Naomi clutched her hands to her belly. Fear and panic shook her, trailed by the undeniable, irresistible need to protect her babies.

“You are lying,” Makani growled, glaring at Firestorm.

“I have no reason to come here and lie to you.”

“You never needed a reason to lie or betray me before.” His voice was low and vicious. “Your thirst for power was always reason enough for you.”

“I made unfortunate choices.”

“And now you’re relenting? Because of some sudden crisis of moral conscience?” he said, utterly unconvinced.

“I have done a lot of things. Terrible things. I do not deny that. But I swear I didn’t know Darksire plotted with Paladin and Paragon to put the demons’ souls in your unborn babies.”

Gold fire flashed in his eyes. “I don’t believe you.”

“Neither would I. But it’s the truth. I can help you set it right. I have to help you set it right. That’s why I’m here.” Firestorm reached toward Makani. “I never meant for things to turn out like this.”

He stepped away before she could touch him, drawing Naomi back with him. Firestorm sighed.

“How did the demons get inside of me?” Naomi asked. Her heart was pattering so hard that she was surprised her words came out coherent.

“The demons’ panthers,” Firestorm told her.

Naomi thought back to her encounter with the hell beasts at Monster Lake, the beasts whose magic was supposed to weaken the demons’ hosts, making them ready for possession. She thought she’d thwarted that plan. Apparently not. The beasts had scratched her. She’d felt the burn of their claws, of the vicious magic biting into her.

“The panthers weakened me,” Naomi realized. “And the demons used that to get through my defenses. To get into my babies.”

“Yes.”

A cruel, sickening feeling washed over Naomi. “This was the demons’ plan from the beginning. They played us from start to finish.”

“Yes, they did,” said Firestorm. “Darksire made a deal with Paladin and Paragon. I thought that deal only involved using your father so Darksire could escape to earth. Carrying all these other demons was just the price for the demon princes’ help. But it didn’t end there.”

Makani laughed darkly. “Darksire didn’t let you in on the scheme. Your beloved dark fairy didn’t tell you what he and the demon princes were really planning.”

“No,” Firestorm bit out. “He did not.” She looked like she was going to be sick.

“He knew you wouldn’t approve?” Naomi asked her.

“There are some lines you do not cross.” Her voice rang with conviction.

Makani remained unimpressed. “I find that ironic coming from you, the Dragon Born mage who betrayed her kind, who sold us out for her lover and for a few new magic tricks that Damarion dangled in front of you, like catnip on a string in front of a greedy little kitten. Damarion had you jump through his hoops, each one more immoral than the previous—until you shed your morality entirely.”

Anger brewed around Makani. The air grew thick and smoky. Naomi coughed.

“Damarion is dead, Makani,” Firestorm said. “Long gone.”

“But you are not.”

“When this is all over, we can settle our differences like warriors. Right now, you need my help.”

“Do we?” Makani scoffed.

But Naomi wasn’t so quick to dismiss her words. She couldn’t afford to.

“How do we get the demons out of my babies?” she asked Firestorm.

“Don’t you see?” Firestorm gave her a look that, on any other face, might have been mistaken for pity. “You can’t. It’s too late. The demons will continue to grow, to blend with the souls inside of you. Paladin and Paragon have been merging with them for months, growing as the babies grew, as their magic grew.”

Four souls inside of her. That was the enormous drain on her magic. That was why she’d had to siphon magic from the spirit realm so often, to recharge. All this time, she’d been growing the demons too, powering them up. Even as she thought she was fighting the princes of hell and their terrible plans, she was making them stronger.

“There must be a way,” she gasped, grabbing Firestorm’s shoulders, rattling her.

The answers didn’t fall out of her, at least not the answers Naomi had been hoping for.

“Right now, the demons have not completely merged with your babies,” Firestorm said. “When the babies are born in one body, you can perform the Dragon Born ritual to split their souls and magic into two bodies. That ritual will save your children’s lives—but it will also complete the demons’ bonds, sealing their souls with the babies’ souls. If you don’t perform the ritual, the babies will die and the demons will leave their bodies.”

That was their choice: either their babies died, or the demons got them. The princes of hell had trapped them in this impossible situation.

The savage inhumanity of it hit Naomi all at once. She stumbled back, dizzy, reeling. Makani caught her, his eyes flickering from her face to her belly—his need to protect his children clearly warring with the need to kill the demons that threatened them all.

“You have to believe me. I knew nothing of this,” Firestorm said, desperation dripping off of her.

She was looking at Naomi now, pleading with her to believe her words. She’d realized Makani would not bend.

“I had no idea what Darksire had done, the deal he’d made with the demons. But then the demons dissolved my magic lasso tonight when I had it around you.”

So that was the strange magic Naomi had felt. It hadn’t been her own. It had come from the demons. They had freed her. They didn’t want her to die—at least not until her babies were born.

“Then I felt them.” Firestorm glanced down at Naomi’s belly. “Demons inside of you. I never thought Darksire would go so far. To make demons who were so merged with the babies’ bodies that they weren’t hosts. They were inseparable.” Disgust crinkled her face. “Demons that cannot be sent back to hell. Demons that can walk the earth unhindered, ruling both here and there as masters of earth and hell.”

Anguish boiled inside of Naomi. Acid rose in her throat and she threw up all over the floor.

Her babies. The demons were going to take them from her. And the only way to stop this was to let them die. Becoming a mother had felt so unreal, like it was happening to someone else—until now. Love burned through her body, the need to protect her tiny babies overwhelming her.

Makani watched her like she was a ticking bomb just waiting to go off.

“No.” She backed away from him. “I won’t let you kill them, Makani.”

“Naomi.”

“I will fight you,” she growled, seeing red. Magic sizzled on her fingers, so bright and potent. She would fight for her babies. She wouldn’t let anyone hurt them.

Makani just stared at her, pain crinkling his brow, turmoil swimming in his eyes.

“Dragons protect their own.” Firestorm’s words brought Naomi out of her daze. “Makani would die before he let anyone kill his children. And that’s precisely what Darksire and the demons are counting on.”

Firestorm looked sick herself. Despite everything, despite all the terrible crimes she’d committed over the centuries, this was the thing that had snapped her out of her daze. But could that be true? Had she really turned her back on Darksire?

Firestorm’s wide eyes shook, her mouth trembling. She seemed to be on the verge of tears. If she was lying, she was the best actress in all the realms.

Makani glared at her like she was the vilest villain to ever walk the earth. “You hunted the Dragon Born. You helped Darksire and Damarion kill them. You don’t have a soul, not anymore. So don’t pretend that you care what happens to my children.”

“I do care,” she said, her voice both biting and brittle. “They are my blood too.”

“You expect us to believe this isn’t another trick, another betrayal?”

“You’re just going to have to trust me.”

The air around him crackled with agitated magic. “That will be the day.”

“I can help you.”

“Help us do what?” he demanded. “You said the demons cannot be removed.”

“Not that I know of,” she said. “But if we got our hands on the book the demons used to cast this spell, maybe there’s a way to reverse it.”

“And let me guess, you know which spell book it was.” If his tone were any more scathing, his words would have caught on fire.

“No,” Firestorm said. “But when I performed Mind Breaker on Darksire…”

“You broke Darksire’s mind?” Makani laughed. “This fantasy is getting better and better.”

She glowered at him. “It’s the truth.”

“Let her speak,” Naomi told Makani.

“We cannot trust a word she says.”

“I don’t know,” replied Naomi. “I’m pretty good at reading people, and she is looking really repentant at the moment.”

“She is very disarming. She wouldn’t have been able to fool me and the other Dragon Born for years if she weren’t. But do not forget who she is.” Makani arched a single brow. “Or what she has done.”

“I’m not forgetting any of that.” Naomi looked at Firestorm. “Tell us what you know about the spell.”

“When doing Mind Breaker on Darksire, I caught a hint of who cast the spell to merge the demons with your babies.” Her face was carefully neutral, but a firestorm of emotions burned in her eyes.

“Paladin and Paragon didn’t cast the spell themselves?”

“No,” Firestorm told her. “This kind of magic is not within their power. I don’t know who cast the spell. I didn’t see the demon’s face. What I did see in Darksire’s mind was him speaking to a mercenary demon named Loring.”

Naomi knew the name. Loring was the demon she and Makani had met in Hell’s Casino, the one who’d handed them his business card.

“Loring is a middle man in hell,” said Firestorm. “He arranged this spell with another demon. I can go with you. I can help you find Loring.”

“We cannot trust anything she says,” Makani said to Naomi. “In all likelihood, she is leading us right into a trap.”

“You can do Mind Breaker on her,” Naomi suggested. “You can confirm if she’s telling the truth.”

“Her magic has been warped too much for Magic Breaker to work on her.”

“She is immune?”

“Yes.” Makani’s gaze slid over to Firestorm, a cynical smile twisting his lips. “How convenient.”

“I guess you’re just going to have to make a decision, Makani. Which is more important to you: holding on to your grudge, or protecting your children?” Firestorm folded her arms over her chest. “I’m confident you will make the right choice.”

“I could just torture you until you crack.”

She flashed him a deranged smile. “As much fun as that sounds, I spent centuries in the core of hell, Makani. If that didn’t crack me, you won’t.”

“We’ll see.” He crossed his arms too, mirroring her stance.

“And even if by some miracle I did crack, you wouldn’t learn anything I haven’t already told you,” she said. “I’ve given you your best hope of reversing this spell. Your only hope. You would be a fool not to take it.”

Naomi set her hand gently over Makani’s. “She’s right.”

He looked at her like she’d lost her mind. Maybe she had. But she had to do something to save her babies, even if that meant working with Firestorm.

“Where can we find Loring?” Naomi took a step toward Firestorm.

Makani’s hand closed around her wrist, drawing his body protectively around her, as though she’d burst into flames if she got too close to Firestorm.

“You are not seriously considering trusting her, are you?” he said in a low, grating whisper.

“We don’t have many options.”

Naomi briefly entertained the idea of asking her friends for help. But she couldn’t. Her friends knew nothing of the spell; Firestorm did. And what would they do if they found out where the demon princes had been hiding all this time? Demons with the powers of the Dragon Born and the Spirit Warrior, with the ability to traverse realms, to wield powerful magic on both earth and in hell—that was not something they could allow to happen. Would they kill her babies to keep the demons from getting a hold on the earth? After all, that would be the ‘right’ solution, the solution that looked out for the greater good.

But these were her babies. Naomi would not allow them to die. She wasn’t going to allow the demons to win either. She would find a way out of this. She wasn’t going to accept that all was lost, that the situation was hopeless. Others might not be willing to take that risk. No, she and Makani had to fix it before anyone found out about the demons inside of her babies.

“I don’t trust her.” Makani’s eyes tracked Firestorm’s every breath, every twitch of her muscles. “She is hiding something.”

“I don’t trust her either, but I think we can use her.” Naomi spoke louder, addressing Firestorm now. “Where is this mercenary demon?”

“It’s really easier if I come with you. I can show you to Loring now.”

“I said we could use you, not that I want you at my back in a fight.” She glanced at Makani. “We have to lock her up.”

“You really are as stubborn as he is, Spirit Warrior. Very well,” Firestorm sighed. “Loring’s home base is up north, where Napa overlaps the seventh circle of hell. But you should bring me with you. I know the demon.”

“Why am I not surprised?” Makani said, a sardonic glint in his eyes. “But we’re not taking you anywhere.”

“We’re also not leaving you alone.” She took her phone off the table and asked Makani, “Your commandos are up to babysitting dangerous criminals, right?”

“Always.” His mouth lifted in a half-smile. “And they are warriors, not commandos.”

Naomi messaged the warriors, summoning them to their prince. A few moments later, Emma, Troy, and Bruce were knocking on the front door. Makani let them in and briefed them. They were so loyal to him that they didn’t even question his orders. Naomi couldn’t help but notice that he didn’t fill them in about the demons inside of Naomi’s babies, though. He wasn’t taking any chances, even with people who basically worshipped him.

Firestorm glanced at Makani’s army of three. “Three warriors. I don’t know whether to be glad that you trust me that much, or offended that you think three people can handle me.”

Makani grabbed her by the arm. “They don’t have to handle you. You will be in my special cell.”

He pulled her into the garage. Then he cleared away any weapons within grabbing distance of the large metal cage in the middle.

“Go in,” he told her brusquely.

Firestorm stepped inside the cage, looking rather amused. Makani swung the door shut. A magic field flared up around the cage. Firestorm reached out to touch the charged bars. Only her fingertip brushed over them, but the power of that touch sent her flying across the cage. Her back banged against another wall of the cage, rattling it. Firestorm spasmed on the magic field for a moment, caught inside of it, then she slid to the floor, heaving in air. She glared up at Makani, murder burning in her eyes.

“I designed this cage after our encounter in the Diamond Tower,” he told her. “The field was made with a Reflexive Glyph. Those bars are spelled to drain your magic and throw it back at you. The more you fight it, the stronger it grows. And the weaker you become.” He flashed her a smile. “I thought you’d appreciate the irony of being trapped inside here.”

It was the same spell Firestorm had cast on Naomi back during the battle in the Diamond Tower.

“I thought it was a vicious spell,” Firestorm said, wiping her sweat-plastered hair from her forehead as she rose slowly to her feet. “One that was best left forgotten.”

“I made an exception for you. A vicious spell for a vicious foe. A cage fit for a fiend.”

“I’m impressed, Makani,” Firestorm laughed. “So this is what it took for you to finally grow a backbone. This war won’t be won by kind words and smiles. You’ll have to dig in deep and get your hands dirty.”

“Don’t take your eyes off of her until we get back,” Makani told his commandos. “If she tries to escape, increase the power setting on the bars.” He indicated a lever on a control panel beside the cage. Then he turned to Naomi. “Let’s pay a visit to a demon.”