“Hold the circle!” I said as a dozen more of the fire creatures followed her out. “And loose the army!”

The howls came in a wave that crashed over us all—ghostly and living alike—as Ariel’s army joined the party. I heard the living ones move behind me, two dozen shifters in wolf form, and saw real, actual terror in Rosantine’s eyes.

And I reveled in it. I couldn’t step out of the circle, but I’d damn well protect it from the . . . well, “demonettes” worked.

Have at it, I murmured to monster, and it stretched into my body instantly, gripping the sword around my fingers.

A demonette emerged near our feet, and we slashed through it, slicing it in half. It seemed to be boneless and dissolved into ash that was reabsorbed into the circle. And fueled another demonette that emerged a foot away.

We swung the sword, took that one out, then pivoted toward one that was stretching for us from behind. We struck its arm, then back again through its torso. Ash. Reabsorption.

Would there be an end to this?

Fire slashed at the back of my thigh, and I swung the sword behind me, nearly hitting the gray wolf that was chomping at the demonette’s leg. It made a sound like the hissing of steam and dissolved. Connor coughed smoke.

“Sorry about that,” I said. “You okay?”

He gave me an “as if” look and trotted to the next monster.

There were more of them now, and we spun in an arc, my blade going red-hot from contact with the creatures’ fire. Slashing, plunging, striking seemed to make no difference. They dissolved easily but kept re-forming.

“Fifteen minutes,” Theo called out. “We’re down to fifteen minutes.”

I had to push down panic, ignore the fear. They kept coming, a seemingly endless supply of monsters for us to kill. What had I missed?

I sliced through another, then another, my arms slick with sweat, and thought back to what Claudia had said. You must feel your way.

Crap. Feel your way? Had she meant that literally?

“Crap,” I said, this time aloud. “I think I have to breach the circle.”

TWENTY-TWO

Elisa,” came Lulu’s stern voice. “What was the number one rule?”

“Don’t breach the circle . . . unless you have a solid reason? I think we have to draw the sigil on the demon. I think that’s the next step. Claudia said we had to ‘feel’ our way to command her successfully.”

There was silence for a moment.

“Oh,” she said, the sound heavy and grim. “I see.”

“Am I right?”

Across the circle, she pushed hair behind her ears with a paint-smeared finger, her other hand still extended toward the sigil. “Maybe? But I don’t know how to do it safely. Going into the circle would be . . . bad.”

“What specific kind of bad?” I asked, slicing the arm from a demonette with particularly spindly fingers.

“It will hurt.”

“On a scale of one to sunlight?”