Justin and Makiko were unconscious. Maybe … maybe dead. And Blake was …
Two demon mages and three powerful mythics had taken us prisoner. And no one, not a single soul outside this room, knew where we were. There would be no rescue.
We’d walked right into the cult’s clutches.
Chapter Twenty-One
“Well, Russel?” Piotr said in his ugly rasp of a voice.
The second officer, a senior member who’d been with the guild for over twenty years and whom Blake had said he trusted with his life, studied us with eyes that glowed with demonic power. “Before I call the Magnus Dux, we’ll confirm they haven’t spread information about the Court to anyone else.”
My rapid breathing filled my ears, and I tried to force my lungs to slow down before I got dizzier. At the same time, I commanded myself not to look toward the doors, where Justin and Makiko lay unmoving.
It was more difficult to ignore Blake and the snaking rivulet of his blood running across the black floor.
Russel pointed at me. “We’ll start with her. Women break more easily.”
Aaron jerked, red sparks leaping from his clenched fists.
“Hold still,” Chay snapped at him. “Unless you want to find out what happens when a heliomage lights a pyromage on fire.”
“I’ll tell you whatever you want.” The snarl in Aaron’s voice couldn’t hide an edge of fear. “Leave Tori alone.”
Russel gestured. Daniel grabbed my arm, hauled me to the table, and threw me down on my back. The folders slid off, papers scattering. Daniel’s hand snapped around my throat, powerful fingers squeezing as he held me down, restricting my air.
“Stop it!” Aaron yelled. “I told you—”
“Do you think I’m naïve enough to believe you’d tell me everything?” Russel reached under the table and picked up a black case. He set it beside my shoulder. “I’m afraid what I need to know is too important to trust your word.”
“You’re a demon hunter,” Kai hissed. “Why would you give up your body to a demon?”
As Russel turned his crimson-sheened gaze to Kai, I locked stares with Daniel. He grinned eagerly, more than ready to participate in my interrogation—especially if he got to force answers out of me.
“What better triumph over a demon is there,” Russel told Kai, “than to subjugate it in every way—to take its body, defeat its will, and command its magic?”
I wrapped my hands around Daniel’s wrist, struggling for air.
“Save us,” I gasped, scarcely able to produce sound.
With the click of a latch, Russel opened his case, not noticing Daniel’s sudden anger. “Demon mages created using weak-willed fools become weak demon mages who can barely control their demons.”
“And I’ll save you—”
Russel considered the rows of shiny, terrifying torture instruments in his case as though deciding what to start with. “Not once, in the four years since I underwent the ritual—”
“—with the amulet,” I gasped.
“—has my demon gained control of me for even a moment.”
Crimson blazed across Daniel’s eyes, transforming them into glowing lava.
Daniel lurched back, hands jumping to his face as he shouted in shock. Sucking in a desperate breath of air, I jammed my hand into my belt pouch.
Daniel staggered, fingers digging into his smooth cheeks. “No! I’m in command, you bastard! Stop—”
His eyes blazed brighter, and his furious, desperate expression morphed into jaw-clenching determination, teeth bared in a snarl. His gaze snapped to me. I yanked the amulet out of its pouch and lunged up, arm stretching toward the demon mage.
A hand closed around my forearm and powerful fingers constricted with so much force that blinding pain shot up my arm. I screamed.
Russel’s other hand flashed. Crimson blazed over his skin. Daniel—or his demon—thrust out both arms, but power had barely begun to flare over his fingers when Russel’s spell unleashed.
A boom of power. Blinding red light.
Daniel flew twenty feet and smashed into the wall. He slid down it to the floor, leaving a smear of blood on the polyester padding.
Russel dug his fingers into my arm. The demonic amulet swung like a pendulum, its chain still clutched in my hand.
His eyes narrowed as he studied it. “And what might this be?”
My jaw clenched. Blinking away tears of pain, I flicked a glance at Aaron and Kai, warning them to hold still. They didn’t react, their faces white and limbs rigid.
“An arcane artifact, Piotr?” Russel inquired. “Or an infernus?”
“I’m not certain.”
“Hmm.” Russel extended his hand, palm turned up as though to scoop the pendant out of the air.
I dropped the chain.
It’s an irresistible reflex: when you’re about to take hold of something and it falls, you catch it. Simple. Instinctive.
Russel caught the falling medallion with his enhanced reflexes, his fingers closing tightly around it. He straightened, the chain hanging off his fist, and frowned at me.
I stared back, terrified out of my mind while also hoping desperately.
Russel opened his mouth—and his eyes flashed to red.
He reeled back, amulet crushed in his fist. Demonic power exploded across his limbs and streaked over him in crawling veins. His mouth gaped, face contorting. Scarlet lines raced up his face to his temples, forming phantom horns.
I lurched off the table, falling awkwardly to the floor as I put the flimsy barrier between me and the demon mage. Russel convulsed, then dropped to his knees. Quaking. Heaving. Magic rippled off him, condensing—forming into wings that rose off his back and a thick tail with fur that ran down its length.
He arched backward, chest thrown out, head hanging back as a horrific scream tore through his throat.
A second voice joined his in a deep roar of primal rage.
The glowing power covering Russel’s entire body shimmered like heatwaves, then bulged outward. A different face tore away from the human’s—a terrible face with bared fangs, formed of the same semi-transparent power as the horns and wings.
Shoulders appeared, doubled over Russel’s. The demon writhed like a nightmare version of a butterfly wriggling from its cocoon, all while Russel screamed as though he were being ripped apart.
Blood splattered the floor.
Where veins of power marked his skin, Russel’s flesh split open. Blood ran and he shuddered violently. The demon’s phantom face flashed from triumphant rage to fear, and it wrenched from its host in a sudden panic.
Russel pitched over backward, limbs jerking. The phantom demon convulsed with him, its wings slapping the floor with echoing thumps. It fought more frantically to tear away from its host, but the harder it tried, the more blood splashed across the floor.
With a gurgling cry, Russel arched his whole body. The demon howled—a sound of fury and despair—then Russel slumped limply. The raging glow of the demon’s phantom eyes dimmed, and its radiant power softened, losing its shape. The scarlet light faded, leaving only the human.
The human, lying in a pool of blood. Not moving. Not breathing. His slack fingers had uncurled, and the Vh’alyir Amulet glinted on his palm.
Crouched beside the table, all I could do was stare. Aaron and Kai stood frozen with horror, and even Chay, Piotr, and Anand had been shocked into disbelieving stillness.
A red glow blazed through the room.
As one, we all spun around. Daniel was back on his feet—or his demon was. Despite the blood drenching his torso, power crawled over him, phantom spines jutting from his shoulders and horns rising from his head.
His arms were outstretched, heels of his hands pressed together, fingers curled. Power built in the spherical gap between his palms, rings of lines and runes spiraling outward. The demon bared his human teeth and closed his hands on the orb of power.
It snuffed out—and magic burst out of the floor beneath Chay, Piot
r, and Anand. Phantom blades shaped like monstrous fangs shot upward, spearing the three men.
More blood spilled across the black floor. The crimson spears dissolved, and their victims crumpled.
Swaying unsteadily, Daniel’s demon lowered his arms, the magic dissolving from his limbs. He slumped backward against the wall and slid down it, his breaths gurgling in his damaged lungs.
I shoved off the table and ran toward him. Three long steps away, I slowed cautiously. Faintly glowing eyes watched me approach, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth.
“Demon?” I whispered.
“Havh’tan et Vh’ihrēr.”
“Wh-what?”
“My name,” he rasped wetly, his accent thicker than Eterran’s. “It is Havh’tan.”
“Have-uh-tan,” I tried, sinking into a crouch but keeping several feet of buffer space between us. “Can you heal those wounds?”
“No.”
The damage Russel had inflicted … If Daniel’s body had been purely human, he’d already be dead. My throat tightened painfully.
“I thought the Vh’alyir Amulet could save you.” I tried to swallow. “I thought … but it killed him.”
Havh’tan’s gaze turned to Russel’s body. “He could have stopped.”
“Who could’ve stopped what?”
“The Ash’amadē demon. He did not stop when the hh’ainun body began to break. He wanted to be free. He took the battle. Defeat is death.” His eyes slid out of focus, then back in again, returning to my face. “You are enemy to the one who did this?”
“Yes.”
“You will kill him?”
I hesitated. Demons didn’t lie, Eterran had told me, and I didn’t want to lie to this demon when I wasn’t sure of the answer.
“Yes.” Kai crouched beside me. “We will kill him.”
Havh’tan’s eyelids flickered. “Hnn. Good.” Another flicker. “The one who rules the Court. Some call him Magnus Dux. Others, they call him Xever.”
I shifted closer. Ignoring Kai’s sharp inhalation, I sat beside the dying demon. “How do we find him?”
“The Court … moves. He moves it where he wants it.”
“Where is it now?”
“A place … north … west … Capilano … among the thāitav, by the river … They gather to worship and summon … and destroy.” His mouth split in a bloody grin. “They enslave kings and name payashē their queen. Gh’idrūlis. Esha hh’ainun zh’ūltispela.”
The red sheen in his eyes dimmed, his gaze losing focus. The phantom spines and horns rising off his body had faded, and his chest rose and fell with faint, rapid breaths.
“Thank you, Havh’tan,” I whispered. “I’m sorry I couldn’t save you.”
His eyelids drooped. “If you had … I would have killed you.”
“I guess that’s fair.”
The demon smirked, then the breath wheezed from his lungs. His face slackened, and all light in his eyes died. Daniel and Havh’tan were gone.
I pushed up from the floor, blood shining on my leather pants. Blood all over the floor. Blood everywhere. Bodies everywhere.
My gaze jerked to the doors, terrified that Justin and Makiko were dead too, but Justin was sitting up, and he’d bundled his jacket and tucked it under Makiko’s head. Aaron had knelt beside Blake’s crumpled form, and as I took an unsteady step toward them, my boot squelched in the blood.
My stomach jumped. I lurched away from Daniel’s body, bent over, and retched.
The nausea abated quickly, and I spat several times. Kai passed me a hanky, and I almost laughed as I took it. A hanky? A pristine white hanky, hidden somewhere among his throwing knives and bladed stars? Why did he have a hanky?
Hysterical amusement spun in my head, but I couldn’t laugh. I didn’t know if I could ever laugh again after this.
“Kai!” Aaron called sharply. “Get over here!”
The electramage sprinted for Aaron, still kneeling beside Blake. I rushed after him.
“He’s alive.” Aaron tugged down Blake’s jacket zipper, exposing a bloody mess. “We need to—”
Blake’s eyelids fluttered. He cracked them open.
“Blake!” I exclaimed, my voice cracking. “Hold on. We’ll get a healer for y—”
“Get out of here.”
My mouth hung open. “Huh?”
“If you’re caught down here … with four dead members … they’ll kill you. Get out.”
“But what about you—”
“There’s an … emergency button … just outside the room. Hit it … Someone will come.” Panting for air, he smiled weakly. “I won’t die.”
“But—”
Kai grabbed my arm and pulled me up. “Let’s go. The sooner we hit that button, the sooner a healer will be down here.”
I gave Blake one more frantic look, then let Kai draw me into a jog. As we rushed toward the exit, my gaze caught on Russel’s torn body and I faltered.
Leave the amulet, my brain screamed. Useless. Worse than useless. Leave it behind!
Squashing my revulsion, I veered away from Kai and rushed to the dead officer, trampling the scattered papers from his folders—all blank. The amulet’s chain lay in the blood that had pooled around the dead demon mage, so I picked the medallion off his palm instead.
I remembered running across the room to join the others, but after that, my memory of leaving the building got fuzzy. I recalled hitting a red “critical injury” button beside the door, and rushing up the stairs behind Kai, who was carrying Makiko. After that, I could vaguely remember Aaron gently pushing me into the passenger seat, murmuring quiet words that had turned to mush in my ears.
When I blinked again, we were on the highway, nothing but flat farmland as far as I could see. The sun glowed on the horizon to the west, bathing the landscape in orange light and deep shadows. Where had the last several hours gone?
“You’re awake,” Aaron murmured, glancing at me before returning his attention to the highway.
“Was I asleep?” I glanced into the backseat, where Justin and Makiko were slumped, Kai squashed in one corner beside his fiancée. The big first aid kit Aaron kept in the trunk sat on his lap. “They aren’t …”
“Sleeping,” Kai said. “I gave them healing potions. They aren’t badly hurt.”
“Oh … that’s good.”
I settled into my seat, and dull pain flared through my arm. I frowned at it where it rested across my thighs. A chain hung from my fist, and I uncurled my fingers to find the Vh’alyir Amulet. Bile rose in my throat and I threw the artifact onto the floor between my feet. Pain flashed through my arm with the motion, and I pushed my sleeve up. A vibrant purple bruise in the shape of Russel’s hand had darkened my wrist.
“You okay, Tori?” Aaron asked.
No. Not one tiny little bit of me was okay. “Just a bruise. Where are we?”
“Idaho.” His hands tightened on the wheel. “I don’t think anyone from the Keys followed us, but we don’t want to hang around and find out.”
“There’s no way to know what the fallout will be,” Kai added from the back. “Assuming Blake survives, he can tell them what happened—but will they believe him? He has no proof that Russel and the others were traitors. We may be facing murder charges in a few days.”
Fear pierced the numb despair that had settled over me. “What do we do now?”
Aaron rubbed the back of his neck. “We go home.”
My throat constricted until I couldn’t breathe.
“With everything we’ve learned about the cult and its sects, and not knowing how the Keys’ will react … this is more than we can handle alone. We need to go back and tell Darius.”
“What about Ezra?”
His gaze flicked to my feet, where the amulet lay. He didn’t say it. He didn’t need to.
The amulet, upon which Eterran and I had hung all our hopes, hadn’t saved a demon mage. It’d killed him.
Its magic worked on regular contracts. I’d s
een that. I knew it. But whatever magic went into a demon-mage ritual was different, and the amulet had only broken part of the binding. It hadn’t been enough. It was worse than nothing.
Even if a better understanding of the ritual that bound Ezra and Eterran would allow us to make the amulet work, how would we get a cult grimoire? Havh’tan had tried to tell us what he knew, but his broken description of the location was meaningless. And even if we could figure it out, should we? Every secret we’d uncovered since Enright had led to an even darker cesspool of deceit and danger. Assassins. Demon mages. Corrupt guilds.
There was nothing else we could do.
I buried my face in my hands, sobs fighting to escape my chest. I gulped them back, breathing hard, but I couldn’t stop the silent tears from streaming down my face. As anguish swamped me, the flame in my heart, the desperate hope I’d clung to since learning of Ezra’s impending fate, flickered and died beneath the flood.
Chapter Twenty-Two
- EZRA -
I walked the motorcycle down the alley so the engine’s rumble wouldn’t alert my babysitter for the night—assuming he was here without me. When I hadn’t returned home for the evening, he might’ve left. My phone was on silent, tucked in my pocket.
Thoughts and emotions whirled in my head like a maelstrom, and Eterran was quiet, giving me space. Or he was retreating as far as he could from the chaotic human feelings he so despised.
The bike’s tires splashed through the puddles dotting the empty parking pad. The rain had let up as I’d neared the house, but I’d still gotten drenched. Rubbing my sleeve over my forehead, I pushed the motorcycle into the corner by the fence. As I threw the cover over it, I wondered what Kai would say if he knew I was borrowing his bike. With my limited depth perception, it was a better choice than an enclosed vehicle; I could sense the air currents around me, giving me a slight edge.
Still, not particularly safe.
I headed for the backyard gate, and with aero magic on my mind, I absently stretched my senses out, checking for movement. My hand closed over the gate latch.
The breeze wasn’t the only air movement nearby.
Lost Talismans and a Tequila (The Guild Codex: Spellbound Book 7) Page 19
