The geminus ran.

A look of utter panic on its face, it shoved past Leo, past Anne, and plunged through Livia as it sped toward the front of the house. For a moment, Leo could only stare in astonishment. He had not anticipated the creature would run.

But he would not allow it to escape. He sprinted after it. Anne’s footsteps sounded behind him.

The spectacle in the entryway nearly stopped him in his tracks.

“Oh, my God,” whispered Anne.

Whit and Zora faced a pack of demons—scaled beasts with long, beaked faces and serrated tails that gouged the floor and walls wherever they struck. Numerous creatures swarmed through the collapsed door. Whit struck at the demons, his saber engulfed in flame, and Zora brandished a whip of fire. Both Whit and Zora made impressive sights as they combated the monsters, their movements sharp and deliberate, felling the seething horde as it tried to advance.

Of all the sights Leo had anticipated seeing in this marble-floored, elegant foyer, he never thought to observe a battle between flame-wielding humans and vicious beasts from Hell.

Immediately, Livia joined the fight. More demons swarmed into the house through the windows, and the ghost used her magic to hurl them aside like so much kindling. Some of the creatures sprawled on the ground and lay still, but others instantly clambered to their feet and charged.

A demon rushed at Whit, approaching him from behind. The entryway echoed as Leo shot the creature, its dying scream merging with the bang of the pistol.

Whit spun and saw Leo standing at one end of the foyer. Whatever he saw in Leo’s face made him smile. “So it’s done.”

Leo nodded. This was not the moment, nor had he the time, to examine how he felt now that his soul had been restored. Yet he sensed its presence within him, a wholeness that had been missing for so very long. Right now, what he felt was the need for vengeance.

He looked for the geminus. Blocked from escaping by the thick mass of brawling demons, it vaulted over the banister and ran up the staircase. Leo glanced back and forth between the ascending geminus and the battle going on in the entryway to his house.

Another surge of demons attacked. Whit swung at one beast with his fiery blade, and the creature’s head went rolling. The snap of Zora’s whip severed the arm of another, and Livia hurled demons to the walls and ceiling. Plaster dust rained down in clouds as Leo’s costly house was being decimated—and the sight filled him with vicious satisfaction.

“We have this front,” Whit yelled above the chaos. “The geminus is yours.”

Leo glanced up at the geminus. It had reached the top of the stairs and was starting down the hallway. Frustration welled—even if Leo ran full-out, he wouldn’t be able to catch the damned thing.

“I need your trust,” said Anne.

“You have it,” he said without hesitation.

Her eyes widened briefly at his immediate acceptance. Then she drew in a breath as if steadying herself and lifted her hands. Suddenly, Leo found himself surrounded by powerful currents of air. It was everywhere, all around him, and then it was beneath him. He started as he lifted up off the floor, his boots hovering above the marble floor.

Holy hell, he flew.

For a moment, he struggled against it. Then he saw Anne, and how her eyes widened with wonder at her own power. This was her doing. He was borne aloft by the wind Anne conjured.

Her awe did not last, for the geminus was getting away. Leo forced his body to relax. And then the stairs scrolled under him as he was lifted higher. The sensation was amazing—air all around him, flying up the staircase like a hawk. But all too soon, it was over, and his feet touched down at the top of the stairs, the wind dispersing.

He glanced down to Anne, still at the foot of the staircase.

“Go,” she called.

He did. Leo kept his gaze trained on the geminus’s retreating back as it ran down the corridor. It sought escape, yet every door it approached banged shut on a gust of wind. More of Anne’s doing. But her power did not reach the last door in time, and it ran inside. Into the master bedchamber.

The sounds of combat retreated as Leo sprinted along the hallway. His lone focus was the geminus. Reaching the doorway of the bedchamber, he growled when he saw the creature pushing the mattress aside to uncover the loaded pistol Leo always kept beneath the bed. Of course, the damned thing knew his secrets. It was him. Or had been.

Leo stepped inside. The geminus waved its hand and the door slammed behind him. He tugged on the doorknob. It would not move. He was barricaded inside with the geminus.

It had transformed from his double to his distortion, its features twisted, snarling mouth full of jagged teeth, its eyes solid black and awash with bitter hatred. Looking at it sickened Leo, knowing that what he saw now was his own darkness, his own hate.

He and the geminus faced each other, both with weapons drawn and aimed.

“The opportunity was yours,” spat the creature. “To rise above your station. To possess unlimited power. But, vulgar peasant that you are, you pissed it all away.”

“I never needed magic to forge my way in the world.”

“You could have had more.”

Once, that was all he wanted. More of everything. More wealth, more influence. More respect. But none of those things held value. Not when he couldn’t find peace within himself. Only Anne had given him that.

“I have everything of value.”

He fired. The geminus shot at the same time. Yet at that precise moment, the house shook with a massive impact. Both bullets missed, Leo’s hitting one of the bedposts, the geminus’s lodging in the door frame.

Before Leo could grab his musket, the geminus launched itself at him. Talons now tipped its fingers, and as he found himself grappling with the creature, its claws raked across his face. He barely felt the blaze of pain. All he knew was this fight, a fight he must win.

He and the geminus rolled across the floor of the bedchamber, slamming into furniture, trading brutal punches. This was a fight unlike any other he had known. The brawl during the theater riot was a nursery game by comparison. Now, he and the creature were vicious, relentless, determined to prevail by any means. Leo took punishing blows to the face, the chest, to any part of his body the geminus could reach. And he attacked the creature with the same ruthless cruelty.

A shriek sounded close by. Leo spared a glance to see that a demon had flown through a window, and now leapt forward to join the fight. The damned monster stood over him, slashing at his undefended back. Pain flared. He hissed as the demon screeched triumphantly. Though he struggled to hold both the demon and the geminus at bay, he was only one man.

Suddenly, the demon was hurled across the chamber, the solid bedchamber door flying off its hinges and plowing straight into the creature. As they flew through the air, the demon’s wing scraped across the geminus’s shoulder, sending it rolling across the floor. Both the door and the demon smashed through a closed window, the glass shredding the monster as it flew. It screamed once as it fell, then came a thud as its body hit the ground outside.

Leo glanced over toward the doorway. Anne stood there, hands outstretched. Her hair spilled over her shoulders, and her eyes blazed with righteous fury. She had torn the door from its hinges, throwing it and the demon across the room and through the window. She had protected him from secondary attack. And she looked ready to face any and all enemies.

“Behind you,” he panted.

Anne whirled around as four demons advanced, claws out, eager for blood. Dodging their talons, she held them back with sharp, targeted blasts of wind. It amazed Leo that she was the same woman who had shaken with terror on their wedding night, yet it made perfect sense. That fierce spirit had always been within her, merely waiting for the proper time to make itself known.