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“Mmm, like father, like son,” Catori muses, then brings his attention back to me. “I made a deal with your ancestor, but I’m willing to renegotiate the terms. You release me from Hell, and I promise not to kill your family or Nikolai for his betrayal.” Catori smiles at me before he turns and walks toward the cavern’s exit. “Think about it.”

He holds a taloned hand out toward the seer, beckoning her to him. “Come, Chimere, my devious little thrall. I can already taste victory, but I shall have you first.”

Hot, burning rage and sullen hopelessness consume me as I watch them all disappear.

“Well that was disgusting.” Sloane huffs.

“Sloane.” I all but cry as I grip the bars and peer into her cell as she rolls over. “Are you okay? What happened?”

She groans as she sits up. “They jumped us at the house.”

“Celeste?”

“I saw her get knocked out before everything went dark.” Sloane rubs her shoulder with a wince then pins me with a sympathetic green gaze. “So maybe we were both wrong?”

“How were you wrong? You said all along that Nix was working for the bad guy.”

“I was clearly wrong about his motivations. Otherwise, he would be here and G.I. Joe wouldn’t be behind the bars too.” She points up to Lennox and I take the moment again to look around the cavernous chamber.

“This is bad, Sloane. What are we gonna do?”

“Fear not, sister.” One side of Sloane’s mouth tugs into a smile as she holds up a hand. A ring she doesn’t normally wear sits on her index finger, with her other hand she pulls a potion from the inside pocket of her denim jacket. “We found Mom’s ring, plus a few other things.”

25

“We’re kinda up against a clock, brother,” Nikita hisses, keeping her back pressed against the wall. “Do you think you could vomit when this is all over?”

Rowan is crouched down with his head between his knees while Jett and I keep watch.

“I think I have some ginger root in my purse.” Celeste searches through the little pouch strapped across her chest. She retrieves a small vial, then reaches for Rowan’s wrists and dabs it over his skin. “Take a few deep breaths of that. It should help,” she says.

We were at Sera’s house for no more than fifteen minutes while Celeste took a painkiller and changed into all-black clothes to help her blend in once we reached Hell. She loaded a small bag with various weapons and potions before we shifted back to Hemlock.

While Rowan and Nikita changed into similar dark clothes, Celeste gave Jett and me a rundown of each of the potions she brought, including the vanquishing one for Catori.

Celeste told us that Sloane had what they needed to end the curse—the vanquishing potion, her mother’s ring, and the talisman spell that granted the wearer the powers of the Seven Sisters ancestral line—the only power stronger than Catori. The wearer of the talisman needs to complete their own blood oath using the same dagger as the original curse. The vanquishing potion mixed with our blood should then be enough to defeat Catori. Only a direct descendant of Theodora or Cassandra can be the one to carry the power and complete the kill, since it was their blood that chained him to Hell, and that includes me.

My mother was a witch—an empath, just like Sera.

Pages torn from Sal Hewitt’s journal led to a lockbox hidden in Sera’s house along with Theodora’s journal. It detailed everything about her life and the creation of the Seven Sisters.

With every turned page, I felt myself being rewritten as the story I was always meant to be.

I can’t believe my mother never told me, though so many of my memories from my human life feel fuzzy and untouchable, so perhaps I knew and forgot. Perhaps it was no accident that this knowledge was stolen from me in death.

My hand tightens on the spell Celeste handed me before we shifted down to Hell. With my mother’s necklace, I can recite the spell, pledge my oath, and kill Catori. The only trouble is, when he dies so do all of his subjects. We’re not sure what will happen to me considering I’m half-witch. It also comes with the knowledge that Len and Jett must die too. Jett has somewhat come to terms with it. I can tell he’s sad, but in his words, he’s already lived his life, and he’ll trade his death for the witches to continue doing good. All we need is to get Catori’s dagger.

I turn to the others. “Ready?”

Nikita, Celeste, and a still pale-faced Rowan stand behind us, each clutching a potion bottle filled with deep red liquid.

“On my count,” I say as Jett and I lift bottles of our own. “One. Two.” I mouth three, and then we all throw our bottles as far and hard as we can.

They smash to the ground, plumes of soft burgundy smoke blending with the ash-like spores that float through the air. Each bottle lands on a path that leads straight to the succubi’s brothel. It’s one of the busier places in Hell, making it easier to slip in undetected. We’ll make the rest of our way to the dungeons on foot. It’ll make it harder for Catori to home in on our energies if we don’t shift. I still don’t trust why he didn’t pull us back when we were easier to detect in the human realm.

Only a few minutes pass before demons swarm from every direction, noses high in the air as they follow the scent of the lust charm, then stampede through the doors. Cheers and laughter erupt inside.

“The coast is clear,” Jett whispers.