Page 24 of Mending Mayhem
No one spoke until we reached the end of the fourth block, where Ember paused at the crosswalk and turned to Ash. “Tell me you found the spell.”
She patted her pocket containing her phone. “Easy peasy. And Chaos scrambled Olga’s mind just enough that she doesn’t remember us doing it.”
Relief flooded Ember’s system. “I love my team.”
Ash crossed her arms. “It sure didn’t seem that way earlier.”
8
EMBER
“You can berate me later. Let me see the spell.” I held out my hand, and Ash’s jaw ticked. “You can text it to me if you want, but I’d rather you not send a spell punishable by death through the cloud.”
She slammed the phone into my hand.
“Your sister is angry with you.”
“No shit.” I tossed Shade the keys and climbed into the passenger seat. My team loaded up, and I studied the pictures Ash had taken of the phoenix spell. “Wolfsbane, hyssop…ground bone. Tell me we don’t have to sacrifice an animal to pull this off.”
“A life for a life. It sounds reasonable.”
“Look at the second photo,” Ash said. “We need demon bones.”
I swiped to the next picture. “‘Bones must be of the same or adjacent species you wish to resurrect.’ Fabulous. How are we supposed to harvest bones when demons go poof the second we vanquish them?”
“We’ll have to keep one alive.” Shade started the van and pulled onto the road. “Put it in a containment circle and harvest a limb before we send it back to Hell.”
I cringed. “That sounds barbaric.”
“You could exorcize me. I’ll possess Adrian and burn through him, solving two problems at once.”
“Absolutely not. I already told you that’s not an option. You’ve got enough ego on your own; you don’t need to absorb his too.”
“Let me guess,” Chaos said. “He’s suggesting he take the High Priest as a host.”
“Bingo. But it’s not going to happen.”
“It’s not the worst idea,” Ash said. “If we could take over BSM, we could exile the dark witches and stop looking over our shoulders every time we leave the house.”
Surely my sweet little sister didn’t mean that. I twisted in my seat to see her face, but she looked as serious as could be.
“That’s a hard no.” I flashed her a WTF look. “We only kill in self-defense, and even then…only if it’s absolutely necessary.”
“I can arrange for your self-defense to be necessary. Let’s return to Boston, and I’ll?—”
“Stop it. Both of you. We’ll do it like Shade suggested, unless…” I drummed my fingers on my knee. “Chaos, can you regenerate limbs? Maybe if we cut off your finger…”
“Only when I return to Hell.” He rested his hand on Ash’s thigh. “But I will do whatever it takes to save her.”
“Notice his only concern is her. He’d allow me to rot in prison for eternity if her life wasn’t on the line.”
I rolled my eyes. “It’s one finger. I’m sure he’d do it just for you.”
“He would not.”
“Chaos, would you give up your left pinkie to keep Mayhem out of the dark prison, even if Ash wasn’t in danger?”
He missed a beat…two…three. “I believe I would. He has suffered long enough.”