A Witch-ish Guide to Protectors and Pendulums (Lilith and Co. #1)

Chapter 29

Chapter

Twenty-Nine

“ L ily Joy, Karro,” I called to my family. “Oh—Agatha, I need you too.” As my brother and Madigan were still occupied in the other room, I’d have to fill them in later. The witches and Lilium joined me, standing next to Connor and Shafira. “Mr. Pooches knows where the demons have been mobilizing.”

Everyone turned their attention to the injured familiar. He had a hard time lifting his head, turning it to look at us. “Outside G?bekli Tepe,” Pooches said.

“‘G?bekli Tepe’?” Karro asked and the cat nodded the best he could.

“I know of it,” Shafira said.

“Me too,” I replied. “I watched a NatGeo program about it. It’s one of the oldest settlements in the world.”

“Türkiye,” Lily Joy said softly. “Demons are amassing in Türkiye. I wonder why.”

“That whole region is considered the cradle of civilization,” I offered as a possible reason. I supposed it was as good as any other reason. For all we knew, demons had a love of ancient stone architecture. Okay, so that idea gave me a chuckle. Architecture-loving demons—if only.

The door to the back room opened. My brother and Madigan exited. He held her close and tight as they made their way over to our group. “What are we talking about?” he asked.

“Türkiye,” Lily Joy said and he shot her a curious expression.

“What about it?” Madigan asked.

“Demons are organizing there.” Connor did the honors filling her in. She gasped as one would.

“Demons are organizing?”

“Is the potion ready?” I asked Simeon.

“Give me a sec.” He walked over to the pot using a rag that magically appeared to lift the handle off the hook, walking the pot back over to us. It bubbled thickly. A deep, reddish-purple color. The brew smelled cloyingly sweet, causing me to gag.

“Connor, my backpack?”

My mate walked over to the table where I’d left the backpack sitting. When he returned with it, handing it over to me, I reached inside to pull out the amulet.

“Ready?” I asked. The group nodded or gave confirmations of “Yeah” or “Yup” and I tossed the amulet into the pot. The bobble plopped, causing a large splatter to hit the sides of the cauldron. It bubbled and hissed, steaming up from the surface. “How long do we leave it in for?” I asked and Sim shrugged.

“Let’s give it at least ten minutes to steep,” he replied.

“Okay, so we need cloaking wards. A lot of them.” I looked to Lily Joy, who already knew how to make wards. “We’ll need Luc to zap them with his angel mojo.” And that got me thinking, “How did you make the wards before?”

“A recipe I found on the counter in my cottage. I left them there overnight and the next morning a jar of this glowing, swirly goo sat next to them. I rubbed them down with the goo and let it dry. Oh, and I’m on it.” She turned to walk over to one of the tables, where a group of witches made room for her. My cousin started giving directions and the witches got down to work. Glowing, swirling goo? That had Lilith written all over it.

“I’ll help,” Shafira said.

“Take the grimoire.” Opening the pack again, I fished around for the grimoire, pulling it out, handing it off to Shafira. “Lilith has good spells in here.”

Shafira took the book, reverently holding it in her arms as she turned, jogging over to the table with Lily Joy.

“Once the wards are finished, we’ll have to start moving witches to G?bekli Tepe. I thought about manifesting us all there at once, but?—”

“No.” Connor cut me off. “You’re powerful, but that’s too much, even for you. We need you strong and healthy.”

“Calm your tits. I was just going to say I thought that was too much for me to do.”

He growled. “Good. Then we’re on the same page.”

“So now that we all know I wasn’t going to risk it, I think we need to move the witches and launch our attack from there. We’ll hit them first, when they least expect it.”

“It’s the best strategy,” Madigan said. “They won’t see us coming.”

“That’ll still strain your energy,” Connor protested.

“Do you have a better way of moving this many witches to a camp without them getting caught?”

“We could try the tunnels.”

“With this many witches?” I countered.

“Brother, I know you don’t like it,” Madigan said, “but she can manifest for a reason. She’s powerful. She can do this.”

“Sim, you and Madi will go with the first group. I’ll send Lily Joy, Shafira, and Karro along, too. We’ll need Madi in hellhound form for protection while the wards are set in place. Then I want you to form a perimeter of poisonous plants just inside the wards, leaving openings for the witches to get out. That way, if some stupid demon does venture too close, they’ll regret it.”

“Got it.”

“We need Luc’s number to call him in.”

“I have it,” Shafira said, and when we all turned slowly to stare at her she finished, “he gave it to me because of our agreement. I can use Karro’s phone.”

“That’ll work. Connor and I will help the witches, unless I can get him to stay at the camp and help protect everyone with Madigan.”

Connor shot me a ‘ woman done lost her mind ’ look. I knew he wouldn’t leave me again, but it was worth a try.

“What about joining the hilt and amulet?” Simeon asked.

“I’m formulating a plan for that.”

I had to wait for Connor and Madigan to break off into their own little group—I heard something about battle strategies—and I pulled my brother aside. “I have an idea, but my big lug of a mate would throw the hissy fit to rival all hissy fits and I don’t think your mate would be too comfortable with it, either.”

“Lay it on me,” he replied and I did.

He started to fidget, as if uncomfortable.

I told him, “If you can think of anything else, I’m open. But I’m trying to end this with as little loss of life as possible.”

“I know. But I just got you in my life. I’m not ready to lose you. And Connor?—”

“Would eventually understand. But let’s not dwell on that part right now because we only have to consider it if the rest doesn’t work.”

“Jesus,” he whispered.

“I know.”

Sim pulled me into a tight hug. I sighed one of those heavy, ‘ I hate this ’ sighs that said so much of what I was feeling without having to say the words. Yeah, we’d officially reached that point in our quest. The point where Frodo had to come to terms with the prospect of not coming down from Mount Doom in Mordor. Note: The part of Frodo Baggins to be played by Simone Lamia.

It took a while, but Lily Joy came to me when the wards were finished. “Grandma Lilith knew her stuff,” she said and yeah. They didn’t call her ‘the mother of all witches’ for nothing.

“We ready?” I asked, and when she nodded, I called to the room, “First group of witches and Lilium. It’s time.”

My cousin and I were joined by Shafira, Agatha, Karro, Sim, and Madigan, along with several witches and Lilium, including Alexis Smith. She might’ve grown up without family like the rest of us, but she’d embraced her power and I was glad to have her on the team.

“It’ll work best if everyone hangs on to each other in some way,” I said. “I’m going to manifest us downwind as close to the demon camp as possible without being detected.”

Everyone started grabbing hands, arms, shirts—whatever they felt comfortable with—and I closed my eyes. Right as I thought downwind from the demon camp at G?bekli Tepe , I felt Connor pressing himself to my back, wrapping his arms around my waist.

“I’ve got your back,” he whispered. Always. He always had my back.

Downwind from the demon camp at G?bekli Tepe.

Downwind from the demon camp at G?bekli Tepe.

Downwind from the demon camp at G?bekli Tepe.

I repeated it over and over, feeling Connor and me disappear from the archives. The weight of the others pulled down on me as if I were transporting a bin of large stones, but it made me glad for the feeling, knowing that I’d successfully brought them with us.

Moments later, we set down behind a rocky outcropping of hills. I cloaked Lily Joy, Shafira, and Karro as they went up the hills to place the wards. The others placed the wards on flatter ground where we’d directed them to. Sim went to work springing poisonous plants to life out of literal dirt. Connor and Madigan remained on guard during the whole process. The wards they cooked up kept the camp undetectable from the demons and humans alike—well, once Luc gave them an angel powerup. We couldn’t take any chances.

“Okay,” I said to the crowd. “Shafira, call Luc. The rest of you, take this time to focus and get your spells in order. I’ll be back with the next group as soon as I can get them together. Be careful. Keep vigilant.” With that done, I reached for Connor and manifested us back to the archives. They still wouldn’t let me manifest directly inside. We had to use the door like everyone else.

Inside, I gathered up the next group, this one larger than the first. This group was mostly made up of our healers and they carried salves, elixirs, bandages, you name it—something I’d neglected to account for when determining the weight of transporting them.

Still, pulling up my big-girl panties once again, I gave myself a small pep talk and then started manifesting. Our camp downwind from G?bekli Tepe.

Our camp downwind from G?bekli Tepe.

Our camp downwind from G?bekli Tepe.

Our camp downwind from G?bekli Tepe.

Our camp downwind from G?bekli Tepe.

It took everything I had in me to move a group this size and weighted down, but we needed this to work and so I fought through the pain to deposit them where they needed to be. On our third trip to the camp, Shafira grabbed my arm before we could leave.

“Luc was here but he could not stay. He is ‘working his angles’ whatever that means. He wishes Connor to call him when he needs him again.”

Connor turned to me, “Working his angle?”

“He’s your friend. I have no idea.”

As a fallen angel, Luc could do whatever he wanted. We still had witches to move. Trip after trip, dozens of them, Connor and I moved the witches and Lilium to the camp. By the end, my head throbbed and I needed to recharge. Lily Joy and Agatha met me with a yummy rum tea cake and a mug of healing brew. I welcomed their offerings, hardly taking time to chew. I mean, it was cake . One didn’t get a booty like mine by hating cake.

Scouts volunteered to go out undercover, counting the growing numbers of demons and reporting back—a dangerous but necessary job. We needed the demons all present and totally unaware they were about to die. Hearing about the numbers of humans camped along with the demons hurt my heart, but I had to remind myself that not all humans were good and wanted the best for the world, but also, that most of them were forced to be there by possession or enslavement.

Connor’s phone rang with Luc on the other end. He asked Connor to put it on speaker so I could hear too. “You good?” he asked.

“So far,” I answered.

“Right. So I got tired of waiting for Connor to call. You need to know what I’ve been up to.”

“What have you been up to?” I asked.

“I’ve been creating wards, gathering up all the hellhounds and rounding up more witches.”

“ Wow .”

“Wow is an understatement, but I need your help—you and Connor. I need to know your exact coordinates to set up our camps in the right spots. We’re surrounding the demons from all sides.”

“Two camps of witches?” Connor asked.

“Not even close. I popped back to Antarctica and guess who’d been eaten?”

I swallowed hard. “Kimaris was eaten? By what?”

“Remember that monster who scared the demons? It’s real. Ancient. They call him ‘átahsaia.’ He was created by a few of our disgruntled upstairs neighbors who didn’t much care for the creation of Hell or the offices of Hades. As I was busy setting up shop, he flew under my radar. When the continents broke apart, he ended up down in Antarctica because they’d neglected to give him anything useful like flight. For a bunch of Kevins and Karens who were always up in everyone else’s business, they certainly weren’t that smart.”

“So how did you get away?” I asked.

He chuckled. “Not a demon, sweetheart. He’s actually a decent guy, but he’s ravenous after all these years of fasting.”

átahsaia. A demon eater. We had a demon eater on our team. I left Connor to the coordinates, then he and I manifested to meet Luc. Maybe I was biased, but hellhounds were a good-looking bunch. Several men took their lives in their hands by turning their swagger my way. Everyone of them knew the Baghests were hellhound royalty—well, practically. They didn’t actually have a monarchy, but if they did—all hail the Baghests. Still, Baghests or not, it appeared that hellhounds thought highly of themselves. I laughed and laughed at their antics and Connor’s reaction to them. I kept them cloaked while the wards got put in place. We’d left Sim back at our camp. I thought it best not to risk tangling up a bunch of unruly hounds in poisonous vines as that sort of screamed disaster waiting to happen .

“Witches next,” Luc said. “They’re coming up through a portal.” Connor shot me one of his smug, ‘ what did I say? ’ looks, to which I responded with a ‘ don’t go there ’ of my own. He shook his head, snickering. And on that note, we gave our ‘goodbyes’ and ‘be safes’ to the hellhounds, then I manifested Luc, Connor, and me to the area of the portal. This one was trickier because we had to place wards inside the tunnel to keep demons from entering the camp that way, along with placing them around the perimeter.

More witches than I’d realized existed started funneling up through the portal into the basecamp we’d set up. But it was when regular non-magic humans started following them up that I just about lost it. Men and women with no abilities aside from courage and love for their children and grandchildren, who were willing to put their lives on the line to make a safe future for their loved ones.

“Connor,” I cried in his ear. “They can’t be here.”

He held me tight to my spot. “They volunteered.”

“But they’ll be slaughtered. I can get them safe.”

“Everyone has a stake in this fight. They understand the risks and are willing to fight for what they believe in.”

I gasped as I remembered the protection stones—plus, you know, my brother. Along with Sim’s plant protection duty, our crystal witches had spent hours creating necklaces with protection stones. “We need to head back to camp. The witches—they made things that could help them.”

After letting Luc in on my plan, I manifested Connor and me back to our camp. Right away, I started gathering up necklaces and we even had some weapons—poisoned maces and even spray bottles full of the poisoned brew my brother and the witches had created. I didn’t have enough for everyone, but at least it was something.

We manifested back to the second witch camp, where Sim got to work on the poisonous barrier. I started distributing necklaces and Connor, the weapons. “If you don’t have a weapon,” I called to the group, “then hang back to help the injured. We’ll need people who are quick on their feet. Triage is as important as the fighting.”

They seemed to be okay with this plan. No one looked forward to dying, and I’d told the truth.

“Okay,” Luc said, turning to Connor and me. “We have to move átahsaia to his location. You ready for that?”

Ready or not, we needed a ravenous demon-eating monster on our side. “Ready,” I agreed. Before taking off, I manifested my brother back to our camp. As his protector, Madigan would go crazy not knowing if he were sick or injured. Plus, for my plan to work, I needed him close to me when shit started to hit the metaphorical fan.

Luc and Connor each grabbed one of my arms and I manifested us to the outpost on Antarctica.

The ground shook beneath us as a sinkhole the size of a herd of elephants opened up in the ground about a hundred yards away. This massive, gnarled hand with fingernails so long and thick, they appeared more like tree roots, grabbed a hold of the edge of the sinkhole. The loudest grunt echoed up. The sound almost knocked me to the ground. This giant mountain pushed up from the hole. A bent knee and thigh thudded on the ground, allowing the rest of the monster to reveal his form. He had a long, gray beard that almost reached the ice under his gigantic feet and gray hair that he kept pulled back in a knot that must’ve reached his calves when undone.

He had these bulging, brown eyes. But even though he never once blinked, I felt no fear. As unsettling as his appearance was, his eyes exuded kindness. I expected him to lumber, slow and clunky, but he moved with speed and grace.

“Hello,” I said. “I’m Simone Lamia.”

He smiled, showing me a mouthful of yellowed teeth. “I am átahsaia,” he said, introducing himself.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” I replied. “This”—I pointed to Connor—“is my mate, Connor Baghest.”

“You wish for my help.” It wasn’t a question. “Lucifer told me of the demon uprising.”

“Yeah, they’ve gotten a bit unruly and since you haven’t eaten in a while, we thought you might like a snack.”

The laugh he let loose reverberated across the frozen land, causing cracks in the ice. “I will eat my way through your demon problem.”

I’d never moved a giant before and the prospect of it made moving all those witches laughably easy. One long, cleansing breath in, then slowly letting it out, I looked up at him. “I have to touch you to move you. Is that okay?”

He nodded. Connor and Luc joined me. After sending a quick prayer to Lilith and the universe, I manifested us to a spot behind the G?bekli Tepe archeological site, which lay opposite the hellhound camp. I swayed.

“More cake,” Connor ordered. “As soon as we get back.”

I nodded because the way my head spun, I felt like vomiting. Moving a giant—not fun.

“Warm,” átahsaia said of the surroundings.

“It is.” I loved that in his long life, he got to experience the sun and warmth again. Now to get down to work.

When I say it took everything in me to keep the big guy cloaked, I was not exaggerating, but with no one else able to keep him hidden while Luc put the wards down, the job fell on me. I wanted to kiss Luc with tongues when he put the last ward in place. Then I was free to drop the cloak, which—record time on that one. I had enough left in the stores to manifest him a giant watch to wear around his neck. I set the alarm.

“When the alarm goes off, that’s when you come out eating. Not any sooner, okay?”

“‘Alarm’?”

“It’ll sound like this high-pitched rapid beeping. You press the button on the side to turn the beeping off and then it’s time to feast. But we can’t let the demons know you’re here until that moment.”

“I will not fail you,” he replied.

“Okay, well, we have to get back to our camp.” I hugged his leg as much as I could and finished with, “Good luck—or um— Bon Appétit .” How else did one say good bye to a demon-eating giant? I snagged the hems of Connor’s and Luc’s shirts, manifesting us back to our camp.

Yet again, my mate forced me to sit while he grabbed me tea and cake. Yet again, I woofed them down. Keeping a giant incognito robbed me of so much energy, I ate five rum cakes each as big as my hand, and drank an entire pot of the tea. I took breaks between each round of cakes and cups because that was a lot of food for me, but I had to be at full strength for this battle and my body told me in no uncertain terms that I was not .

In a moment of downtime, Connor dropped down next to me on the ground. He placed my hand on his lap, intertwining our fingers. “Feel ready?” he asked.

“I will as soon as I’ve had enough tea and cakes.”

“Not what I mean.”

I sighed. I knew what he meant. “Can anyone truly feel ready for something like this? But it seems a little too late to catch a bus to Hollywood and try to fulfill my secret dream of becoming a famous actress. So I might as well do this.”

“You wanted to be an actress?”

“No. Just trying to?—”

“I know what you’re trying to do, babe. No one will get to you. On my life, no one will get to you.”

On his life. We’d hardly had time to be a couple, yet here we were ‘ on my life ’ing. It sucked. We were mated. What kind of life would I have without him around, being all grumpy and bossy? I leaned in to press a kiss to his lips. I wanted him to know everything in my heart at this moment. He wrapped an arm around my back, tucking me in closer to his body. We sat that way for a little bit. Not speaking, just being together, right up until Lily Joy approached us.

“I’m sorry to interrupt, but it’s almost time.”

Almost time. Right. I stood first, pulling Connor to his feet. I supposed they needed me to say something. Luc had gone back to the other witch camp. Where was Bill Pullman and his Independence Day presidential speech when you needed him? Five hundred years from now, that would still ring true as one of the most iconic inspirational speeches in movie history. But right now, all these people had was me.

“Everybody,” I called out and the groups of witches and Lilium stopped talking, turning to face me. I looked as many people as possible in the eyes. They deserved to see my sincerity. “When the alarm goes off, we will launch an offensive the likes of which the world has never seen. All of us magic holders. You were given your power for this reason. This reason.” I paused for effect. “We will fight a threat greater than humanity has ever seen. A demon uprising has never been recorded in all of human history. Today, we must put aside our differences and cling to what bonds us. Life. Love. Future.” I paused again to swallow and just breathe. “We stand together or we fall apart.”

At that moment, the alarm beeped.

War.