Free The Protect Her Box Set: Parts 7-9 by Ivy Sinclair

looked at her. “I guess I didn’t realize that there was a difference.”
    “It’s something they don’t like talking about,” I scoffed. “It’s the reason that my mother wanted Alice to help me as I made the transition into being part of both realms. The energy that I have access to being a necromancer is so unlike what everyone thinks is regular magic that it’s like it can go either way. She wanted to make sure that I ended up on the right side.” Now everyone’s gaze had shifted to me. “What?”
    “If only those who use dark magic can get near the gate, then you might be our best chance to do something about those demons, after all,” Samuel said. His voice held a note of wonder.
    “I should have known,” Benjamin said. “How comforting that our fate rests in the hands of a mortal necromancer.”
    Paige touched my arm before swinging back to face Benjamin. “Riley is a good man. He had been helping teach me magic to be able to defend myself and help other people, and it’s been with his help that I’ve been able to do so. That doesn’t sound like dark magic to me. It can’t be.”
    “You saw what he did in the church,” Benjamin said. His tone told everyone exactly what he thought of me. “He gathered the dead unwillingly to his side and forced them to fight demons. He called the demons that died around him into his employ as well. Over the years, he has sent a host of both demons and humans into a place where their souls will never find rest, and that was after torturing their spirits. I’m not sure how you can consider anything about that good, Paige.”
    I wanted to punch the guy right in the face, angel or not. “I did what I did at the church to protect her,” I growled.
    Paige put her hand on my chest and stepped closer to me. “Riley.”
    But I wasn’t about to stop my tirade now. “And that is more than I can say about you. I don’t believe in the light and dark magic shit. I never have. It has everything to do with the intention of how you use it. Let’s do this. Let’s go walking up to that gate and see if that little theory of yours really holds true. Because I guarantee you that your angel wings are far from pure as driven snow.”
    “Riley,” Paige’s voice carried a sterner tone that caused me to look down at her. Her blue eyes flashed a warning at me. “You don’t have to explain anything to me or them. That’s not why you are here. You came to find a way to close the gate, and it sounds like you are the only one who can. Do you know what that means? You were meant to do this, and I’ll help you.”
    “You can’t.” The words were in stereo. I hated it when Benjamin decided to say the same thing as me in stereo.
    “If I have the relic, I’ll have something that is magical and cursed with what I can only assume is dark magic given its history,” Paige continued as if she hadn’t heard either of us. “It brings death and mayhem. Dark magic? Check. If we work together, I can access Eva’s magic through the relic, and we’ll close the gate.”
    I thought about Paige’s plan. It was crazy. It was riskier than just about anything I could think of. It was also fucking brilliant, which I hated, but for a completely different reason.
    “You aren’t thinking straight,” Benjamin started.
    “No, you aren’t thinking straight,” I said. I pointed at Samuel. “You told me that it was Eva who closed the gate the last time, right?”
    “Yes,” Samuel said. He caught Benjamin’s glare and grimaced. I had the feeling that he had told me something that wasn’t supposed to be common knowledge, and it was annoying Benjamin to no end that I kept bringing it up.
    “What did Eva have that the rest of you didn’t have?”
    Paige’s face broke out into a small smile. “She had her Protector.”
    I snapped my fingers. “That’s right. And the Protector was a necromancer like me. Once Eva shared her life force with him to make him immortal, they shared a bond. A