It was interesting that Nathaniel had been right about that. Puck wouldn’t allow Lucifer to hurt his son. He might be willing to do it himself, but Lucifer had to keep his hands off. Interesting, but I wasn’t really in a state to contemplate it. It felt like everything inside me was being twisted into a giant knot. I gasped for air.

“What are you doing to her?” J.B. demanded.

“Taking back what is mine,” Lucifer said.

My throat felt like it was full, like something inside me was backing up and trying to come out. Every cell in my body seemed to strain toward Lucifer. All my limbs tingled, that horrible pins-and-needles feeling amplified.

Nathaniel gently rested me on the ground, then stood, stepping in front of me so that all I could see were his boots. I could feel his fury, the shadow inside him rising up. He seemed to grow larger, as Lucifer had done. The air was suffused with his power, so thick with magic you could choke on it.

“Let her go,” he said to Lucifer.

Lucifer’s attention was not distracted from me for a moment. The pressure inside my body never wavered. It was almost as if poison were being drawn from my blood, but it wasn’t poison that was leaving.

It was my magic.

My magic was born of the sun, born of Lucifer himself, and as both his many-greats-granddaughter and his Hound of the Hunt, my power was inextricably bound to this source. And now the source was taking that power back into himself, to show me that he could, that I was not so special after all.

“Let her go,” Nathaniel repeated.

I didn’t know what he was going to do, but I could tell that his anger would make it something foolish. J.B. knelt at my side, holding my hand.

“What can I do?” he asked.

“Stop Nathaniel,” I choked out. “Don’t let Lucifer kill him.”

“I won’t kill him,” Lucifer said. “That is my brother’s responsibility. Puck, control your boy.”

I couldn’t see Lucifer’s face at all, only J.B.’s worried green eyes. But my grandfather did not sound like he was troubled in the least by Nathaniel’s anger, or like he was exerted at all from the effort of drawing my magic out of me. In fact, he sounded bored.

There was a sudden sound of fire sizzling in the grass, and then the streaks of light that accompany flying magic. I tried to sit up to see what was going on.

“Puck and Nathaniel are having it out,” J.B. said.

A shadow crossed over us as the two of them rose into the air. I could just see Nathaniel’s twisted face and Puck’s amused one as they traded magical blows. Then one of Nathaniel’s spells hit Puck square in the chest, and the elemental spirit suddenly did not look so amused.

I wanted to speak, to cry out, but the magic that had lived so long in my body was filling my mouth, spilling out into the air like a thin stream of smoke.

Lucifer opened his own mouth and drew that stream inside. I could feel the power leaving me, making him stronger. Jude growled and stepped in front of me. I saw that he had turned into a wolf, and was crouched, ready to strike.

I couldn’t stop him, couldn’t save him. He leapt for Lucifer’s throat.

Alerian shifted in front of Lucifer, blocked Jude’s attack. The wolf landed on the ground. There was a long streak of blood along his flank where Alerian had struck with a shiny silver knife he’d produced seemingly out of nowhere.

Jude lunged for Alerian now, tearing into my great-uncle’s leg with his teeth. The flesh there tore away from the bone but Alerian did not cry out or make a noise in any way. Instead, he methodically swung the knife at Jude, cutting here, cutting there. Blood splashed over the street.

J.B. squeezed my hand tight as the last of Lucifer’s magic exited my body. The stream of power sputtered to a halt, and I coughed, rolling to one side, away from Lucifer. My throat felt dry and swollen, like I’d been breathing smoky air. But the rest of me felt light, like an unimaginable burden had finally been lifted from me. And it had.

Lucifer chuckled, and it was not a pleasant sound. “Now do you see, Madeline? All that made you special and unique came from me. You cannot defend your child from the weakest goblin now. You will never be able to keep him from me.”

I pushed to my feet. J.B. helped me up, the two of us face-to-face for a moment. The battle between Puck and Nathaniel still raged above us. Alerian and Jude tore into each other behind me. But I took one moment, and looked into J.B.’s eyes, and smiled.

“I’m glad that you’re my friend,” I said, and kissed his cheek.

He gave me a look, his eyes full of understanding. “I guess this means my chance has come and gone, huh?”

“I still love you. But not that way,” I said.

He sighed. “I’m sure I’ll be able to convince some fairy courtier to have rebound sex with me.”

I laughed, and turned to face Lucifer, who looked surprised that I wasn’t weeping on the ground.

“Thank you,” I said, and I really meant it. I glanced at the palm of my hand. The tattoo that had been imprinted there by Lucifer’s sword was gone.

Now the Prince of Darkness looked bewildered, and the expression was so comical on that Milton’s devil-face that I laughed out loud again. I felt giddy, and a little reckless.

“Thank you, really,” I said. “Thank you for finally, finally, finally releasing me from you. Thank you for taking the burden of your bloodline away from me. Thank you for basically disowning me. This is one of the happiest moments of my life.”