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you are doing, you fool!” she screamed at Cooper. Lily broke through the circle, causing a psychic fissure. The trapped demons growled, sensing the deterioration of the invisible chains that kept them imprisoned. Fiona couldn’t send any of her coven after Lily without further weakening the traps and risking their lives. She used all her power to fortify the double circle that kept the demons under her control. Over the increasing rumble above and below the earth, Serena began the final spell from the Conoscenza that would bind the Seven to the arca .
    But it was too late. The arca was running away.
    “Sancte Michaël Archangele, defende nos in prælio et colluctatione,” Cooper began.
    “Stop him!” Fiona realized he was attempting to send the Seven back through the gateway! It would not work. He spoke in Latin, an exorcism rite, but there were no demonic possessions here. Not yet. And the arca was getting away.
    The rage she felt was immeasurable. For decades, she’d sought the Conoscenza . She’d believed in it when others—some who perceived they were wiser and more powerful than she—insisted it had been destroyed. She’d proven them wrong! She’d embarrassed St. Michael’s Order because they’d emphatically stated that the book had been destroyed. Now, Fiona commanded respect from covens across the world. And this man , this diolain , was not only jeopardizing decades of her work, but centuries of preparation by her ancestors.
    She raised her hand. “In the name of Belial, I command thee to thy knees!”
    The layers between Hell and earth were thin here, and the simple demand shook the ground. Cooper paused, pain crossing his gaunt face, before he continued his verbal assault.
    She turned to Garrett. “Take him down.”
    Garrett rushed the intruder, but Cooper held out his hand and spoke in a language even more ancient than Latin. Garrett bounced off an invisible shield and dropped to the ground.
    “Fiona,” Serena exclaimed, eyes wide, “that’s the language of the Conoscenza!”
    Fiona couldn’t think now of how Cooper knew the book, as the demons roared from their traps, shaking the foundation of her control. They could not be contained in the bowls forever, and with Cooper trying to reverse the ritual, she was losing them.
    He continued to speak in the most ancient of languages and Serena murmured spells to counter him.
    “Turn the bowls,” Fiona commanded her coven. “Release the Seven.”
    Her followers stared at her, surprised. They were not allowed to question her.
    “Do it! Or my wrath will be greater than any demon on earth! Turn the bowls and protect yourselves!”
    The women turned the bowls that contained the demons and, while chanting protective spells, stepped into the inner circle. The demons roared, now free from the chains of Hell. They swirled within the trap, frenzied by their freedom. If the arca were here, the ritual would be near complete. The next step was for the arca to draw them inside herself.
    If not for Raphael Cooper! He had sent her off, and now the demons had nowhere to go. Nowhere but freedom to roam the earth.
    “You are to blame!” she pointed her finger at him. “You take responsibility for the deaths and souls the Seven will claim!”
    She turned her face to the heavens and chanted, “Belial, Hecate, Sammael, and all the named and nameless fallen ones, I command thee to shield thy servants, protect the sanctified, and mark the one who thwarted my will!”
    The demons broke through their traps, swirling within the double circle, faster and faster, a tornado of smoke and fire, as the Seven lost their growing physical forms and melded within each other, in and out, gaining strength and speed and volume as they rose like a column and surrounded the coven.
    Cooper was brought to his knees by a screeching tumult of such intensity that it vibrated within the circle. All dropped to the ground, unable to stand, holding their ears. The candles were snuffed out all