stupid face.”
She strode toward James’s room, leaving the others behind.
Someone waited for her in the hall.
He loomed behind a set of decorative medieval armor. He was such a big man that he never would have fit into it, but he didn’t look like he needed the protection anyway; the jacket and jeans he wore looked like they were about to rip just from the force of his muscles.
Abel had heard her talking downstairs. He must have—his hearing, as a werewolf, was incredibly acute.
He just glared at her without saying anything at all.
Would he take the chance to be changed into a human again, now that his mate was gone?
Elise didn’t ask him. She just met his gaze, waiting to see if he was going to attack or speak. Chances weren’t bad that he’d blame her for Rylie’s death. She was the reason they’d been in Coccytus when the angels attacked in the first place.
But Abel just turned and walked back into the room he’d been sitting in. Same room that Rylie’s body had been moved to. Elise understood that his silence was acquiescence to the pack’s exorcism, even if he wasn’t volunteering for the easy way out himself.
Maybe the pack wasn’t going to be screwed without Rylie after all.
The number of werewolves that gathered in the garden to be exorcised was surprisingly small. Elise counted them from a hotel room on the second floor as she designed the exorcism spell.
She was going to need less power than she’d expected. Elise had been worried that the fact she hadn’t made it down to Hell to retrieve her chain of charms would be a problem, but now she thought she could surely exorcise a group this size using nothing but rune magic.
It was going to have to be impressive rune magic, though. Twenty simultaneous exorcisms was close to breaking her own record.
James shifted uncomfortably beside her. “I hope you know what you’re doing.”
She added a few final lines to her drawing then lifted the paper from the desk to show it to him. “Do I?”
He examined the rune she had drawn. It was very similar to the magic that James had once used to exorcise Elise, although she’d made a few modifications.
James barely even glanced at it before handing the paper back to her.
“It seems that you do. That’s impressive.”
“I remembered what you said about the gaean magic,” Elise said. “How it was made stronger by lacing together all three—”
“Yes, and you’ve added ethereal elements. Great. You’re also likely to injure yourself by invoking angel magic.”
“It’ll be fine this once. I need the boost in power.”
“I’m aware how tempting that is, but sometimes it’s better to risk a spell failing than chase power to its absolute end.” A snort escaped Elise. James looked startled. “What?”
“You reached this wisdom, what, yesterday? It’s pretty fucking rich coming from you, considering all you’ve done in pursuit of power.”
“I learned that lesson much earlier than yesterday,” James said, looking only slightly offended. “Days earlier, even.”
Elise smudged out one of the ethereal lines with her thumb so that it wouldn’t work. It had only been an amplifier anyway. She could make two runes and have just as much power without the risk. “Better?”
“Much.”
“So when did you, of all people, decide that infinite power wasn’t worth the cost? Was it about the time that we killed Seth and drove Brianna to insanity? Or how about when an entire piece of Heaven crashed into Earth so that you could open that gate to Eden? Or was it—”
“It was when I realized that no amount of power would heal what I did to you. When I realized that nothing would ever bring you back to me.”
James wasn’t watching her work. He was staring at the wolves.
Elise studied the line of his profile. He looked like he was in pain, even though her infernal senses could tell that there was nothing wrong with him. For a white-haired man in his forties who had just killed a hybrid,
She strode toward James’s room, leaving the others behind.
Someone waited for her in the hall.
He loomed behind a set of decorative medieval armor. He was such a big man that he never would have fit into it, but he didn’t look like he needed the protection anyway; the jacket and jeans he wore looked like they were about to rip just from the force of his muscles.
Abel had heard her talking downstairs. He must have—his hearing, as a werewolf, was incredibly acute.
He just glared at her without saying anything at all.
Would he take the chance to be changed into a human again, now that his mate was gone?
Elise didn’t ask him. She just met his gaze, waiting to see if he was going to attack or speak. Chances weren’t bad that he’d blame her for Rylie’s death. She was the reason they’d been in Coccytus when the angels attacked in the first place.
But Abel just turned and walked back into the room he’d been sitting in. Same room that Rylie’s body had been moved to. Elise understood that his silence was acquiescence to the pack’s exorcism, even if he wasn’t volunteering for the easy way out himself.
Maybe the pack wasn’t going to be screwed without Rylie after all.
The number of werewolves that gathered in the garden to be exorcised was surprisingly small. Elise counted them from a hotel room on the second floor as she designed the exorcism spell.
She was going to need less power than she’d expected. Elise had been worried that the fact she hadn’t made it down to Hell to retrieve her chain of charms would be a problem, but now she thought she could surely exorcise a group this size using nothing but rune magic.
It was going to have to be impressive rune magic, though. Twenty simultaneous exorcisms was close to breaking her own record.
James shifted uncomfortably beside her. “I hope you know what you’re doing.”
She added a few final lines to her drawing then lifted the paper from the desk to show it to him. “Do I?”
He examined the rune she had drawn. It was very similar to the magic that James had once used to exorcise Elise, although she’d made a few modifications.
James barely even glanced at it before handing the paper back to her.
“It seems that you do. That’s impressive.”
“I remembered what you said about the gaean magic,” Elise said. “How it was made stronger by lacing together all three—”
“Yes, and you’ve added ethereal elements. Great. You’re also likely to injure yourself by invoking angel magic.”
“It’ll be fine this once. I need the boost in power.”
“I’m aware how tempting that is, but sometimes it’s better to risk a spell failing than chase power to its absolute end.” A snort escaped Elise. James looked startled. “What?”
“You reached this wisdom, what, yesterday? It’s pretty fucking rich coming from you, considering all you’ve done in pursuit of power.”
“I learned that lesson much earlier than yesterday,” James said, looking only slightly offended. “Days earlier, even.”
Elise smudged out one of the ethereal lines with her thumb so that it wouldn’t work. It had only been an amplifier anyway. She could make two runes and have just as much power without the risk. “Better?”
“Much.”
“So when did you, of all people, decide that infinite power wasn’t worth the cost? Was it about the time that we killed Seth and drove Brianna to insanity? Or how about when an entire piece of Heaven crashed into Earth so that you could open that gate to Eden? Or was it—”
“It was when I realized that no amount of power would heal what I did to you. When I realized that nothing would ever bring you back to me.”
James wasn’t watching her work. He was staring at the wolves.
Elise studied the line of his profile. He looked like he was in pain, even though her infernal senses could tell that there was nothing wrong with him. For a white-haired man in his forties who had just killed a hybrid,
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