A Den of Tricks (A Shade of Vampire #54)

“Don’t think about that for now,” he replied gently. “They’ve got time. Which means we’ve got time to make this right. They know we’re here, so chances are they won’t go into the city tonight. Let’s just focus on what we have to do next. The city is under a protection spell, anyway, so if daemons do go there tonight, they won’t be able to do anything.”

I sobbed against his chest for another minute, before my logic stepped in. It wasn’t in my nature to get emotional, and, as it turned out, my body had a defense mechanism against a potential complete meltdown.

“Okay,” I sighed, working my way back to my good old self, “we need to focus… I… We need to prioritize.”

“What are you thinking?” Caspian asked. His support and patience had not gone unnoticed. I knew I would reward him for his incredible support at some point. He held me up in ways I’d never even imagined until five minutes earlier.

“We need to find Hansa and Jax, ideally,” I replied, then gave the palace another glance with my True Sight. Caia and Blaze had been carried inside, but I couldn’t see where, exactly. Whether it was the distance or some invisibility spell at work, I wasn’t sure yet. But at least I knew where they were keeping my friends. I knew where to go. “We need a safe spot to work out a plan, and get Blaze and Caia out of there.”

“Shaytan will probably have a way of containing the dragon,” Caspian said.

“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.” I shook my head. “You’ve been in this city before. Where is it safe for us to be, at least for a couple of hours?”

“Mose’s hut is a good bet,” he murmured. “Nobody will think to look for us there because nobody knows about our connection to Mose. It’s also close to the safest route out of the city, so we might see Hansa and Jax around there, if we can’t find them in this area.”

As my head cleared, more questions popped up. The most burning one rolled off my tongue.

“Did they follow us all the way from the city? Did they know we were coming, Lord Kifo?”

“I wouldn’t exclude the possibility,” he muttered. Anger vibrated in his voice.

“GASP was betrayed, then… somehow…” I sighed, then rubbed my face. “Ugh! I don’t get it! Was the whole army parade from earlier just for show? Did he already know we’d be here? How… How did it get to this?”

“I don’t know, but we’ll get out of here. All of us.”

I wished I could see his face as he spoke those words of encouragement. I wanted to see his resolve, and draw strength from it. I couldn’t suspect Caspian of anything at this point—not anymore, as he was stuck with me, struggling by my side, while thousands of daemons lurked around, looking for us.

“I’ll get them out,” I whispered, as he held me tight.

“I have no doubt that you will, Harper…”

Hearing him call me by my first name felt strangely comforting. His encouragement coaxed my mind into overdrive, and I gathered the resolve I needed to stand up, taking his hand in mine.

“Let’s go to Mose’s hut,” I said, my heart filled with determination and anger. “We’ve got a dragon and a fae to rescue.”

And that was just at the top of my list, I realized as we snuck through the maze of stone buildings. We didn’t have just Caia and Blaze to release from Shaytan’s palace. We needed to find out how we’d been given away in the first place. Had someone betrayed us, or had they simply sent hunter daemons to follow us?

Our initial mission had been to gather intel—well, that had sunk to the bottom of my list of priorities, at least for the time being. Our presence here had already been given away, so, provided we managed to get Caia and Blaze out safely, we needed to get out of the daemon city and one of us would need to head back to Azure Heights to update our other team members. And then maybe we ought to head out to the western plains…

We’d been hitting our heads against a wall within the Mara city. But the Imen tribes living out in the plains could be instrumental in our investigation of everything that had been ailing Neraka. If we couldn’t get GASP to come in and help, we could try to rally the rogue Imen.

But the capture of Caia and Blaze had hit a soft spot in me, and it was all I could focus on in this moment. I’d already nearly lost Fiona to these fiends; I sure as heck wasn’t going to let them have our dragon and fire fae.





Blaze





Everything had happened so fast. One minute, I’d grabbed Caia’s hand, and we were running. The next, a puff of yellow dust and darkness.

My eyes peeled open, and saw nothing but metal surrounding me.

What the…

Caia!

I sat up with a groan, my head hurting. Sharp pain stabbed right through my brain as I tried to make sense of my environment. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw Caia lying next to me, slowly coming to.

My pulse started racing as I understood exactly where we were. They’d captured us. Then, they’d crammed us into a metallic box of sorts. Caia’s moan caught my attention.

“Are you okay?” I asked, brushing her hair back with my fingers so I could see her face. She seemed all right, just mildly dazed as she looked up at me.

“What… What happened?” she managed.

“They got us,” I replied, then helped her up.

The box was just one head taller than me in a standing position, and several feet wide—enough for me to lie down, but not much else. The air felt heavy, my chest tightening as mild claustrophobia set in. I wasn’t used to such small spaces, and I knew I couldn’t stay in here for too long. My inner dragon was already roaring, begging for release.

“Blaze… the yellow powder,” she gasped, remembering our attempt to escape the crowd and get to the tower. “It’s the same as what Zane used on Fiona… Son of a… We were ‘Zaned’!”

She was getting angry. I placed my hands on her shoulders, needing her calm and composed.

“Caia, deep breaths,” I said softly. “We have to keep cool…”

She nodded slowly, then frowned as she looked around. “What is this place?”

“I don’t know.” I knocked on the metal wall, listening to the hollow clang. “But this is meranium.”

“So, daemons can’t get to us and eat our souls?” She seemed confused, and I couldn’t blame her. This didn’t make much sense to me either. What did make sense was the dire set of circumstances in which we’d found ourselves, as my limited options became clear.

“The answer to your question would be yes. This little box will stop daemons from eating our souls.” I sighed, then punched the wall to test its hardness. My knuckles hurt, and the metal did not bend. “And it looks like it will stop me from going dragon, too.”

“Wait, what?” She blinked a few times, horror draining the color from her face. “You… You can’t?”

“I could try.” I scratched the back of my neck. “But I might end up killing you in the process before I manage to break the box… I still have my fire breath, so I could try melting my way through one of the walls…”

“Blaze, we need to get out of here,” Caia murmured. “We… We can’t stay here… The others! Jax, Hansa… Harper… Lord Kifo… The city!”