CHAPTER 36

We couldn’t find a trace of Sawyer or the Key of Solomon. Believe me, we looked.

No footprints. Not a single ash at the base of the telephone pole.

“He stole the key,” Jimmy accused.

“He was a little dead to be stealing anything.”

“He was a little dead to be walking away too, but there you go.” Jimmy threw his hands out in the direction of the empty pole.

“He was still here when the thing disappeared.”

“You sure about that?”

I hadn’t glanced in Sawyer’s direction once we went to retrieve the book from the porch. Why bother? He wasn’t going anywhere.

“If he wanted the key he could have taken it before we even showed up,” I pointed out.

“You’re going to have to raise him,” Summer said.

Both Jimmy and I turned to her, and she shrugged. “Aren’t you?”

“Yeah.” I sighed. “But we’ll have to go back to New Mexico first.”

“What the hell for?” Jimmy demanded.

“I’ll need a part of him. Hair, nails, spit. Okay with you?”

If Jimmy had been an animal, he would have snarled. As it was, he just kicked the dirt and walked away.

Summer had left the Impala off the highway a few miles from Cairo. She hadn’t had any problem getting into town either, and I wasn’t surprised. Selling your soul to the Devil must create one hell of an inner darkness.

Once she’d retrieved the vehicle, we piled in and headed west. I didn’t even ask to drive. I just wasn’t up to it. The last time I’d gone on a road trip in this car I’d been with Sawyer, and I couldn’t stop thinking about it.

Luther waited in front of the hogan. As we got out, Ruthie’s voice greeted us. “Been waitin’ on you.”

“Sawyer,” I began.

“I know.”

“He’s with you?”

Jimmy snorted. “You think Sawyer’s in heaven?”

My eyes met Ruthie’s, and she shook her head.

I went into the house, reemerging with Sawyer’s toothbrush, which I tossed on the ground, then drew a circle around it.

“Stand back,” I said; then I raised a storm.

I brought the rain, the clouds, the thunder and the lightning. I did everything the way that Sawyer had—almost. But after the earth moved and the blue-white light flashed, all that lay in the circle was the damn toothbrush.

“Sanducci,” I ordered, “get over here.”

He frowned, but he started forward; then Summer grabbed his arm. “Sex increases her power.”

He stiffened and looked me in the eye. “No.”

“Don’t make me come and get you.”

“Lizbeth,” Ruthie said softly. “That won’t help.”

My breath hitched. I gritted my teeth until they ached. “What will?”

“You need to learn how to manage your powers.”

“That’s going to be a little hard, since I had to kill the one who knows that info in order to get them.”

“Did you think fighting for the light would be easy?” Ruthie asked. “It would be simpler to fight for the darkness, to give in to the evil that lives in everyone. But it’s the fighting of that evil, the triumphing over it, that gives us our strength. When we win, we’ll win because we chose right over wrong, because we believed in it and in ourselves.”

“I just . . .” I trailed off. I wasn’t sure what I’d meant to say.

“Everything happens for a reason, child.” Ruthie’s voice—Luther’s face softened. “Quit bein’ so hard on yourself. You did what you set out to do, didn’t you?”

I sighed. “Yeah.”

I’d saved the world, at least from this threat, but there’d be more.

“We’re going to have to find us another skinwalker.”

“There’s another?”

“How you think Sawyer got his first tattoos?”

I hadn’t thought of it. But obviously, since he hadn’t been a sorcerer until he’d killed my mother, someone had given them to him.

“It’s gonna take me a little time to track one down,” Ruthie continued. “You three get back to work. The Grigori have increased the Nephilim tenfold. There are more of them and less of us.”

“What about her?” I jerked my thumb at the fairy.

“Jimmy will keep an eye on her.”

I scowled. “She’s a soulless traitor.”

“She still has her soul and will until Samyaza takes form. Until then, we need her.”

I glared at Summer; she did the same right back.

“If Sanducci’s keeping an eye on her, who am I working with?” I asked.

“Me,” Luther said.

Jimmy and Summer went to her Irish cottage on the other side of the mountain. I called and checked in with Megan. She was fine and still had no clue that Quinn was anything other than a slightly klutzy bartender. She wasn’t catching a hint of his adoration either. Poor guy.

I went to bed early. I hadn’t slept since we’d left Cairo. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Sawyer. Tonight was no different. As soon as I drifted off, there he was.

I chose to leave a child behind.

I sat straight up in bed, heart pounding so loudly I couldn’t hear anything else. What had he meant?

My hand drifted to my stomach, which was rolling and pitching enough to make me sick. “Nah.”

I was on the pill. Had been for years. However, I doubted something as flimsy as 98 percent effectiveness would stop Sawyer’s magic sperm.

Now my heart really started pounding. Which is why it took me a few seconds to hear the knocking at my door.

I tumbled out of bed, stumbled across the floor. Luther stood in the hallway, looking as tired as I felt.

He tapped his head. “We gotta go.”

“We?”

“Take my word for it, you’re gonna need me.”

The Grigori might be confined, but the Nephilim were still here. Not much had changed except there were more of them, less of us. Until we managed to even things out, DKs and seers were going to be interchangeable. Luther and I would go out together and so would Jimmy and Summer, as well as a host of others I hadn’t met yet.

I might be the leader of the light, but there was a lot I didn’t know. What had happened to Sawyer? Who had stolen the Key of Solomon? Would we win or would they? Who would live and who would die?

“We need to get going.” Luther shuffled his big feet, then glanced uneasily over his shoulder. “It’s chaos out there.”

Well, there was one thing I did know. One thing of which I was completely, utterly certain.

“Chaos bites,” I said, and then I followed him into the night.