He left it to the other guards to kill it as he dodged and barreled down the stairs to the workshop. He skidded to a stop the moment he hit the bottom step. Before him stood Everard, surrounded by six demons, the portal behind him. And in his arms, gagged, was Aurelie.
Des braced himself for the demons to attack, but they were as eerily still as the stone gargoyles they resembled. His mind raced. How was it possible that Everard had these creatures in his thrall as well? If Des killed one, would it harm Everard? Or would he only be endangering Aurelie?
“You must be Destrier Whitlow,” Everard said, terrifyingly calm given the chaos around them. “Allow me to introduce myself.”
“I know who you are,” Des growled. “Let her go.”
“You know me as Everard,” the man continued calmly. “But my real name is Florian Hawthorn, rightful heir to the throne of Wisteria.”
Des looked at Aurelie, wondering if he’d gone insane. But tears streamed down her cheeks, and if the most intelligent person he’d ever met believed this lunatic, it had to be true.
“What do you want?” Des asked. He could feel Daisy, Jasper, and the others behind him, weapons drawn, ready to help defend him should it come to that.
“Of you? Not a thing. Miss Blake was just about to finish my portal when you all decided to join us. I can see you’re tempted to try to save her, but I assure you, there’s no need. Once she completes the portal, she will be freed along with her uncle.”
Aurelie mumbled something against the gag, shaking her head vehemently no. Des scanned Everard for some sign of a weapon, but all the man had was a small dagger strapped at his waist. He must be very sure of his demons to not even bother drawing the thing.
Everard turned Aurelie toward the portal and gave her a light shove, sending her stumbling forward. Des noticed there was a tool in her hand, the one she and Kiara had used for the engravings.
“Aurelie,” he called, but she didn’t turn. Something had happened since he last saw her, something that had convinced her that Everard—or Florian, or whoever he was—was a liar, that this plan would not go as he’d promised. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have hesitated to finish the portal. “Whatever he’s told you, don’t believe him. We’ll figure this all out together. I promise.”
He knew she heard him by the stiffening of her spine, but despite it, she raised her hand to the metal plaque and began to inscribe the final rune. He started forward, as Everard must have known he would, because he released the demons in that moment.
Everything that followed was pandemonium. There were as many hunters as there were demons, but in this enclosed space, it was difficult to tell what was happening. Claws and teeth came at Des from all sides, and meanwhile there was a growing wind and a loud, distant roaring, like thunder.
“Aurelie!” he screamed as he stabbed a demon through the eye, but she couldn’t hear him, or she chose not to. Behind him, he heard a woman shriek, and in a panic he turned to see a female guard—not Daisy, he thought with mingled relief and horror—eviscerated by one of the creatures. A moment later, Jasper cut the creature’s head off at the shoulders, nearly choking them with a cloud of brimstone.
Des turned back to Aurelie just as she finished the last mark. The rune was wobbly and crude compared to the others, and a part of him was desperate to believe that she had some last-minute trick up her sleeve that could get them all out of this. He kept one eye onAurelie, the other on the demons as he continued to fight his way toward her.
As soon as she’d finished, Everard caught her under her arms and raised his blade to her back. Des screamed a warning, but Everard was only cutting through the gag tied at the back of her head. Aurelie immediately spat it from her mouth to scream.
He couldn’t hear her over the roar, but he could see her calling his name. Telling him to run. As if he would possibly leave her now.
Everard then turned the knife on himself, slicing a deep wound in his palm. He pressed his hand to the center of the portal.
In that moment, there was only silence.
Des watched in horrified fascination as the metal plates began to whir and click, the metal channels on their sides locking into place, one after the other. This was what Aurelie had spent so long perfecting, and in any other circumstance, he would have marveled at it. But as realization dawned that she hadn’t foiled Everard’s plan after all, Des found himself numb. She’d said a dozen times that she wasn’t going to let her uncle die. He should have believed her.
The runes began to glow, a soft blue at first that grew steadily brighter until it was a near-blinding shade of violet. The center stones receded backward, and in their place, a swirling purple vortex of light appeared. She’d really done it, had somehow taken Everard’s stones and plates and wielded dark magic. He cast his glance at one of the nearby demons and jumped aside when he realized it was struggling, as though it were being pulled backward by a great force.
Blood and bones, the portal was sucking the demon in. The creature tore great gouges out of the stone floor with its claws in an effort to hold its ground, but a moment later, another demoncrashed into it, and then they were both flying backward through the portal, disappearing into that brilliant, sickening light.
Everard laughed in delight. Aurelie was staring at Des, her face so pale he worried she might lose consciousness. Seizing the opportunity, he ran to her, gathering her in his arms before she could respond.
“I’m so sorry,” he whispered, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. “I should never have gone behind your back.”
Something changed in her then, and she pushed free of Des’s arms with surprising strength. “Where’s my uncle?” she demanded of Everard. “You promised he’d be safe. Where is my uncle?”
But the man wasn’t listening. He was peering into the vortex as though he were waiting for something. And that was perhaps more frightening than anything else Des could have imagined.
Chapter 38
Aurelie
Aurelie was about to attack Everard from behind with her bare hands, despite Des tugging at her waist to drag her from the portal, until she saw the figure looming on the other side of the vortex.
It was small at first, though its silhouette was monstrous. Horrified but unable to look away, she watched as the shape grew steadily larger.