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I grab Khaosti’s hand and hold tight, as I stare into his eyes. And I remember the feeling of him deep inside me. I see the same thought flicker in his face and then his eyes widen and his nostrils flare. Something is happening, but it’s too late. I can feel my father’s focus on us.

“I’d like to take my time over this, but I have places to go.”

I watch as his hand stretches out toward us.

Then Hecate roars, “No!”

I turn my head as she hurls a rock into the mirror while screaming the words of a spell and the mirror shatters into a thousand pieces.

Why the fuck?

“You can’t kill her now,” Hecate says. “If you kill her, you will never leave Hell.”

Lucifer whirls to face her. If looks could kill, she'd already be picking out real estate in the afterlife. I can feel the waves of fury radiating off him.

“He’ll never leave Hell anyway. Not with my help.” For a second I wonder just how well I will fare under torture. Then I push the thought away, because what’s the point in thinking about it. It changes nothing.

“Don’t listen to her,” Hecate says. She takes a step toward him and his nostrils flare. Yeah, it’s official, she’s totally lost it. Any second now, I expect him to blast her out of existence.

“Just think for a moment,” Hecate says. “Once you have rejoined with your good half, once you are whole again, she’ll see you as you really are. A good man. The best of men.” She reaches out and rests a palm on his chest. He looks down at her with interest. Then he looks at me. And I can see dark amusement flickering in his eyes. Why can’t Hecate see it? He finds her amusing. He’ll never do as she asks.

“So will you do it?” she asks. “For all of us.”

“Why not,” he purrs. I want to scream at her not to be a fucking idiot. But maybe what she does will make no difference. If I can’t destroy the amber pendant, I can’t do the spell. Except if she does the spell to rejoin him and he’s still evil or he goes completely insane, there will be no way to stop him ever.

My head is about to explode. I squeeze Khaosti’s hand to ground myself. And stroke Grimlet’s stony head.

But Hecate is already pulling the amber pendant from her pocket and holding it out to him. It dangles on the silver chain I have worn around my neck for years. I hold my breath as Lucifer reaches out and rests it on his palm.

“You want so badly for me to be good, don’t you, my love.”

Her eyes widen at the endearment. And she smiles up into his face. Like my mother, she’s loved him for five thousand years. He must have been something, my dad, to inspire such devotion.

Then with his free hand, he takes hold of her hand still resting on his chest, and he snaps her wrist in one quick move. She gives a shrill scream as he shoves her hard, so she falls to the ground among the shards of Lucifer’s shattered mirror.

He raises the pendant and watches it twirl in the dim light. Then he tosses it from him as if it’s so much rubbish.

I stare at it and hold my breath. With one last squeeze of Khaosti’s hand, I let him go, and I start to crawl toward the amber where it lies in the dirt. I can sense Lucifer watching me, but I don’t look his way, and I don’t stop. I’m within hand’s reach when I hear him speak, “Who wants to be fucking good? Where’s the fun in that? But just in case I’m ever tempted…”

A ray of green flames shoot out from him and hit the pendant. The ground trembles…and the pendant cracks. I stare at it mesmerized.

“Amber!” Khaosti shouts. “The spell.”

I come back to myself. For a second, I can’t remember the spell. Then I close my eyes and hear my mother’s words.

And I whisper them out loud.

Chapter 52

That’s the Way to Make an Exit

For long seconds, the world seems to hold its breath. I feel like I’m enclosed within a bubble of nothing, but I can sense the magic bleeding out of me like starlight—slowly at first but building in power.

Then the pendant shatters. The sound is sharp and final—like glass splintering across the bones of the world, screaming through the air.

The ground trembles beneath me.

Holy freaking shit.