Chapter 5

Hot water rushed down my face and splashed over my shoulders. Head tilted back, I breathed the steamy air, trying to calm the tight, itchy anxiety in my chest.

Was there a point where fear and dread and urgency overloaded your system and you stopped feeling them? Could that happen? Numbness would be an improvement over this never-ending sense of doom.

Eyes closed against the spray, I reached out blindly and nudged the tap. The shower's temperature increased another degree, threatening to scorch my skin. The heat pounded down on me, something to feel besides the churning emotions.

Yesterday's attack in the cemetery wasn't the scariest thing I'd witnessed, or participated in, since falling into this secret world of mythics and magic, but it had confirmed our suspicion that there was at least one demon mage in Vancouver.

When Ezra had been the only demon mage I knew, his frightening power had been our special weapon. Now that destructive demonic magic was our enemies' weapon too. What if we succeeded in un-demon-maging Ezra? He'd get the world's biggest power demotion, going from "unstoppable paragon of destruction" to an average aeromage. And the cult would still be trying to kill him. He knew too many of their secrets.

My phone, sitting on the bathroom counter, chimed loudly. I ignored it, steaming myself like a lobster and hoping the heat would steady my nerves.

It chimed twice more, and when I still didn't reply to whoever wanted my attention, it began to ring. Swearing, I pushed the plastic curtain open, letting a rush of cold air into the steamy innards of the shower. I grabbed my phone, fumbled for the answer button with my wet thumb, then hit speaker.

"This better be good!" I barked at the unlucky caller.

"Am I interrupting something?" Ezra replied, the running water muffling his smooth voice.

My irritation vanished. "Just in the shower."

"Oh. Hmm."

I waited, allowing him all the time he wanted to think about me in the shower.

"Earth to Ezra," Aaron said sarcastically. "You were calling to tell Tori how she needs to get over here, remember?"

My phone wasn't the only one on speaker, it seemed. "Why do I need to get over there?"

"Robin is on her way." Ezra's tone gave no indication that my shower comment had derailed him. "You should come over too. Kai will be here any minute."

I snapped to attention. "Robin is going over there? Why?"

It took only an instant for Ezra to reply, but that moment in time seemed to stretch forever, the planet's orbit frozen as I waited for the words I hadn't dared to hope for so soon. Words I'd been afraid would never come.

"She figured it out."

* * *

I flung open Aaron's front door, rushed inside, and almost crashed into Robin's back.

She yipped in surprise and turned, her arms overflowing with long rolls of brown paper and a gray backpack hanging off her shoulder. Amalia was just ahead of her, halfway out of her leather boots.

Aw damn, I'd hoped to beat them here. I'd hurried as much as possible, but considering I'd been wet and naked when Ezra had summoned me, I supposed it had been a long shot.

"Hi Tori," Robin said, oddly breathless. "How are you?"

I arched my eyebrows. "If you've actually found a way to save Ezra, then I'm absolutely fantastic."

Ezra and Aaron were waiting for us in the living room, and standing between them was Kai, looking as cool and poised as always in dark jeans and a slim-fitting black sweater. He gave me a quiet smile when I rushed over to hug him.

Greetings were brief, then we moved to the dining table, where Robin laid out her armload of supplies.

"All right," she said, her voice higher than usual with nerves. "Amalia and I looked at every angle of the demon mage ritual. Like a regular demon contract, there's no way to break it. Once the demon spirit and human soul are bound, it can't be undone."

Standing beside Ezra, I waited silently. If that's all Robin had to say, she wouldn't be here.

"So we looked for ways to circumvent the contract instead of breaking it. After all, the biggest issue here is that Eterran is trapped inside Ezra's body. The contract between them is secondary to that."

Amalia put a hand on her hip. "From start to finish, contracting a demon requires three steps: summoning the demon, negotiating a contract, and binding the demon to the infernus."

Robin slid the cult grimoire out of her backpack and opened it to a marked page. "The demon mage ritual is four steps. Summoning is exactly the same—the demon is called into a summoning circle. Then negotiation."

"That's a bit different," Amalia noted dryly. "From what I've read, demon mages are damn near impossible to create in part due to ninety-nine percent of demons refusing to agree to it."

Tucking a damp curl behind my ear, I grimaced. "Yeah, well, what is the demon even getting out of the deal?"

"Lies," Ezra answered in a growl. "That is what they offered."

Robin frowned. "But you can detect lies. All demons can."

Aaron and Kai stiffened as Ezra's left eye burned crimson.

"Lies given as truth." Hatred chilled Eterran's quiet snarl. "A second man explained the contract. He did not lie, but every word he spoke was false. I knew nothing of humans and their ways. I did not think to make the summoner speak the same words."

"Wait." I peered at his crimson eye. "You know when you're being lied to?"

"Not in this body."

"Oh."

Robin glanced between us, then cleared her throat. "The contract for a demon mage is straightforward. Simply put, the demon agrees to bind itself to the human's soul. We're not really sure what that entails, but I'm assuming that bond gives the host enough control to keep the demon from immediately overpowering his mind."

We all looked questioningly at Ezra/Eterran, but he didn't speak.

"The third phase," Robin continued, "is the ritual that turns the host into the equivalent of a summoning circle. Then, for the final stage—"

"—the demon is summoned into the host," Ezra finished quietly.

A dark, haunted shadow lurked in his eyes, and I reached out, surreptitiously sliding my hand into his. His fingers closed tightly around mine.

"And that's the key," Robin said. "That's how we'll undo this."

I blinked dumbly. "How?"

"We're going to summon Eterran out of Ezra."

Silence.

Kai stepped closer to the table. "It's been a while since I studied Demonica basics, but from what I remember, summoners can call a demon of a particular type, but they can't summon an individual demon."

"Not from the demon world, no," Robin replied. "But making a demon mage requires summoning the already summoned demon a second time in order to insert him into the human host. We're going to do exactly that."

"There are complications," Amalia added. "The big one being blood."

I squinted at that ominous statement. "Blood?"

"The second summoning required Eterran's blood." Ezra frowned between the two women. "He doesn't have a body anymore. My blood isn't demon blood."

"No, your blood wouldn't work," Robin agreed. "But I think we can modify the spell to summon Eterran using blood from the same House. Are you familiar with demon Houses?"

"Yeah," Aaron answered. "Different demon types are called Houses and there are nine or ten of them."

"Twelve," she corrected as she lifted her backpack onto the table. "But yes. Their Houses are essentially lineages, so any blood from Eterran's House will be nearly identical."

A dozen demon Houses—and her demon was the king of one of them? That was what Ezra had said when we'd handed over the demonic amulet.

I pressed my hands to the table. "You want us to get another demon's blood? How are we supposed to do that? We don't even know what ‘House' Eterran is from!"

"Dh'irath, the Second House," Robin revealed calmly. "The same house as Nazhivēr."

Nazhivēr? As in Xever's terrifying winged demon that Ezra had barely held off using demonic and aero magic?

With a happy little smile, as though she were presenting us with a basket of fresh-baked cookies, Robin slid a metal case out of her bag and flipped the lid open. Inside were five vials of dark liquid nested in a foam insert.

"This is Nazhivēr's blood."

I looked from the vials to Robin and back. "Where—and how—did you get his blood?"

"Well, um… technically speaking, I stole it." She shrugged. "Claude—or, rather, Xever was trading it to vampires in exchange for their saliva."

"Because vampire saliva affects demons," I murmured. "Is that why there are illustrations of vampires in the cult grimoire?"

"One of the reasons." Robin set the case aside and began unrolling one of the large papers. "Amalia and I put together a ritual that we think should work. We can't be sure… but this is the best we can do without any testing."

Aaron helped her flatten the three-foot-square paper. Drawn out on it in exhaustive detail was a summoning circle, the outer ring decorated with swirling lines and runes. Inside it were two more circles, their edges overlapping.

Ezra leaned over the drawing, and crimson sparked in his left eye again. He pointed to one of the inner circles. "This… what is this?"

"Zylas added that part," Robin answered. "He said it's for—"

Red light blazed off her chest. A streak of power leaped down to the floor, then stretched upward and solidified. Her demon appeared, his eyes glowing like magma and a mixture of fabric, leather, and light armor covering his lean, muscular body.

"It will bind the blood to its nearest brother." White teeth, pointed and predatory, flashed as the demon smirked. "You do not know this vīsh, Dīnen et Dh'irath?"

Ezra's—Eterran's upper lip curled. "I have never seen it before. Is it real vīsh, Dīnen et Vh'alyir?"

"You think that if you do not know a magic, it is not real?" His tail snapped sideways. "Smart. You will live long thinking that."

"I know more vīsh than most Dīnen ever see," Eterran snarled softly.

Zylas's smirk curved, a vicious tilt to it. "Because you are broken, so you needed greater power, na?"

Sticking out his right arm, he drew a line across his inner elbow with one fingertip. I couldn't guess what he was getting at with the gesture.

"You learned how to heal too late, Dh'irath," he mocked.

"You learned to fight like a coward, Vh'alyir," Eterran sneered back.

Call me crazy, but I was getting the impression that Eterran and Zylas didn't like each other.

Ezra blinked a few times, and the red glow faded from his left eye. I waited for Zylas to streak back into his infernus—but instead, he drifted behind Amalia, peering curiously around the dining room.

Robin began explaining the summoning ritual and the changes she and Amalia had made to it, but I was paying more attention to the demon in the room than anything she was saying. Judging by the way Aaron and Kai were tracking the creature's movements in their peripheral vision, they were equally distracted. Only Ezra seemed to be paying proper attention.

Zylas finished perusing the dining room, then drifted into the kitchen. He disappeared around the corner.

Pausing her explanation, Robin glanced over her shoulder and called, "Don't break anything, Zylas!"

"Mailēshta," came the grumbling reply.

Aaron frowned at her. "Uh, do you mind calling him back where we can see him?"

"He'll be fine. As I was saying, if the binding portion of the ritual works correctly, then…"

I forced myself to focus as Robin described the ritual in detail. The moment she stopped talking, Aaron zoomed toward the kitchen, muttering something about "checking on things," which probably meant, "checking on the demon wandering through my house unsupervised."

Kai followed warily, and Ezra trailed after him, more amused than worried. I dropped heavily into a chair as Amalia rolled up the papers.

Unconcerned about her demon's absence, Robin perched on the seat beside me, "Any luck with a location?"

"Not yet." I let my head fall back against the chair, staring at the ceiling. "I'll find something, though."

"We'll need a large circle. Much larger than standard so we can fit two circles inside it."

I squinted, picturing the temple ruins from Enright. We could always go back there to do it, but that was just asking for trouble.

"I'll find something," I repeated with more confidence than I felt. "How long will it take to set up the ritual and stuff once we have a location?"

"A couple of days, then the Arcana will need to charge for three more days."

So a week then, assuming I got my butt in gear and found a location in the next two days. A week, and we could save Ezra. A week, and this nightmare he'd lived for almost ten years would finally be over. He'd have the future he never thought he'd live to see.

I want you to be part of my future. My heart beat a little faster as I remembered him murmuring those words, his voice in my ear but hundreds of miles between us.

"Robin." I turned toward her. "Are you sure this will work?"

She looked at the grimoire on the table, open to the demon mage section. "As long as we can link the Second House blood to Eterran specifically, I believe it will work. The big question is… whether Ezra and Eterran will survive the separation."

That did absolutely nothing to ease my apprehension.

"Not to be insensitive or anything," Amalia interjected, "but they're going to die anyway. Better to try, right?"

Straightening in my chair, I shot the blond sorceress a cold look. "I never said I didn't want to try. Besides, it isn't my choice. It's Ezra's—and Eterran's—and they want to try."

"And what about after they're separated, assuming it works?" Amalia asked. "It'd be just great if we freed Eterran only for him to turn around and kill us all."

"You don't seem too worried about Zylas killing you."

She raised her eyebrows. "I worry about it every day."

That gave me pause.

Robin busily gathered her papers. "We don't need to worry about Eterran yet. We'll be summoning him into a circle, and he'll be trapped there until we free him."

"Trapping him in a circle isn't much better than leaving him stuck inside Ezra." It was better for Ezra, though. "I don't see him agreeing to a regular contract-infernus-type deal."

"We can cross that bridge when we get to it," she said reassuringly, returning the grimoire to her backpack. "There may be options you haven't considered."

"Options like what?"

She shrugged mysteriously. "We—"

A muffled shout erupted from beneath our feet. I looked down at the floor in alarm. "Where are the guys?"

"Where's Zylas?" Robin yelped.

Another male voice exclaimed loudly from the basement, and I launched across the dining room. Robin and Amalia were right on my heels as I careened down the stairs and burst into the workout room.

Aaron, Kai, and Ezra stood amongst the exercise equipment—and Robin's demon was with them. Relief hit me—no one was fighting, bleeding, or dead—but it was swiftly followed by confusion.

For some reason, they were all standing around a barbell loaded with what looked like four one-hundred-pound plates—on each side.

"No way," Aaron declared. "It's impossible."

"But he just deadlifted six hundred pounds like it was nothing," Kai replied, his gaze flicking between the demon and the barbell.

"He's shorter than you." Aaron folded his arms. "It just isn't physically possible."

Ezra shook his head. "You have no idea what a demon can do."

Zylas's tail snapped back and forth, then he leaned down and grasped the bar. The hard, lean muscles in his arms and shoulders bunched. He heaved up, lifting the barbell. It bowed under the weights as the demon lifted it to his chest.

"Holy shit," Aaron muttered, inching away from the demon as though doubting whether he wanted to stand that close.

Puffing out a breath, the demon wrinkled his nose. "What is the point of this? Lifting heavy things?"

"Humans do it to make themselves stronger," Ezra explained dryly.

"This makes hh'ainun stronger?"

"Can you lift it over your head?" Aaron asked in a way that suggested he hoped the answer was no.

The demon braced his feet, then pushed the bar up over his head. It didn't look easy for him, but he wasn't struggling all that much either. My gaze ran along his arms, then down to his tense, defined abdominal muscles.

I glanced at Robin. Standing beside me, she was staring at the demon, mouth hanging open. Pink stained her cheeks.

As Zylas returned the weights to the floor, I nudged her with my elbow and whispered, "What did I tell you? Perfect abs."

She shot me a glare, her cheeks going even redder. "I dare you to say that to his face now that he can talk back."

I blinked and glanced at Zylas—only to find crimson eyes locked on mine. The demon bared his teeth from across the room. Er, maybe I shouldn't comment on his physique. Last time, I'd done it without thought, like he was a highly realistic marble statue—but statues didn't get angry when you ogled them.

"Okay." Aaron strode over to the weight rack and grabbed another big plate. "Let's find your limit, demon."

"Why?" Zylas adjusted a leather armor strap on his shoulder. "It is stupid."

"You can prove how much stronger you are than a human," Ezra told him.

"I already know hh'ainun are weak."

Robin cleared her throat. "We, uh, should probably get going."

"Just one more," Aaron cajoled, passing a plate to Kai to slide onto the bar's other end. "All males like to show off their strength. Whoever can lift the most wins."

"Ch," the demon scoffed. "There is no victory in this. It is only strength. Hh'ainun are stupid."

Robin cleared her throat again.

Aaron and Kai loaded up every weight they could fit onto the bar, then stepped back. Zylas peered at it, and I wondered if I was imagining uncertainty in his demonic face.

He grasped the bar, set his feet, and lifted. The weights rose off the floor—slowly. This time, the demon struggled. With a grunt of effort, he heaved it up to his chest, teeth bared.

He held it for a second—then one of the clips holding the weights in place gave out. The bar tilted and a plate slid off, crashing to the floor.

As Zylas pitched to one side, the three mages leaped forward—Aaron and Kai grabbing each end of the bar to stop more plates from falling, and Ezra bracing the center to take some of the weight off. The four of them lowered the bar to the floor.

As Kai counted the weights, totaling them up to see how much the demon had lifted, I glanced uncomfortably at Robin. She was watching her demon in a concerned sort of way, but when I shifted my gaze to Amalia, I found a pair of gray eyes tight with the exact same reaction as me:

The quiet, prickling fear of prey in the presence of its ultimate predator.