“I locked that!” Trisk exclaimed as the door to the hall was pushed open, spilling a bright light in and across the demon sitting cross-legged on the floor. “Daniel?” she gasped as he staggered over the threshold, a bottle in one hand, a master bypass key in the other.
“Oh, this is beyond brilliant,” Algaliarept said merrily. “Hello, little man.” He saucily winked one goat-slitted red eye. “What are you afraid of?”
“Trisk?” Daniel slurred, and she bolted to get between them. Daniel seeing a demon was a major breach of the silence, and right before Kal showed up. “What are you doing in my office?” Daniel said, trying to look past her. “That’s not my lab. That’s your lab. Trisk, why is Angie’s office empty?” He blinked, looking over her shoulder at the leafy green field. “Who is that? Does he have clearance?”
“Daniel . . .” She rushed to say, and then spun, horrified, when Algaliarept stood and shoved his fist into her circle.
He was trying to get out.
Smoke billowed behind the barrier, curving up the sides until it slithered its way through the membrane and up to the ceiling. Algaliarept ground his teeth in pain as his skin peeled and fell away. Just the smallest gap, and he’d be through. Her soul was apparently worth the pain.
“Finire!” Trisk exclaimed, shoving both hands at Daniel. Whooping, Daniel backpedaled into the hallway as if pushed, his head slamming into the far wall. Groaning, he slid to the floor.
Trisk spun back to Algaliarept, her hand pulsing in pain. She’d hit Daniel with the full force of what was still coursing through her circle, and with a panic-born strength, she yanked more energy into her from the ley line. “You will stay!” she shouted, vertigo swamping her, pulling her down to a knee as she became a conduit for more energy than she’d ever dared channel before. Her hand, already burned from knocking Daniel out, flamed.
With a cry of frustration, Algaliarept pulled his fist back. His red eyes glared with a frustrated wrath, and the circle holding him crackled with energy. It dripped from the sides, hissing as it met the tile floor and magnetic chalk outline. Shaking, Trisk rose from her knee, her burned hand cradled to her middle. “You will . . . stay,” she panted, panicked but steady.
“For now—little bird,” Algaliarept snarled.
Only now did Trisk turn to see Daniel out cold and slumped against the hallway’s wall. A ribbon of alcohol from the dropped bottle was running a slow path to her circle, and with a frightened quickness, Trisk took off her lab coat and dropped it on the rivulet, stopping its advance. From behind the barrier, Algaliarept made an angry noise of frustration.
Flustered, Trisk looked up and down the otherwise empty hall before grabbing Daniel’s foot with her good hand and awkwardly pulling him into the room. Still hunched, she went back for the master bypass key.
“You will be mine, someday,” the demon intoned. “And then you will pay for this, in ten times the agony you put me through.”
Trisk eyed Daniel, hoping he was okay. “I didn’t make you push your hand into a focused barrier,” she said. “Leave.”
“You just told me to stay,” Algaliarept said, giving his tortured hand a shake. It wreathed itself in a gray mist, dissipating to show untouched skin and unblemished lace. “Now you tell me to go,” he muttered, examining his ruddy hand for signs of damage. “I want to see you explain me to him. You looked adorable together in your matching lab coats.” The demon’s eyes widened, and his form went misty until he reappeared looking like Kal. “Well, well, little bird. Your passions are showing. We are alike, are we not? Trenton Lee Kalamack and your human?”
She shuddered as Kal’s full name fell from the demon’s lips. Maybe it had been a mistake to give it to him. Trisk looked up from Daniel to Algaliarept, the demon posing coyly within his circle of confinement. “Apart from the eyes, of course,” the demon added, having apparently forgotten his attempt to escape. Trisk knew it would haunt her nightmares.
“You look nothing alike,” she lied, testing the strength of her singed hand and wincing. Daniel would be fine, spelled into unconsciousness until she woke him. Flustered, she took her purple ribbon off and dropped it back into the dusty box before going to peek out into the silent hall, close the door, and lean back against it. Algaliarept stood, beaming at her.
“Demon, I banish you directly to the ever-after,” she said, and Algaliarept pouted.
“No. I want to stay,” he said petulantly. “I promise I’ll be good. Quiet as a mouse. Hell, I’d even be a mouse if you wanted.” His gaze dropped to Daniel. “Did you intentionally find a boyfriend who looks like an elf, or was it purely subconscious?”
She said nothing, embarrassed, and Algaliarept’s smile widened. “You envy Trenton Lee Kalamack?” he said, and her jaw clenched. “You hate him, but envy him as well. Of course you do!” His face lit up, scaring her. “I have an idea . . . growing in my brain,” he said. “It will solve all your problems, but you won’t like it.”