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Ruby waved a hand.

Slate watched, dazed, as his loincloth appeared around his hips. Then as her dress of shadows wrapped around her skin, a flash of her dagger on her thigh before the dress’s long folds covered it.

Slate stared as a slow realization washed over him. Whatever they had done, it had turned Ruby into something…else. Herchin was high as ever, but it was less defiant and more assured. Like she knew nothing in this forest could hurt her. Her skin shone with sweat, but there was nothing weary in her posture. She looked like she could take on a god.

Then she breathed out a long sigh, and she was his witch again.

“Okay,” Ruby said breathily. She wobbled, and Slate moved automatically to steady her.

She leaned against him with a grateful smile.

“Thank you,” she said. “This is… an adjustment. Could you do something else for me?”

“Anything,” Slate vowed.

Ruby smiled and pressed a kiss to his palm.

“Open a portal to Sweetsguard,” she said. “And fast. They don’t have much time.”

Nineteen

One moment, Ruby’s mind was full of nothing but pleasure.

Then the ward started glowing, and she was filled with so muchmore.

She was still reeling when she stumbled through the portal, and Slate held her arm to make sure she didn’t fall over.

“Ruby,” he said. “Whathappened?”

Ruby giggled. She couldn’t help it. She also couldn’t help the shudder that ran through her as another burst of magic jolted her, filling her with a power she had never even dreamed of when she was the guardian witch of Sweetsguard.

“I’ll tell you later,” she said, only slurring a little. “Come on.”

She tugged him toward the trees. Her hometown was not far, and the screaming was starting.

Slate’s ears twitched as the first horrified yell rang through the trees. “What is that?”

“You’ll see in a second.” She tugged harder. Then she stopped, her bleary brain reminding her of something she had forgotten among all the fizzing magic and ritualistic fucking.

“Slate,” she said. “You should?—”

Slate scooped her up in his arms before she even had the chance to say it. Ruby clung to his neck and giggled as he started to sprint. She could feel magic in her fingers and come dripping down her thighs, and she had a sneaking suspicion that everything was going to be okay.

After the screaming ended, anyway.

They burst out of the woods to find the small town of Sweetsguard awash with shade demons.

Slate growled. He glared up at the shades swooping down to claw the cowering townsfolk, yanking on the barred bakery door and trashing the broken Paimon ward in the middle of the town square.

“They’re not all yours,” Ruby assured him. “They teamed up with others outside the ward limits. Can you?—?”

She didn’t get the chance to finish her sentence. He had already set her down and taken off sprinting toward the nearest demon.

Ruby watched with barely concealed glee as he jumped mightily into the air and grabbed a demon around the ankle. He brought the demon down with a roar, slamming it onto the ground with such force the cobblestones cracked.

Ruby laughed. Then she noticed how many people were shrieking and fleeing for their lives and collected herself.

She ran into the town square and raised her arms.