Right as Famine starts to lose his balance, Lucas speeds forward, stepping into the circle. He grabs Famine’s arm and yanks him off his horse. It all happens in a second, and I stop fueling the magic when Lucas’s fangs tear into Famine’s skin, ripping his arteries right out of his neck. Blood spurts out, covering Lucas’s face, and he bites the other side of Famine’s neck, shaking his head and tearing out a mouthful of flesh.
Then he drops the body to the ground.
My hands are still outstretched, fingers slightly trembling. The rush of power that flowed through me has my body buzzing. Instead of feeling depleted, I feel recharged. I thought I had my Elsa moment years ago, but there’s no doubt about it. This is it.
Hellfire in one hand.
Pure white light in the other.
Alone, each is powerful and deadly. But together…together they’re enough to take out an ancient force of evil not even Lucifer was able to defeat. I want to use that power again. I want to feel the crackle of fire in my hand while energy sizzles around the other. I want that rush to go through me again, tingling every nerve in my body and making me feel more alive than I ever have before.
I want to be powerful. Strong. And not have to live in fear for another day of my life.
Lightning strikes the circle next to Famine’s body, and Lucas looks up, eyes meeting mine. I nod, letting him know he can come out of the circle. It won’t hold him back, only a demon. Smoke starts to rise from the ground, taking on the shape of another horse. Lucas comes to me, and I start to feel sick. I gasp for air, lungs burning as I take in a breath.
Pestilence, Binx tells me, shadowing around me to create a barrier. Lucas grabs onto my arms, holding me up. Pestilence can make me sick without laying a finger on me. How the hell am I supposed to take him out too?
Suddenly, there’s a shift in the air, and Lucifer appears. He’s holding the paper Julian wanted me to give him in his hand, and this time I can see the writing.
“Once again, I’ve arrived just in the nick of ti—” He looks at the black horse standing in the circle and then the body on the ground. “What did you do?” Lucifer’s blue eyes reflect the flashing lightning.
“We killed Famine,” I pant, hands still shaking from using that much power. “I can get the others if we—” I cut off when another bolt of dark lightning comes from the sky, hitting the center of another one of the mystical traps we set. I can feel the resistance in the air from whoever is being summoned, followed by an overwhelming sense of anger.
War.
“No,” Lucifer breathes.
“What?” I ask, clinging to Lucas’s blood-soaked hands. “Why are you acting like it’s a bad thing?”
“Because it is.” Lucifer rounds on me, holding up the paper. “Julian,” he starts. “He made a deal.”
“A deal?” Lucas echoes right as brown sand starts to gather on the ground only feet from us. The entire earth vibrates, bringing more sand together. “With who?”
“Osiris,” Lucas tells us, eyes wide and full of terror. “Osiris of the Underworld. He made a deal for Osiris to take the Four Horsemen to his hell. Four Horsemen.”
Another bolt of lightning, bigger and brighter than the others, strikes the final trap. Yellow smoke quickly rises, as Death doesn’t resist. He wants to be here, in front of me. If Pestilence can make me sick just by being near, what can Death do? The three of us turn, looking at the remaining Horsemen.
War.
Pestilence.
Death.
“He’s not going to take three,” Lucas says to himself, lips parting as he realizes what he did by killing Famine.
The sand swirls in a circle, slowly rising and taking the form of a man—a devil—the Egyptian god of the Underworld. We don’t have much time before he’s here, and I have no idea what will happen. Best-case scenario is he’ll leave pissed off at us for only giving him three of the four Horsemen…and then we’ll be left to take on three of the four Horsemen.
There’s no way we’ll make it out alive.
Lucas looks over my head at Lucifer, and something unspoken is said between them.
“I love you, Callie.” Lucas pulls his hands from mine. “You broke yourself out of Hell. You can do the same for me.”
“Lucas, no!” I reach for him, but Lucifer holds me back.