The Fire of Hestia Read online

  The instant the door was open, Bhesaj started chanting. I didn’t recognize a single word of it. The sound of it was even more horrifying than the smells. It was evil. That was all there was to it.

  I glanced at Ian, my eyes going wide as I saw he did not stand there alone. Erramun stood next to him, his head drooped. And I understood.

  He had warned me and I had acted without even thinking of his warning. I had to change what I had done. There had to be another way to break the contract.

  I moved my fingers quickly over the screen. It took a few seconds for the tear in the fabric of the worlds to begin to seal itself back together. Before I could close it, something shot past me.

  The feeling of wrongness was like an icy blade to my spine. Whatever it was, I had let it in. I was the one who had to get it back out.

  I turned, my hand on the canister of demon mace in my bag. All of a sudden, we weren’t in the room anymore. Without even touching us, Bhesaj had transported us out into the hallway.

  I looked down, finding that the vial of ash was in my hand.

  Ian stood and stared at the vial, his mouth working silently. I knew the feeling. Shock. Horror. Fear. What had I done? It wasn’t a human. It had been a demon.

  “It has begun,” Erramun said, his head turned down in what looked like shame.

  “Wh-what?” I asked, desperate for clarification.

  “The end of the world,” he said and vanished from view.

  ELEVEN

  I gaped at the closed door of the hotel room. What had I done? What was going on?

  Ian grabbed my hand and turned to leave. I pulled back. I wanted answers. I would beat the door down to get them if I had to.

  “He blocked my spirit group. I had no idea,” Ian said quietly, trying again to pull me away.

  I hammered on the door with a closed fist, getting ready to start kicking. Bhesaj had lied to me and I wanted to know why.

  The woman who had guided me to the door stepped over, her hands folded in front of her. “Bhesaj thanks you for your service to his cause and asks that you leave in a peaceful manner,” she said, her voice a little bored.

  I whirled to face her, drawing out the can of demon mace. “What do you mean, my service to his cause? What did he call out of hell?” I demanded, horrified by all that had happened.

  The woman stayed in the same position, not even acknowledging the threat of my stance. “He believes the paranormals should not be forced to live in secret. He plans to open people’s eyes.”

  “But why would that involve calling a demon out of hell?” I entreated, trying to make sense of what I had allowed to happen.

  She gave me a ‘you’re so simple’ kind of look. “I believe some may call it population control. Others will call it Armageddon.” She said it in such a blase tone, it took me a few seconds to truly register what she said.

  “You’re telling me I just opened the door to the thing that’s going to end the world?”

  “And we appreciate your service to the cause,” she said, turning to walk away.

  I sprang forward, ready to grab the woman, to demand more answers.

  Ian stepped in front of me, shaking his head when I moved to pass him. “She’s protected. If you attack her--” he waved a hand around the hallway to things I couldn’t see, “--they’ll attack you.”

  Tears filled my eyes. “Ian, I opened the door. I’m responsible for--”

  “No, Maddie. You’re not. I am. I knew something weird was going on but I didn’t stop you. This one’s on me. All you were doing was trying to save me.”

  Tears started flowing down my cheeks as I looked at him. “Ian . . . Armageddon. I don’t . . . I can’t let this happen.” And it hit me. “I’m a member of the Arcane,” I half shouted, taking out my phone to call Simms.

  It took me longer than I liked to explain what had happened. Time was not on our side. The demon and the shaman who had chosen to use it to end the world was on the other side of a door I needed to get through.

  I took out my tablet, inserted a blank card I had brought just in case, and started working on the lock. It only took a few seconds for my algorithm to override the lock. The door beeped and popped open almost as fast as it would be to use a legitimate key.

  I pulled the gun from my bag and stepped into the room, Ian on my heels. I almost jumped out of my skin when a light flashed and a figure popped out of the wall next to me. It wasn’t Bhesaj.

  “Jeeze, Gabe,” I complained, pressing my hand to my pounding heart.

  He scowled at me before he turned his scowl on Ian. “This is bad,” he said succinctly, his eyes scanning the room.

  I grimaced, covering my nose with my hand as we stepped in. The room smelled like brimstone, mixed with the smell of the portal. The rotten egg smell was overpowering.

  Gabe, Ian, and I were the only ones in the room. How had . . . and I understood. When he had been chanting, he had found a way to keep the portal open. How many demons had been let into the world? How many would die because of me?

  I’d thought I would do anything to save Ian. I had crossed a line. People would lose their lives because of my decision.

  Gabe slumped onto the couch. “You’re in big trouble, Madison. I was told to detain you.”

  “Why?” Ian barked, stepping in front of me like he planned to block Gabe from touching me.

  He looked up, his eyes narrowed. “Madison opened a portal to hell. A human opening a portal needs clearance. She did not have clearance. And the gates to hell are closed for a reason.”

  Ian shook his head. “I’m not stupid, Gabe. What I’m saying is I’m the one who opened the portal,” he lied, his body on alert.

  Gabe rolled his eyes. “Look Mr. Darcy, I get it. You think you’re being the broody hero. Problem is, Madison’s code was used to open the portal and you’ve kind of been missing for the past few weeks. Remember that? See, Madison’s been going out of her head trying to find you. What I’m saying is, they know she opened the portal. Lying to them is only going to make things worse.”

  Ian did indeed do the broody thing, opening his mouth to make some kind of cutting remark.

  I stepped in front of him and laid my hand on his chest. “I did this, Ian. I will face the consequences.” I took the vial out of my bag and handed it to him. “Burn the contracts, okay.”

  He sighed and shook his head. “I can’t. It’s in the fine print. I can’t do anything I wasn’t ordered to do. I was ordered to come back when my training with Bhesaj was over. That’s it.”

  Gabe cracked his knuckles, his nostrils flared as he looked at Ian. “They’re taking away your free will,” he said in such a quiet voice, it was hard to hear.

  Ian nodded. “I’m starting to feel the pull. They know I’m not obeying on my own,” he said, licking his lips as his brow lowered. “Get her out of this, Gabe. Tell them I used her code. I don’t care. Just make sure she’s free.”

  Gabe got to his feet, his eyes flashing as he cursed. “What I said was they told me to detain Madison. I did not say I would do it,” he growled, his eyes going wide as he looked at something behind me.

  I whirled around, my mouth falling open at the sight of a guy . . . and a Rottweiler. The door was closed. How had he gotten in?

  The guy raised his hands in surrender. “I am Aetos, Spencer’s guard,” he said, inclining his head in what looked like respect.

  I glanced at Ian, seeing that he wasn’t surprised in the least. Okay, so he must have known the guy was hanging around? We needed to talk about his recent closed-mouthed ways.

  I looked at the dog, then back at the guy, my head tipped to the side in question. “Why are you here?” I asked, not releasing the gun. I would not be fooled again. Not a chance.

  Aetos motioned to the door. “There are men in uniforms coming to arrest you, Madison. May I take you past them to--”

  “No need,” Gabe said, nudging his chin toward the wall where he’d opened a portal to the Axis Mundi. “We need to mo
ve fast,” he said unnecessarily.

  I hesitated, my mind going over what the woman had said. It didn’t make sense. I understood a desire for the paranormals not to have to hide anymore. Why did it involve ending the world, though?

  Ian stepped closer to me, his eyes boring into mine like he wanted to memorize every detail of my face. “Mads, I can’t go with you,” he said, reaching up to run his fingers through my hair.

  I stepped in, wrapping my arms around him. “I will get you out, Ian. I swear. I will stop Bhesaj and I will make sure the PSA goes down for all they’ve done.”

  He held me so tight, it was hard to breathe. “Please be careful, Mads. Please,” he begged, his body jerking a little as though something had hurt him.

  I pulled back, startled to see that his face was pale and a sheen of cold sweat covered his brow. Whatever hold the PSA had over him, I had what it would take to unbind him from them . . . or did I? What if the whole thing had been a trick?

  No. That wasn’t true. It would work. It had to. And when I got Ian, Spencer, Erkens, and Quinn out, we would find a way to stop Bhesaj’s plan.

  TWELVE

  My heart was pounding as we stepped through the portal to the Axis Mundi. I had never seen anything like the place. It wasn’t what I expected at all.

  When a portal was opened in the human realm, the smell of it made my eyes water. There was no smell of sulfur or anything similar in that land. It smelled like a mix of places, some good, some not so good.

  It was basically an endless hallway with equally endless arches leading to a different place. It was fascinating and a little scary all at once.

  My mouth fell open when the four of us stood there, to see the arch next to me light up. A prickling of nervousness passed over me. Would it be realm enforcement, coming to cart me off because I had opened a portal to hell?

  What passed into the Axis Mundi . . . was my cat. I stood there and gaped at him as he walked over and rubbed himself over my legs. And it hit me like a ton of bricks.

  Twitter was, in fact, a magical being. I’d never seen him display any sort of power. He was, according to Daw, some kind of protector.

  I bent down and hefted the gigantic cat, burying my face in his fur. I had messed up so badly. The fact Gabe and Spencer’s guard were willing to stand with me still, it meant a lot.

  I turned my head a little to look more closely at the guy who’d introduced himself as Aetos. He was a homely, scrawny figure who did not look capable of guarding anything at all. His pale eyes told the truth, though.

  They were watchful, alert, eyes that saw everything and had seen everything as well. His eyes scanned the long hallway, clearly edgy with so many places for an attack to come from.

  I glanced down at the dog, concerned at the sight of him. He was huge. The thing that made me most uncomfortable was how he watched Aetos. It was like the dog was watching a rabbit he planned to snack on.

  Twitter shifted to let me know he wanted down. When I set him down, he turned to stare at the dog.

  I didn’t like it. Despite the cat’s enormity by the standards of most felines, he was tiny in comparison to the dog. I wanted to pick him up again to offer him that small protection. Something told me not to.

  Twitter sat back and stared the dog down. He didn’t hiss or growl. He simply sat and stared. And the behemoth of a dog whined, lowering its head in what looked like a bow.

  Aetos gaped at the dog for a few seconds before he glanced at me. “Uh, we must move quickly. Hades will not wait much longer before he comes to find his son. And when he does . . . the demons who were released on this world will be nothing in comparison to what he will do.”

  I shivered with horror. Knowing that Spencer was the son of Hades was very different from seeing proof of it. If the god of the underworld declared war on this world, everything would be destroyed.

  I wanted the PSA to go down for what they’d done. I didn’t want them to be annihilated. There were innocent people who’d been blackmailed into working for them who might be hurt along with the people who were responsible. It was wrong in every way imaginable.

  There had to be a better way. There had to be. There was so much going on. And if the demons began their attack, everyone would suffer all because I hadn’t been able to find another way to save the people I loved.

  And the weight of that decision felt like it would crush me. I had to stop Bhesaj. I would not allow him to destroy the world.

  Gabe glanced at me, his brows raised in question. “Where should we go?” he asked, clearly wanting to get moving.

  I thought about it for a few seconds, not sure where the best location would be. There was only one place that would work. No matter how little I wanted to draw someone else into this mess, I knew where we needed to go.

  “Aren’t there laws about using these portals, like they only open into Realm Enforcement facilities?”

  He shook his head. “It used to be that way but since I’m an official agent, I’m allowed to go where I need to go. There has to be a good reason. I say we have one.”

  I grimaced and nodded, agreeing there was no real choice. “We should go to Daw’s place. He and Dawson are warded so no one will be able to see them, even on satellite.”

  Twitter bumped his head into my leg, purred loudly, and walked to the same portal he’d walked out of. And like he had the ability to open the gateway himself, he simply walked through.

  Gabe didn’t comment on my cat’s action or even question me about my chosen destination. All he did was walk to the same portal Twitter had gone through and lay his hand on the outside edge of the arch. “I need the address,” he said, his eyes fixed on his hand.

  I told him what it was, feeling a little on edge for some reason. I didn’t feel any safer in the land of portals than Aetos did. What made me most wary was the simple fact no one was near us.

  I didn’t know why it would make me twitchy. Something told me it wasn’t normal. So where was everybody?

  The portal Gabe stood in front of flashed and I could see the inside of Daw’s house. I did my best not to freak out about the fact he had the ability to open a gateway directly into a place. It was a serious invasion of privacy.

  Granted, it would get us into the house without any risk of being caught by the cops or realm enforcement. It was enough. I just had to hope Daw would stand with me as well.

  I would need all the help I could get in stopping Bhesaj, as well as getting free everyone the PSA was holding. Erkens would know what to do. All we had to do was get him out of there.

  THIRTEEN

  The last thing I expected when we walked through the portal, was to find Daw and Dawson both there. Okay, it WAS their house. I had just expected to have to wait for them to get home. The fact they were there made things a lot easier.

  They lived in a big, old house that had been split into multiple apartments. It was an okay place, nothing fancy, though neither was it junky. The small rooms and low ceilings made the guys all look like giants, though.

  Both of them jerked when the three of us and the dog walked out of the wall, Daw’s hand moving to reach for some kind of weapon. When he saw me, his mouth fell open and something like understanding passed over his face. He released whatever weapon he’d grabbed and stepped over to give me a one-armed hug.

  “Thank God. Are you okay?” he asked in a shaky voice.

  I didn’t know how to answer that, so chose not to answer. There was so much to explain, so much I didn’t want to explain. Daw and Dawson both deserved to know what was going on. A lot of people did.

  I hadn’t seen them at all since the day Patrick had shown up. Daw did not look like he’d had a good few days.

  He looked a little ragged and very much like he needed a meal. Dawson didn’t look much better. It looked like those two had been through something I had been too focused on my own woes to even notice.

  Daw looked at all of us before he raised his brows at me. “What happened?” he asked, his voic
e a little raspier than usual.

  I sat down on the edge of their couch and buried my face in my shaky hands. “I know how to deal with the contracts,” I said in a dull voice, taking my tablet from my bag to start another search.

  “Okaaay. So is that why you opened a portal into my home without permission?”

  I glanced up and grimaced. “Um, no. That would be because I was hoping to get your help ending the PSA before I get arrested for starting armageddon.”

  His eyes bugged. Instead of questioning me about it, he looked at Dawson. “So that’s what’s going on,” he said, running his hand back through his already messy hair.

  “What happened?” Gabe asked, his eyes as wide as mine were.

  Daw turned to look at him. “An emergency alert was sent out, telling everybody to go home and stay home. They said it was a terrorist thing.”

  My heart sank. Terrorist. It was fairly accurate. And I had been the one to allow them in.

  Gabe raised his phone and started texting, fast.

  Daw looked at me again. “What happened?” he demanded, not even bothering to ask who the others were, despite the fact they’d never met.

  I swallowed hard, my eyes fixed on my screen. “I went to the shaman. He gave me this ash from Hestia, the goddess of fire. He said all I had to do to get it was open a portal . . . to hell.”

  Daw stared at me, his mouth working silently for a few seconds. “Why would you do that, Madison?”

  Tears rose in my eyes. There were no excuses. I had made a horrible mistake.

  Aetos stepped forward. “The shaman told Madison that someone was taken to hell because of Hades cruelty. He deceived her. It was HIS responsibility, not Madison’s.”

  Daw squished his brows together. “Who are you and how do you know anything about this?”

  He inclined his head. “I am Aetos. I was assigned by Hades to protect Spencer.”