Inner Demons

by A. C. Nicholls

  “Don’t be so stupid. You don’t even have a weapon.”

  “Do I look like I give a damn?” Jack rolled up the stiff sleeves of his coat, balled his hands into fists and raised them in front of his face – not like a guard, but like a deadly weapon. “I have these to keep me safe.”

  “Fists?”

  “Fists.”

  I rolled my eyes, catching sight of the bloodstain on the door in the process. A knot appeared in my stomach, twisting my guts. How could somebody do something like this? Someone even angrier than an angry, misguided Jack Hannigan.

  When I turned back to Jack, and saw that his expression hadn’t changed, I gave a deep sigh. “Fine, but you stay behind me and follow my lead. Are we clear on that?”

  “Crystal.” Jack stepped aside, sweeping his hand across the short distance between me and the door. “After you, boss.”

  I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of reacting to his sarcasm. There were bigger things at play here. Ryker may or may not have been a mage – I would find out soon enough – but his head was screwed up enough for me to know that he wasn’t going to back down easily. As I approached the door, the magic burning in my hand, I took a deep breath and prepared for a battle… then stepped through the door.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  I wasn’t ready for what I saw when I entered the imps’ lair.

  The dark caves were covered in pools and splatters of a gooey blue substance. Their blood – I could tell just from looking at it, the way it seemed to elasticize as it dripped from the stalactites, before finally falling into the puddles below. There was a commotion too, at the far end of the open area where hundreds of imps used to feel safe.

  “Ryker,” Jack said from behind me.

  I simply nodded and walked out into the expanse, watching Ryker and his men slay one innocent imp after the other. What Jack had done to them before was mere child’s play compared to this. They were huddled together for comfort, being taken out for slaughter one after the other. It made me sick to my stomach, seeing a true monster at work. But something told me this was nothing compared to the work of the demon that Ryker would summon if he got out of here alive.

  Silently, I drew a ball of magic into my hand.

  “Do you have a plan?” Jack asked, softening his tone to a whisper.

  “Not exactly.”

  “Then allow me.” Jack placed a hand on my shoulder and gently moved me aside, leaning his head forward to peer at the scene ahead of us. His lips moved as he counted, before he returned to me. “Six men, plus Ryker.”

  “What are you thinking?”

  “I’m thinking that if I head to the left, over by those crates there, it should draw their attention. That will give you a chance to get around them, then jump out and catch them by surprise. You have the magic, so you can do more damage that way.”

  I bobbed my head up and down, accepting his plan. It was better than anything I could have come up with, and besides, Jack was finally making a selfless effort to help someone other than himself. “You’re sure you want to do this? You’re unarmed and vulnerable.”

  Jack grinned, playful but false. “You wanted a hero. Ready?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Let’s go.”

  Jack took off like a bat out of hell, running across the rocky open area with his footsteps echoing all around us. Every one of Ryker’s men stopped what they were doing and turned toward the sound. One of them shouted, “Intruder!” The others followed toward Jack, all except for Ryker and one of his men, who stayed with the group of ten or so imps.

  This was my chance.

  I veered off to the right, scrambling light-footedly around the rocky outcrops that protruded from the ground and walls. Using them as cover, I made my way around the perimeter of the cave until I was behind the imps. By now, the men were escorting a captured Jack to their master, like proud hunters returning with their game. I understood instantly that the stakes had been raised, but while the men were all turned away from me, I seized the opportunity to lead the imps to safety.

  “Psst,” I whispered, tapping one of the imps on the back.

  The imp turned, and although I didn’t recognize it, it seemed to recognize me. Its mouth opened and its eyes filled with delightful surprise that read hope and faith. “The Cardkeeper,” it whispered back.

  The other imps turned then, identical expressions on all of their round faces.

  “Keep your voices down,” I said, shooting a glance over at Jack, who Ryker was talking to directly. I had to speed this up or risk losing another friend. “I want you all to come through here in single file and hide behind these rocks. It might get messy out there, so whatever happens, don’t come out until I say so.”

  “Yes, yes, okay,” said the first imp.

  They lined up and crept through the small gap, remaining quiet while I kept an eye over their heads at the situation with the men. None of them had spotted me. Thank God for small miracles and dumb henchmen.

  There were only three left to go, taking it in turns to place their feet on the jagged outcrop to climb into the gap, when one of the rocks slipped. It was like time had been tampered with, seeming to slow down as my eyes stayed trained on the falling rock, my breath caught in my throat as it struck the floor.

  I knew right away. I’d been made.

  One of the men turned to investigate, his eyes lighting up as he saw me crouched inside the crevasse. Opening his mouth wide, he swung a blade over his shoulder ready to attack, raised a pointed finger and screamed like an alarm bell. “Over there!”

  Whatever I did next, I had to do it fast.

  “Go,” I said to the remaining three imps as I leapt out to provide them with cover. My hands were at my sides already, aiding me as I dove into the crowd of men. All of which, I discovered a moment too late, were armed with swords stained by imp blood.

  I aimed my palms outward, shoving the man who’d caught us across the room with a telekinetic wave. Jack, taking them while their surprise was still fresh, shot to his feet and grabbed the sword from one guy, driving an elbow into the man’s nose and disarming him. That was two down, I noted, and turned for Ryker. Whatever happened, I couldn’t let him escape. I raised a pile of fallen rocks into the air with my mind, aimed them at Ryker’s feet, and shot them like bullets. Ryker tumbled to the ground, his chin smacking the rocks as he made an oof sound.

  Before I could make another move, Jack swung his new sword like a madman, keeping two of the men at bay while the others turned on me. If I’d had a moment to watch, I would have admired the way he handled that thing, like a skilled pirate. I didn’t know until that moment that he must have had some kind of training. It was impressive, but that didn’t stop these two assholes from coming at me.

  One of the pair – the smaller one with a bald head and an angry red face – screamed as he charged at me, sword raised into the air while he wailed out his war cry. His balance was off and his temper had taken control of him. Good thing, too – angry meant careless, giving me the upper hand and filling me with confidence.

  Bring it, fat ass.

  The sword sliced downward, breezing past my shoulder as I gave it a little nudge with my mind. The man lost his balance, toppling over but quickly climbing back to his feet. This gave me a second to turn my attention toward the second man. I drew the sword from his hand, like a spirit had simply walked on over and taken it from him, and carried it safely into my own palm. I was never one for killing. Not humans, anyway. So, using the flat side of the sword, I spun quickly and smashed the blade into the fallen man, knocking him unconscious. By the time I turned all the way around, the other man was backing off with his hands raised in surrender. Jack appeared behind him then, wrapping a firm arm around his throat like a boa constrictor, and then tossing him off the edge of the platform. The man screamed all the way down, until his voice faded into nothingness.

  “Got your back,” Jack said.

  “Quit bragging. Focus.”

 
Jack’s eyes suddenly widened. In the blink of an eye, he lifted his blade and sent it hurtling over my shoulder. I heard a puncture sound and turned to look behind me, where a man was falling onto his back, the brass hilt of a sword still shaking as it protruded from his chest.

  “Thanks,” I said to Jack.

  “Quit thanking me. Focus.” He winked and turned back toward two of the men, whipping his sword around left and right, right and left, pirouetting to deflect the careless, angry assault of his attackers.

  Offering a helping hand, I fired a telekinetic blast at one of their heels. The man dropped to his knee, and Jack took the chance to kick his foot into the man’s chest, knocking him onto his back and giving him the advantage. I wished I could have stopped to help him, but as I caught movement in the corner of my eye, I turned to see Ryker making a dash for the exit, his coat billowing behind him in a long, flailing trail.

  Leaving Jack to enjoy his action, I took after Ryker, desperate not to let him leave this cave. I was hot on his heels, ready to tackle him or use a rock to trip him up and slow him down. But as my mind was so fixed on him, I barely had time to notice one of his men coming my way at an insane speed.

  The interloper tackled me to the ground. My back struck a jagged rock, shooting pain all the way up my spine in violent vibrations. He climbed on top of me, punching me repeatedly in the face, his mortal fists doing nothing against my hardened flesh. When its uselessness registered on his expression, I ground my teeth and gave him my hardest punch, sending him flying back across the cave and knocking down his associate in the process. Two birds. One stone. They both went off the edge together, screaming as they plummeted to their deaths.

  “You asked for it.”

  I nodded as I stood, slowly becoming aware that the voice inside my head didn’t belong to me. I froze, listening for it to say more, to confirm that I wasn’t imagining things. Now was not the time for the magicard’s soul to start talking to me. I needed to slow it down.

  “You okay?” Jack appeared at my side.

  I snapped out of it, looking all around the cave to assess our situation. I saw only one man, standing with his back to a rock and quivering with fear. The rest were either dead on the ground, or at the bottom of the pit – that was, if there was a bottom.

  “I’m fine,” I said, dusting off my arms. “Where’s Ryker?”

  Jack shook his head, biting his lower lip and closing his eyes. “I’m sorry.”

  My gaze took to the only exit, where Ryker had been headed just before I was tackled. My blood slowly started to boil as I accepted the fact that the murdering bastard had gotten away from me, while his men had stayed behind to die for his own handiwork. It was a coward’s way of working, I could say without a doubt, but if he’d gotten what he’d come here for then I didn’t think Ryker would care. As long as he could summon the Demon King, that was all he would need.

  And we’d let it happen.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  “How you feeling?” Jack lowered himself beside me and groaned as he took a seat on the dry rock. He held an old, clay cup of something out to me, nodding that it was okay to drink.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “It’s just water. Apparently they filter it here themselves.”

  I slowly reached out a hand and took the cup, sniffed it, and then braved a sip. Turns out it wasn’t that bad – tasted just like normal tap water, only with a little kick of something that tasted like peach. “It’s not terrible. Thanks.”

  Jack sighed. “You didn’t answer my question.”

  “How am I feeling?”

  “Yes.”

  I shrugged. “Like a complete failure, to tell the truth.”

  “This wasn’t your fault.”

  “But what if it was?” I stared out at the large family of imps as they passed us, tending to the wounded and carrying out their dead loved ones. The looks on their faces broke my heart into tiny shards of regret, solemn and sad, their huge eyes watering as their thin lips trembled. “I mean, look at this, Jack. If we’d done things differently, we could have gotten here sooner.”

  “Different like how?”

  “I don’t know.” I drained the cup and leaned forward to put it by my feet. “Like when we saw Ryker leaving his house. We could have followed him. Hell, we even discussed it. And if we had? Well, we might not be watching imps heaving dead bodies around.”

  Jack clasped his hands together and turned his head toward the traumatized creatures. He didn’t say anything for a long while, but when he finally did, it was with the most soothing tone I’d ever heard from his own lips. “You may be all powerful, Keira Poe, but you can’t predict the future. Fact is, you came here and fought for them. You saved lives, and misery will only be your reward if you accept it.”

  “True,” I said flatly, taking a deep breath. Jack had all of this conscientious bullshit to look forward to. When he got to the point that he’d been doing this for thirty years, he would probably feel awful too. “Anyway, what’s the situation with Silvero?”

  Jack glanced toward the back of the cave. “Said he’ll let us know when he has a moment. How come?”

  “Call it a courtesy. You’ll get this a lot when you become Cardkeeper, and here’s my advice: if you find yourself caught in a fight between two species, be sure to speak with the leader of the defeated soon after.”

  “Why?”

  “It helps to clarify that you’re on their team.”

  “We’re siding with the imps now?”

  “Not exactly. They’re not a combative species. But that’s a part of the job – defending those who can’t defend themselves.”

  Jack scratched his beard. “Sounds taxing.”

  “Believe it.”

  A pair of imps came along then, each identical to the other. They stood with their slumped shoulders touching, while only one of them spoke. “Keira Poe, Silvero Impada requests your presence immediately.”

  I stood up, placing my hands at the small of my back and giving a little push. Somehow, the fall onto the rock had really done a number on my spine. Immortality sure helped against things like that, but it still hurt like hell. The imps left me as I stretched, then Jack and I followed after them until we found Silvero.

  “Ah, Miss Poe.”

  “Silvero,” I said, offering him a small curtsey. “I’m so sorry about what happened here.”

  “It was not your fault. It seems I owe you some gratitude.” Silvero turned toward Jack. “To both of you, in fact. Please, accompany me to the arsenal. I have something I wish to show you.”

  Jack and I followed the King of the Imps down a long, rocky platform that hovered over another pit. On the other end of this walkway was a small building that looked like a miniature monastery. Silvero pushed open the door with his thin, jelly-like arms and revealed a small room lit by candlelight. There was a sword rack on one side of the room, a spear rack on the other, and in the middle, propped up on a stone pedestal, was a glowing sword.

  “What’s that?” Jack asked, his eyes suddenly glowing like the blade.

  “This is the Sword of Lucada. The imps recovered it from a supernatural museum only this morning. You’ve seen the staff in action, I believe. This blade was created to maintain balance for the Demon King.” Silvero removed it from the pedestal and held it carefully across two hands, as if it was made of glass and he feared dropping it.

  “I’m confused,” I admitted. “The Staff of Lucada is only used to summon Zorin, right?”

  Silvero nodded.

  “So what – this thing sends it back?”

  “Oh, no.” Silvero shook his head. “This will kill the demon. You see, it is far too late to stop this man – Ryker?” He looked to me as I nodded, and then continued. “He got the blood he sought. Your only hope now is to wait until Zorin is summoned, and then slay him.”

  Jack cleared his throat, hinting not-so-subtly at something that I was already thinking. I already had a weapon of my own, and I’d see
n Jack’s swordplay. It wasn’t too bad, if I said so myself.

  “If you would be so kind,” I told Silvero, “please allow Jack to wield the sword. His actions may have been inexcusable at first, but I hold every bit of faith that he has a strong heart, and is eager to do the right thing. I also believe that there is nobody more suitable to use this weapon.”

  Silvero hesitated, looking from me to Jack, then back again. His enormous round eyes met mine, questioning my certainty. He must have read it on my face, for then he turned toward Jack and outstretched his arms, holding the blade toward him.

  “Thank you.” Jack took the sword by the hilt and raised the tip of the blade to inspect it. The orange glow of the steel lit up his face like fire as he gazed at it longingly, accepting responsibility not only for the sword itself, but for the duty that it carried.

  “You must drive it through the demon’s heart,” said Silvero. “Only then will Zorin be truly vanquished. When the job is done, you may keep the sword. If you are to take the position as Cardkeeper, it may serve useful to you.”

  “I don’t know how to thank you,” Jack said. He examined the leather grip further until he found a button. His eyebrows curving upward, he pushed it and snapped his head back, as the blade itself was sucked into the hilt.

  “It comes with its own discretion,” Silver said, chuckling softly.

  Jack pushed the button again, shooting the blade out and in, out and in, grinning at the convenience that keeping such a blade would have. When he was done, he slid it into his pocket and bowed toward Silvero. “Again, I thank you.”

  I got a sense of responsibility as we left Silvero and made our way toward the exit. We passed the imps, who took it upon themselves to pat our legs and nod, some blowing kisses while others cried with their backs turned. I got the feeling we were being confused as heroes.

  They couldn’t be further from the truth.

  As we crept up the tunnel that lead back to the office, I noticed Jack was grinning.

  “What’s up with you?” I asked.