Lark held my hand. “I can’t help them and do the ceremony. There is no time for anything else.”

I nodded, a warm fatigue spilling over me. The wound in my stomach was bad. “You’d better hurry then, I’m not sure there is going to be much blood left in me.”

Lark nodded and let me go. “Cactus, Bella, Pamela. Make a circle, hold them as long as you can.”

Not too long, though. It wouldn’t be too long and this would be done. My family would be safe.

The world would be safe.

Marcella would be safe.

CHAPTER 46

LARK

THE CEREMONY WAS simple. Seven points of the body bled out into the slab, a single invocation spoken over each participant and the blood would be drawn out of them in a rush like water receding ahead of a tsunami.

I looked up at Eve hovering above us, out of range of the demons’ arrows and spears. “Harpy, bring me the boy, Jonathan.”

She let out a screech and shot into the fading darkness.

Peta stayed close to me, her strength helping me focus my mind on what had to be done. “Thank you,” I whispered. She gave a soft mewl of acknowledgment, but said nothing. No doubt she was picking up the tumultuous emotions swirling through me.

At the altar, I bent over the demon first. He glared up at me. “Blackbird isn’t done with you yet, chicky.”

Taking the katana I’d made ten years prior for Rylee, before I ever knew her, before I ever knew what my role would be, I sliced it across each of his wrists in a vertical slash. I moved to his legs, then his belly, one cut over his heart and then paused at his throat. “Any last words?”

“You’ve not seen the last of us. Demons will not be held back, not even if you close the Veil. We’ll find a way. We always do.”

I refused to admit his words chilled me to the bone. Shrugging, I slid the katana across his throat and spoke the invocation. “Signantes velum.”

A bolt of lightning ripped out of the sky and drove through his body, superheating his blood. The black liquid poured out of him so fast his skin shriveled and tightened over his face and chest, until he was nothing but a wizened body that looked as though it had been mummified for a thousand years.

“Tell me that isn’t going to happen to me,” Rylee whispered, her eyes locked on Orion—or what was left of him—beside her on the slab.

“It’s not. That was because he has no soul.” I tried not to hear the sounds of the battle around us. Alex pressed close to her on the other side.

“I’m here, Rylee. To the end, whatever that is.”

I shook my head. “You can’t touch her once the ceremony begins, Alex. No one can until her blood is drained, or their fate will be tangled with hers. She dies, you die, understand?”

He looked at me, his golden eyes wide and brimming with tears. “Then don’t let her die, Lark.”

My jaw tight, I nodded. “I’m going to be doing my best not to let that happen.”

Cactus grunted. “Hurry, Lark, we’re losing ground.”

Hurry, hurry. I called Berget over. “We start with you. The fanged must make their mark. You have to say, ‘for the fanged, you bleed.’” I handed her the katana and then pointed at Rylee’s left wrist.

This was about to get very, very real.

CHAPTER 47

RYLEE

I STARED UP AT Berget and gave her a smile. “It’s okay.”

She shook her head, tears falling from her pristine blue eyes. “No, I just got you back.”

“I know.” I wouldn’t lie, not now.

She dropped to her knees beside me on the slab, her arms going around my neck. “I love you, Rylee.”

“I love you, too, baby sister. Look after Marcella for me, help her be strong and kind. And maybe not such a potty mouth as me.”

Sobbing, she pulled back from me and put the katana against my left wrist. Holding her lips between her teeth she drew the blade over my skin. I didn’t even feel it, wouldn’t have known I was wounded except for the warmth trickling down my arm. “For the fanged, you bleed.”

Lark touched her on the shoulder. “Hold the circle, keep the demons at bay.”

Berget stumbled back and leapt into the fray with a war cry that made me think the demons had best run from her.

“Ophelia,” Lark said, and my dragon—yes, my dragon, not my father’s any longer—reached out with the tip of her claw and cut my left leg. “For the winged, you bleed.”

As if on cue, Eve swooped low and dropped Jonathan right at my feet. Lark handed him the blade and he cut into my right leg. “For the psychics, you bleed.”

Lark took the katana from him. She looked at me. “Pamela or Louisa?”

“I will do it,” Pamela said, striding over to us. Gods, she made me proud.

She took a deep breath and took the katana, her words shaking. “Rylee, you know you aren’t going to die. You can’t.”

I smiled up at her. “I love you, Pam. You are my other little sister. Look out for each other.”

“Love is the key,” she whispered. “It always was. You loved me, and that brought me back from the darkness. You never gave up. Please don’t give up, Rylee.” She leaned over and slid the blade over my right wrist. “For the magicked, you bleed.”

She kissed her fingers and then held her palm up to me. I couldn’t move and I hated I was going to break a promise to her. To all of them.

Lark’s voice softened. Alex hadn’t moved from my side, not during the whole time. “For the furred, Alex. Can you do it?”