“Aw. That’s nice. I should probably mention, though, just off the cuff.” Where was my finger going now? “This is all up in the air. I don’t even know if the rumors are true. This could be all for nothing. The booze, the worry, the chasing of the shifters…all for nothing.”
Mikey stared at me for a moment before shaking his head and stepping away. He muttered something that sounded like the Lord’s name in vain. “You need to go to sleep.”
I held up the nearly empty bottle. “Almost there. Then tomorrow, after a miserable hangover, I’ll get an answer, good or bad.” I sighed and wobbled. “It’s going to be bad. I know it’ll be bad. Ain’t that a bitch?”
“Sounds like it.”
“Yes it does. It does sound like it. Oh, how’s Smokey?”
“He’s fine. Home. Not up to prowling the neighborhood yet, but it’s just kidney stones. Not like he got stabbed.”
“Remind me not to ask you for sympathy.” I tripped on the first step and splayed across the rest. My bottle of Jack bounced before rolling, spraying liquid as it did so.
Mikey didn’t bend to help, or even laugh. He grunted, turned, and headed off down the street.
“No, no, I got it,” I called. “I don’t need any help.”
“Amateur,” he yelled back.
If only he knew how much I’d drunk, he’d be saluting me.
I grabbed the bottle, groaned at the realization there was only a drop left, and made my way inside. In twenty-four hours the wait would be over, and the most dangerous journey of my life would surely begin.
Chapter Seven
“Reagan, you look terrible,” Dizzy said as I made my way to the circle in the middle of the warehouse. Darius stood where he had a couple days before, watching me without comment or expression.
“I wrestled a couple bottles of whiskey and didn’t fare so well. I got through it.” I halfheartedly raised my hand. “Yay.”
“Let’s get this over with,” Callie said, compassion on her face. “Then we’ll plan what’s next. You’re not alone in this, Reagan. You’ve got us, and we know people. Even if they don’t want to help, we’ll make them. I have dirt on at least a dozen powerful mages.”
“Oh yes, my wife keeps track of those sorts of things. She can really call the troops when she needs to.” Dizzy patted me on the shoulder.
I held out my hand. “Do you need blood?”
Out came the wicked-looking dagger. Why they couldn’t use something normal, like a Swiss Army knife, I didn’t know. That thing looked cumbersome. If they slipped and sliced a hand off, then where would I be?
We went through the same steps as last time: pain, stooping while walking around the circle and shaking my bleeding hand. Not long after that, they chanted the demon into the circle. It was the same one, which Dizzy and Callie expected, and I was impressed by. They did know what they were doing.
“Heir,” the demon said, wasting no time in looking past the dual mages. It held a scroll.
“You guys have paper down there?” I asked, amazed.
“Of course, heir. How else would we write things down?” It unfurled the scroll. “I have some of the answers you seek.”
“Tell me,” I commanded.
I listened quietly as the demon told a story of a badly wounded demon that was treated in the edges and then moved across the river by one of the powerful sects. None of those who’d treated the demon had been left alive.
“What was the sect that took the wounded demon?” Darius asked from the wall. I wasn’t sure why he didn’t want to come closer.
The demon barely spared him a glance. “The Noctis sect. They are one of the more ambitious sects in the Dark Kingdom.”
“Are they traveling to Lucifer?” I asked.
“No. They brought the demon to their territory. There is no notice of their sect requesting an audience with the Great Master.”
“Is there any speculation about what they wanted with the wounded demon?” I paced beside the circle as anxiety ate away at my stomach.
“No one seems to know, but there is a rumor of many dead in the wake of the sect moving through. They are trying to keep something silent.”
“Me. They are trying to keep Agnon’s knowledge of me a secret.”
The demon bowed. “If that is the case, they have a mighty prize. I can feel great power within you, heir. The Incendium magic rages, begging you to flare it higher. I feel it calling me. But a dark pit within you prevents it. That is the Glaciem magic, if I am not mistaken, correct?”
“Yup. You nailed it. I’m ripe for the training. Agnon made that clear when I spoke with it.” I ground my teeth. “I am going to yank its knobby little head off.”
“Why wouldn’t they take that to Lucifer?” Callie asked me.
“They want to grab me, train me, and present me to my father. They hope to gain favor by doing all of that, and probably make me an ally. Joke’s on them, of course. I’ll make them all very sorry they got mixed up in my business.”
The desire to cry had dried up with the challenge fully presented to me. Now I wanted to storm the gates of hell and blot out the threat. Which was good, because that was exactly what I’d have to do. I knew that as surely as I knew I could control the demon in front of me.
“Fine. The rumor was right. How do I cut them down?” I asked the demon.
It unraveled the scroll, then focused on a spot of nothingness in front of it. “I have maps. Routes. I can guide you. It would be my honor, heir. But you must find your way to me. I cannot cross certain areas. I don’t have enough power.” It focused harder on the spot of nothingness. “You have to burn away the circle so I can pass over the scroll.”
“Routes into the underworld? Now that’s just asinine. Right, Reagan?” Callie demanded. “Tell it it’s talking nonsense.”
“Don’t burn away the circle, Reagan,” Dizzy said in warning. “Those things are tricky. It’s up to no good.”
I ignored them both, because while I wasn’t crazy enough to trust a demon asking me to deliver myself to it, I was crazy enough to give it an opening in a controlled situation so that I could get that scroll. A risk, but not a huge risk.
Fire crawled up the circular wall in front of me, burning away the invisible barrier. I felt the demon’s magic pulsing within my own, then saw it create a sort of bridge between the newly created edges, keeping the rest of it intact. I latched on to its efforts, realizing that it was helping me. Showing me how to work my magic with greater intricacy. His mastery of weaving the magic together was awe-inspiring.
“Why are you helping me keep you trapped?” I asked as it reached the scroll forward. It did not make a move to cross the divide, though it could have tried.
“When you assume your intended throne, remember your allies. Remember those who helped you ascend.”
“It knows you could easily kill it if it tried to run,” Callie said dryly. “And you’d still get the scroll.”
I knew that, but I’d wanted to hear its response.