A Darkness Strange and Lovely (Something Strange and Deadly #2)(96)

Her claws dug deeper. She wanted to poison me. Wanted to overwhelm me with her visions . . .

“Then why did you need sacrifices?” It took all my strength to stay still. To fight the shudders racking inside me. “If you can compel and you had wealth, why sacrifice all those people?”

“Those were not for me. Though the blood was nice.” She ran her tongue over her lips. “My master was the one to sacrifice. There is someone who requires compelling, and a single spell will not suffice.”

Over her shoulder, I saw Oliver hauling Daniel to his feet. Satisfaction—triumph, even—washed over me. At least Oliver and the Spirit-Hunters could get out alive. Now, I was the only one who had to walk the fine line between life and death. . . .

And with that thought I recalled Madame Marineaux’s comment: Nor can they see the fine line you walk between life and death. The Hell Hounds await you.

The Hell Hounds. If there was one thing a demon—even one as powerful as a Rakshasi—could not face, it was the guardians of the spirit realm. And thanks to Marcus’s spell, I knew just how to call them here.

I creased my face into a sneer—a victorious smile I could not contain. “Why would your master,”

I crowed, “want compulsion spells? I thought, Madame Marineaux, that he could simply make you—

make his slave—cast a compulsion spell for him.”

She gritted her teeth, her nostrils fluttering. “He wants a spell that lasts days. Weeks, even. Mine only maintain for hours at a time.”

“Because your magic isn’t good enough? Is that it? He does not think your magic is strong—”

“Stop!” she screeched. “I see what you try to do, Mademoiselle. You wish to rile me, and that, I fear, will not do. If I cannot have you, then no one shall, and so it is time for you to die.”

“Oh?” I lifted my eyebrows as if this piece of information were utterly uninteresting. “Perhaps you ought to wait a moment, Madame. I have something you might like to see.”

Her lips pursed into a smug smile. She waited.

“Oliver, remove my hand. Take it back.”

“Oliver?” Her eyes thinned. “To whom do you speak?”

With my own wicked grin, I screamed in her face, “Sum veritas!”

Instantly she released me, rearing back. “Another demon?” She twirled around, her nostrils sniffing the air wildly.

Then she spotted the Spirit-Hunters, standing on the opposite side of the cavern with the crystal clamp and pulse pistols trained on her. I saw no sign of Oliver.

A scream ripped from Madame Marineaux’s mouth, inhuman and ear shattering. “Veni! Veni!”

She bolted for the Spirit-Hunters, her skirts and feet barely skimming the ground.

Daniel fired his reloaded pistols. Madame Marineaux slowed but didn’t stop. Two more shots cracked out, and this time Madame Marineaux did halt.

But it was not because she was hurt. It was because, crawling out of the dark tunnel behind the

Spirit-Hunters, was an army of corpses. The skeletons from before.

“Behind you,” I shrieked just as Daniel twisted around, his next pistols firing.

I dove forward, desperate to help, but all at once pain sliced up my arm. Phantom pain. I glanced down. My hand was gone. It was just a stump once more. Instantly, Marcus’s spell took effect.

First came the wind—so fierce and so cold. It blasted through the cavern, winking out half the torches. Then the stench of grave dirt assaulted me.

Madame Marineaux whirled toward me, disbelief—and betrayal—in her eyes. She knew what was coming. Knew there was no escape from the Hell Hounds.

Crack! Electricity lashed through the air as Joseph blasted skeletons away. He and Daniel were holding off the Dead, but only barely.

A howl tore through the cavern, and the pain in my missing hand screamed. Stars blurred across my vision. The Hell Hounds were close—so close—and all I had to do was keep Madame Marineaux here.

I staggered toward her, reaching frantically for any piece of her I could grab. But my right hand flared blue, blinding in its agony. Madame Marineaux’s eyes locked on it.

A grin swept over her face, and I knew she understood that the Hell Hounds were here for me, not her . Her grin shifted into a frown. “I am sad,” she said. “This is no way for a girl with your talent to die. Yet, you made your choice—and it was not me. Too bad, too bad. If you had only seen things my way, then they could have lived too.” She waved disinterestedly toward the Spirit-Hunters. Their backs were to the wall, and an ocean of skulls and groping fingers surrounded them. But they weren’t defeated—not yet.

“But c’est la vie, Mademoiselle. The bad choices— c’est la vie. And now I must wish you adieu. ”

She surged for the gaping black tunnel in the right corner. It was the only way out now that the left tunnel was swarming with Dead. Before I could even try to lunge into her path, she swept around me, soaring for the exit.

“Ollie!” I screamed. “Hold her! Sum veritas!” Then I launched after Madame Marineaux, sucking in all my power. Every ounce of soul in my body I drew into my chest, and in a wave of heat that scorched through me, I let all my magic loose.

“Stay! ”

Madame Marineaux froze only feet away from the exit. I could feel her pulling, pumping her own magic into a counterspell.