Chapter 6

“Pyper!” I dropped to her side, gently taking one of her hands. “Are you all right?”

She sucked in a breath and then pushed herself up, her eyes ablaze with fury. “Where is he?”

“I don’t know. He’s gone.” I brushed her hair out of her eyes, but she shook me off.

“No. He isn’t. I still feel him. His ugly hatred, it’s here. He won’t leave until he gets what he wants.” She climbed to her feet, glanced around, and fixated on the light still shining from the pentagram. “Is Julius still in there?”

I nodded. “He somehow trapped us in a time warp.”

She shook her head. “No, he didn’t. That was Roy.”

“What?”

Kane joined me by my side. “What do you mean?”

“Let him out,” Pyper demanded. “Now.”

I glanced at Lucien. He raised his hands in an I-don’t-know motion.

“Jade!” Pyper turned and grabbed my shoulders. “Let him out. He’s in danger in there.”

She was so frantic, so insistent, I did as she asked. With a wave of my hand, the light vanished, and Julius stood in the middle of the pentagram, watching us. Nothing changed. The music didn’t come back on. No one started dancing as they had earlier. But we still hadn’t morphed back to our own time.

“What’s going on?” I heard Kat ask Lucien.

Pyper took two steps toward Julius and then froze, her eyes never leaving his. “Where is he?”

Julius stared over her shoulder, hatred pouring out of his dark gaze. “Right behind you.”

Pyper whirled, narrowed her eyes, and said, “Show yourself, you coward.”

Nothing happened.

“Pyper, we should probably leave and go back to our time. All we need to do is walk off this dance floor,” I said.

“No.” She placed her hands on her hips, fierce determination radiating off her. “Not until we finish Roy. He won’t leave me alone. Not now that he has an in.”

“An in?” I asked her.

She glanced at Julius. “He’s a ghost, you know.”

I nodded. “Yes, I thought he might be, but he’s unusual being in solid form and all.”

She nodded. “He was a witch.”

“Ohhh,” Kat said as if that explained everything.

“A white witch.” Pyper met my gaze. “A powerful one, like you. And for some reason, Roy’s latched on to him. I don’t know why or how, but I can feel it.”

I glanced at Julius and back at her. They were gazing at each other with a curious intensity. “Today isn’t the first time you two met, is it?”

Pyper glanced away, a blush creeping up her face.

“Pyper?” Kane asked, his curious tone tinged with concern.

“No. It is not,” Julius said rather formally. “I had the pleasure of meeting Miss Pyper not long ago when she was helping another research this hotel.”

We all turned and gaped at Pyper.

But before anyone could say anything, Julius’s head and upper body jerked back as if he’d suffered a blow. He let out a grunt and came up swinging, but appeared to only find air.

“Roy!” Pyper called and jumped forward.

Kane clasped a hand over her arm, pulling her back with him. “Stay by my side.”

“But I can’t let him go after Julius. You don’t understand. He feeds off of Julius’s energy.”

Her words clicked a switch in my brain. I could find him. If I tuned in to Julius, I’d know exactly where Roy was. “Lucien?”

“Yes?”

I waved him over and whispered into his ear. “I need to invade Julius’s energy. When I give the signal, I need you to cast a summoning spell.”

“Without a circle?”

“Yes. Once you cast the spell and I direct the energy to it, I’ll call the circle myself.”

He gave me a skeptical look.

“Trust me.”

“You got it, boss.”

With Pyper safely at Kane’s side, I threw my energy into Julius, instantly honing in on Roy tapping into him. I’d once been a victim of Roy’s wrath and unfortunately knew his energy intimately. It didn’t take much to follow that thread. And as I did, I severed the hold Roy had on Julius. It was just me and Roy now. In order for him to stay connected to our world, he had to siphon magic from me. Except I had no intention of letting him. Once he reached for my energy, I sent a bolt of magic straight into his energy, effectively latching on, and then wrapped him in an invisible binding. He wasn’t going anywhere now. Not until I was sure we were sending him somewhere where he could no longer get to Pyper.

And even though I was stronger now, had better control over my gifts, the dark taint of Roy’s shriveled soul made my skin crawl and my insides shudder from the pure filth that was Roy.

But I wasn’t going to let him get the better of me. Not this time. As hard as it was, I forced myself to take steps toward the middle of the dance floor, toward the ugliest being I’d ever come in contact with, and that was saying something.

My movements became slower and slower with each step, my limbs like cement pillars, refusing to move. And when I was certain I was going to collapse from the sheer pain of holding on to Roy, I felt a hand slip into mine. Pyper’s cool, clean, refreshing energy rushed into my being, fortifying me, giving me the strength to hold on.

I felt Roy’s rage, his frustration at being locked in my magical hold, but clung to Pyper’s sure determination and cried, “Lucien, now!”

The low murmur of his Latin chant filled the silence, and a second later, I felt him let his magic go. Through our coven connection, I guided it, forcing it to hit exactly where I knew Roy was standing. And then as his form came into view, I raised my arms and called the pentagram.

Pure white light filled the ballroom, nearly blinding me.

“Whoa,” I heard Kat gasp. “That was impressive.”

Glancing down, I smiled in sheer satisfaction. Pyper and I were standing on the northernmost point of the pentagram, and Roy was trapped in the innermost circle. Exactly as I’d planned.

“Nice work,” Lucien said.

“Thanks. You, too. But it’s not over yet. What should we do with Roy?”

“I’ll take care of him,” Kane said, moving to stand just behind me.

I turned my head and raised a curious eyebrow. “Really? And how do you propose to do that?”

“Like this.” He palmed the hilt of his dagger, and in one swift motion he threw the magical blade right at Roy, hitting him exactly where his heart would be. Roy vanished, and the dagger hung in the air for a few seconds.

Then Roy reappeared for just an instant and shattered into tiny slivers of light that faded away before they ever hit the ground.