Page 122 of A Witch-ish Guide to Protectors and Pendulums

“Karro?” I asked and he nodded.

“Grandma trusts you—I do too.”

“Grab on to Shafira.” Closing my eyes, I shot off a quick prayer to my grandmother.Lilith, help me make this happen.The pair held hands as I began chanting, “Bring Karro and Shafira to the witches archives.” Over and over, I kept the chant going until the floating door opened up sucking me back through.

My consciousness hit my body right as Agatha said, “Someone’s here.” She placed her book on the table to jog up the steps, walking back down moments later with Shafira and my cousin in tow. “They said you brought them here?”

Thank you, Lilith!

“I did.” I started to get up, but both Karro and Shafira walked over to hug me, so I kept my butt planted next to Connor, who acted as the most comfortable body pillow ever invented. I reached up to hug them back.

“Connor, good to see you,” Shafira said.

“Very good,” Karro said.

It appeared my mate resolved himself to the fact that when you married, you got more than a wife, you got her family too because he simply shook his head. For my part, I found myself able to check therip-his-head-off-for-flirting-with-my-mateimpulses, so wins all around.

“Luc left to go crack heads,” I told him, taking in his strong profile and feeling grateful that I was surrounded by or made contact with the people I cared about most. “It looks like someone informed him of what we saw at Monnie’s.”

“Asmodeus showed. He’s pissed, too,” Karro put in. “He said this crap is bad for business.”

“Asmodeus is with us?” Connor asked. “Brilliant. He’s a good ally to have.”

“He’s taking meetings with Bel and Mon,” Shafira said. “Though he didn’t elaborate, I feel as if he meant Belphegor and Mammon.” And we had Leviathan.

“We’re already pretty sure Belphegor is on our side,” I put in. “Remember Australia?”

“Right. But I think it’ll be good to get confirmation.”

She wasn’t wrong. Four of the seven leaders of Hell on our side were far from bad odds. If they gave confirmation, we couldwork on an alternate plan where demons got involved. Lilium, witches, and demons. Earth might not fall, after all.

From that point on, A never-ending stream of witches and new Lilium started to show. Things got a bit crazy for a while. When Lily Joy arrived I felt a huge sense of relief. After surviving losing someone I cared about once already, I couldn’t go through that again.

The door to the archives opened, tearing me from my somber thoughts while allowing more witches to enter. The room didn’t look big enough to accommodate us all but somehow did. It expanded as we needed it to. Victoria Rivers understood the assignment and had done her job. Witches kept showing. We needed all of them we could get.

When I sensed the next new Lilium arrive, I started feeling even more confident about this war. Witches held power, but Lilium heldpower.

“Hello?” the voice called out in a distinctly Southern accent as they descended the stairs.

I smiled so big at the bottom waiting to greet her. “Hi. I’m Simone. Welcome to the witches’ archives.” I slowly waved my hand out like a gameshow model presenting a new car.

A woman appeared from the staircase. Big, bleach-blonde hair pulled back in a ponytail, but she had almost a pompadour poof in front. I immediately thought: Texas. Then I dropped my eyes to her Cowboys T-shirt, confirming my suspicions.

“Simone? Simone Lamia?” she asked.

“The one and only,” I replied, standing a little taller. Proud of what we’d been able to accomplish so far. Yes, we still had a monumental challenge ahead of us so I’d be a fool to get too confident, but we deserved to take a moment to pat ourselves on the back for getting this far.

“A Victoria Rivers contacted me. She said I had family—and I ain’t never had family, but she sounded serious. Next thing Iknow, I’m on a plane to Scotland. Victoria Rivers said you’re my family. What’s going on? Do you know how dangerous it is out there? Mine was the last flight out. They shut down the whole airport for security reasons. People are going crazy.”

Yet another ancestor of Lilith who’d grown up alone. Why? Why didn’t we deserve to have the love of a family in our formative years? What happened to make this our reality? Grandma and I needed to talk. It seemed she’d left out some information.

“What’s your name?” I asked.

“Alexis Smith.”

“It’s good to meet you, Alexis. Do you know what you are?”

Her head jerked. “What I am? Not you, too. I didn't fly across?—”

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