Tempt the Stars

shattered Zara’s shield, only this time, we didn’t have a shield. But the spells stopped anyway.
    Or, to be exact, they slowed to a crawl, because I didn’t have enough power left to stop them completely.
    “You have six minutes,” I told them. “Get them as far away as you can.”
    Beatrice nodded, grasping Zara, who was panting and shaking and pale as a sheet, firmly by the arm. But Evelyn just looked at me. “And what are you going to do?”
    “Buy you time,” I choked, because talking was . . . hard right now.
    “I’ll stay with you,” Evelyn said staunchly.
    “That . . . wouldn’t be a great idea.”
    “And why not?”
    I was panting now, my vision blurring. And the stupid woman was still talking to me. “Because I won’t . . . have enough . . . to shift you out.”
    “And you’ll have enough to shift you?”
    Okay, maybe not so dumb.
    “I’ll be okay.”
    “You’ll be dead! And then the power will go to one of those miserable adepts—”
    “No, it won’t,” Rhea said. She’d wisely sent the older children down first, and was now shepherding the smaller. But she paused for a second, to look back at me.
    “And how do you know that?” Evelyn demanded. “They’re next in line!”
    “Because the power chooses the Pythia,” Rhea said, fierce pride on her face as she looked at me. “It was what you needed to understand today, what I needed to remember these last weeks. It doesn’t just go to the next in line, whoever people think is best. It goes to the actual best, the very best choice out there.” She dropped another of those perfect curtsies. “Lady.”
    I stared at her, and for the first time, and I guessed the last time, I was proud, I was damned proud, that it had come to me.
    And then they were gone, Evelyn still complaining, bringing up the rear as the last of the children faded into darkness in front of them. I went to my knees, because it was easier. And because it didn’t matter anymore if I looked good, since there was no one to see me but a bunch of guys who were about to die with me.
    Because I didn’t think they’d be so enthusiastic if the adepts had mentioned what was about to happen to this place. But I had no way to tell them, and no strength to do it if I had. The corridor was dimming even as the spells sped up, noticeably moving now, about the pace a person could walk casually. And painting the floor and ceiling with lines of unnatural spell light.
    I watched them come, and thought it was funny. Because they looked strangely familiar. Like the ones in the skies over Rosier’s court. Dangerous, but so beautiful. Like the moon-flooded sands of an alien world, like the endless stars in the council chamber, like the flash of attraction in a pair of green eyes.
    Pritkin,
I thought, feeling gold spangled light on my face. And shut my eyes.

Epilogue
    I opened them again in bed, with a blond demon sitting nearby.
    I bolted upright and grabbed him, before my eyes focused on the three-piece gray business suit, the thin blond hair, and the cleft he’d added to the chin. The one distinguishing feature in a bland mask to make it easier to pretend that’s what he really looked like. Adra, I thought, staring into calm gray eyes.
    “So I ended up in hell, after all?” I croaked in disgust.
    He smiled. And then apparently decided it deserved better, and laughed. “I think you’re safe,” he confided as I flopped back against the bed. “I don’t know of too many that would volunteer to take you.”
    I swallowed, because my tongue felt fuzzy. And blinked around at what was either a damned fine illusion, right down to the pinkish stain on the carpet from a glass of wine I’d spilled a week ago, or was my room in Vegas. And I didn’t know why anybody would waste an illusion that good on me.
    “Why are you here?” I demanded. “Why am I here?”
    “You are here due to us pulling you out at the moment your spell collapsed. It was quite close. For a moment, I did not think we were going to manage.”
    “You pulled me out,” I repeated, because that didn’t make a lot of sense.
    He nodded.
    “But . . ” I frowned, trying to think past a massive migraine. “How did you know . . ”
    “That you needed assistance?” he asked, leaning back and crossing his legs. “That would have to do with the Seidr spell your mother cast.”
    “What?”
    “The spell that she used to speak with us is one the gods used to communicate with each other.