He was right, though my motives were still a bit hazy at the moment. Things had gotten so big, so confusing, that I wasn’t handling this whole situation the way I usually would.
Although, in my defense, this was a situation unlike any I’d ever imagined. A situation born of pain and confusion. We were all flying by the seats of our pants, not just me.
We’d better figure it out soon, though. Time was running out.
The doorbell chimed.
Knock, knock… I heard, and my blood ran cold.
Five
“Nobody move,” I said softly, a whip crack of command in my voice.
You are supposed to say, “Who’s there…”
I knew who was there. Lucifer.
My breath came in short bursts. Emery pushed up from the island, his body tense in places and loose in others, ready for action. Darius stayed perfectly still, watching me closely. Callie and Dizzy put down their glasses. Clearly no one intended to heed my command.
Oh, it seems you have some friends coming to call, I heard.
“Penny!” I burst into action before my thoughts could catch up with my legs. I didn’t know whom I was rushing out to protect, Penny or Lucifer, but I did know that if I didn’t get there in a hurry, someone was going to die.
“What’s going on?” Callie yelled as I sprinted down the hall toward the front door. Darius kept pace behind me, with Emery hurrying after.
I reached the door and ripped it open, finding Lucifer on the front stoop, wearing the white button-up dress shirt and jeans he always did, turned to face the person who’d stalled on the walkway leading to the house.
Penny stood within a gathering cloud of magic, spells twisting and turning around her, vicious, pumped full of power, and ready to do some serious damage. Rage shone plainly on her face, burned brightly in her eyes.
At the edge of the property, Veronica peeked out from behind a bush and a wall of spell, sectioned off from the battle that was about to unfold.
“Wait—”
Penny loosed the spell, which she sent surging and twisting through the air, straight for Lucifer.
I flung out my hand, but Lucifer had already whipped his hands out to react. His magic ballooned out, a complex weave of fire and ice, so finely wrought and artfully crafted that I wanted to sulk at my paltry attempts.
Her spell slammed into his wall, sizzling through parts and sliding off the rest. He braced, the muscles in his arms bulging, his body shaking slightly with the onslaught. He heaved forward, pushing his magic toward Penny, fighting her spell back toward her.
“Stop!” I shouted, my magic slicing into the mix. I halted my father’s efforts and then latched on to Penny’s spell. I followed it home with my magic, unraveling both it and the churning cloud of magic above her. “Emery, go calm her down.”
Are you here to wage war? I asked Lucifer.
“No. I come in peace.” He paused, and a little smile twisted his lips as he magically wrestled with me, pushing back at my efforts to cut through his magic. “Take me to your…leader,” he said, grunting as he thwarted my attempt to punch through his barrier.
His magic speared at me, and I flung it away at the last moment, continuing to work at his push, now aimed at me. Wanting to crush me. To wipe me from the earth.
He was teaching me, even now.
Sweat beaded my brow and determination steeled me as I fought back, figuring out how to work around him. Loving the feeling of fighting with my magic. Of sparring with death threats instead of the equivalent of a wooden sword.
“She’s still fighting him,” I heard, the words barely registering through my focused attention. “Damn it, Emery!”
A concussion of air pushed me. A body hit a car in the driveway—probably Emery—and then another stream of Penny’s magic sliced through the air. This time, it wasn’t just rage behind the spell, but fear and hurt and vengeance…laced with love and devotion to our friendship. To me.
She was also borrowing heavily from Lucifer’s and my demonic magic.
The spell boiled and fumed, twisted and grew. The stream turned into a gush, and hellfire erupted in the air and washed over Lucifer, cutting through his efforts and blasting him back into the doorjamb. It crackled across his skin and turned to fire along his scalp, burning away his hair.
“Penny, whoa!” I stepped in front of him and held up my hand, meeting her hellfire with my own to stop the onslaught.
She cut off, panting, rage still burning brightly as she beheld Lucifer. “Why are you stopping me?”
“Hellfire won’t kill him, remember?” I paused to make sure she wasn’t going to throw another spell. “Also, I was just sparring with him. It wasn’t for reals. Sorry, I should’ve said something.”
She dropped her hands, and her body sagged a little. “Are you shi—” She scowled. “Suck a toe, Reagan. You could’ve let me know.”