We came here with 50 supernaturals between the wolves, witches, fae, goblins, dwarves, and shifters. But there is no way that we’re going to be able to handle all of the deities and their minions that are in front of us. “Retreat!” I scream. “Not so fast,” Lucifer says from in front of us. He waves his hand and suddenly the gates are closed and the portal gone so that we can’t even see where they went. “The party has barely begun.” And then the smug bastard sits down on this fucking throne on a dias and props his feet up on table in front of him. “Begin,” he says in a light tone. Demons leap out of the shadows, falling on us from the ceiling, appearing from behind us, and coming from the walls around us. A large gargoyle-esk creature steps in our path, but instead of stone skin, his entire hide is made of bone. It is joined by a female with a lioness’s head, dressed in Egyptian clothing on one side and a woman with large antlers coming out of her head, half of her body nothi

Nathan is freaking the fuck out. I mean, I don’t blame him. He and Nyx just decided to make a go of it and now she’s been taken. He keeps trying to find a way to get into the portal that we’ve found remnants of, but there’s something blocking him. One of Nathan’s abilities as a witch is that he’s able to mimic others’ powers. It doesn’t last long, but it can be really helpful in situations like this, where he can turn the power back on whatever the previous person used. He should be able to take the remnants of Loviatar’s power and use it to reopen the portal that she used. To follow it to wherever Loviatar went with Nyx. Only, it’s not working. There’s something on the other side of the portal that is blocking him. Something much more powerful than Loviatar. I can’t figure out who is stopping him, nor can I figure out how to get around it. Nathan has sweat pouring down his face, soaking into the shirt that he’s wearing. I can see the strain of what he’s doing on his fa

I was brought here to help. To do sutures. To help in surgery. To keep patients comfortable as they heal. It’s normally something that I’m so damn good at. But knowing that JoJo is in surgery, fighting for her life. It’s killing me. I can’t focus on anything. After that initial pain, I haven’t felt anymore. Probably because I’m not fully bonded to her. If I were, I’d be able to keep her alive. My life force would support hers. As it is, she just has to support herself. I know that Bhakti and Lily are doing what they can, but they have two other patients in critical condition right now, both in surgery with some of the other doctors. One of them is Tomas. I don’t know how I’m going to survive this if JoJo doesn’t make it through. And what if Alexander doesn’t know? Though it would be weird for me to feel JoJo’s pain and him not to. Then again, I can’t feel the link between me and Alexander when he is in the Goddess’ Realm, so maybe not. It kills me that JoJ

Alexander slept the entire time that we waited for Jaiden and Jareth to return, minus the ten minutes it took him to eat. At first, we were pumping so much energy into him that it was actually starting to drain me a little bit. But within the first hour of his rest, Alexander was requiring less and less energy. His breathing evened out and became less labored. His skin regained color and didn’t seem as taut against his bones. And his requirement on our healing lessens and lessens. When Jaiden and Jareth arrive from the gloom, Arya has removed her hand from Alexander’s and I’m barely pumping anything into him. I’m doing it more for my peace of mind than anything else. Evanora, Citra, and Hawk run to Jared and Jareth when they see them. Arya and Xander do the same as I stay with Alexander, but their voices carry through the gloom. “Any issues?” Hawk asks, clasping hands with Jaiden. The two are best friends, became so during the war with Julian and then the Riding Hoo

I’m on the phone with Jai, having turned it on speaker phone so that Kaia can hear the call as well. “He’s made it out of surgery fine. The blade didn’t go all the way through, though it did knick some of his large intestine. They had to sew that up and he’s on some heavy duty antibiotics because of all of the bacteria and shit in the intestines. Maan (Bhakti) said the thing that likely saved him was him getting his Goddess gift in the middle of the fight,” Jai tells us. “His super strength helped? How does she figure?” Kaia asks. We’re both a little bit fascinated that Tomas got his Goddess gift. Neither of us have gotten ours yet. Hell, Nathan hadn’t gotten his yet and he’s the oldest of all of us in our birthing group. Maybe now that I’m mated to Tomas, I’ll get mine too. “She said that it made his body harder to harm. It wasn’t only his muscles that strengthened, but his entire body. It was hard to get the needle and thread through his skin and organs, so he’s g