Anything physical was out of the question. Even if I managed to build up enough rage to manifest into my demon form, all the strength in the world wouldn't matter if I couldn't touch the ground or move.

It occurred to me I might have one powerful tool at my disposal, and extended my incubus senses, hoping I might be able to upset her concentration at the very least. My essence reached toward her aura. The swirling energy around her masked, it, but I knew it was there. But as it reached her, it found only a void. Every attempt I made to latch on was like grasping at thin air. She was either shielded, or had some way of protecting herself. I grunted in frustration and withdrew my tendril.

No good, damn it!

The only avenue left to me was magic. Considering the amount of raw power my sister wielded, and how effortlessly Conroy had snared me, I knew, without a doubt, I had very little chance of pulling off anything. If I was lucky, I might manage another fireball. But I had to choose a target. A fireball would undoubtedly burn the hell out of whoever it hit, but it was likely Conroy still had a shield around him. If dear old Granddad did have a shield, the element of surprise would be lost. I wondered if he might also be shielding Ivy. I wondered how terrible I'd feel for burning my sister. She was still so young. The Conroys had brainwashed her all her life, twisting her into a little monster. I didn't want to be responsible for destroying her physically.

I don't have a choice.

Peering hard at Conroy, I tried to see if the air was rippling around him. I switched to incubus view, but the brightness of the swirling energy overwhelmed everything else. I could just barely make out the outline of something around me, but only because it was so close. I suspected it was whatever force Conroy had used to keep me in place.

Extending a tendril toward the vortex of energy around Ivy, I opened myself up to it. The shock of so much raw power hit me like a wall. I blacked out for a second. My vision flickered. Nausea churned up my throat. Puking would be the worst thing possible with my mouth clamped shut. I withdrew my probe, cutting off the flow with a gasping snort. Something wet dribbled on my lips. I touched a finger to them and saw blood.

Power pulsed in my veins. I felt as though I might explode with energy. I tried to concentrate on Ivy, but my vision swam. My head lolled to the side and my eyelids fluttered. I was drunk on magic, or else so sick with it, I wanted to spew.

No, dammit. Concentrate! Do it!

I clenched my teeth tight. Balled my hands into tight fists. Glared at Ivy. Imagining a fireball was easy. Imagining it engulfing the lithe figure of my little sister was hard. So damned hard. God, I didn't want to do this. But I had to. I had to.

Using every last shred of willpower, I imagined the fireball, white hot, and laser-fast blasting Ivy to the ground. Something built inside me. My head roared with power. And then the next rune sucked in the vortex of energy around Ivy. As the air around her cleared, a faint bluish ripple became visible. I looked to Conroy and, without the blinding energy present, could see the same thing around him. They were definitely both shielded.

Relief spread through me, so powerful it almost erased the sick churning feeling in my stomach. At the same time, despair took hold. This was hopeless. I couldn't do anything to stop her.

I was done.

Chapter 39

Fighting back useless anger, I looked at the symbols in the air, my incubus senses still highlighting the magical energy in the room. Ivy wiped her forehead. Her face looked pale. Dark rings underlined her eyes. The effort of casting this spell seemed to be wearing her down. I dared to hope she might be too tired to finish it, but even that was false hope. Our grandfather wouldn't have a problem taking over and completing it.

As I stared at the last remaining rune, I realized it was the one Adam had identified as the killing rune. The other symbols floating in the air flickered. I had the strangest sensation I could read them, if only I looked at them a certain way. They had to be Cyrinthian. My demonic side seemed well-versed in the language. Unfortunately, I didn't have a way to summon those lingual abilities at will.

A thought occurred to me. The desperate thought of a person who has run out of time and with nothing left to lose. Reaching inside me, I let the anger and frustration free. I let the incubus within loose. Focusing on Conroy, I reminded myself of all he'd done. Stolen my sister. Brainwashed her. Betrayed me to Maximus. Anger piled upon hate and grew to rage. Blinding red fury washed across my eyes and a skull-piercing headache cracked into my head with all the force of a boulder. I touched my forehead and felt the tiny points of horns.

My eyesight shimmered as I crossed the threshold from somewhat human to demonic. Some of the symbols suddenly held meaning for me, clear as reading about Dick and Jane. But there was so much to read. My gaze locked onto the last rune. Even with this new understanding, it looked like a mass of gibberish. As the spell rotated around Ivy, I realized with a start, I had been viewing the rune from the back. With it facing me from the front my vision zoomed in until I could see the hundreds of tiny symbols creating the pattern, almost like ASCII art.

It was like looking at a picture with two different images hidden inside it. Like seeing a face on the surface of the moon. The meaning of the pattern clicked inside my head. I traced the symbols until I found one tiny part that held the meaning of the rune together and defined it. I willed it to vanish, but the single character was bound by the symbols around it, held into form by the magic used to create it in the first place. Digging inside, I pulled up every shred of energy I'd absorbed, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't erase any part of it. Doing so would erase the rune and cause a vacuum, some part of me realized. There was too much energy bound in the spell to allow it.

But there was an alternative. One thing that might work. Instead of erasing the tiny symbol holding the rune together, I could add a tiny slash through the center, like changing the letter "C" to an "E". It took everything I had just to make one tiny mark. As my will finished adding the slash, I collapsed—or at least would have if I hadn't been held captive in Conroy's anti-gravity field.

Ivy was already summoning more energy, renewing the vortex around her as she started the incantation to power the last rune. To commit mass murder. As exhaustion took hold of me, my demonic sight flickered off. Tiny nubs fell from my forehead as my manifestation aborted itself. I had done all I could. I hoped.

Knowing my luck, I'd come up with an even better idea after the fact and curse myself. Like the time Phyllis Jenkins had called me a loser during recess in eighth grade, and by the time I came up with what I should have retorted, it was already lunchtime.

I wondered how Elyssa was doing and prayed she'd been able to evacuate the place in case my plan failed.

The last rune burst into red light. Energy washed across the cavern as the powered runes glowed with the brilliance of a small sun. Ivy, a look of triumph and pride on her face, placed the staff in the center of the runes and shouted a word. Bolts of white energy speared into the staff. A sphere of power gathered atop the ivory shaft, growing larger and larger. It floated up into the air, gathering size until it was the size of a watermelon.

It exploded.

A wave of energy washed over me like the mother of all static electricity charges. The hairs on my arm and head prickled straight up with the sensation of needles all over my skin. The prickles across my lower regions made me glad I at least didn't have back hair to add to it.

Light bulbs exploded. The air thundered. Whatever had been supporting me cut out and I tumbled to the ground, my jaws suddenly free.

For a moment, there was only darkness. Then some of the surviving light bulbs flickered back on. Ivy lay in a heap in the middle of the floor, the staff beside her. Conroy noticed I was free, and flicked his hand, sending me back up in the air again. He scooped up Ivy, his staff, and her arcphone.

She lifted her head. "Did I do it, Bigdaddy?" Her voice sounded tired.

He smiled. Kissed her forehead. "Yes you did, my little angel. Yes you did."

"Can I have cake now?"

Conroy laughed. "All you want, honey." He looked at me. "Well, boy. I just don't know what to do with you. I hesitate to leave you alive, lest your mischief completely derail our plans, and the Foreseeance—" He broke off as if coming to a conclusion. Sighed. "It pains me to do this. Truly it does. But I see no other choice. I know you're an abomination—all your kind are—but this is the only way." He regarded me for a long moment, and then chanted something.

My jaw clamped shut again. My nose pinched tight. I couldn't breathe. Couldn't draw another breath. Terror slammed into me and my heart raced.

"Your kind is very difficult to kill, but even if you somehow manage to survive without oxygen, I suspect you'll be too brain damaged for even your remarkable healing abilities to fully repair the damage. I know it's a terrible way to go, but I much prefer it to—ahem—other methods."

He made a motion with his hand like tying a knot. "Rest in peace, boy." He turned and left, leaving me suspended in the air.

I knew from experience I could hold my breath for a long time, having performed an underwater tour of terror at Thunder Rock, holding my breath for minutes. But I had the sinking feeling this spell wouldn't free me until I was stone-cold dead. Drawing upon the final shreds of will I had left, I extended my incubus senses so I could see the magical energy.

Ghostly patterns hovered before my eyes. I could tell they covered my nose and mouth, but when I touched my face with my hands, they went through the insubstantial binding magic. I tried to soak in the energy around me, but spots danced before my eyes, and dizziness made it impossible to concentrate. Again and again I tried to will the spell off of me, but nothing I did had any effect.

Time slipped from seconds into minutes.

Consciousness left me little by little.

I was going to die, and there was nothing I could do about it.

Goodbye, Elyssa. I love you.

A bright flash startled me. Arms enfolded me and pulled me to the ground. I looked up with blurry vision and saw bright blonde hair cascading down from a face I couldn't make out.