Glass Heart

Chapter 1

"Find the heart . . ."

I sat bolt upright, fully expecting to wake surrounded by angels in the Silver City. That's what happens when you get knocked unconscious in the middle of a battle against demons. You die. So when I woke and I was not dead, I found myself surprised—until I looked around and saw my brother, Dastan, pulling a spear out of a demon. Wait, that was my spear.

Unsteady, I got to my feet and called, "give that back, you prick!" He must've taken it off me when he realized I wouldn't be much help, I mean, it was an Immortal weapon forged in the Heavens Wrath, a powerful demon-slaying weapon.

"Finders keepers!" He called as he used my spear to kill another demon. I suppose I could summon it from him, but that wasn't a wise course of action in the midst of battle and would use precious time and energy. As much as I didn't like him touching my stuff, I preferred Dastan alive—most days—admittedly there were times that I would've liked nothing more than to feed him to a demon but he was still my brother. By blood we fight, by blood we die, but never do the bonds untie, such is the way of family. Hawthorne family moto, bit cheesy but the sentiment was there.

Growling, I pulled a short sword from my sheath and slashed another demon. "I'll make you eat those words." These were mostly low level demons, so they weren't too troublesome to dispatch back to Hell. If any higher levels showed up, then we might be in trouble. It was just Dastan and me, we could take these ones by ourselves, but if a general or lord showed up, or even the Devil himself, then the Hawthorne family would be just a little smaller.

"If you'd like to take care of the rest of these demons, I'd be much obliged." Dastan twirled my spear, fending off half a dozen demons as he made his way back to my side.

I sighed, "cover me, this'll take a second." I knelt down and drew the ancient rune that would banish the rest of these demons from the mortal realm. It flashed bright blue and the rune seeped into the flesh of several demons and instantly they began to disintegrate. I wasn't the greatest with rune casting, I was a pretty weak caster in comparison to the others. It was a trait passed down through the blood but only the women of the Hawthornes could access the gift, most were fairly equal in strength and ability—except me, for whatever reason I was the exception to the rule and not in a good way. I could only cast simple runes and even then, it was difficult—requiring intense concentration—and often tired me out.

Like right now. The rune casting winded me and I felt the world spinning slightly, wait, nope, that was just me. None of the other women had such problems and there seemed no discernible cause as to why I was any different. "You good, Grace?" Dastan called, finally catching my attention.

"Yeah, I'm good, help me up." Dastan offered me the end of the spear, which I grabbed and allowed him to pull me up with. As soon as I was standing, I took control of the spear, twirling it out of his grasp. "Told you you'd eat those words." He just rolled his eyes and grabbed his short sword, poking around the few demons who had yet to deform.

Demon blood was like tar, impossibly thick, black staining, and sticks to everything but Immortal steel. Their flesh didn't burn, it shriveled, breaking into smaller and smaller pieces, revealing skeletons that were often black and took an extra minute to disintegrate. The only thing they left behind were their hearts, they weren't attached to them like humans and Immortals were, demons were capable of surviving without them—often making them stronger so it wasn't uncommon that the demon would claw it out themselves. I only counted three hearts out of the couple dozen demons we had fought, not unusual in the least, they were the weakest.

Dastan drove his sword through the hearts, with each one, a shrill scream pierced the air followed by a black haze that chilled the area before dissipating. They would be unable to reincarnate, but the Devil was always making new ones and we had only gotten rid of three permanently. Granted, it would take several years, maybe even a decade for the others to regenerate, so it wasn't like the accomplishment was meaningless, but it did mean less.

I sealed the Divine Veil over the remnants of the demon corpses. It would take about an hour for them to completely disintegrate and the Hawthornes couldn't afford to be found out by mortals while waiting. We had enough on our plate with the supernatural and mortals could be just as vicious, several seven-times-great aunts had been burned at the stake during the witch trials, after which the rune for the Divine Veil had been created. It would ensure that mortals wouldn't see the activities of Immortals, demons, or their earthly servants, it just made things easier.

"Ready to go back?" I questioned as Dastan made his way back to my side. He nodded, a big smile on his face after the battle. He was more of a fighter than I was, I could wield a spear with expertise and I wasn't too bad with a sword either, but those were required learning for a member of the Hawthorne family, even if I was more of an intellectual. "Alright, I'll message Trix to call us back."

All good, bring us home. I messaged our cousin.

I got a return text almost immediately, setting up, give me twenty seconds. I clasped Dastan's shoulder and counted the seconds, when the time ran up, I felt the world shifting around me. Logically, I knew Trix was pulling us throughout a pinpoint in space but it still felt like it was the world and not me that was moving. Normally, the person in battle would transport themselves back, but I didn't have the skills or the power to perform such a task so we relied on Trix or one of the other women of the Hawthornes.

We popped out the other side in the foyer of the Hawthorne house. The house itself was huge, built quite literally to house an army during the eighteenth century, it had been reconstructed and remodeled over a dozen times to suit the needs of the family. But gradually the house had started to feel more and more empty. The two top most floors were uninhabited, the second floor was where all of the current family lived, and the ground floor was the communal area with a gargantuan library, a living room, a kitchen, a hidden prep room, and a dining room with a table too large for what remained of the family.

"Welcome back, Gram wants a report." Trix smiled. She was beautiful in the Hawthorne fashion, with the blond hair of her father—who had married in and been indoctrinated into the family—and the black eyes of her mother, my father's sister, who had both been slain by the Devil's Right Hand a decade ago.

"We'll put our stuff away and then go see her. Office, right?"

Trix rolled her eyes, "where else would she be?" Good point. Gram, as the oldest of us all at the age of fifty eight, was our leader. A brilliant tactician, she was calculating and inquisitive, having lost more than all of us and yet just the same—every loss to the family was a loss to us all, whether we knew the deceased or not, it was one less chance to kill the Devil.

Dastan led the way to the prep room, inputted his code, scanned his retina, and walked in. I put in my code and scanned my retina before I followed him in, that was protocol. Dastan had already put his sword away in his locked case. I opened my case with my fingerprint, placed my spear and short sword on the rack, closed my case and locked it. Leaving the prep room was the same protocol, both codes, both retina scans to lock the door behind us. We needed insane security for our Immortal weapons, they were dangerous, even more so to mortals and we could not take the chance that they could fall into the wrong hands.

Finding Gram wasn't difficult, she was always in the office just next to the library working on something or other. Always something to worry about, always something to do, always something to plan. I knocked on the door, opening it when she called, "enter." Short and to the point, just like she was.

Gram wasn't a grandmother like the colloquial image was. She looked like an aged businesswoman, in a pressed suit, with perfectly styled hair and a touch of makeup, the black eyes of the Hawthornes and greyed hair that was once deep brown. She was stern but not unfriendly. "Report," she brusquely stated as she closed a file.

Dastan and I gave her the report, thankfully we both left out my getting knocked unconscious, that would definitely not be a good thing for Gram to know about. "Ultimately, it went quite well, three hearts out of thirty seven demons."

After a long moment, Gram finally responded, "good, I'll consider it a success. Dastan, continue your duties. Grace, you know what to do." The Hawthorne family plan was simple; find the heart, kill the Devil, save the family (and the rest of humanity) and she had made me a key part in it.

I nodded as I got up to go next door to the library. Gram, at the start, didn't know how to use me, I wasn't particularly skilled in fighting, my runecasting was weak at best, but after a couple years, she came to realize that I was an excellent researcher. My job now was likely one of the most important in the family. The first step in the plan.

Find the heart.