She slapped the torch from Atlas’s hand and shoved him. He stumbled across the stage. After he righted himself, he glanced quickly at the audience and forced a laugh. “So feisty!”
Buoyed by laughter in the crowd, Atlas grinned and picked up the torch. This time, as he approached, Filiz snapped her fingers, igniting a flame in her hand twice as tall as the one Atlas held.
“Was she not searched for fire starters?” Atlas roared at his Devils.
Before the Devils could answer, Filiz hurled her fireball at Alas. Eureka grabbed Atlas by his hair and made him duck. If the fire grazed him, Filiz would die.
The fireball flew into the crowd and landed on a man’s blue fur coat. Atlas reached through the bars of the cage and grabbed Filiz by the neck.
“I’ll do it!” Eureka shouted. “Don’t hurt her. I’ll cry.”
“Eureka,” Filiz warned.
An approving roar sounded from the crowd. Atlas watched them for a moment, then released Filiz. He straightened, smiled, and nodded behind him. Two Devils approached Eureka. One of them handed her a lachrymatory made of silver, woven with blond human hair. Eureka thought of Aida, whom Delphine’s pain had killed.
“Not here,” Eureka said to Atlas as she took the lachrymatory.
“But, darling, they have come for the show,” Atlas said.
“I’m not an actor. What I feel is real.”
“Of course.” Atlas masked his disappointment. “Give her every comfort she desires,” he announced before the crowd, then lowered his voice for the Devils. “I don’t care what you have to do. Fill the vial by sunrise.”
30
CRIMSON KISS
Eureka had to reach the mountains.
Filiz had given her a signal: answers awaited her in the gossipwitches’ lair. At least, Eureka thought that was the signal. Maybe Filiz had been lying. Maybe Eureka was taking a hint that hadn’t been dropped.
It didn’t matter. Getting to the mountains was the only plan she had.
Once she got there, she might have to face four people she had loved and left behind. It would eat up essential energy. But Eureka had become skilled at shutting down her heart. She would take what she needed from the witches, then move on.
First, she would have to lose the Devils ushering her through the coral tunnel. Six of them, armed with orichalcum billy clubs and crossbows tucked into sheaths sewn into the back of their crimson dresses. These girls were stronger than they looked. Their biceps flexed; veins protruded from their forearms. If they returned her to Atlas’s castle, it meant the lightning cloak for Eureka.
“She’s dragging,” one murmured. “Trying to slow us down.”
“Hurry up.” Another girl gripped Eureka’s neck and jerked her to the side.
Red coral stung the center of Eureka’s brain. She hadn’t seen the wall coming.
One of the Devils made a retching noise, and Eureka watched as the girl wiped blood off her hand. Eureka understood, dimly, that the blood was her own.
Something told Eureka to jerk her upper body toward the girl, who responded with a practiced block that sent Eureka to the ground. The Devils were trained for combat.
Eureka spat blood. The girl’s feet inched away from where it landed.
Two Devils lifted Eureka under her arms. They walked her through the tunnel, farther from the mountains. Eureka wondered about the depth of their combat experience. They’d been frozen beneath the ocean for many thousands of years in a realm where no one aged or died. What cause could they have fought for, what enemy could they have killed? What could these girls know about loss? Eureka wanted to teach them.
She remembered Delphine’s lips on Aida’s cheek. Pain seeking pain in the astral light. Pain was power, Delphine had said.
“I need to rest,” Eureka said.
“Don’t respond,” a brunette Devil said.
“Water.” Eureka reached for a red leather canteen around the girl’s waist. “Please.”
“Atlas said she’d trick us.”