Demons Forever (Peachville High Demons #6) (2 page)

My stomach flipped as he shifted to white smoke and disappeared through the missing wall. Would I ever see him again? I couldn't lose him now, minutes after I found out he even existed.

The guards turned, ready to usher me downstairs to the dungeons.

"I'll make sure she gets down there," Jackson said, pulling me close to him. "Your city needs you now."

One of the guards, a tall demon with dark brown hair and bulging muscles, threw a glance toward the battle. "We have our orders."

"Don't waste your time on us," I said. "Go. We'll find our way down."

The second guard drew his sword from his belt. "Take the stairway behind you all the way down to the dungeons on the lowest level. You'll be safe there," he said.

My heart thundered in my chest. A flash of green shot across the throne room, hitting the far wall. I covered my face as sparks erupted and fell to the floor.

Jackson pulled me toward the staircase, and I ran with him. Once we started our descent, the guards shifted and flew out to join the fight.

As soon as the guards disappeared from sight, I pulled my arm away from Jackson and turned back toward the battle. "What are you doing?" I shouted. "We have to help them."

"Harper, you have to listen to me." He placed a hand on my face. "I know you want to go out there, but you've barely had any time to recover from the last fight. We need to get you-"

Before he could finish, a fiery bomb exploded by our feet. The force of it destroyed the area around us and sent us flying in separate directions. I lifted my arms to shield my face from the heat as I fell hard onto the marble floor. Wincing, I pushed up, coughing and clawing my way through debris.

Something nearby caught fire, and I struggled to find Jackson through the flames.

I shouted his name, but there was no answer.

Which way to the stairs? Disoriented, I stumbled over the broken floor and fell to my knees. I cursed and tried to stand again. In front of me, a figure emerged from the blaze. I lifted my eyes, hoping to see Jackson's familiar face.

My breath caught in my throat and I scrambled backward. It wasn't Jackson who had found me.

It was a hunter.

She Wants It Back

The hunter's hollow eyes bored into me, her face twisted up in a terrible grimace.

"Looks like I win the prize," she said, moving closer. "Won't my priestess be proud?"

Priestess Winter.

Bile rose up in my throat. Of course she was behind this whole thing. But how had she found me so fast? How had she been able to get through the dome's protective shield? It was as if she'd been watching me this whole time. Waiting for the chance to make her move.

Part of me had been hoping this attack had nothing to do with me. That it was just bad timing. But I guess deep down, I knew better. Priestess Winter was never going to let me go. She would keep coming after me no matter where I tried to hide. And she wouldn't stop until I was dead and the Peachville line ran through the blood of another family.

I glanced around for any sign of Jackson, but I didn't see him anywhere. Panic twisted my stomach. Was he hurt?

The hunter cackled and raised her hands to me, sending a spell rushing forward.

Distracted, I couldn't think fast enough to protect myself. The spell hit me head-on, the force of it sending me backward again. This time, the back of my skull slammed hard into the marble floor. I cried out and curled into a little ball.

Another whoosh of air pushed past, this time lifting debris all around me, forming four tight walls that locked me in place.

"I don't know why they say you're so hard to capture," the hunter said, hovering just beside the makeshift cage. Her face was grotesque. Covered in a slimy fluid that reeked of decay. "This was my easiest catch in decades."

I clutched my throbbing head and rocked back and forth. I needed to get out of this trap, but I couldn't think straight. A blackness flowed over me and threatened to pull me under. I wanted to close my eyes and give in to it. I wanted to forget the pain that coursed through me.

"Why?" I shouted in my delirium. "Why won't she just leave me alone?"

"You took something that belongs to her." The hunter crouched low, her rancid breath turning my stomach. "She wants it back."

I shook my head. No, she was wrong. I didn't have anything that belonged to Priestess Winter. Then, through the haze of pain, I remembered.

The ring
.

The diary Andros gave us when we left the Underground had led us to the sapphire ring. A ring of great power that acted like an anchor here in the shadow world, connecting all of the blue demon gates to the original. Without that ring, the Order wouldn't be able to pull demons through the blue portals.

And without it, Jackson and I wouldn't be able to reverse the spell that kept Aerden and I bound to Peachville.

I couldn't let her take the ring.

With sheer force of will, I pushed the pain from my mind. Carefully, I stood, my legs trembling at first, then finding their strength.

The hunter laughed. "Where do you think you're going?" she asked. She moved closer to the cage of stone and debris. "You'll never escape, no matter how hard you try."

I concentrated on my power, remembering back to the moment in the field when I'd shifted into smoke. I'd taken the form of my demon half to save myself once before, so maybe I could do it again. I focused on the feeling I remembered. Weightlessness. A loss of body and self.

But nothing happened.

The hunter studied me with narrowed eyes. "What's wrong? Can't remember how to use your power?" she asked. "You're such a child."

Did she know what I was? Who I was?

I took a deep breath in and released it slowly, trying to ground myself. To connect to the core of my power. I could feel the human side of my power buzzing in my veins, but where was the demon half? If I could somehow find a way to shift and control that side of my powers, I would be free. I would have the advantage.

Only it wouldn't come.

Tears pushed through to the surface, stinging my eyes. I was so exhausted. We'd been traveling for days and it had taken everything I had just to fight the three hunters near the blue stones. I'd barely survived their attack. Jackson was right. I needed more time to recover. I should have gone downstairs to the dungeons with him. I should have rested and let my father deal with these witches.

Above me, the heavy rocks pressed down. I used what little power I had still running through my veins to lift up, hoping to break the hunter's cage and set myself free long enough to get away, but the rocks wouldn't budge an inch.

Had I really come all this way just to be captured here in my father's castle?

If they took me now, I would never have a chance to know him or ask him all the questions I longed to have answers to. I shook my head and tightened my fists. There was no way I was going to let that happen.

I am stronger than this.

The hunter circled me like a beast watching its prey. She laughed and celebrated her catch, but before she could get all the way back around to the front, I pulled into myself, accessing a well of power deep within, then pushed out with everything I had.

As I lifted upward, the debris and stone holding me captive broke into a thousand pieces and flew out in every direction. The hunter screamed and rushed toward me.

I glanced up, looking for anything I could use against her.

An iron chandelier with six burning torches hung from the high ceiling above. I reached up into the air and grabbed hold of it with my mind. With all the power I had left inside, I pulled downward. I tore the heavy chandelier from the ceiling and brought it down on the hunter's head, the force of it smashing her skull with a loud crack.

She fell to the ground like a broken doll. Thick black blood oozed from a hole in the side of her head. Her arms and legs twitched twice, then fell limp at her sides.

Exhausted, my power spent, I dropped to my knees.

I turned my eyes toward the blown-out castle wall. The battle continued outside. Shouts sounded. Several fires blazed across rooftops, their smoke mingling with the smoke of demons shifting and moving through the semi-darkness. Spells flashed and cracked.

I blinked, struggling to see as my vision faded to black and my body hit the floor.

You Get That From Your Mother

Someone shook me from my sleep.

Startled, I jerked up. A man with worried eyes and a silver beard stared down at me. At first, I didn't recognize him. Fear pumped through my heart. Then, relief flooded my veins. My father. We were in his castle and we had been attacked. But he was alive.

I sucked in a nervous breath. "Is it over?" I asked, my head still throbbing. "Did we win?"

My father crouched next to me on the floor. "Yes," he said, his voice tired and strained. Soot covered his face and his eyes were ringed with fatigue. "There were a few casualties on both sides, but we finally drove the surviving hunters from the dome. Much of the city was destroyed, so there will be a lot of work ahead in the next few days. We need to fortify the city's entrance and find a way to patch the crack at the top of the barrier."

I looked around, wondering where I was and how I had gotten there.

I was in a cell, the iron gate wide open. Under me, stiff straw scratched at my clothes. Someone must have brought me down here to the dungeon after I passed out.

I swallowed, my heart thudding in my throat. "Where's Jackson?" I started to stand, but my legs wouldn't hold me. "Is he okay?"

My father put a hand on my shoulder. "He's fine," he said. "Don't push yourself. I sent him upstairs to help heal some of the wounded. He said a hunter trapped him upstairs in the throne room, then came after you. When you killed her, it set him free and he brought you down here until the battle ended."

I sighed in relief, then leaned back against the cold stone wall. "Thank god."

"I should have brought you down here myself." He ran a hand through his hair. "I never would have forgiven myself if something had happened to you. How are you feeling?"

I reached up to touch the sore spot on the back of my head and winced. "I hit my head pretty hard," I said. "Other than that, I think I'm just tired."

My father leaned forward and placed his hands on my head. I flinched as an electric wave washed over me, then relaxed as the pain disappeared in an instant. This felt different from when Jackson had healed me in the past. Infinitely more powerful and not at all cold like Jackson's power.

"Wow," I said, the pounding in my head completely gone. "How did you do that?"

He gave me a small smile, then sat down next to me, back against the wall and hands on his knees. "Healing is one of my strongest powers," he said. "You'll be glad to know I paid a brief visit to the little boy you brought with you."

I brightened. "How's he doing?"

"He was pretty badly hurt, but he's recovering nicely," he said. "He should be ready for visitors in a few days. To be honest, I was actually surprised to learn healing wasn't one of your powers, but you never know exactly which abilities will get passed from one generation to the next."

We sat in silence for a moment. I thought of the destroyed throne room and the damage that consumed a large portion of the city.

"Did you even know this was possible?" I asked. "The explosion? Has the Order attacked the city like this before?"

He ran his hand across his forehead. "Never to this extent," he said. "We had some warning that the Order had been working on a spell that would damage our barrier, but until today I had no idea how far they'd come."

The fear in his voice scared me. If the king was afraid, shouldn't we all be terrified of what might happen?

"This is all my fault," I said.

My father sighed and drew his eyebrows close together in the middle. "You can't blame yourself for this," he said. "The Order has had its eye on this city since I created it."

I stared down at the blue stone glittering on my finger. "You don't understand. I took something very valuable to the Order," I said. "I had no idea they'd come after it this fast, though."

He looked down at the ring and gasped, his eyes wide. "The anchor," he said. "May I see it?"

I pulled the ring from my finger and placed it in his hand. He turned it over and around, studying each detail. Every mark and facet.

"Incredible," he said. "We've been looking for this for ages. Where did you find it?"

I explained to him about the diary we'd been given. "It belonged to one of the original members of the Order," I said. "The entries explained the importance of the ring and how it had been hidden here in the shadow world to act as an anchor that would allow additional gates to be opened. Jackson and I went looking for it, and along the way, we discovered that each ring was hidden in a place of power. A place where stones of the same kind were grouped together. A gem dealer near the borderlands told us we could find a blue stone quarry here in the Southern Kingdom."

"But we've searched that blue quarry a thousand times," he said. "We've never seen any sign of the anchor."

"I think the hiding place revealed itself to me because I'm the prima futura of a blue demon gate," I said. "Not even Jackson could see the special pedestal that held the ring, but for some reason, I was drawn to it. It appeared when I got close enough, only the ring wasn't there. I think the pedestal triggered some kind of attack from three hunters who were guarding the ring."

"Amazing," he said. "I have seen other documents that spoke of this ring, but never before have I seen one with my own eyes."

"I'm pretty sure that ring is the reason the Order attacked the city today. I can't imagine Priestess Winter sent those hunters here just for me."

Unless the Order already knew I was half demon. I had no idea what that might mean in terms of the demon gate's power, but I wondered if that was the reason Priestess Winter had gone through so much trouble to transfer Peachville's prima line to another family rather than kill me outright. As I saw in Aldeen, sometimes she'd rather kill an entire town than deal with a prima who didn't follow the rules.