Page 131 of Soulbound
"It's not going to get that far."
A red mage globe spun to life. Sebastian barely had time to notice it, before Bishop shoved him out of the way. They both went down in a snowdrift, and an explosion of red light behind them lit the world.
"Move!" Bishop screamed, scrambling to his feet and staggering.
Sebastian yanked him upright, slipping beneath his arm. "Lucien!"
"Here." Their eldest brother appeared out of the heart of a burning cloud. "We need to get inside the hexagram."
"How?" Another mage globe struck the brick of the wall beside them, and chunks of mortar blew out. Sebastian flung an arm over his face.
Something caught his attention.
A slender figure, dressed all in black, picking her way through the snow, moving slowly, as if in a dream. His blood ran cold. Cleo.
She wasn’t even looking at him. She barely noticed the blood. Instead, she walked with deliberate purpose toward the star and crossed the line, bending to pick something up as she went. The Blade of Altarrh by the look of it. The demon held his hand out toward her, a satisfied smirk on its face.
Cleo took Lascher's gloved hand, her hair falling down her back in straight, silken sheets. Crow feathers capped her shoulders, and she wore a cloak of black velvet, her dress cut low in front to reveal the smooth slope of her breasts.
"Come, sweet child," the demon called. "Open the gates."
"We need one more sacrifice," she said.
"We have to stop her," Bishop told him, strain showing on his face. "If she opens those gates, we’ll all die."
Cleo’s eyes were blank. She took the Blade of Altarrh, and sliced it down her wrist. Not even a flinch betrayed her. Blood welled, and then she squeezed her tortured flesh, and it began to drip into the snow at the demon's feet.
This, then, was London’s doom. This was how it would end, in a world full of blood and the screams of the dying as the Shadow Horde came through. She'd always seen him in the Vision. And herself.
But neither of them had ever realized which one of them would bring about the destruction.
One more sacrifice.... No. Not her. Cleo lifted the Blade, seeking his gaze as she angled it toward her chest. He shoved away from Bishop and staggered toward the inverted triangles.
"Don't!" Lucien cried, but it sounded so far away.
Sebastian slammed into the ward, but it didn't fling him back as it had done to Bishop. It melded around his skin, sound cutting off abruptly, and time seeming to slow around him as he passed through it. Mage globes exploded silently around him like fireworks, and he saw Remington slowly whirling and sending razor sharp ribbons of light from his fingers, cutting down a pair of imps who sought to leap upon Lady Eberhardt's back....
And then the world rushed past him again and Sebastian hit the ground inside the hexagram, rolling to his feet.
It was different in here. Sound muted, but no longer entirely silent. He saw two worlds beyond the invisible walls of the hexagram. The others were still fighting the pack of imps, though every movement seemed to have slowed down. Bishop turned, his knee lifting, and his leg stretching out into a painfully slow extension as an imp launched itself from the top of the garden wall, its lips peeling back in a hiss. His heel slammed into the imp's chin with a visible shudder, its face rippling from the impact. Ianthe and Lucien fought back to back, mage globes of red and blue whirling around the pair of them like a firestorm.
But if he stared past that world he could see another. Stars stretched from horizon to horizon, a black and white checkerboard flowing over the ground.
Two worlds.
Two planes.
And another one visible in the sky above them, fiery red lines boiling there impatiently, like a seamstress’s ragged seam. The seam bulged, and he could see faces there, monstrous faces trying to push their way through. All it would take would be one pull and something would spill out....
"Do you see it now?" the demon whispered. "My world is dying. There are too many of us trapped within, and we have slowly torn each other to pieces. We need new prey. Something to feed this thirst."
"So you wish to destroy my world?" He turned back to them.
"There are many humans. What is the loss of a few million? You breed faster than we do."
"I won't let you have my world." He met the black queen's black eyes. "I won't let you have my wife."
Standing in front of the demon, she watched him come with a sultry expression, the Blade still angled toward her chest. "My king doesn't have a choice. He doesn't make my decisions for me."
