Zee snapped out a single sharp word. Raw and Aaz leapt away from the old man, skidding across the floor to me. I saw the butler climbing to his feet, but he looked different than I remembered—thinner, taller. Younger.
And he favored his right leg.
“Fuck,” I said, just as fury passed through his face, and he opened his mouth to sing. It was a sound made from thunder, raw and glorious—and the Aetar, in his shredded, old-man body, choked a little.
Just as we fell into hell.
It was a true fall, a descent that scrambled everything inside me. I couldn’t see or move—I just had to trust that I wouldn’t die when I landed.
But there was no landing. When I could see again, I realized we hadn’t moved at all. It was the world that had changed.
Fire, everywhere, dotting a swift-moving lava field that churned in a blast furnace of awesome, terrible heat. But beyond that, towering over us, was a pillar of flame—a warped, raging mass that writhed and twisted like a snake. I couldn’t see the top of it. I could barely encompass its width with my gaze. I was an ant in comparison, and all I could remember was that terrible vision: the implacable hunger, and those eyes, those eyes that I felt even now, focusing on me.
Zee and the boys huddled at my side, shielding me against the sparks that lit upward and might have caught on my clothes. It was hard to breathe the air. I felt like Frodo sitting on a rocky outcropping at the edge of Mount Doom, trapped and waiting to be cooked alive. All I needed was my Samwise.
And I found him, twenty feet away, on another outcropping that rose above the fire.
Grant, kneeling, surrounded by Shurik—who clung to him with stubborn ferocity. I didn’t know where they’d been before, but I could barely see my husband beneath their squirming white bodies. I thought, Thank God.
My husband was singing, but it wasn’t music—just a powerful, throbbing om that filled the air with such weight and heft and presence that I felt as though I were breathing his voice, wearing it on my skin. I clenched my right hand in a fist. I had killed Aetar with the armor I wore. Grant had killed them with his voice. But we needed something from this creature.
Fuck it. I slammed my right hand against my thigh, and we fell backward into the void. Just for a moment. Blissful disembodiment, safe from the inferno.
We were spit out just behind Grant’s back, clinging to stone. I dug my hands between Shurik, wrapping my arms around my husband. Holding him close, letting him know I was there. His voice altered its tone, growing deeper. His hands found mine. Up close, I could see the sweat pouring down his face, and the glow of the flames couldn’t mask the gray poison in his skin. He was tired, sick, not at his full strength.
“Reaper Kings,” whispered a voice from the fire. It came from all around us, and was surprisingly quiet—though it still managed to cut through Grant’s song. “Kings and their maiden. Kings, a maiden, and a dying Lightbringer who is bonded to demons from the old army.” Soft laughter, chilling in its menace. “So many surprises and delights.”
Arms of fire reached out. Zee and the boys clung to us. I felt them all around me. I felt the hardness of my pregnant belly. Grant was shaking with effort, but those arms still moved toward us—as if all his powers had no effect. I didn’t understand how that was possible, but I stood—demons clinging to me—and stepped around my husband. I stood, facing the Aetar, and my right hand shimmered, warped, transformed—into a shield, light as a feather, round as the moon.
Behind me, Grant placed his hand against the small of my back. Gentle, so gentle, but heat bloomed inside my chest—a wild burst of golden light filled with so much power I could see the glow from behind my eyes. I felt that light burn my tongue, tingle against my lips. All of me, burning.
And it felt so good. Like home.
Maxine, I heard inside my mind. It wasn’t just Grant’s voice, but all of him—inside me, shining and warm, filling that hole that had drowned my heart. Our bond, resurrected.
Don’t be stupid again, I thought at him. It’s us or nothing.
That’s a lie, too, he replied, but there was only love in his voice—because he was right about that, too. There was another life that mattered, and if push came to shove, we both knew whom I would choose.
But in the meantime, I wasn’t going to give up without a fight.
Except, I was surprised again. Fire moves fast. Fire controlled by an Aetar, even faster. Those arms turned into whips, lashing out to hit the shield. They sizzled on impact, dissolving, but the fire kept coming—again and again. I’d killed Aetar with nothing less than a touch of the armor. I couldn’t understand how it was surviving this contact.