched a pair of pink linen cropped pants that draped her frail body. The white thick-soled sneakers completed the AARP and then some package. She was flanked by a man and a woman I recognized as Rowena, the hostess. I had no idea how she was standing on her own and not resting eight feet under, but those eyes were as sharp as a blade and her voice as strong as any of ours.

“The Crone,” Roth explained in a murmur, his entire body gone taut beside mine. “This will either go very badly or somewhat less badly.”

Great.

That sounded just great.

“Look at what they’ve done!” Faye shrieked, struggling against my hold, but I didn’t let her go. “Look at what they’ve done to the coven.”

“What they’ve done?” the Crone responded, and white caterpillar-like brows rose. “Was it not you who led them here? Was it not you who brokered a deal with a demon in the first place?”

“Wh-What?” Faye stammered, confusion flashing across her face, and I was right there with her.

The Crone stepped forward on thin legs. “When you offered the elixir in exchange for Lilith’s daughter’s life, you did so outside the bounds of this coven. I warned you then that every act, every word designed to benefit one comes back threefold.”

I peeked at Roth. He was watching the Crone with amber-hued eyes. It was becoming clearer by the second that Faye and some of the coven had gone behind the Crone’s back.

“But it was Lilith’s daughter and—”

“And you wanted a familiar, a powerful one you did not work for nor earn on your own merit.” The Crone cut her off. “We do not interfere with nature, and if nature demanded Lilith’s child’s life, then so be it.”

Roth wisely and a bit surprisingly kept his mouth shut.

“But you were greedy, and that greed led to another deal with another demon, and now you’ve brought something far worse to our coven’s door.”

Underneath me, Faye stopped fighting again.

“You think I did not know about the human enchantment? The bargain you made?” The Crone’s cackle raised the tiny hairs on my body. “It looks like you got what you wanted, but not in the way you expected.”

She knew.

The Crone knew what I was.

“And it looks like those who followed you also received their blessing threefold.” The crone turned her head just the slightest. “I knew I would see you again, young prince.”

Roth bowed his head. “Honored once more.”

She chuckled as if amused. “You always bring such...interesting creations with you. Never thought I’d see a Crown Prince or Lilith’s daughter, but I did because of you and now the child of an angel is before me.” She smiled, revealing dull yellowed teeth. “What odd company you keep.”

“It makes life interesting,” he replied, lifting his chin, and then he slowly rose.

I stayed where I was.

“I’m sure it does.” The Crone’s steely gaze found mine, and silence stretched out. A shiver danced along my skin. She stared at me like she could see inside me. “You are not like them. You do not see in black-and-white. You see gray and all that exists in between, and I know not if that is a strength or a weakness.”

Having no idea how to respond to any of that, I decided to stay quiet.

“Release the familiar, Faye.” The Crone’s voice hardened to steel. “Now.”

Faye closed her eyes, the fight gone. There was no begging. No bartering. “I end this deal bartered by the demon Cayman and release this familiar.”

Air warped behind Faye’s head, and for a moment I thought it was my funky vision, but then Cayman stood there.

His long dark hair was pulled back from his handsome face. No romper today. Instead, he was wearing a purple velour jumpsuit that looked vintage. In his right hand he held what appeared to be a...contract.

Cayman grinned down at the witch. “The bargain brokered is voided.” Flames licked over the thick sheet of paper, leaving nothing but ash. “Blessed be, bitch.”

The demon broker gave Roth and I two thumbs-up and then disappeared in a ripple of air.

And then it happened.

A shadow peeled off Faye’s arm, rapidly expanding and thickening until I could see thousands of little beads. They swirled like a mini tornado and dropped to the floor, taking form and shape. Bambi appeared as a snake the size of the Loch Ness monster—a baby Loch Ness monster.