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CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

SAM

They fell for it. I couldn’t believe they fell for it.

I gripped the wall behind me and watched in horror as The Coven, or what was left of them, stood huddled together with their weapons drawn as the stampede of demons closed in on them. My stomach rolled. I didn’t understand. They were smarter than this. They knew better. Why are you here? I screamed in my mind.

“Open the door. I want to smell their blood,” Sweyn said with a snarl as she paced in the shadows of the room.

This house was a vampire lair, one that apparently had been used by vampires here for decades. During the day, steel shutters slid down over the windows to block the sunlight from coming in but only on the second and third floors. The first floor was a jazz bar that lured their victims closer. It was closed during the day, yet the windows were only covered by a sheer white curtain. Sunlight streamed through the material, covering half the bar in sunshine. We watched from the far end of the room. Pierce was a statue beside me, but I felt his panic as strong as my own.

Only Sweyn’s court was allowed to linger here with us. She wanted to give them a show, to brag about her wisdom and power. It was a relief to not have Everest and his crew at my side but it was also heartbreaking because it meant Pierce and I were on our own.

“ I said open the door! ” Sweyn hissed as she paced back and forth, remaining in the shadow. “Give me shade, for Lilith’s sake. What good are you otherwise?”

The Unseelie Prince was leaning against the front wall in the narrow slit of shadow beside the door, watching the demons attack The Coven from behind the curtain. He did not look back at our Queen. He merely lifted one hand and let black magic seep from his fingers. A shadow dropped over the room, chasing away every bit of sunlight from this jazz bar. Pierce, Sweyn, and I rushed to the windows at the same time. She yanked the curtain aside and cackled.

Bile shot up my throat.

Pierce cursed in that pretty accent of his.

The Coven was completely surrounded. It was hard to even see them through the horde of demons. I saw flashes of skin and the sparkle of their blades in the sunlight. It made no sense. They were smarter than this. I slid to the door and gripped the frame for support. Sweyn stood in the middle of the open door clapping her hands and laughing like a cheesy cartoon villain. The Unseelie Prince kept rolling his eyes and snarling in her direction. Pierce crouched down and pressed his forehead to the window.

“Worry not, my tickling,” Sweyn said with a purr. “We shall feast on their blood this night.”

It didn’t make sense. I just kept repeating those words in my head over and over. Tennessee was right there yet he wasn’t moving. He just stood in one place holding Archangel Michael’s sword, killing anything that dared to come near him. But the Tennessee we all knew could’ve swept through these demons like he was dancing. And Tegan was merely pushing the demons back. She wasn’t killing them. The girl had scary amounts of magic, yet she wasn’t using it. I wanted to scream and vomit and cry.

A spider-demon dropped from the balcony right in front of us, but when it hit the ground it had changed shape. Now it was the size of a car and looked more like a whale with four legs. My breath left me in a rush. The Coven all looked up at it with horror in their eyes.

“What the hell is that?” Pierce’s voice was low and rough.

Sweyn’s answer was a deep, evil chuckle. She crossed her arms over her chest.

“ Babe! MORPHER!” Tenn shouted.

I gasped. “A morpher-demon. Those are real?”

“Real and glorious.” Sweyn’s laughter sent chills down my spine. “Nearly impossible to kill.”

Tegan threw her hands up and fired rainbow smoke into the morpher, forcing it into the air above her head. She dropped to her knees, her arms already trembling. “I’ll hold it!”

Two wolf-demons lunged from their left side, shifting mid-air into giant bats. Four other small demons leapt forward and changed into flying demons one after another. Tenn cursed and threw his hands out, his muscles twitching and pulsing as he held them in place.

The Coven’s two best weapons were now rendered useless.

They couldn’t win this on their own. I reached up and pressed my fingers to the pearl hanging on my choker, the same one Jackson Lancaster had given me in December. Tegan insisted I keep it on so I never took it off, not that I knew what it did. It just gave me comfort to hold. Come on, come on. Just kill the morphers and bail.

Shit. What do I do? Even if I reveal my loyalty right now, what good am I to them? It’s daylight still. My magic isn’t that strong. It won’t do shit against all these demons. Pierce doesn’t have magic either. SHIT.

Thick, black smoke shot up from the ground just behind The Coven. I frowned and looked over just as a figure dressed in all black stepped into the sunlight, his long white hair glowing in the sunshine.

“ NO, ” the Unseelie Prince whispered.

Sweyn choked on a gasp.

Everest walked right into the sunlight. He threw his hands up and all the morpher-demons burst into ash that disintegrated before hitting the ground. The sun did not set him aflame, didn’t burn his skin. He wasn’t in a rush or panicked like it was hurting him. He just calmly walked into the horde of demons.

Sweyn screamed.

Everest stopped thirty feet away from us and smirked, the sunlight streaming over his entire body. Those blue and white eyes were locked on Sweyn’s even while he flicked his hands left and right, killing demons without watching.

Sweyn’s voice cracked yet she shrieked on.

“I KNEW IT!” the Unseelie Prince shouted. He ripped a piece of the doorframe off and threw it into the wall. Then he spun to face Sweyn with rage glowing in his yellow cat eyes. “YOU.”

Sweyn screamed.

“This is your fault!” the Prince bellowed. He thrust one arm out, pointing at Everest who was eliminating the demons by the handfuls. “How could you not know this ? A thousand years and you missed THIS?”

Sweyn’s response was half-growl, half-scream. None of it intelligible words.

Everest is in the sunlight. EVEREST is IN the SUN. I gripped the doorframe and breathed through the heavy pounding of my pulse. Everest wasn’t affected by the sun in one bit. Everest turned me. Everest is the one who made me a vampire. Goddess, does that mean that I ? —

Sweyn shrieked and grabbed my arm. I didn’t have time to react before she threw me out the front door. I screamed and tried to catch myself, but my body crashed into the hot pavement. The force sent me rolling toward The Coven. Smoke billowed from my body.

“ Let’s see those acting skills, Samwise,” Tegan said into my mind.

Flames erupted along my skin, flickering and dancing in the sunlight . Smoke billowed from my body. Except I felt nothing. No pain. No burning. Nothing. I screamed. Tegan told me to act, and it wasn’t my place to question her. I arched my back and thrashed around like I was dying, like this was agony. My voice was raw and cracking. Everest had once praised my acting skills. I prayed this was selling it. I tried to look for him or for Tegan, but the sunlight was too bright. I hadn’t seen the sun in—-Goddess, I didn’t even know how long anymore. My eyes weren’t used to it anymore.

Two firm hands gripped my arm and lifted me off the ground. I expected it to be Everest or someone in The Coven, but when a shadow slipped over my eyes and I peeked up at my savior, my heart stopped. The Unseelie Prince was carrying me. Those yellow cat eyes were locked on my face, his upper lip snarled back in disgust. But his grip was firm. I even felt his erratic pulse beating through his fingers. Smoke hissed and swirled from beneath his armor.

Darkness swept over us.

The Prince lowered me to the ground with more care than I expected. He growled and flicked his wrists toward the street. I caught a glimpse of those black smoke dragons flying from his palms but then a wool blanket dropped over my body.

I gasped and swatted at it, yanking it off my face so I could see.

Pierce hovered over me, his red and green eyes wide and horrified. “I’ve got you. You’re okay. It’s fine. You’ll heal?—”

Sweyn’s screams drowned out whatever else Pierce was saying. His lips moved but I heard nothing. The Prince stood beside her shouting in her face.

Wait. What did he say? Heal? I lifted my hands and my stomach rolled. Every inch of my skin was raw and red. It looked like it was melting off of my body. I rolled to my side and gagged. What happened? It didn’t even hurt. Tegan said to act so I did, but why is my skin ? —

“ Do NOT let them know you can withstand the sunlight,” Tegan’s telepathy interrupted my mental spiral. “That might be your ticket out of there. Milk the fake burns I gave you. They will fade on their own as if they’re real. The more human blood you can drink, the faster my magic will wear off. We need you strong anyway. This way Sweyn won’t be suspicious.”

I pushed myself up so I was sitting, then looked out the window. My breath left me in a rush. The Coven was gone. The demons were piles of dust and ash, smoking in the sunlight.

Everest stood there alone, the sun shining on him. He gave Sweyn a cocky sideways grin and winked—then vanished into his darkness.

Sweyn screamed.

Tears filled my eyes. I gasped for breath and squeezed Pierce’s hand. The sun hadn’t hurt me. The burns were fake. Happiness filled my chest for the first time since Everest stole me from the safe house. The world was going to war with Lilith. Most of us would probably die in the process. And yet, I was crying happy tears because I hadn’t lost the sun.