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CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

FRANKIE

I dove between the golden stalks of wheat just as the demon’s scorpion tail sliced over my head. Muscle memory had me tucking and rolling out of the way, dodging each strike. I cursed and threw my magic into the scorpion-demon’s body. It hissed and flew head over tail away from me. But there were too many. The bright, cloudless blue sky above us was offensive. How dare demons attack on a beautiful day like this.

Asmodeus cackled like he’d just heard my thoughts. Knowing him, he might have. I had no idea where he was now, and his laugh seemed to move between the wheat stalks like snakes. There was a flash of rainbow over my head from the left, so I pushed to my feet and ran toward Tegan. If there was ever someone to fight near, it was her. The girl was a menace. Everest was here somewhere but he kept fighting from the shadows, which was great strategy, except my heart couldn’t handle the anxiety.

Tegan was farther than I realized but I was already running for her. I felt my Coven-mates around me, yet I only saw flashes of them before they were lost to the wheat. I had no idea where we were, but this wheat field seemed to stretch on forever in every direction. And they were tall too, up to my shoulders or higher in some spots. It was nothing but flat land and blue skies. Sure, there were no humans around but there wasn’t anything else either. Nothing for us to use as a shield. Savannah ran by me holding a dead scorpion-demon’s body as a shield.

Someone gasped to my right. I glanced toward it and found Willow’s eyes wide as she watched Savannah. She then dove for the ground. I turned back to the field ahead of me. My pulse was flying as I ran. My life had suddenly become a scene from the Jurassic Park movie when they were running through that field and all they saw were the tails of the velociraptors flicking back and forth.

Two demons leapt into the air in front of me. I cursed and slid under them, then spun on my toes just as they landed behind me. My sais were not the ideal weapon for jumping scorpion demons. I needed longer blades to fight them. Or do I? When Archie and I fought those flying gnat demons I’d treated them like baseballs. This wasn’t much different. The two demons pounced on me. I blasted them in the face with my magic then jumped up and swung the sharp blades of my sais into their skulls. Black demon blood splashed into my face. Breakfast would be forever ruined after today. I shoved my sais back into my thigh holsters, then yanked my phone out of my pocket, reaching for the sticker on the back that would give me my weapon of choice: a Louisville slugger.

Goddess, I miss a bat in my hands. I grinned and tightened my grip, then looked for my first target. Asmodeus was throwing demons at us nonstop. One lunged for me but I was comfortable with a bat in my hands. I knew just how to time when to swing. I got into position and waited, my gaze zeroing in on the demon’s head. Then I swung. The demon’s head exploded but the stinger was still lethal. I leapt forward and whacked the stinger into the ground. When I turned to spit the demon blood out of my mouth, I spotted Willow struggling to hold a demon carcass and swing her daggers.

I raced over. Just as Willow dropped to hide behind the carcass, I jumped over her, swinging my bat into the demon’s head. But Willow was no damsel in distress. She was no wallflower. She was a trained warrior, and the way she sliced that stinger to pieces faster than I’d been doing was a work of art.

“How is Savannah using one as a shield? It’s so heavy.” She breathed hard.

I moved closer so she could read my lips. “Savannah is using a wand, not a dagger.”

Willow’s eyes widened. “Oh.”

“Follow me.” I adjusted my grip on my bat. “I swing, you kill.”

The grin she gave me was maniacal, and one you’d only find on a person who’d been in the trenches of war their whole life. For a few minutes, Willow and I moved through the field easily. I’d hit the demons first, then she’d finish the job. Willow was quite skilled with her blades. But we’d been out here too long without a break. My muscles burned and throbbed, begging me to stop for just a minute. I didn’t like how low the sun was sitting in the sky. That suggested we’d been out here for too long. None of us were going to be able to keep this up much longer.

Michael’s glowing sword raised in my peripheral vision. I glanced toward it just as white Heavenly magic shot out of the long blade like lightning. Asmodeus bellowed. The hit threw the fallen angel into the air, flying backwards on his wings. Tenn charged into the air after him, his own white angel wings glowing bright in the sunlight. His golden armor sparkled. Asmodeus flipped head-over-heels, then caught his balance and flew right for Tenn. My breath caught in my throat.

Thick black tar slammed into Asmodeus’s chest, covering those glowing green orbs and splattering into his face. My feet slid to a stop. That tar was Everest. I didn’t mean to stop, there were demons everywhere , but I needed to see my soulmate. I needed to see he was okay.

Asmodeus let out a gnarly growl, then spit tar out of his mouth. Still, he chuckled. “Step out of the shadows and face me, Your Highness.”

A massive demon with two heads and a body like a cow lunged out of the wheat stalks right in front of me. I leapt to the left and swung my bat into one head just as Willow buried her dagger in the other. Willow yanked her blade free and stabbed it again. I looked up and my heart sank. Everest had come out of the shadows. He and Tennessee fought Asmodeus side-by-side. They were something to see in action, but Goddess, I didn’t like it. Not with Asmodeus. I kept hearing Everest’s warning about the angel in my head over and over.

Tegan’s magic flashed up ahead. I looked back to Willow and pointed in Tegan’s direction. She nodded and lifted her dagger. Together, we hurried through the wheat field, attacking demons on the run. I kept glancing over to where Everest and Tenn were in a sword fight with Asmodeus. They were good but I knew better than to think they were that good. Everest had told us as much. And if my memory served me right, then Asmodeus had nearly killed Tenn a few months back in a one-on-one fight. My stomach rolled. My lungs and chest seized, burning and tight. Panic gripped me by the spine and wasn’t letting go.

I scanned the field for Tegan, her purple hair a beacon in this golden field. Just then, she stood up straight and looked toward her own soulmate. I saw my own panic mirrored in her profile. Then she turned and looked right at me, her pale-green eyes wide. Her face was pale. It was both comforting and terrifying to see her as scared as I was.

Bentley shouted.

Ringing ripped through the field, then I heard Tim’s voice as he yelled, “ Kinda busy, you dead?”

“Not yet,” a woman shouted back.

Tim ran in front of me, holding his smartwatch up to his face. “ Heather? Oh Goddess, what happened?”

“The school has attacked itself,” Heather shouted through his watch. There was a crash and glass shattering, followed by lots of yelling and screaming. Then there was silence. “Tim, the students have turned on each other. Something is very wrong. They’re going to kill each other. Send help?—”

The line went dead.

I looked up and met Tegan’s wide stare. My magic surged inside of me. I’d used a lot of it since getting to this stupid field, but it clearly got a second wind. I took a deep breath, then raised my hands and fired every ounce of magic I felt at Tegan. Neon-blue and pink flames rolled like waves straight into her. White and rainbow light exploded out of her. The ground trembled and then everything went white.

For the beat of a moment, the world stood still.

And white.

When the light faded, the wheat field was gone. Instead, we were in the middle of a massive, fancy cafeteria with rows of long tables and students wearing matching black blazers.

And it was war.