A few of the women gasped and others just burst into tears. The commotion got the attention of the Grimlock demon, who stormed over to the door. “Quiet down in there or no dinner!” he shouted.

Shea put her finger to her lips and the others quieted one by one, but now they had wicked grins on their faces.

I leaned in to Shea. “We can’t let a single one be taken.”

She nodded her agreement. I knew we’d both be on the same page. I didn’t know what exactly I thought human trafficking involved, but seeing it firsthand was enough to gut me.

“When Lincoln comes, I’ll use the keychain to make a portal to Fallen Academy, and we’ll bring everyone through before I close it. I’ll send Noah a mental note telling him our plan. Then he can head out with Chloe and Luke, back to our car in San Jose, and drive home.”

I nodded. “He can’t use the tunnels. How will he get out?”

Shea shrugged. “He’ll figure it out. He’ll fly them if he has to.”

She was silent then, eyes closed, probably connecting mentally with Noah.

All I could do was sit and wait. Hope the Tray Fox porn name the Abrus demon recognized was my Lincoln.

Looking at the two captured children made the demon’s comment take on a whole new meaning.

Sick bastard, he likes children.

Lincoln probably requested children above all else because those were who he freed first. The thought brought tears to my eyes, and convinced me that it was in fact my Lincoln.

All I could do then was pray.

Chapter Twenty-Five

We slept on the cold hard ground, tossing and turning throughout the night. When the Grimlock wasn’t looking or had dozed off, Shea would use her powers to do a heat spell and keep the kids warm as they slept—curled against the woman who’d taken care of them.

A few hours after we’d arrived, the place shut down and everyone went home. Except our Grimlock. He had candy bars and magazines to keep him company, while we ate some bland lentil stew.

Finally, the morning light splintered down the stairs as the vendors came back to their tables to start another day of trade. All we did was wait.

Shea leaned in closely, “What if someone comes to buy one of the others before Lincoln gets here?”

Oh God. I didn’t want to think about that. We couldn’t let that happen.

“Then you open the portal and get them to Fallen Academy, and I’ll look for Lincoln and fly home.” I knew she didn’t want to separate, but could we really allow even one of these women to be sold like a household item?

Never.

Shea chewed on her lip, mulling it over, but didn’t answer.

More hours ticked by; my stomach was starting to eat itself when a tall, smartly dressed Abrus demon with blond hair greeted the Grimlock.

The woman holding the two children started to whimper.

“What? Who is he?” Shea asked, panicked.

“The children’s broker. If he’s back, he’s got a buyer. He took their pictures already,” she cried.

My eyes fell on the two little brunette-haired children and it hit me. They were twins. Harder to tell with boy-girl twins, but they were both the same age and size, and were clearly siblings.

“Shea.” I looked to my best friend. “I know we split up before and it was awful. It was as awful for me as it was for you, trust me, but we can’t let this happen.”

She sighed. “I know.” She’d already pulled out the keychain. With one snap, our fake magical handcuffs fell away. Shea stood, feet firmly planted on the concrete, eyes blazing with a beautiful ferocity that only my best friend could muster.

“Time to go, little cherubs,” the abrus demon cooed, and I heard the metal door scraping open behind me.

No way in hell, buddy.

Shea would need time to work her portal spell, and then even more time to get everyone through. Doing what I did best, I didn’t think, just acted.

Planting my feet shoulder-width apart, I positioned myself as a sentinel with the demons before me, Shea and the rest behind me.

“I need a few minutes!” she shouted from behind me as green and purple sparks of magic lit up the cage.

With a nod, I pulled on that power inside of me, no longer trying to distinguish what was light and what was dark. Whatever it was, it was me. All of it.

The Abrus demon seemed to figure out what was going on and rushed inside, throwing the door wide open. I reached out with my left hand, my energy whip crackling to life; it was that same pearl silver from the underground tunnels. Both sides of my magic as one.

With a flick of my wrist, the whip wrapped around his neck, and his eyes widened.

“What are you?” he yelled with a strangled cry.

In that moment, I wanted to reply with something ridiculously cheesy, like “your worst nightmare,” but instead I just yanked on the whip and he fell to his knees. The Grimlock demon had recovered from his shock that Shea and I were not plain old humans, and was now trying to brush past me and get to the others. I needed to get him and the Abrus demon out of the cage and shut the door to give Shea enough time to get everyone to safety.

With all the force I could muster, I reached out with my free hand and karate-chopped the Grimlock’s throat, taking him by surprise. Just as Lincoln had taught me. He fell backward and I made quick work of kicking the Abrus demon in the chest while he was still on his knees, which sent him falling backward out of the cage.

One down, one to go.

Grimlock demons were notoriously heavy, as if they were made of cement. Dragging him wouldn’t work, so I’d need to let him stand, and push him back with a fight.

Allowing him to get up, I positioned myself before him and lashed out with my whip, which sent him stumbling backward toward the open doorway. The lights behind me were getting brighter, which I hoped meant Shea was opening the portal with success.

A few more lashes of my whip left scorched burns on the Grimlock’s skin, and then he was out of the cage. Bursting from the barred doorway, I quickly shut the gate behind me with my boot. The entire train station had caught on to the commotion and was now staring at me.

Shit.

Both the Grimlock and the Abrus demon lunged for me at once. I allowed my wings to burst from my back, fully covering the doorway, protecting Shea and the others inside.

Both men froze, clearly in shock.

“Celestial,” the Grimlock spat.

The Abrus demon was looking at me in a different light, almost pleased. “I know who you are.”

In that moment, a figure behind the demons caught my eye for some reason, and I allowed myself to look. The moment my gaze fell on his broad shoulders, the curve of his neck, his ear, my whole body went weak.

Lincoln.

And then the demons pounced on me.

Lunging forward, the Grimlock wrapped his hands around my neck, while the Abrus demon threw black magic around my left whip wrist, pinning it to the ground. I didn’t care. Nothing mattered but the fact that even with his back turned to me, his head shaved, I knew the man talking to a street vendor was my Lincoln.

Unlike the others, he hadn’t noticed the commotion; he was clear on the other side of the platform. I was starting to feel dizzy now with the Grimlock demon choking off my air supply; I needed to act quickly, or risk being killed when I was so close to being reunited with my love.

Lifting my knee high, I connected with the Grimlock’s crotch. His hands fell away from my throat, and I sucked in a deep breath. Then, with every ounce of strength I had left, I screamed.

“Lincoln!”

His name poured from my lips in agony. It had been so long since I’d seen him, or called his name that it actually hurt.

Lincoln’s entire body went rigid, slowly pivoting to face the direction of my call. When his eyes met mine, he shook his head in disbelief. I was so busy staring at him that I didn’t see the Grimlock demon’s fist flying toward my head until it was too late.

Pain exploded in my skull, and I was brought to my knees.

“Brielle!” Lincoln thundered across the market. His wings snapped out, and suddenly he was flying, heading straight to me.

“Go, go!” I heard Shea shout from behind me.

From my knees, I turned to the side and saw a portal to the Fallen Academy entrance had been opened, the women and children running through it in panic. There was a Snakeroot demon who’d pounced atop the bars of the cage, and was spitting acid to melt them, and try to get inside.

Shea looked back at me.

“Go! I’m fine,” I told her, spinning back around to find the Abrus demon with a knife in his hand.

Lincoln was just landing behind him when the demon plunged the knife into my stomach.

Then all hell broke loose.

The searing pain of the knife licked across my skin, as I tried to throw myself backward and away from the blade. Lincoln landed on his feet and reached forward, taking my attacker’s head in his hands. He jerked his neck quickly, breaking it with a sick snapping sound. The Abrus demon fell to the floor in a heap, either dead or unconscious, I didn’t care. Then Lincoln spun on the Grimlock, scooping the knife and going into full-on attack mode.

I looked down quickly, assessing my wound and determining it wasn’t that bad. It seemed superficial, not deep enough to puncture any of my organs—I’d backed up out of the way before he could cause any real damage. What was bad, however, was that every single demon or demon-gifted human in the room had abandoned their shopping, and were all now stalking toward us.

I had no weapons other than my own special gifts. One look over my shoulder told me Shea was gone, along with everyone else—thank God—but I also saw Lincoln was tangled up with the Grimlock demon. I’d have to fight the onslaught of people myself.

I’d waited months in Hell for this moment, and no one was taking it from me. Although it wasn’t the reunion of my dreams, Lincoln was here, and that was all that mattered.

I’d come too close to have this ripped away from me.

With a frustrated cry, I shook both of my hands in front of me at the advancing army, and two whips lashed from my palms, one white and one black.