by Stark, Jenn
“Ha!” she cackled. “You know what, he does. Warrick, love chop, get your enforcer asses down here!”
The arrival of the Syx was more spectacular than I expected it to be. I honestly assumed we’d have one or two lent to us by the archangel, whose disdain for this effort was undoubtedly high. To my surprise, the entire crew showed up. In the tiny hole I’d managed to carve out amidst the screaming demons, six enforcers burst out, their faces alight with joy, their fists clutching weapons I’d never seen them use before, jagged knives that cut through the wall of demons like butter.
“Infernal beasts!” howled Warrick, and he struck out, arms flying. Behind him Finn and Stefan were full-on laughing as they cut through the creatures.
“Man, you guys got to get out more often,” Stefan chortled, beating back a creature that seemed to be all mouth. “Maybe order in a little takeout.”
“I said move,” a fourth demon enforcer roared, and I turned to see the largest of their team, Gregori, bodily push back an entire wall of fire-breathing monsters. Every time he connected with one of the creatures, it disappeared into a massive splatter of goop, and within seconds, the corridor had become a slippery slide of horror.
“Run!” ordered the last of the enforcers, Raum—but I couldn’t help myself. I stopped. Raum was the most enigmatic of all the enforcers, and as he and Hugh threw up a great wall of white fire, blocking off the access corridor, his voice almost brought tears to my eyes. It was low and resonant, and it rolled across the open space like a benediction, despite the murderous intent of the demon enforcers.
“Kick it, cricket,” Nikki shouted, breaking through my thrall. She shoved me from behind, and then I was running too, down the long corridor, past the access point where yet more demons had come boiling out in force, and, at length, into another chamber. The sounds of carnage continued behind us as Oman sank to his knees, Danae by his side.
“He’s been cut, and pretty badly,” she said. I turned, surprised and more than a little chagrined. What had I just subjected this poor man to? He was a civilian, not even remotely Connected, by his own admission. I rushed to his side, dropping to my knees beside him. His injuries were numerous but not deep, and even on a bad day shouldn’t be life-threatening.
Fortunately for Oman, this wasn’t a bad day. I took his hands in mine, more to reassure him than anything, and breathed out a pulse of healing magic. His eyes shot wide, the expression on his face going from terror stricken to awed.
“It is true, then, it is true,” he murmured, and I glanced from him to Nikki. She shrugged.
“You’re going to be just fine. Just breathe through it,” I said, not really knowing how else to direct the process. Oman’s eyes cleared, and he jerked his gaze down, his mouth dropping open as he saw the bite and slash marks on his arms and torso close up, the skin shifting from dark and angry welts to a light pink as it healed, before deepening to its normal color. Tears sprang briefly to his eyes, and he scowled, dashing them away with his newly healed hands.
“There you go, that’s right,” Nikki said, her voice gruff, almost cop-like as I sat back from Oman to consider the room around us. The corridor of demons and enforcers still rang with both shouts of joy and snarls of pain and rage, sounding like a frat house on a bender, but Nikki rose to her feet along with Danae and flipped a second penlight around the space.
“Now we’re getting somewhere,” she said.
I had to agree. The chamber was small, almost like a grotto, the walls inlaid with dark chunks of what looked like lapis lazuli, interspersed with shiny white points that caught the light, rendering the room into its own starlit grotto. Rock dust hung in the air, perhaps the result of the disturbance in the corridor, but the motes merely added to the surreal sense of the space. We stepped onto a thick woven rug that, interestingly enough, had been made of rushes, not fabric.
I flipped open my third eye and focused on the space around me. My lips curled slightly. Oh yeah. There was all sorts of magic going on here, none of it as dark and dire as the energy I felt in the welcome gallery, but still very old, and dangerous in a way I couldn’t quite place. As if it had been magic sprung from the dawn of time, and therefore wild and untried. Wild, untried, and cooped up for far too long. That could prove dangerous all on its own.
Oman stood and turned slowly in a circle, his hands out slightly, his eyes wide. “Yes, please, this place…”
I looked at him sharply. “You know it? You said nobody had ever gotten past the dead zone room.”
“Not here, no, but it is built to the exact specifications of a room Queen Makeda had built into the palace itself, a room of starlight where she went to pray.”
Danae snorted. “You just keep telling yourself that’s what she was doing if it makes you feel better,” she muttered. “Praying.”
Oman wasn’t deterred. “She might well have created a sacred space down here, though again, it was never her intention to be buried here.”
“Maybe not all of her,” Danae said, but now her voice sounded strange and sad, and I turned her way. She was standing over a small salver that stood on a narrow pedestal. And she held her hands above the dish without touching it.
“There are pieces of her hair,” she murmured. “A lock of hair tied with a golden thread, jewelry, a scrap of cloth. She wanted her presence to remain in this place long after she left it.”
I glanced at Oman, grimacing as a particularly loud crash rocked the corridor beyond. “Is the chalice here?”
“In truth, we have no idea what the vessel is that holds the djinn,” he said, but he was overcome with new excitement, his eyes brightening as he glanced around. “Light, light, we have to have more light.”
The room had several sconces built into the walls, and Nikki cracked a flare. I felt my own fire crackle in my fingertips, but until I knew more about the nature of this room, I didn’t want to act out of turn.
Another crash sounded outside, and then the corridor beyond grew eerily quiet. We all turned as the Syx pushed their way into the small prayer room, the space suddenly too tight for all of us.
Warrick grunted. “Hugh, Raum, stick around. The rest, you’re out.”
“I’ve got other places to be,” Hugh said tersely, but Warrick shook his head.
“Your place is here, sending more of these bastards back beyond the veil. With any luck, it’ll keep the archangel from yanking your chain—for a minute, anyway.”
I blinked, not missing Raum’s soft, sad smile as he stood behind Hugh, and once again, I was struck by the expression. Demons had the ability to effect glamour, and none of the guys were hard on the eyes. Warrick and Nikki had even developed a bit of an attraction for each other, and even though he towered over her, he was one of the few males on this earth she didn’t threaten just by being awesome. But Raum was more than simply a strapping, six-foot-six demon in the body of a superhero. With his blond, swept-back hair, his sea-green eyes, and his deeply tanned skin, packed tight with muscles beneath his dark leather gear, he should have been fierce, almost frightening. He wasn’t. Instead, he possessed a sense of almost ethereal beauty, his body held in relaxed stillness, his manner reverent, and a soft, somehow desolate twist to his smile. Beside him, the dark-haired, dark-eyed, porcelain-fair Hugh—every bit as large as Raum, but possessing not even an ounce of his brother demon’s tranquility—burned with an almost feral rage. We might have need of that rage, so I felt good about Warrick’s selection for our honor guard, though I had respect for the entire demon enforcers team.
The others gave no arguments, and a second later, they disappeared into puffs of smoke.
Warrick folded his arms over his chest. “So what’s the game here? Those demons were nasty, but easy to break. Will we have higher-grade security from here on out?”
To my surprise, Oman stepped forward, his manner uncowed. “Who summoned you, demon? The witch? You will take orders from her?”
Danae gave a short, startled laugh, and Warrick answered for her.<
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“If that helps you sleep better at night, go with it. All you need to know is that we’re here to protect your ass.”
Oman turned to Danae. “You cannot trust these creatures. I don’t know if they are ready for this trial. The djinn we face is trapped in a vessel of great power, yes, but magic as strong as his will have doubtlessly drawn others to his protection as well.”
“Then all the better that we have support,” Danae said, reasonably enough. “What happens next, do you know?”
“I know only what has been found in other chambers this queen has built. There are two paths to defeating the djinn warriors who protect their trapped brother. One is to provide the promise of release. Then, as a gesture of goodwill, the protector djinn might allow you to take his chalice from this place. That is the best possibility.”
“Fair enough,” I said. “The other?”
“In that scenario, you will have to fight to free the chalice, fight to return up through the corridors to your eventual escape, and fight to ever see blue sky again.”
“So we’re hoping for option one is what you’re saying,” Hugh supplied.
“Is what we’re looking for here?” I pushed. “I mean, it’s a pretty place, but if this isn’t the end game, then we need to go.”
“This is the place,” Danae said quietly, and we all turned toward her, her hands still hovering above Makeda’s offerings. “It is not the end, but it is the beginning. And to find what we seek, we will do what Makeda would have us do.”
She smirked at Oman. “We will…pray.”
22
At Danae’s direction, Hugh and Raum pulled back the rush mat, revealing polished stone beneath. Warrick muttered his distaste as it became clear the stone was also inlaid with another ring of lapis lazuli, this one set into the stone as a sacred circle. A series of arcane runes ringed that circle, and both Oman and Danae murmured with excitement as they pored over them, while Warrick shifted closer to me, near silent in his movements. A pretty impressive feat given his size.
“I’ve got to tell you, I don’t recognize this,” he said. “These symbols don’t resonate with me.”
I lifted my brows and frowned over at Danae. “Do you know what they are?” I asked her.
She didn’t respond to me directly, but her muttering started coming more quickly. I couldn’t tell if she was whispering spells or translating, but as we watched, Hugh rocked back on his heels. “Arguably, the djinn are a different kind of cat. We haven’t had much call to go up against them. They keep to themselves and interact with humans in a different way from your Garden of Eden-variety demon.”
“Yeah?” Nikki asked. “Even locked away like they have been? I don’t think there’s going to be an awful lot of interaction with anyone if they’ve been stuck down here in the Queen of Sheba’s rec room.”
Across the room, Raum chuckled, the sound like the slow strum of a harp. “The djinn who elected to remain down here with their compatriot did so for a very good reason. They recognized it was a gamble, but it was a gamble they were willing to make.”
Warrick scoffed a short laugh. “If they were thinking of winning their deliverance, it wasn’t such a smart gamble.”
“We’ll find out quickly enough.” Danae stood and brushed her hands against her clothes, clearing them of rock dust. “This is a summoning circle. But not for the chalice. More so for the guardians of that worthy vessel.”
“Well, why do we need to talk to those guys?” Hugh asked. “Shouldn’t we just be able to go to the source?”
“You don’t understand,” said Oman. “These are not the mindless demons you found in the corridor that led us here. The djinn at their heart are thinking, rational—”
Warrick grunted again. “Well, maybe I wouldn’t go that far.”
“They have feelings, desires, and wishes of their own,” Oman insisted. “We should hear them out.”
Danae raised her hands and lifted her chin. When she spoke, the language was ancient, but one I was able to translate easily enough. It was also brief.
“It is time,” she intoned. “Come and share what you wish, to gain what you might.”
“Um…that seems a little broad,” Nikki began, but at that moment, the very air in the room seemed to shudder. The lights jumped in their sconces, and the walls seemed to press inward. A swirling vortex appeared in the center of the circle, but to my surprise, it didn’t remain in the circle. Instead, it extended beyond that inner rim, and I saw too late there was a second circle etched on the walls of the room—and that circle surrounded us. We’d fallen into a trap. Again.
“Son of a—” Warrick roared.
We plunged down several feet and landed heavily, all of us in a crouch. Unlike the room above however, this one was already lit with softly glowing stones fixed into the wall. Magic hung thickly in the room, a knot of circuitry so strong, it made my third eye water. The chamber looked like an ancient throne room, with what looked to be two dozen nobles gathered around the dais. An ornate chair carved from gold had been positioned in the center of the dais and a jewel-encrusted chalice stood on one of the armrests. But there was no king.
I tried to parse the magic but didn’t get far, other than understanding that this was a heavily warded space. Something had been trapped here and had been meant to stay put.
A man standing near the throne turned toward us. He was short, barely taller than five feet, with dark skin and dark eyes, his head shaven clean. Either they had great razors down here, or there was some serious Nair magic going on. His painfully thin body was draped in a long tunic of pale fabric, his manner alert, attentive. He pinned his gaze on Danae.
“Have you come to free the djinn Qadir or have you come to bind him?” He spoke English, surprisingly enough. His mournful words echoed around the chamber. “You bring warriors of faith we have no quarrel with, sorcerers of a time we cannot fathom. But you are of an ancient coven, and you know the binding spells.”
Danae’s face remained serene. “I come for the djinn,” she said. “That’s all you need to know.”
The man smiled faintly. “Then you come for all of us.”
More of the nobles turned to us, giving me a better look, and I stared in surprise. These were all djinn? If so, Oman had been right. They didn’t look at all like the demon creatures we’d fought in the corridors above, and they didn’t look like possessed humans, or even demons effecting glamour. They were entities unto themselves, and as I studied them with my third eye peeled wide, I couldn’t pierce the veil of their illusion. They were of all ages, despite the fact that they had apparently been trapped in this forbidding space for centuries. Millennia. Who would do that? I found my need to know would not be denied.
“Why are you here?” I asked abruptly. “Surely you weren’t all needed to guard a chalice containing this djinn Qadir, a prisoner with no way to escape?”
A ripple of emotion murmured through the room.
“You act as if we are here by choice. We were trapped with the same magic that ensured the djinn Qadir was restrained to this place.”
Now Warrick started to rumble his dissent. “Not trapped, I think. It was your magic that kept him here, wasn’t it. You were complicit in the restraining spell cast by the Queen of Sheba, and then you were caught in a snare as well.”
He smiled, and it wasn’t a pretty smile. “Does he know?”
The djinn guardian stiffened. “You know nothing of the battles that were fought three thousand years ago. You know nothing of the betrayal or the deceit perpetrated by the queen in ensuring her power. The seat of her kingdom was far from here, but her influence remained long after history swept her name from its records. We were led into this place with a profound belief, and that belief was trampled upon.”
“Oopsie-daisy, here you go, buddy. Sorry about that,” Nikki said, and I turned to see her helping a slender boy to his feet.
She looked at me, surprise evident in her face. “May not be true, but they believe it,” sh
e said softly.
The djinn scowled at her and then looked back to me. “What did she say?”
“She said if what you say is true, you’ve waited an awful long time for your release. The fact that you haven’t turned on us yet is comforting, but I suspect you won’t just hand over the chalice and let us go. Though, if that’s the plan, we’re all for it.”
The djinn smiled. It was a weary smile, but I remembered what Danae told me about their kind. Perhaps more than any other supernatural creature, they were masters of illusion. Even the young boy Nikki had handled could just as easily be the leader of their entire operation. I couldn’t afford to be stupid.
“Your judgment of us is unwarranted,” the djinn said. “It is not for us to give you the chalice, it is for you to take it. We are merely required to defend it once you’ve made your intentions clear. At this point, you haven’t done anything that would require us to act.”
Hugh huffed. “Just how bored are you guys? That is some fucked-up thinking right there.”
“Hugh,” Warrick warned.
“What, am I wrong?” Hugh protested, and he strolled forward through the crowd, as if daring someone to throw a punch. “I mean, I’m a big fan of spoiling for a fight, but you guys are practically begging for one, in the true sense of the word.”
“You’re not wrong,” the djinn responded, his gaze tracking Hugh. “We are trapped with a spell as profound as the one that holds the djinn Qadir. We cannot act unless given a reason. We must use all our resources to protect the djinn we serve. Should we fall, there is relief in death or perhaps in circumstances we cannot fully predict. Such is our fate. Should we succeed, then arguably the djinn Qadir will reward us with our own release, or with the opportunity to serve him in his new capacity.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Is there any way we could set you free ourselves?”
Beside me, Warrick hissed a cautionary warning. But the djinn shook his head.
“No. Queen Makeda was no fool. She predicted that time and circumstances might change the opinions of humans against djinn. She knew there was a threat of us being rescued by sympathetic forces. If we leave this room without the chalice being liberated, we will die. If we travel any distance away from the chalice even within these walls, we will die.”
