The Rebel Queen (Outlaw 1)

“He wants to close the door to the celestial planes. No more heavenly interference, and then he’ll let the demons in.” It was good to remind myself what was at stake. “He thinks he can do it by using the energy stored in Gladys from the fight with the angel Jude.”

“The power in that sword is immense,” Nim agreed.

Nim didn’t need to tell me that. I’d been pierced by that sword. “He can’t wield it.”

“No. It takes someone with companion blood, but that’s easy enough to find,” Nim replied.

She hadn’t been in the arena that day. “And it takes me. That weapon has to be primed, and not with some little drop of my blood. I’m the queen of the companions. I have to basically die for that sword to work.”

“That would serve his goals well enough.” Nim’s eyes closed briefly, and when she opened them again they had gone a deeper shade of purple. “No matter how well Sarah protected that door, the wards require updating. They will eventually erode, and he will get in. I don’t think she understood how long you would be gone. She was trying to protect it, but she never dreamed the wards would have to hold for over a decade. He’ll get in. It might not be tomorrow or even this year, but he won’t stop trying.”

“They still felt strong to me,” Asta said. “But I didn’t test it. If he can poke even a small hole in those walls, he can bring them down. I suspect the bag is visible, so he won’t have any trouble seeing it.”

The situation was worse than that. “If Sarah used my blood, it’s also likely open. He’ll be able to immediately extract everything he needs.”

“No, he won’t be able to get his hands on you if we don’t send you in.” Dev frowned my way. “Zoey, this changes things. If anyone can see the bag, we don’t need you.”

“But no one else can get through the door.” He wasn’t thinking properly. It was getting very real for my husbands, and that meant I had to keep up the pressure until they came around. “And I still need Lee in case something happens and the book falls out. He could see it as a child. I have to hope he still can.”

“Humans can see the book,” Nim explained. “It takes too much energy to ward the book from human eyes. The particular spell he uses takes into account how many eyes could potentially see. So he keeps the grimoire in the supernatural world and wards against other supernatural creatures. He has other ways to keep humans away. If your son could see it, it’s because he’s human. Myrddin is careful with his book. Other witches can’t see it either. I couldn’t see it. The only human he specifically warded it against was your father, and you know why he did that.”

Because my father was an excellent thief. He would be the single human Myrddin worried about. So Lee was our only hope if something went wrong.

“I don’t know, Zoey. Dev has a point.” Daniel had started pacing. “I don’t like the idea of all three pieces he needs being in one place at one time.”

“If Myrddin gets the sword and the grimoire, he might not need Zoey. He’s brilliant. He’ll find a way to release the power and Hell will reign on the Earth plane,” Nim said, her tone grim. “Everything changes if demons are allowed to roam freely. All the rules will be gone, and this plane will never be the same. Once they take this plane, they’ll look to take others, and Myrddin will be the bridge.”

“We’re not going to have a better time than this meeting. We’ll know where he is. If we give him longer, he’ll figure out Nim is gone, and he’ll likely find a way to blame me. He’ll definitely know we have a way in, and he’ll plug that hole in his security. He’ll also take a closer look at everyone around him, and that means we could lose our spies. If we wait too long, the wards could fail.” I wanted to get this job done and fast. I didn’t want to give him a single extra second to find a way out of Sarah’s trap.

And I wanted to get in that apartment to see if I could find her. I wanted to see if she’d left me anything more than the bag. If she’d had any time at all, she would have left clues, a note, anything that would help me find her.

I’d once saved her from the Hell plane. I wasn’t about to let a little thing like her disappearing into time and space stop me, and she would know that.

I’d lost my father, but I had a chance to save my friend and her family, to bring back the girl my son had always loved.