Page 24 of Claiming Chaos

She pointed to Mayhem’s mark. “I told you it curved left.”

“Hmm. I stand corrected.”

She took her phone from her pocket and snapped a photo of the page.

“I thought we were removing the book from public access.”

“We are, but I’m not taking any chances. I’m texting the picture to Ember now, so we’ll be ready when we get his skull. I don’t want to lug this giant book around everywhere we go.” She closed it and put it in her bag.

“Very smart.”

“I tend to be.” She winked, making my chest heat, and nodded toward the stairs.

We made our way down and past the security guard who still stood frozen in the hall. He blinked but otherwise seemed incoherent of what happened around him.

“That is a handy spell,” I said as we exited the building.

“Sure is.”

Ash closed the door and stayed close to the wall, slinking toward the back of the building. “We’ll take this to the room, and I’ll see if I can get us an earlier flight tomorrow. The sooner we can get out of New Orleans, the better.”

“Leaving so soon? But the party just started.” Chrys stepped out from the shadows and rested her hands on her hips.

Ash gasped, stopping in her tracks and stepping backward into me. I clutched her shoulders and moved her aside so I could block whatever magic Chrys might throw at her.

“Hand it over, Ash. Don’t make this difficult.” She clutched a knife in one hand.

“You have no idea what you’re dealing with.” Ash stepped forward. “If you summon Mayhem, the veil will be torn to shreds and Salem will be overrun with beasts. Surely you don’t want to destroy the entire town.”

Chrys scoffed. “Says the woman who already summoned Chaos. I’d hoped he’d plow through my hex on Patrice’s house. Vanquishing him then would have saved me a lot of trouble, but this actually worked out in my favor.”

“How so?” Ash slipped her hand into her bag.

“You led me right to the book I needed. Scrying only gets you so far, as I’m sure you know. Now, give it to me.”

“You’ll have to kill me first.” Ash took a bottle from her satchel, but before she could activate it, Chrys threw her knife. The blade sliced into her hand, knocking the potion to the ground, where it shattered, rendering the spell useless.

Talons protruded from my fingertips as fury ignited an inferno in my soul. My horns extended from my skull, and as my muscles coiled, preparing me to lunge, a gunshot exploded from behind me and pain ripped through my shoulder.

I roared and whirled around to see the culprit: the security guard, who now trembled in his boots. With a grunt, I scrambled his mind. He turned and ran, his head slamming into the brick wall with such force, his skull cracked and caved inward. Blood poured from the gash on his forehead as he thudded on the pavement, dead.

Ash used the distraction to her advantage, running and tackling Chrys. She groaned as her back hit the ground, and Ash pinned her shoulders, holding them down with her knees. “Why are you doing this?”

Chrys struggled beneath her weight. “I need the demon.”

“Chaos, can you hold her?” Ash shouted.

I rotated my shoulder and stormed toward them. Chrys groaned again, and a root from a nearby magnolia tree snaked around Ash’s waist, jerking her to the ground. The earth witch yanked the bag from Ash’s shoulder and scrambled to her feet, shouting in Latin and raising her hand toward me. A pulse of dark magic slammed into my chest, making me stumble back.

I pushed forward, and another pulse hit my head, then my injured shoulder. The next pulse stopped me in my tracks. Magic wavered in front of me, a wall that could have been made of steel.

“Stop right there, demon.” Chrys curled her other hand into a fist, and the roots tightened around Ash. The ground rumbled, the pavement splitting open like a fissure, revealing the earth below. “Or I will bury her so deep no one will ever find her body.”

Ash struggled against the roots, grunting as she strained, while Chrys poured a circle of salt, speaking in Latin again. I slammed my shoulder against the spell and broke through, rushing to my witch’s side. Gripping the roots, I pulled, trying to free her, but the harder I pulled the tighter they became.

She wheezed, shaking her head. “Any tighter and I can’t breathe.”

I rose and faced Chrys. “Release her.”