He focused on me, his mouth turning down. “And when they do, they get it from Deadside. They get it from ascension.”

My breath stalled.

Cora grabbed my hand and squeezed, on the same train of thought as me. “What happens to the souls after ascension?”

Uri kept his gaze on me. “Pure souls like the ones in Deadside have a core, one that won’t burn up completely but is useless to the Beyond. The voralex siphons the power from the soul, but the core goes to purgatory, trapped and hidden so no one will know the truth.”

Hidden…The edge zone. The place Mal couldn’t go.

Aunt Lara. They had my Aunt Lara. I jumped to my feet.

“Fee?” Grayson looked confused.

“Her aunt ascends today,” Cora said.

Uri sucked in a breath. “I knew she was in Deadside, but not that her ascension was so close.”

I looked at my comm. Almost nine a.m. Ascension was at midday. I had time. “I won’t let it happen.”

My comm beeped.

Orders from the Beyond. Ascension to take place immediately. So sorry – Dayna.

My heart in my mouth, I looked up at Cora. “It’s happening. They’re doing it right now.”

She held out her hand. “No, they fucking aren’t. Let’s go.”

Chapter Thirty-Seven

We materialized inside Deadside a few meters from the gates to my voralex.

Cora’s ability to jump to a location without having been there before was bloody amazing, but there was no time to marvel over it. There was a crowd blocking my path.

“Excuse me. Please move.” Souls moved out of the way to let me pass, and then my gates were visible, and so was Dayna.

She stood with her back to me, watching the house.

“Dayna!”

She looked back. “Fee. You made it. If you rush, you might catch your aunt before she ascends.”

No time to explain what was happening, I shoved through the gates and ran up the path to the house. The door was open, and a soft glow emanated from it. I dove through and skidded to a halt in the hallway. Aunt Lara was halfway up the steps reaching for a glowing doorway that had materialized out of nowhere.

“Stop!”

She faltered and looked back. “Fee?”

“Get away from it. Now. It’s not what you think, Aunt Lara, you need to get away from it.”

“What are you talking about?” She looked confused. “Anna is waiting for me.”

“No, she isn’t. It’s all a lie. You need to come with me. Please.” I took a step toward her, and she must have seen the desperation and fear on my face because she dropped her hand and took a step toward me. “Yes, just back away from it. Come to me.”

She started down the stairs, and I breathed a sigh of relief. I’d made it. I’d fucking made it, but then the bright light shot out of the doorway and engulfed her in its brilliance.

I caught a flash of her horrified face, the beginning of a scream, and then she was gone. Sucked into the doorway.

No… “No!” I made a break for the stairs, but arms wrapped around my waist and hauled me back.

“No, Fee. No.” The world splintered, and then I was outside the gates, still in Cora’s arms.

This couldn’t be happening. “We have to get her back. I need to go to the Beyond.”

“What the hell is going on?” Dayna asked me.

“It’s a lie. It’s all a lie. This place, the ascension, it’s just about power. They want the souls to power the Beyond. There is no paradise. No fucking rebirth.”

The souls around us started to buzz with agitation, and exclamations of disbelief filled the air.

“They’re burning through them now. My aunt…all the souls you just sent in there, and what’s left…What’s left will get sent to purgatory. Trapped for eternity.”

Dayna shook her head. “No…It can’t be true.”

My mouth twisted. “It fucking is. I got it straight from a celestial’s mouth. One I had to save from their clutches because they would rather kill him than risk the truth coming out.”

“It’s probably why they pushed up the ascension,” Cora said. “I’m sorry I couldn’t get you here quicker.”

It wasn’t her fault, but my chest was too tight for more words. I squeezed her hand to let her know it was okay.

Dayna was looking at Cora with a perplexed expression.

“Why are you staring at me like that?” Cora asked Dayna.

“How did you get in?” she asked. “The wards should have flagged an unauthorized entry.”

“I’m Fee’s tulpa. We share the same blood.”

“Is it open?” Jen pushed through the crowd. Her eyes were dark smudges on her face.

“Jen?” Thomas was right behind her. “What are you doing? What the hell is wrong with you? We were in the middle of a conversation.”

“Is it open?” Jen asked Dayna.

Dayna ignored her, still focused on Cora. “But you’re not Fee. Your biometrics are different. Our wards are sophisticated enough to recognize that. I don’t…” Her eyes went wide. “I need to check the wards.”

Jen stepped into her path, blocking her.

“Fucksake, Jen,” Thomas said. “I don’t know what’s gotten into her, Dayna. She was fine, and then she zoned the fuck out.”

“Is it open?” Jen asked again.

My scalp prickled. Something was wrong here.

“Fee, I’ve got a bad feeling,” Cora said.

“Is what open?” Dayna asked Jen. “What are you talking about?”

“Is the door to the Beyond open?” Jen said.

“Yes,” Dayna said. “You know it is. It’ll stay open for at least a couple of hours like it always does. You need to go home, Jen. You’re not well.”

Jen blinked, and her zoned-out expression winked out. She looked about as if surfacing from a dream. “How did I get here?” She sounded confused, scared even. “Thomas, what’s happening to me?” Her voice trembled.

Dayna’s comm beeped. She read the message, and her face drained of color.

“What is it?”

“The wards are down.”

I ran behind Dayna as we headed to HQ. “How can this be happening?”

“I don’t know. We’ve had a few fluctuations in power over the years, but this… I need to check the reports. We need to contact the Beyond. This is bad. Wards down means that we’re vulnerable to all the shit in Necro. All the mouths and whatever else might want to get in.”

She shoved open the doors to HQ, and we beelined for the back office where all the tech shit was.

“Ida, pull up ward status reports,” Dayna ordered.

The demon’s fingers flew across the keys, and then a graph came up—a green line that dipped in increments.

“Fuck!” Dayna slapped the desk. “I should have done monthly checks. We used to several years ago, but we dropped to biannual five years ago.”

“What is that showing us?” Cora asked.

“The wards weakening, getting less effective.”

“What could cause that?”

“I don’t know.” Dayna shook her head. “The wards are a celestial spell. They’ve always been constant. Any dips have always been reinforced quickly when reported to the Beyond.”

Celestial wards... weakening wards. Weakening like Azazel…Oh, fuck. The graffiti on the wall outside.

“Fee, what is it?” Cora asked.

“The wards have been siphoned. There’s a symbol on the wall outside. I thought it was just graffiti, but it has to be a rune. I bet it’s a fucking rune. This is Dread work. It has to be.” I headed for the door. “If I can disrupt it, then—”

Jen blocked my path with Thomas behind her. “They’re here. They’re here, and it’s over.” Her eyes rolled back in her head, and she passed out. Thomas grabbed hold of her, halting her fall.

“What the fuck is going on?” Cora said.

An alarm began to blare.

“Dayna, the gates have been breached,” Ida said.

“Send out the distress call to all reapers and alert the Beyond,” Dayna ordered Ida. “The wards are down, and we have incoming.”

This was it. This was their goal.

My voralex.

A doorway to the Beyond.

But why use Azazel? My mind was a buzz of questions as Cora and I ran toward my voralex. The Dread were here, in Deadside, and they would be heading to the doorway.

We had to protect it.

The crowd of souls still lingered by the gates, drawn to the doorway’s power.

“Get out of here. Go!” I shooed them. “Get in your homes and don’t come out.”

“What’s going on?”

“What’s happening?”

Shit, no time for questions. “The Dread are here.”

“What?”

“Who?”

They had no clue, and I had no time to explain in detail. “They feed on souls.”

That was enough to get them moving. They backed up and began to disperse.

I stood with my back to the gates, scythe at the ready.

“I feel like this is one of those doomed missions,” Cora said. “How many Dread?”

“I don’t know. But backup is coming. We just need to fight them off until it arrives.”

“Can’t the damn celestials just close the portal?”

“I don’t know. I hope so. We’ve sent the message, so maybe.”

The ground shuddered, and my body broke out in gooseflesh. The souls who were in the process of leaving faltered, turning their heads to look east toward the main entrance.

Oh, fuck.

“Do you feel it?” Cora asked.

“Yes.”

It was a dark foreboding, an ache at the back of my neck. It was despair and hunger and longing, and it was headed this way in a cloud of darkness. How was this possible? How were they doing this?