Page 47 of Demon Loved (The Witches of Mingus Mountain #5)

Not just this universe, but uncounted others seemed as if they were holding their breath.

Waiting.

Waiting for her to save them.

Just a moment before, she’d felt like one of those witches sentenced to death in Salem, slowly crushed beneath the weight of the stones that stole their oxygen, their life.

Something had shifted, though. Brianna couldn’t say why — maybe it had been the stubborn golden glow that continued to rise from the earth, telling her that this place, this crazy little town that was the only thing she’d ever known, wasn’t about to give up without a fight.

Or maybe it was the way Angela and Connor and her father and Tricia and Allegra hadn’t stopped chanting for a single moment, not when the fragile Allegra had fallen to her knees and Levi had gone to help her back to her feet, not even when one of the Collector’s servants and tried to take advantage of that moment of weakness.

Or maybe…just maybe…it had been the glow of love in Belshegar’s eyes, his fierce belief that she wouldn’t fail them, even when he had to understand that she didn’t know what the hell she was doing.

The evil magic the Collector had summoned surged overhead, blotting out the stars, bringing with it a hellish fire like black lightning.

For all its dark strength, though, it wasn’t enough to hide the energies she sensed surging around them.

As she looked around with vision that now seemed oddly enhanced, it seemed as though rivers of pure energy in all the colors of the rainbow — searing violet, and serene green, and sunny yellow — bore down upon the hilltop.

Those beams of energy crisscrossed the promontory, connecting to the witches and warlocks in the circle around her, to Belshegar and Brianna, to the Collector and his minions, telling her that even though they might be at odds right now, they still had their own place in creation.

Her magic surged, reminding her that even the most dissonant chords could make their own harmony.

Without consciously knowing exactly how she was doing it, Bree reached out and grasped the Collector’s magic, pulling at it like she might pluck the strings of a harp.

With each note, it began to shift and change, its sharp edges smoothing, becoming one with all the other energies at play, whether they came from the ground beneath her feet or her fellow McAllisters… or Belshegar.

And he seemed to understand what she was attempting, because it was as if he’d lifted his voice to join with hers, even though neither of them was singing.

No, this was all about their powers coming together, each finding the right space to complement the other, becoming stronger and purer the longer they were mingled.

The glowing energy of Jerome shifted, became in her altered vision more like a huge net that covered the promontory. Not one to capture those within, however, but instead to ensure that nothing could pass that protective barrier.

And somehow Bree also realized that the glowing net extended far beyond this space and time, spanning multiple realities at once, as if it had recognized that an attack didn’t necessarily have to come from this world, not when the Collector possessed talismans that could cross dimensions and summon what he needed to him.

His eyes widened, and again she saw the way his appearance shimmered, for a second revealing a man who looked to be some ten or fifteen years older than she, with cruelly handsome features and white hair shocking against the dark garments he wore.

Was that his real face, or just another guise he’d retreated to when his first false face threatened to disappear?

She didn’t know, because the disguise was back in place now, although with features twisted in fury as he seemed to understand what she was trying to do.

“It’s too much,” he snarled at her. “You’ll never be able to keep this intersection from collapsing!”

But that, she realized, was exactly what she wanted to have happen.

As long as all the pathways to these various dimensions were open, the Collector would have a chance to retreat.

No, she needed to trap him, just like she’d use an upside-down cup to trap a particularly troublesome fly.

The glowing lines of all those dimensional energies began to shift, leaving a rift between them, a place of nothingness, a void.

“Get down!” she shouted at her father and the rest of the McAllisters. “Hold tight to the ground!”

They stared at her, eyes full of questions, but the urgency in her voice seemed to be enough to convince them that they’d better obey.

All of them sank to the earth and its covering of dry, scrubby grass, although she noticed that they continued to chant as best they could…

and they never let go of one another’s hands.

Good.

She glanced up at Belshegar, and he nodded.

“Do what you must,” he said quietly.

He’d also continued to hold on to her hand this entire time, and she knew he wouldn’t let go now, not even if she commanded him to press himself flat against the ground the way the rest of them had just done.

No, he was going to stand next to her and continue to boost her powers with his own.

A scream shredded the night as one of the Collector’s minions was lifted into the air as if he was being sucked into an invisible tornado. Was it the man whose face she’d glimpsed so briefly only a few minutes earlier?

Impossible to say. One by one, the remaining three met the same fate, disappearing into the void she’d created as if they had never been.

However, the Collector still stood where he’d been this whole time, although the weird, oily energies he’d summoned now swirled around him faster and faster, as if he thought their sheer velocity would be enough to save him from also being drawn into the nothingness between worlds.

“You can’t do this!” he shouted at her. “You can’t control what you’ve created. It will destroy you and everyone you love!”

The Brianna from a few minutes earlier might have believed those words. Now, though, she realized they were only a ploy, a desperate attempt to get her to reverse the magic she now controlled so their enemy might have a chance to escape.

“I don’t think so,” she said, and he bared his teeth, although she wasn’t sure whether the grimace was in response to her stubbornness or the phantom winds that had begun to pull at his flesh.

“You are a foolish, stubborn child,” he spat.

“You know nothing. Do you think something like this can stop me? I, who have the power of a hundred magical tools at my disposal? I will crawl back from whatever hell you have created so I might take my revenge against you and all these foolish McAllisters. You have no idea what you’re doing! ”

No, she thought, I know exactly what I’m doing.

She wouldn’t bother to say those words out loud, though. It was enough that she’d recognized her own strength, her own abilities, and was allowing herself to use them.

In that moment, though, she saw their enemy’s weakness. If his own powers had been sufficient, would he really have been compelled to seek out all those artifacts to make himself invincible?

Probably not.

Speaking of weak….

The energy that had surged through her earlier was nearly depleted. Her powers had helped her shift the dimensional focuses so the void had been created, but she realized they weren’t limitless. She was only a human woman, after all, not a goddess, not a being from another plane like Belshegar.

“I don’t know….” she whispered, and he bent and placed the gentlest of kisses against her forehead.

“You do know,” he replied, then touched her on the temple and again on her heart. “You know in the deepest of places that you can do this. You must.”

Yes, she had to. She couldn’t give up now, not when she was the only one who could save her clan. Even Connor and Angela…even her father…didn’t have the ability to make this happen.

Just like that time you ran the Sedona marathon, she told herself. You thought you were going to drop those last three miles, but you did it anyway.

So do it now.

Energy surged through her. She saw the rift between dimensions widening, reaching out like a hungry mouth to swallow the Collector whole.

Threads of darkness resembling thin, reaching fingers began to flow across him. He pulled at them, the ring on his hand pulsing wildly as he tried to summon enough energy to counter their strength.

But then the ring shattered, bits of crystal flying everywhere, and he flung up his hands to protect his face.

That seemed to be enough, because now the darkness of the void grasped him by the arms and legs and pulled him backward. For one moment, his shocked gaze met hers, imploring, begging her to stop this.

She wouldn’t, though. Not when he represented a threat to everyone and everything she loved.

A final despairing shriek, and then he was gone, the darkness taking him within.

Taking him far away.

The earth rumbled beneath her feet, and Brianna let go of Belshegar’s hand, falling to the earth as the world spun around her.

She had to make herself lie against the ground, because she thought if she tried to lift a single finger, she would go flying off and be swallowed up just as the Collector had.

All the lines of energy that had connected the witches and warlocks in the circle shivered once and then went flying apart, sparkling against the night sky like the world’s biggest fireworks explosion.

And then they were gone, and the stars shone overhead. A cool night breeze touched her cheeks as she felt Belshegar sink into the dry grass and cradle her head in his lap.

Oddly, it felt good to be here.

She thought she’d rest for a while.