Resounding Echo

by Michelle Louring

the flay. Shocked, Selissa held up the bone Ardeth had given her to block the attacking demon. With a sharp snap, its jaws clamped down around the bone, preventing its teeth from sinking into her instead. But despite avoiding its deadly fangs, the blow from the collision sent both her and the demon tumbling to the ground.

  The demon landed up top of her, its greater weight pinning her down. She gripped the bone with both hands, keeping its head away from her. Large drops of drool fell from its mouth and dripped down on her shoulders while it struggled against her.

  It tore and ripped at the bone with its teeth, but Selissa held on to it with all her strength, desperately trying to push the beast away.

  When it realized it couldn’t use its jaws to chomp down on her, it started swiping at her with long clawed paws. Two enormous claws protruded from each paw, and she hissed when one of them cut into her arm, ripping a long open wound in her skin.

  Keeping both fangs and claws at bay was an almost impossible task, and she struggled to free herself of its grip.

  Suddenly, she heard Ardeth shout at her.

  “Move!”

  She didn’t need to be told that twice. Gathering all her strength, she rammed a knee into the beast’s stomach and managed to throw it off her. She rolled to the side quickly before it had a chance to get a hold of her again.

  She had just gotten out of the way, and then Ardeth was over it. The creature didn’t even have time to react, before he jammed a sharpened bone through its head. It twitched slightly in dead cramps, before it stopped moving altogether. Blood so dark it was almost black started gathering in a pool under its crushed head.

  She slowly got to her feet, clutching her injured arm. The wound was deep, but not serious, so she tried to ignore the pain that shot through her arm.

  “Thanks.” She muttered breathlessly. She had been a little too close to ending up as demon food for her liking. She looked down at herself and noticed disgusted that she was covered in drool.

  “Gross…” She muttered as she attempted to wipe some off her shoulder.

  Ardeth laughed silently as he checked to see if any of the demons were still alive. They were scattered around the clearing as flies and once again, Selissa found herself impressed by his fighting skills. It had taken him less than a minute to disable all of them, all the while she had been struggling with one.

  She watched as one of the beasts slowly got to its feet, its head lowered and small, whining sounds erupting from its throat.

  Ardeth slid another bone from his wrist, ready to kill it off, when an idea struck her.

  “Wait!” She said and scurried towards him. He looked at her oddly, bone still raised over the demons head.

  “What?” He asked confused.

  She bent down next to the demon. “Just trust me…” She said.

  The demon looked at her and whimpered pathetically. It reminded her of a big dog. A big dog with scales and fangs the size of long knives…

  She carefully reached a hand towards it and concentrated on summoning up a bit of magic. She hadn’t used any magic at all since she had split up with Alassane, but somehow it still came to her naturally.

  Pure white magic filled her palm and she held it out to the demon. It watched her warily, before slowly reaching forward. It opened its mouth slightly and stuck a long, thin tongue towards the white light. It slowly started sucking away the magic, until all of it was gone and all that was left was her empty palm.

  “Why are you feeding it?” Ardeth asked incredulously.

  The demon made a pleased sound, somewhere between a roar and a purr. It stood up fully, but made no move to attack or run away.

  “You said they could track magic, right?” She asked Ardeth slowly. She carefully touched the hard scales on the Devourer’s head. The long tongue darted out and licked her hand.

  “Yeah… So?” He asked, still not following.

  She turned her head towards him, still petting the demon.

  “Alassane is a powerful sorcerer. It should be able to track him down for us…” She explained.

  He looked at her like she had just suggested they invited Ilyan and his undead army for tea. He shook his head in disbelief.

  “It might be peaceful right now when it’s hurt, but it’s going to turn on you at some point.” He said. “So unless you like the idea of getting eaten, I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

  She knew he was right, but it might be their only chance to find Alassane. An idea formed in her head, but she didn’t know if it was going to work.

  She felt for Cadeyrn’s presence. Can I do this? She asked him silently. She got her answer by the feeling of power that surged through her.

  She placed her palm against the demon’s forehead. She closed her eyes and allowed the magic to flow into the beast and possess it. It sat absolutely still, paralyzed by the spell.

  She opened her eyes and removed her hand. On the demon’s forehead a shining white symbol had appeared. The exact same symbol as was covering her back in long black lines. It shone white with magic for a few seconds, until it faded away to a faint mark carved in the scales.

  “What did you do?” Ardeth asked curiously. The demon sat down, but didn’t move otherwise.

  Selissa smiled, happy with her work. “I subdued it. From now on, it’s a servant of Cadeyrn. And therefore, of me.”

  “Not bad.” He said. “Not bad at all.”

  She petted the Devourer’s head gently, before rising. “Now let’s go find that undead bastard.”

  41

  The Devourer, who Selissa had named Kurt to Ardeth’s absolute horror, proved to be a major advantage. Thanks to the link she had established between it and the archangel, it instinctively knew who to search for, as Alassane was as connected to Cadeyrn as she was.

  Of course they had to avoid the towns as much as possible now. They couldn’t very well show up with a demon in tow. Selissa wondered absentmindedly what the punch line would be if a girl possessed by an angel, a Demios and a demon walked into an inn. She decided that she really didn’t want to know.

  She sighed as she watched the Devourer sniff the air. Finding Alassane couldn’t go fast enough. In the days they had spent looking, the Demios could have done all kinds of unspeakable things to Calen.

  She knew they wouldn’t kill him. He was their trump card, so they would keep him alive for as long as possible. But there was a lot of things they could do to him that were far worse than dead.

  And if anything happened to him, it would all be her fault. And she would never forgive herself for that.

  She remembered all the times he had stood up for her. She wondered if he would still have protected her if he knew what he would get himself into later.

  She laughed to herself. He probably would have. Calen had always been the kindest and most unselfish person she knew.

  She would not let him down.

  “We’re nearing a town.” Ardeth commented.

  She had not noticed, being deep in thought, but now she could see the houses that lay cluttered ahead.

  “Yeah, we will go around it.” She said and raised her hand. The symbol on the demon’s forehead started glowing and she willed it to pass by the town. To her surprise though, it didn’t change direction, but sat down and howled in protest.

  “What’s wrong?” Ardeth asked as he looked at the Devourer. “Your little magic tricks aren’t working anymore?”

  “No…” She muttered. “It’s not that.”

  ‘You found him.’ Cadeyrn whispered.

  “Yeah, we did.” She answered out loud, causing Ardeth to send her a strange look.

  “Care to fill me in?” He asked with raised eyebrows.

  She turned and smiled at him. “He’s in this town.”

  “Let’s go then.” Was the only reaction she got.

  She turned to the demon and raised her hand towards it again.

  “Stay here.” She said. It obediently lay down and r
ested its head on its paws.

  She turned to follow Ardeth, who was already walking towards the small town.

  “Are you sure you want to talk to him?” He asked when she caught up to him. “I could just go in and knock him out, then drag him along. You wouldn’t have to deal with him at all.”

  Selissa suppressed a smile. By Ardeth’s standards, that was being really sweet. But even though she was tempted to accept his offer, she knew she had to face Alassane sometime.

  “Thanks.” She said. “But I’ll be fine.”

  He looked unconvinced, but let it go.

  The guards looked at them suspiciously when they passed through the town gates, but didn’t make any move to stop them.

  Selissa had prepared herself for searching the entire town to find Alassane, but almost immediately after crossing into the town, it turned out to be unnecessary.

  They were just passing the town’s inn, when she heard shouting from inside. It sounded very much like a brawl was about to break out.

  She shot a look at Ardeth, and they entered just in time to see a bulky man grab a very familiar person by the collar.

  “You think you’re so smart, huh?” The man snarled at Alassane. Alassane didn’t seem fazed, despite the fact that he was practically hanging by his collar.

  Several other men were standing around them, looking enraged. They were clearly ready to beat Alassane up at any moment. So Alassane did what he always did when he attempted to fix a problem. He made it much worse.

  “Considering the company, yes, I would say I’m the more intelligent person in the room.” He said calmly. Selissa resisted the urge to bang her head against the