chapter THIRTY-TWO
Eric shook my shoulders, but I called shadows. Within seconds they snaked down my throat and protruded from me until they wrapped around his arms, and pulled him off of me. I rose, and walked back to the glass and added the letter E. My blood didn’t dry or freeze or drip down the black mirror. The swipe of blood was exactly as I’d left it.
Eric cursed me over my shoulder, screaming obscenities at my back. I shook my head, considering the explanation. “It can’t be. It makes no sense. You had a life, a wife—and Al found you.” I smeared the letter T. “I was mistaken.” I turned to look back at him. Eric was held to the ground with invisible bonds as shadows snaked around his wrists and feet, binding him to the earth. I turned back to the glass and smeared an U through the blood before Eric spoke.
“Don’t make me do it,” he said. I turned to look at him after I wrote R on the glass. “I’ll kill you the same way I killed those demons the last time I saw you. Their skin was filleted from their bodies. That’s why there were scales everywhere. And that was only the beginning… And don’t think I can’t do it. It has nothing to do with how powerful I am. Don’t think it won’t have any effect on you, cause it will. It’s your power, not mine. When I kissed you searching for the memories, I borrowed some of your power. Only the tiniest drop, small enough that you didn’t notice.” But I did notice. I’d felt the power drain, but didn’t realize what he did. It wasn’t the venom that weakened me after Eric’s kiss, it was Eric! His fists clenched into balls at his sides, as he writhed on the ground fighting against the shadows that bound him. Smoke billowed around us, blowing in the winter wind. Eric growled, “Don’t make me do it, Ivy. I will. If you write one more letter on the glass without releasing me, you’ll force my hand. I can’t sit here, tied up and let you do this. If she lied to you, you could free Locoicia, and then we’ll have to deal with her and Kreturus.”
Watching him squirm at my feet, I said nothing. I blinked once, making my decision. My arms folded across my chest. There was a moment. I could pause now, but once the last letter was strewn across the mirror, I could not stop. The shadows fled from Eric as soon as I released them. He sucked in a jagged breath before jumping to his feet. His gaze burned into my body as he walked toward me, but I didn’t blink or back away. “Explain it.” I was certain that her lie would be detectable. “How do you summon a demon?”
Eric looked at the glass, and then back at me, “He’ll effonate to you, using your power to do so, when you call his name, but… “
“And if the demon is bound? Then how do you call him?” I asked glaring at him.
“There is no way to call a bound demon. The magic used to hold him will prevent you from effonating him.” Eric pointed at the mirror, shaking his head. “You see. Something’s wrong. This shouldn’t be here. This blood and glass should have nothing to do with calling a demon.” He looked at the reflectionless glass. “What’s it supposed to do?”
I was wasting time. The world around me was dying. Curtly, I replied, “My blood, a brimstone blade, and his name is supposed to suck Kreturus through this glass. The moment he is through, I’ll kill him. Eric. It’s our only chance. It won’t exhaust my power. It’ll end this. Isn’t that what you want?”
More gold flickered through his eyes like a light bulb that was about to burn out. He drank in my face like he’d never see me again. Eric pressed his lips together and stepped away from the glass, sweeping his arm forward, allowing me to write the last two letters on the glass.
Staring at Eric from the corner of my eye, I stepped passed him. My blood clung to the glass with all but two letters to complete his name.
I lifted my hand to the glass with my index finger outstretched. Pressing my finger against the black glass, I carefully smeared the remaining letters. My eyes shifted from the mirror to Eric. My gaze ran down his tense shoulders to the black blade that was clenched in his grip. He was half crouched, and ready to fight whatever came through the glass.
My blood-strewn letters soaked into the glass. It was like watching letters cast in magic marker disperse in water. Our reflections appeared in the glass. It was changing. I could see Eric standing behind me, watching the enchanted mirror, and waiting… The black pane came to life. It rippled once, then twice. I reached for my hair, grabbing my comb. The tines extended, as I pressed them to my mark. Demon magic flowed through my veins as I called to it. Anticipation and determination cemented inside of me, as I felt Eric step closer.
The words of the dark magic Illeca had trained me to say lingered on the tip of my tongue. A dark form appeared in the glass, as if it were very far away. A figure stood frozen, getting pushed towards us at incredible speed. Good. It was working. I tasted the words in my mouth, rolling the death spell over my tongue. My heart raced inside of my head, as I watched the figure get closer and closer. What took a matter of seconds seemed to last a lifetime. Kreturus stood with his head slumped, appearing completely human. My jaw tightened at the sight. Locoicia said it would be easier to kill him in human form. A tangle of dark hair masked his downturned face as the glass forced him forward. Faster and faster he approached, and the words were ready, ready to say—ready to kill.
My mind was disconnected from my emotions, as it needed to be. Dread didn’t wash over me in cold sheets. I stood there facing the being that would kill me, and felt no fear. But in the back of my mind, something whispered—something I promptly suppressed.
The figure in the glass didn’t slow. He was hurdling faster, frozen, unmoving as he was summoned to die by my hand. I stared with hatred at the broad shoulders, and the dark hair that covered his face. His body hurled through the glass as if he were no heavier than a piece of lint. I didn’t have time to think, and by the time his body pressed to the glass, it was too late. The words were ready to roll off my tongue. They had to. There was no alternative. No choice. And it was more than my bargain with the Demon Princess that forced me to say the spells. I had to stop the destruction that was strewn around me. And the only way to stop the demons was to kill the one commanding them. There was no going backwards. There was no other way.