The demon gave her a good shake. “Answer me!”
She threw her hands up in a show of surrender. “Okay! Okay…”
Azi let go of her but didn’t back away. “Speak.”
“There is no key.”
I didn’t know Van. We weren’t friends or anything. But for some reason, I still felt betrayed. “Why the hell would you lie about that? I told you how important this was. And your magic—”
“That’s why we’re here,” she said, pleading. “I didn’t lie about helping you. I will. But I told you, I want my magic. There’s a locket hidden in that tree I was telling you about. I need it.”
“Why wouldn’t you just say that?” I glanced at Azi, who still hadn’t backed away. If it wasn’t careful, the demon would give Van a heart attack.
Van’s expression hardened. She turned from me and fixed her gaze on the demon in Jax’s skin. “I wasn’t sure you’d let me come here. You’re obsessed with what you want. With getting the stone. This has no bearing on your task.”
“I made you a promise,” I said, annoyed.
Van was still looking at Azi. “And you? Would you have let me come get it, knowing that it was the only way to get my magic back?”
Without hesitating, Azi shook Jax’s head. “Of course not. I do not care about you or your magic. Only the stone is of importance.”
Van glared at me, justified, and I sighed. I yanked hard on the back of Jax’s shirt and dragged the demon away from her. “No one is double crossing you,” I said, gently pulling her away from the stall. “You have my word. Now can we please just be honest with each other?”
She watched me for a moment, then nodded slowly. Just once. “Okay. Fine. I wasn’t lying about the other parts. There are certain conditions under which the stone can be removed. It’s at the Dandus Nature Preserve, tucked away in an underwater cave, removable on the first night of the full moon.”
“Underwater cave?” While I’d never been terrified of the water, semi-recent events—almost drowning while trapped in my car the day Jax came back into town—had made me a little gun shy. “How underwater are we talking here?”
“The cave itself isn’t actually submerged. Just the entrance. It’s not hard to get to, but like the locket, it can only be removed after dusk—and by a select few.”
“And what does this ‘selection’ entail?” Azi took a menacing step toward Van.
“First off, you have to be human to remove the stone, so don’t go getting any ideas, demon-boy.” She pulled her jacket tighter.
“And second?” I asked.
“There are specific requirements.”
“Which you have no intention of telling us about,” Azi finished for her with a growl.
“Sorry, demon-boy. Don’t trust you as far as I could throw you—especially since you just admitted to not caring about our agreement. If you want that stone, you need to keep me close—and alive.”
I had no intention of screwing Van over, and I intended to make sure Azi didn’t either. “So what do we have to do now?”
She walked to the door and leaned around the corner. When she pulled herself back inside, she was wearing a wicked grin. “Now we go get ourselves a locket.”
Chapter Seventeen
Azirak/Jax
Van led us down the main path, deeper into the park for about a mile. She seemed particularly interested when we came to a hulking rock, and veered off the path.
“Are you sure you know where you’re going?” Sam asked. “It’s so damn dark, I can’t see a thing.”
“I know,” Van replied. “I could find my way to the locket blindfolded.”
We continued through the brush, stepping over fallen trees and through pricker bushes. No one came out this way—it was obvious by the heavily overgrown foliage and nonexistent path. Yet Van was sure. Azi went with it but stayed on alert.
“What’s so important about this locket,” Sam asked. She stumbled, and Azi caught her just before she toppled to the ground. She looked at me and smiled for a second before remembering it was Azi she was looking at—not me.
“I was wearing it the day Sadie stole my magic. Some of it transferred to the locket. I need every bit of lost magic there is if I hope to get it all back.”
“And to what extent do your powers remain?” Azi asked.
She slowed and tensed slightly, but didn’t stop. “Why? Weighing the possibilities of betraying me again?”
“Not at all.”
Careful. You’re a horrible liar…
“I am simply assessing your worth should we encounter a problem.”
Should we? Wishful thinking, asshole. In case you hadn’t noticed, we’re problem magnets.
“A problem?”
“I’m trying to weigh how useful you’ll be when we are attacked again.” Which was true, but the demon was also fishing for information.
“I can do simple stuff. Curses and small spells of defense, but my primary magic, my specialty, is impossible.”
“Specialty?” Sam asked.
“All witches have what we call a specialty. A predisposition toward a specific kind of magic.”
“I didn’t know there were different kinds of magic.”