Chapter 32

Rosabel La Rouge

I floated.

Or maybe I was flying? I couldn’t be too sure, but either the water or the air holding me up disappeared all of a sudden and let me go, and it felt like I fell against the ground all over again.

My eyes opened and at first, that white light was still there, robbing me of the view of my surroundings. Pain all over my body, mostly around my waist, and I prayed to the goddess that my ribs weren’t broken.

My ears worked just fine, though, so I heard.

I heard the Devil complaining to Hill about how his magic had attacked his men, too.

“Best be careful, David. People might think you’re incapable of controlling your own magic,” said the Devil.

“So much talk,” Hill then said, and I was still blinking, still trying to see, trying to not let the fear and the panic take hold of me. “Talk-talk-talk. Do you ever just shut up, Ale? Really—do you?”

I tried my hand—it moved. My legs, too. And my toes. And my neck.

“Not really, no,” the Devil said, not offended in the least. “Why would I? I was given my voice for a reason. I was given my brain for a reason, too. I use all of it daily.” He chuckled to himself like he thought he was the funniest guy to have ever lived.

“Oh, really. Is that so,” said Hill, and it wasn’t a question. He had his hands on his hips again, head lowered as if he wanted to hide how pissed off he was. I could barely see him because I didn’t want to move too much and alert them that I was awake without making sure Taland was okay.

He was. Breathing, that is, on his side about three feet away from me, both of us dangerously close to that spinning wall. His eyes were half open, and he was still covered in all that blood, but at least he wasn’t bruised or swollen anymore. And, like I said—he was breathing.

So was Seth and the Mergenbachs a little to my left, bundled up together, eyes open, looking around, trying to see without being seen.

“It is, it is,” said the Devil, unbothered.

“And what exactly were you hoping to accomplish with this? What did you come up with by using that fucking brain of yours, Ale, huh?!” said Hill, and he was trying so hard to keep his head down, but his words were more than enough to show us exactly how pissed off he was.

“My retirement plan, David,” the Devil said. “That is why I brought you here—one must be fluid, in a constant state of change, and when one plan fails, we must move to the next.” I swear, the way Hill raised his head—just that small, slow motion—made it perfectly clear how badly he wanted to pick the Devil apart piece by piece. If only he could actually reach him, maybe he would.

“You see, my initial plan was very standard stuff—I steal what you need from you, then offer it back to you for a price. I know you’re going to win, my friend, and I simply want a piece of the pie. Here’s what I propose: you get the bracelet right now from that girl, and you walk away. When the time comes and you do what you’ve been planning to do all along, I rise in power with you.” He stopped to take a breath. “How’s that for a deal?”

Hill threw his head back and started laughing.

“More than that,” the Devil continued—again, still not bothered. “I know you still need more soul vessels as well as his bones, and I can help you find them. You know how much my help is worth—you are where you are now because of me.”

Hill stopped laughing and looked at him again. “I think you’re overestimating your importance here, Ale. You’ve always done that, too, now that I think about it.”

This definitely faded the smile on the Devil’s face a bit. “You’re not thinking straight, David,” he told him. “A businessman such as yourself should be considering the alternatives already, and in your case, you only have one.” He raised a single finger. I tried to push myself up a little to see Hill better. “Accept my help, or you won’t make it out of my Regah alive, either.”

A second ticked by in perfect silence.

“Are you threatening me, Alejandro?” Hill asked, his voice perfectly calm.

“Merely telling you your options,” the Devil said.

Then Bluefire magic took over my vision and it was aimed for Hill—Aurelia had her wand raised and she’d been chanting from where she lay, and nobody had noticed.

Well—nobody but Hill.

He’d noticed, and he’d countered her spell with a ward of his own, so that blue sparks flew about the room, but Hill remained standing.

A hand around my wrist.

My scream got stuck in my head throat when I realized it was just Taland pulling me to sit up. By then Zachary and Seth were already on their feet, too, and though they were bleeding and wounded, and possibly hurting just as much as me, they were still fighting.

Hill shouted something—I didn’t care enough to hear.

“You’re okay,” said Taland, though he looked like shit himself. His hands were shaking—how long had he been bleeding? How long since he’d eaten in that cell where they’d chained him?

Had he eaten at all?

Rage in the pit of my stomach.

“Taland, I need you to stay back, okay?” I said, grabbing his face in my hands, and he was so pale underneath that blood and grime. So fucking pale.

“No. Hill is still alive,” he said, and he made to stand up to join the fight, but I pushed him back as hard as I could again.

“Listen to me, Taland—you’re weak. You can’t fight like this. I already spoke to Aurelia and I’m going to attack the screen, take us out of this Regah, whatever the fuck this is—I’m going to take us out, okay?”

“You do that, sweetness,” he said, grabbing my hands on his face and bringing them to his lips so he could kiss both my palms. “I’ll give you an opening.”

“No, damn it—you can’t fight!”

Except Taland was already on his feet. “As soon as I engage, go for it.”

“Taland, wait!”

This time he grabbed me and kissed me quickly, just a peck that I wished could last at least a little longer, considering it might be our last.

“And when we’re out, run. Do you understand me? Don’t wait for anyone, don’t look for anything—just run.”

He let me go and made for the others, even though he was dragging his feet behind.

Fuck fuck, FUCK!

I resisted my instincts to run after him, to grab him and keep him back, because if I did that, I’d be wasting time. If I did that, I’d just be dooming the both of us. The only way I could save him right now was to take us out of this fucking limbo—and to do that, all I needed was magic.

I screamed when I ran—it couldn’t be helped. Angry tears in my eyes and they did blur my vision a little, but I still saw the Devil’s face, saw that almost shimmery veil he hid himself behind while he watched us, and I didn’t plan to stop chanting until all this magic was out of me. I didn’t plan to fucking stop for anything—except I was only three feet away when Hakim came out of nowhere with his hands raised, his bracelets full of bones around his wrists buzzing with energy, and his Whitefire magic hit me straight in the face.

Goddess, how it hurt. The pain blinded me momentarily, and I felt it when my body let go and I hit the floor once more. But I was aware. The spell hadn’t knocked me out, so I blinked and blinked a million times until I was able to see again, until I was able to make out Hakim standing there with a huge grin on his face, and the Devil behind him, watching me as he played with his feathers.

Triumphant. At ease.

Then he said, “Get that bracelet off her.”

I read the words on his lips because the others were now screaming their spells and shouting when they attacked so I couldn’t hear anything else but them.

Either way, his words were crystal clear. Hakim came closer and leaned down to grab me.

My mind worked, my instincts reacted, and I was chanting before I realized what spell I’d chosen—a simple, second-degree one just to give myself a second to stand up. To catch my breath. To make a plan.

Hakim wrapped his fingers around my forearm, pulled it up, looked at my bracelet and grinned. “You won’t need this anymore,” the asshole told me, and for a moment there, I really thought he’d make it, and I was as good as dead.

But the words of the spell fell from my lips, and when he grabbed the bracelet and tried to take it off me, it wouldn’t budge. My other hand was raised, aimed at his chest. The magic slammed against him, so bright and colorful it took my vision away all over again.

Hakim was too surprised to even scream before he fell off me and hit the ground.

Meanwhile Hill was throwing Seth and Taland off himself at once, the white flames of his magic wrapped around the both of them like living rope, while Zachary and Aurelia stood a little farther back and unleashed their Bluefire at him.

There was no time.

Even though I wanted nothing more than to crawl all the way to where Taland lay on the floor, shaking from the magic that was in his system, I knew there was no time.

So, I stayed put and I began to chant again before I even thought to stand up. I stayed right there as tears streamed down my cheeks and I kept my attention on Taland, the way his eyes rolled in his skull. That veil of magic was right there, and Hakim was probably already trying to stand up, and I only had seconds left, but I kept going. Even if I didn’t make it, I was going to die chanting, and at least Taland was no longer shaking as violently. At least Seth was sitting up and grabbing him, trying to get him to wake up while Zachary fell once more, wrapped up in Hill’s Whitefire.

A hand around my ankle.

I kept chanting but had no choice but to look, to see Hakim with his teeth gritted, no longer smiling as he pulled himself up, dragged himself closer.

But the strangest thing was the Devil who was looking at me from his prison cell.

The Devil who wasn’t smiling.

The Devil who knew.

I could swear his eyes were on my lips, and he knew exactly what was coming.

“ Stop her!” he shouted at the top of his voice, and Hakim, still dragging himself closer to me, stabbed me in the thigh with a knife. The pain shot fire up my veins, and it intensified when he used the handle to pull himself up faster. I didn’t sit up, didn’t move, didn’t scream—just kept on whispering.

My tongue didn’t twist. My focus didn’t waver. My magic didn’t hesitate.

Bes and his friends were trying to get to me, too, but Seth jumped in front of them before they came close, and the Devil had raised his hands to his sides, and he was chanting, too.

Goddess, he was chanting furiously, screaming the harsh words out, and I was close.

So fucking close…

Hakim was practically lying on top of me now. I grabbed his chin, tried to push him back, but the effect of my magic must have faded all the way because when he wrapped his fingers around my neck, he cut off my breathing almost all the way.

My instincts screamed. If I stopped this spell now and started again, I wouldn’t make it—it was simply too long. There was no time to get him off me and then start over— no time.

Dead-dead-dead, my mind said, and in that split second, I started to believe it.

Then Blackfire magic covered Hakim’s face and it was like he stopped existing for a moment. The black flames slipped into his skin and he began to scream, and he no longer squeezed my neck. I continued my spell, not daring to look up, to see Taland. It had been him who’d spelled Hakim because Seth was busy with the others. There were no other Blackfires here except…

The Devil.

Everyone seemed to be shouting Iridian words at the same time, but I heard his voice when I focused. And when Hakim, screaming still, fell off me, I saw him.

His smile. His arms. His Blackfire shooting from his hands and going right through the veil as if he was in the same place as us.

Too late.

Just when I had only a handful of words left to finish the spell. Just when my magic had gathered itself in my hands, connected with that bracelet better than it ever had with my original anchor.

Too late!

The magic spread across the room, around all of us at once. It grabbed us as if with invisible hands and froze us in place, then pulled us up in the air.

No more screams. No more movement. No more anything except us lying in the air on our backs, floating. Everyone—Hill and Hakim and the siblings, we were all floating.

My eyes moved, though. I searched for the Devil, and I found him, but whatever spell he’d put on us had a good grip on my heart, too, so it didn’t beat faster. I didn’t breathe heavier, either, even though that wound on my thigh was pulsating with pain.

The Devil wasn’t smiling.

He looked to be in just as much pain as me. His teeth were gritted, his head lowered, and I could have sworn sweat shone on his forehead. The woman who’d been waiting behind him was gone, and the barred cell door was now open, and outside I could just make out people moving. Fighting.

Had Hill really sent people after him in the Tomb? Would they get there in time to stop him from whatever he was doing to us?

I hoped and hoped and hoped…

Then I made peace with the fact that they wouldn’t.

So, I tried to move my hand—and I could, but only slightly. And I tried to get my jaws to move—again, they did, ever so slightly. There was no voice to speak the last words of my spell with, but I mouthed them anyway. I mouthed them slowly, so excruciatingly slowly, while the Devil watched me.

While the Devil gritted his teeth harder.

Then…

“ ALE! ”

Hill’s voice pierced right through my mind. The palm of my hand heated up, the magic ready, as if it couldn’t be controlled by the Devil, even though everything else on my body was at his mercy.

“Ale…l-let… me…” Hill said. “ Go! ”

His voice was strained. I didn’t dare look at wherever he was, but through the corner of my eye I could swear that he was swimming in the air, coming toward me. He was fucking swimming in the air while the others were still on their backs, just like me.

But I’d been near death plenty of times—and I’m not just talking about the Iris Roe, either. I’d been near death and the important thing was to keep going until you literally couldn’t anymore. That was the most important thing, and so I kept on pushing my jaws to move faster, and they did.

I raised my hand a little higher, and I moved.

Hill was there, almost within reach, groaning as he moved his arms and legs and lips, called the Devil’s name…

The Devil knew now, too, though, just like he did before.

He knew he would be too late.

I was tempted to smile. Suck it, asshole, I thought, because even if Hill reached me now, it was done. Two more words, and the spell was done.

The Devil screamed.

His magic let us go all at once and we hit the ground on our backs.

The last two words left my lips in a whisper just as Hill’s hands closed around my head, as if he meant to fucking tear it off my shoulders.

“ No! ” he shouted, and I’d forever remember the blue of his eyes—so wide. Filled with horror.

Oh, the fucker knew, too.

Boom, I thought but couldn’t say.

Magic burst out of me, but I had my hand aimed at the Devil, at the veil that separated us from him. Even if Hill killed me now, it wouldn’t matter, so long as he let us go, out of this place. So long as the others made it.

And they would.

I knew it the moment my magic launched itself from my hand. I knew how much of it came out of me—more than ever before, and it felt like I was draining the Rainbow in the Iris Roe all over again. The power that burst out of me was exactly like that, the same intensity, and I screamed again.

It hurt. It fucking hurt to be separated from all that magic, and I suddenly felt naked without it.

Hill squeezed my head as if he was trying to crush my skull.

My magic, aimed at the Devil, slammed against the veil.

Everything changed in an instant.

The floor began to vibrate violently. The walls spun even faster. Some kind of a screeching sound filled my ears, and all I saw of Hill was that he was looking around us, at the bright colors that had replaced those white walls. A fucking rainbow spun around us now, and he looked at it with his lips parted, standing up slowly.

Maybe it didn’t work, a voice in my head suggested, and I didn’t even have the energy left to panic. To fear. To overthink.

Maybe it really didn’t work because the wall, though colorful, was still spinning, and the floor was still vibrating.

But it didn’t take too long for it to stop. Maybe seconds, maybe minutes—I wasn’t sure as I continued to pray that Taland would be okay. That he’d make it.

The floor stopped groaning abruptly, and the colors disappeared from the walls.

Everything went to shit.

An explosion—or maybe that was just in my head. What mattered was that everything went dark, and the floor was no longer there, and the ceiling had vanished, too.

No screams and no cries and nobody called my name.

Everything disappeared.