Page 157 of Incoronate
“I don’t plan on asking much from them,” I assured her, lowering myself onto the arm of the sofa beside her. “Just for the protection of the people I love.”
After tonight, I had no intention of calling them out again.
Anita nodded once. A small dip of her chin. Whatever she thought of that answer, she kept it to herself.
“Speaking of which,” I went on, my eyes flicking to the window where the rain was hammering harder than ever against the glass. “Have they arrived at Temple yet?” I asked, referring to the demon mini-horde I’d ordered half an hour ago.
“You should know the answer to that.”
I blinked at her. “How?”
“By feeling it.” Her dark eyes lifted to mine. “You can communicate with them the same way you summoned them. It’s telepathic in nature. The throne is a connection, Jemma. It runs both ways. If you reach down it, they’ll be there.”
Of course it was telepathic. Because at this point, why not. I’d been screaming into the heads of vampires for over a year now, so why not add an entire army of demons to the list of things broadcasting in real time.
I drew in a breath and made a mental note to work on my filter.
I’d made the request just as soon as the sisters and the demons started showing up here. Because I knew the Orderwas watching somehow. I knew they probably had Seers stationed in shifts, picking up every movement, every breath of magic around me. They’d have felt the moment I took the throne, the way every Dark Caster within a thousand miles had felt it. And they’d be feeling everything I did with it now.
Which meant they’d already be making plans to run.
I’d sent the demons to Temple specifically to make sure that didn’t happen. To pin every last one of them in place before they had a chance to scatter. I wouldn’t come this far, take this much on, just to spend the rest of my life hunting William and his Council across whatever corners of the world they thought to bury themselves in.
He was going to die in his own building, tonight, surrounded by everything he’d built and everything he’d lost.
I closed my eyes and reached down into the hum.
It was easier this time. Like flexing a muscle I’d known how to use my whole life and had only just realized was there. I followed the thread of it down and out, away from the Estate and through the dark, and within the span of a heartbeat I was there. Not physically, but present in a way I had no word for. I could feel them, my demons, fanned out across the long gravel drive that led up to Temple, moving in unhurried formation through the rain. The fortified stone walls of the building rose ahead of them in the distance, every window lit, every door closed.
They were almost there.
I held the image of the building in my mind. The atrium, the security scanners, the long corridor leading to William’s office, the narrow side paths I’d walked a hundred times. Every door, every window, every wall I could remember and a few I couldn’t.
And as I held the image, I thought of exactly what I needed from them.
Stand at every door. Every window. Every wall. Don’t go in. Don’t engage. Don’t let a single one of them leave.
The hum rippled out, low and absolute. I felt the pull of something on the other end of it acknowledge me. Not in words. Just a single, immediate wave of compliance that moved through every one of them at once, the way wind moves through a field.
I opened my eyes, blinking back my surprise. “Done,” I said evenly, as if I’d just ordered a pizza.
Annabelle was sitting on the sofa with her legs crossed, watching me with what almost looked like curiosity now. “Seems we have a fast learner in our midst.”
“Jeez. With all this praise it’s a wonder my head even fits through the door anymore.”
“Don’t get used to it,” she shot back, the corner of her mouth twitching despite herself.
“How many did you send?”
I shrugged, not having the slightest idea. “I didn’t count but I’m sure it’s more than enough.”
“Well.” She let out a low whistle. “I’m sure William’s having an absolutely lovely time right about now.”
The thought of him. Of his face the moment a hundred demons appeared at every exit of his sacred building like they’d grown out of the stone. It gave me more satisfaction than I cared to admit out loud.
I crossed the living room to the bar cart against the far wall and poured myself a finger of whatever Karl had been keeping in his crystal decanter back in the day. The bottle had probably been gathering dust there since long before I’d landed in Hollow Hills, but it was top-shelf bourbon by the look of it, and right now I wasn’t feeling all that picky.
I tipped the glass back and let the burn run down my throat without flinching.
