Chapter 25

Chapter

25

In less than a heartbeat, we were there, the acidic bite of burnt amber scorching my lungs until it retreated to a background annoyance. Elyse was deadweight, and I let her slide to the spotless floor of the coffeehouse, filling my chi with energy as I looked up to see that not only Boz and Clemt but everyone in the shop was watching with rapt attention.

"Got it," I said, and the entire place erupted into noise, gold coins representing favors exchanging hands. They'd all been watching, and I shoved my alarm down deep. The next thirty seconds would either make my life harder or impossible, and I ignored Clemt as he shifted his bulk closer.

Elyse was at my feet, and I tugged her up as the conversations began shifting away from us, the noise continuing unabated. Boz had noticed my transposition stone, and I tucked it behind my robe, then shifted my shoulder bag higher. Elyse began coughing, bent double as she tried to adapt.

"You're a thief." Clemt narrowed his goat-slitted eyes suspiciously.

"And a girl ," Boz said, leering. "You have some stones on you, Red. Tell you what. You give me that book and amulet that you stole, and Clemt and I will let you walk out of here. I've had my eye on that book ever since that Kalamack shit put it there."

Book? I turned to Elyse, furious. "You took one of his books?" I exclaimed, and her unrepentant gaze flicked to me as she finally got a full breath of air. " You triggered the alarm. I thought it was me!"

"It shouldn't be in an elf's possession," she said as if that made it right.

"Agreed." Clemt held out his hand, and I backed up a step with Elyse.

"Put your hand down before I put something you don't want in it," I said, hoping Elyse would stay quiet. I doubted very much that I had singed her, but if she did anything stupid, we'd both be laid out on the floor.

Boz nudged Clemt's elbow. "I think that's the witch Gally spent his futures on. Red hair. Clean aura." He ran his gaze over my robe, correctly tied. "He went broke snagging you. No doubt he's got you stealing from Kalamack instead of stirring spells."

If they thought we belonged to someone, they wouldn't touch us, and chin high, I showed him my wrist, the demon mark standing out like a dark beacon. "No doubt," I echoed. "You want the charm and the book, you talk to Al, ah, Gally. Excuse us."

I linked my arm in Elyse's, striding importantly to the pickup counter as if I'd placed an order. There were two drinks sitting there, and I grabbed them and handed one to Elyse. "Don't drink it," I whispered as I angled her to the door, then louder, "Put it on Gally's tab!"

"He's back?" Boz said, and then we were outside. The air was slightly less stifling, but I could feel them watching as I marched Elyse across the commons toward the chattering fountain. It mimicked the one in Cincinnati's Fountain Square. The Goddess knew why.

"You okay?" I said, knees a little wobbly. Damn. Trent's people had torn the wall down to get us. Hence the new oak doors in the future, I thought.

Elyse stumbled on a raised paver, gasping as she caught herself. "They let us walk out," she whispered. "Why? How do you breathe? Is it always this hot?"

"Yes, they did, and yes, it's always this hot." I slowed, seeing it as she was, for the first time. "They live underground where there's nothing in reality to cause a distortion, but the air exchange isn't that good, seeing as what's on the surface is pretty bad to begin with. No one bothers with a spell to clean the air other than in their apartments."

The scent of burnt amber was choking, and I blinked the tears away, trying to keep my breath shallow. It was easy to pick the demons out from the familiars even though they were often dressed the same, and though the workers were mostly familiars, the occasional demon sat behind a register working off a debt. No one was afraid, and no one was trying to escape. It wasn't that they didn't want to. There simply was no way out other than a demon line jumping them elsewhere. After a few hundred years, the fear sort of wore off.

"Why aren't they trying to abduct us?" Elyse half hung on my arm, her wide eyes taking everything in.

"The same reason Clemt and Boz let us walk out. Everyone not a demon belongs to someone," I said. "Body and soul."

"Why don't they just leave? Claw their way to the surface and escape?"

I slowed our pace even more to try to match the indolent saunter of a demon. "Because they've lost their soul to a demon. Once that is gone, you are theirs. Don't ever wager your soul." I stifled a shudder. I'd learned that little nugget of knowledge by accident. It was how I escaped Al, or would, rather. Agreeing to voluntarily become his familiar let me retain my soul. And because I had, I could say no, refuse to cross the ley lines to the ever-after. He couldn't force me, and from there we found common ground.

Her head dropped. "I think I'm going to be sick."

"Don't you dare." My grip on her arm tightened. "Look. Those are jump pads around the fountain. From there we can get to Newt's apartments." Elyse pulled from me, and I stopped. She'd gone white.

"Why? You don't need the mirror," she said, retreating a step. "You're fine. I won't put you in Alcatraz. I trust you. Vivian did. That's enough for me. We can go home right from here. How do you get out of here? Is there a stairway?"

A stairway? Is she serious? I leaned into her space until her jaw clenched. "Simple as that, you trust me, eh?" Just as long as her butt was in danger, maybe. "I am not here to jump through your hoops to gain my freedom. I am here for Brad. I need that mirror for him, not you, and since there's no way on this green earth that you will walk out of here alone, you're sticking with me."

"So you can sell me to Newt for that damned mirror?" she said hotly, and I glanced behind her at the coffee shop, worried.

"Hey! I told you to stay in the hall, remember? Coming was your idea, and now that you're here, you're going to ride it out. Newt will remember us." I hope. "We'll jump to her apartments, trade her the book you stole for the mirror and a way to the surface, and be gone."

"I'm not giving her the book!" Elyse exclaimed, a hand going to her shirt to tell me where it was. At least I knew I hadn't triggered the alarm. A smile quirked my lips at the thought of Quen staring at the broken wall when he got home, and then it faded. There was no feeling of triumph in besting his security. None at all.

"Well, she's not going to want a used-up stasis charm," I muttered, worried as I shifted my bag higher up my shoulder. I needed more than a riddle, and the book was convenient. If Trent was here now, he'd say sell it.

Elyse paced beside me, shaky and pale. "There has to be a tunnel out of here."

"There isn't." I continued to the jump pads, glancing once over my shoulder to see Boz and Clemt watching us from the outside tables. "Relax, she's not going to want your soul. That's an overly inflated price set by pissed-off demons who don't like to be summoned into a circle. Jumps aren't that expensive unless they have you over a barrel. Besides, I'm going to put it on Newt's tab. For all Pan knows, we were sent out for coffee. Here, hold this for a sec."

"Pan? You mean that demon?" Elyse stared at the bored demon in his red robes bellowing dramatically, sparkling energy spilling from him in great, unnecessary waves as he popped package-laden familiars to their owners. "You know him?"

"I know everyone." But they didn't know me, and I handed my coffee to Elyse, frizzed my hair out, and put the hat back on my head. Attitude in place, I took the coffee in hand, sneaking another glance at Boz and Clemt. Attitude would get me out of this, and lots of it. "Be quiet and sullen," I prompted. "Can you do that?"

No one did sullen like Elyse. It was the quiet part I had doubts about.

My pace quickened as we neared the fountain. Demons could jump from anywhere to anywhere, but having designated in-out spots helped prevent accidents. Familiars, of course, couldn't jump at all. Hence no one worrying about them escaping to the surface.

All of which meant that demons had to do the actual jumping for them. Pan had more than a flair for the dramatic. He also had a light touch and liked to take things that didn't belong to him, which was probably why he was out here doing community service. That, and he was bored out of his mind. They all were.

"Pan!" I called, knowing he wouldn't recognize me. I was a faceless familiar. "Get caught selling a bad curse?"

The demon turned, laughed, then looked closer, his flamboyant energy curls fading with a soft hiss as he set a pair of glasses spelled to see through charms on his nose. "Hey, hey, hey. We got us two new slabs of meat, except you aren't new, are you, despite your lack of smut. So, Snow White, who's been hiding you from the rest of us and for how long?"

Smiling with a comfortable familiarity, I twined a finger in a curl of his visible aura, not letting his energy mix cleanly with mine but keeping them separate, like oil and water. It was a practiced move, and one I hoped would give me the street cred I needed to pull this off. "Maybe the question should be why ," I said as I let his energy swamp mine in a tingling wash. "I'm Newt's latest indulgence. You mind?" I lifted the coffee in explanation and stepped up onto the jump pad.

Elyse pushed up onto it with me, white-faced.

Pan's goat-slitted eyes narrowed. "Since when?"

"Since Gally did something uncommonly stupid." I gave Elyse a nudge to get off. "One at a time."

Elyse shook her head, arms wrapped around her middle as she stared at the coffeehouse.

Crap on toast… It was Boz and Clemt, both headed this way. "Fine. You first." I stepped down, and the woman froze in indecision. "I'll be right behind you. Get off the circle when you arrive so I don't land on you."

"Ah, Rach—" she started.

My skin tingled as Pan shifted her aura to match the line, bellowing an utterly needless "Vade!" There was no spell here, just simple physics, and yet as Pan's wildly swinging arm ended its sweep in a fisted hand, she was gone, jumped to Newt's apartments by Pan.

Get off the jump pad, I thought as I stepped into her place and handed Pan my coffee. "Tell them we went to see Dali, will you?" I said, giving a nod to Boz and Clemt.

Pan took it, his lips quirked in disbelief. "For a coffee? Oh, Snow White, you gotta do better than that."

I tapped the top knowingly. "Think of it as a placeholder. Next time I'm in reality, I'll bring you a real one."

Thinking I was joking, he laughed. "Deal. You get that much for making me laugh," he said. "I haven't laughed in twenty-seven days, eight hours, forty-nine minutes—"

And then he dramatically flung a hand and I was gone with his shouted "Vade!" nothing more than a thought echoing in mine as Pan shifted my aura to pop me out at Newt's apartments.

Blinking, I took a breath as I found myself standing on a flat gray disk set within a gray tiled floor. The ceilings were high and the walls were draped with white gauze. Soft, indulgent cushions covered the multitude of chairs and couches, and a low, green slate table the size of Kisten's pool table nestled between them. There were no windows, but a curtained spell frame showed an image of a flat pond circled by big trees. One entire wall was nothing but shelves and lighted nooks holding knickknacks from various ages. Nearby was a spell bar with vials of potions arranged like pill bottles. It looked spacious and beautiful, but the air still stank of burnt amber and I could sense the hard rock behind everything.

"Elyse?" My skin prickled, and I breathed deep. Is someone baking cookies?

"Circle!" Elyse shrieked, and I rolled, my shoulder bag slamming into my gut as I fell.

"Rhombus!" I exclaimed, and my circle rose up, crackling as a black haze hit it, skating over its entirety to try to find a way in. Only now did I see Elyse in the corner, flat out and under what was probably a stabils curse, as she could talk but not move.

"Who are you! Get out of my rooms!" Newt shrilled at us both. The demon had apparently forgotten who we were. Crap on toast. Why can't I catch a break?

"Newt!" Immediately I stood up and broke my circle as if unafraid. But I was, and I kept a light thought within the ley lines, finding strength in the faint tickle of power. "Hey, ah, we brought you a coffee," I said, wincing when I saw it spilled on the floor. "Ah, we can get another one if you want."

With a twitch of her robe, Newt halted between Elyse and myself. Her chin was high, and it was obvious she was embarrassed, possibly thinking that she'd forgotten something important. Again. "Coffee?" she said, eyeing the brown puddle. "No."

"Okay." My pulse hammered and I forced my hands to unclench. "Where's, ah, Minias?"

"Hiding." Newt almost spat the word. "I think I know you. Is your name Futility?"

She was talking. We had a chance, and I eased my grip on the lines. "Elyse, you okay?"

"I spilled the coffee," she said, unmoving on the floor, and I began to inch toward her.

Newt cocked her head. "Or perhaps it's Ignorance."

"Ignorance will work," I said sourly. "You can call me Iggy."

Newt made a small sound. "Iggy, did I kill Minias?" she asked, arms going over her middle to drum her fingers atop her arm. "Bartholomew's balls, I hate bringing up a new familiar. You don't have enough smut to be of any use." She smiled, her black eyes fixed on mine as I moved around the edges of the room. "Yet."

"Minias is fine. I'm not a familiar. I have my soul, and so does Elyse. You and I were making a deal and were interrupted so I tracked you down so we could finish. Minias dosed you with a forget spell." Yes, it was a lie, but only one of timing. Minias spelled her at will.

"So I surmised." Scowling, Newt dropped into the couch where she could see both of us, almost disappearing in the indulgent cushions. "It may be time to retire him. Who owns you? That's Gally's mark. I can smell it from here." She hesitated. "And mine. On your foot. Perhaps I shouldn't have tried to kill you."

My gaze flicked to my boots and back. "I don't belong to anyone until I have three strikes," I said, suddenly worried.

"Three is traditional, but there are exceptions." Energy drifting about her fingers like a fog, Newt sat up, interested. "Are you good at potions? If I buy Al's mark, I will have two. He's got himself in some trouble. Selling his option might be his only way out." Her focus went distant as she played with the energy, making it spark. "He's in reality. In the sun. How is it, do you think, that he has found a way past the curse that keeps us here? I'm the only one who knows how to do that."

I froze as Newt pushed up out of the couch and strode to her wall of knickknacks, ribbons of black hazing behind her.

"Ah, give it a few more weeks. Don't want to be rash," I said with a little laugh.

Newt had her back to me, watching my reflection in a flat pewter plate. "I remember you now. You were at the Basilica. You wanted something, little demon summoner." Her gaze went to Elyse. "For her."

"I am not for sale!" Elyse shouted, red-faced and totally helpless.

"Half right." I inched forward to get between her and Elyse. "Elyse is not available. We had already come to an agreement before you left. I gave you a vision of the future, and you promised to give me an Atlantean mirror and two line jumps." Yes, it was another lie, but how else were we going to get out of here? Dosing her into forgetting wouldn't help, and I only had the one potion left.

"Line jumps that were never in the deal, and a vision you gave me of the future that I no longer remember." Newt laughed, but there was too much hopelessness in it to be a pleasing sound. "No line jumps. Besides, I may not have three marks on you, but you're in my living room. You're not leaving it."

I had reached Elyse. With the barest hint of line energy prickling through me, I touched her and broke the stabils curse. She sat up, almost sobbing in relief, her forehead on her knees as she shook. Across the room, Newt cleared her throat, clearly surprised.

"You okay?" I whispered as the last of the spell tingled through me and back into the ground. Elyse nodded—her head still on her knees—and I took the spilled coffee and crossed the room to Newt. "There's a swallow left," I said as I held out the half-full cup.

Newt silently considered me, probably thrown by how easily I'd broken the stabils curse. It wasn't hard to do, but it spoke of me having dealt with demons before. Still, she wasn't taking the cup, and I finally set it down.

"You were at the bar. You told me to run." Her black eyes narrowed to slits. "And I did. Why?"

Nervous, I backed up to the table and sat on the edge of a chair as if I was her equal. I wasn't. "The coven found us. We had to go."

"Us girls have to stick together," she whispered, and I stifled a wince. If she remembered that I had dosed her, we were up shit creek. "I forgot what I was doing there," she added. "Minias wants me to make a tulpa of it. He says if I immerse myself in it, I will remember. It might work." She watched me like a lioness at a waterhole, her aura edging into the visible spectrum as she pulled heavily on the ley lines. "Or you could tell me."

For a price, I thought, a flicker of hope rising through me despite her show of strength.

"Tulpa?" Elyse said cautiously as if to prove she wasn't scared.

"A memory made real so everyone can enjoy it." Silent, I pushed the coffee toward Newt as an offering to parlay. Not long from now, I'd make a tulpa to prove that I was a demon. It had stunned them, not just that I'd succeeded but that I'd given them a vision of the sun…and wide horizons…and purity. All things they ached for.

Newt rubbed her forehead, the prickling of her aura against my skin vanishing as she went from an active threat to merely a possible one. I knew how fast that could change, though, and didn't trust it. "If nothing else, tulpas fill the bank account," she muttered. "Why anyone will want to partake in a strip club is beyond me when they could bathe in the sun of preindustrial Africa. I think Minias is after something."

"He is." I shrugged out of my shoulder bag, careful to keep it closed. "About our deal. I give you a vision of the future and you give me an Atlantean mirror. And because I've had to track you down to finish it, I'm adding on two line jumps to the Basilica. I can get to reality from there on my own."

"That's where I first saw you." Newt's gaze fixed on Elyse, and the woman froze. "The Basilica. I was going to filch your familiar."

"I'm not her familiar," Elyse said from the corner, her face pale but determined.

"No?" Newt snickered. "You act like it."

"I do not wear her smut!" Elyse exclaimed, and Newt's smile went knowing.

"She's not mine to sell," I said. "Besides, look at her. She's right. What little smut she has is her own."

"Well, if she's not yours to sell, you won't mind me taking her."

I waved a hand at Elyse to stay put. "She's my friend, and I do."

Newt took the nearly empty coffee in hand. "That's hard for you, not me," she said, then tipped it high, draining the last swallow.

"Not happening, Newt," I said, feeling as if we were running out of time. "Now, about the mirror? Reasonably, what do you want for it and two jumps home? I have a book—"

Newt stood, and I tensed, the ley line sparking through me as I tightened my grip. "You are home," the demon said as she went to her spell bar, robe brushing the floor in a soft hush. "I've always enjoyed coven members waiting on me, but you, Iggy, I will crack slowly. Something good inside there."

She was getting erratic again, and I stood, motioning Elyse to get behind me. The need to fill myself with the strength of a ley line ached, but if I did, Newt would, too, and the demon was far more adept than I was. "Not happening," I said softly, gut hurting. "How about a book from the Kalamack estate? Apparently it's a complete volume. No missing pages."

"That belongs to the coven," Elyse hissed, and I gritted my teeth.

Newt turned, a bottle of something in her hand as she glanced at my shoulder bag. "I want to know how Gally escaped the ever-after. I'm the only one allowed to do that. How is it he's in reality when the sun is up? Can you tell me that? No? Then you're mine."

"Yes!" I exclaimed, almost shouting the word. "I can. I know! I saw it!"

Newt paused and put the cap back on, little sparks of energy falling like pixy dust. "You saw it?"

"Lived it, you might say."

Elyse put a hand on my shoulder from behind. "Don't," she whispered. "You can't."

Newt frowned. "You. Junior coven member. Shut it." Confidence absolute, Newt sat down, her arms draped across the back of the couch as she faced us. "You know," she added, gesturing for me to join her. "How could you possibly know? Entertain me with your stories. If I like them, I might keep you alive a little longer."

Speak truth only to the dead. That's what Al had said, and I felt a quiver race through me. Ah, well. Minias would probably make her forget. "I know because I was there. I can tell you how he did it. I can tell you why he did it. And I can tell you when it's going to fall apart and he's tossed back into the ever-after like a fish too small to be bothered with." I took a slow breath, my pulse fast. "And I can tell you what you were trying to find in my church and why Minias dosed you into forgetting. All of this in one simple act."

Newt's hand trembled, and I wondered if I'd gone too far. "That's where I know you," she said, her expression blanking, and I stifled a shudder. "That church. I blasphemed it to get to you. But you are not you. You were…unripe. Now you're bursting with potential."

Unripe? I suppose I was, two years ago. "The mirror and two jumps to reality," I prompted, and she twitched her robe in agitation. "Promise it," I added. "The mirror and two jumps to reality. I want to go to the Basilica. Both of us when I ask. Not when you feel like it."

Her black eyes narrowed on me. "Providing you tell me the truth, Iggy, and not a story."

I nodded, and Elyse inched closer. "You can't," she protested.

"She's going to remember it eventually," I muttered, and Newt beamed beatifically. "I need a knife," I said, knowing I didn't have one in my shoulder bag.

"What for?" Newt eyed me suspiciously.

"To show you the why, the how, and the when concerning Al's actions," I said, and the demon took one from her sleeve and flung it at me.

It hit the cushion beside my leg with a soft thump and I jerked, hesitating briefly at the bite of cold on my fingers before I tugged it free. "Thanks," I said, then used it to pierce my thumb. Red welled up, and I smeared it on the knife, standing so as to carefully hand it to her over the slate table.

"What? Am I supposed to be impressed?" she said, and I resettled myself, knees watery.

"Al— I mean, Gally was," I said.

She slowly tasted it, then lifted her eyes. "You are not a witch," she said, then flipped the knife in her grip to rend. "I killed all my sisters!"

I twitched, forcing myself to stay put, to not yank the line into me, and to sit quietly, hands in my lap. "I'm not your sister," I said. "I'm the way back, born a witch with the right amino acids to kindle demon magic and join the collective. Kalamack Senior repaired the damaged portions of my genome so the elven curse laid on you so long ago wouldn't kill me."

The flicker of unharnessed magic vanished from Newt's hands. "You are witch born?" she said, voice harsh. "And now the spawn of a Kalamack owns you!" she finished, furious.

"Trent does not own me!" I shouted, warming as I made a fist to hide the ring he had given me. "I'm currently arresting him at his own wedding. Does that sound like he owns me? My dad paid that debt with his life. I do what I want!"

"As do I." Newt hesitated, black gaze shifting between me and Elyse. "You are here and there both. You are yourself and yet different."

Ripe and unripe. I nodded. "This is how Al escaped and how he will be forced to return shortly after sunset tonight. I wasn't the only infant Kalamack Senior fixed. Gally's newest familiar, Stanley Saladan, was repaired as well in the hopes that in a few months from now one of us would fulfill Kalamack Senior's wish and steal a pre-curse elven DNA sample from the Basilica to cure the elves."

Newt sneered, shifting to sit almost sideways on the couch. "Over my dead body."

I shrugged. "Oh, you seemed happy enough with it." Elbow on my knee, I leaned forward. "I am going to bring back the elves, and because of it, I have the strength to save the demons. Put them in reality's sun where they belong." I hesitated. "Promise. It's already done."

Newt considered that, her black eyes giving nothing away. Behind her, a bottle began to crack, a thin spiderweb of fractures spreading over its surface.

"I need the mirror and two jumps to reality. Right now." I held my bag close, fingers trembling. "In that order. I've held up my end of the deal."

She stared at us. I could feel Elyse behind me, jerking when Newt leaned over the table and exhaled a warm mist.

"There's your mirror," she said, and I winced, remembering her doing the same at the bar. Mist and fog. She was giving me a riddle. "How is Gally getting around the curse that pins us here?"

Maybe if I spelled it out, she would do the same. "He's possessing Stanley Saladan, the link lasting past the sunrise because Stanley is genetically a demon. It wouldn't work with anyone else. Except me. But I will circle Al's frustrated, angry ass tonight and send him back to you."

Newt smirked. "Might be difficult if you're in my larder."

I shrugged. "It's already done." And it was, or it would be. Tonight would be the first city powers meeting that I called. Al would try to choke the death out of Piscary. I would circle him to save the undead vampire, banishing Al and finding out too late that I was trying to gain protection from the very undead vampire who had sent Kisten to die. A lie learned too late.

My throat closed at the memory. I had thought Kisten was gone. Jenks and Ivy, too. Despondent and seeing no way out, I would take the focus into myself to keep Piscary and Trent from getting it. The Hail Mary spell would all but drive me insane until it was removed. Jaw clenched, I shoved the remembered heartache away.

Newt was looking at me when my eyes opened from their slow, strength-gathering blink. "You moved through time using a curse developed to gauge abnormalities in the ley lines. Brilliant. How is it you are smart enough to do that and still be so blind about an Atlantean mirror?"

I licked my lips, angry at how badly things had spiraled out of control. "Don't trust Minias. I'll give you that for free."

With a little huff, the demon shook her hand and a sparkling of energy filled it. "That I already know. I remember you now. I remember everything. The deal is off."

"What? Hey!" I jumped, startled when Newt flung out a hand and a black haze sifted through my aura like cold snow. "Rhombus!" I exclaimed, but nothing happened. The line was gone. It just wasn't there. That fast, I was helpless before her.

I was an idiot, playing with gods, trusting that I knew what I was doing.

"No!" Elyse shrieked, that same black haze sticking to her as she stumbled back, terrified as she hit the wall, helpless.

"You can't call off a deal after you get what you want!" I exclaimed, and Newt stood before us both, a ribbon of black playing through her fingers like a little snake, the tail of which wound around both Elyse and me.

"We both got what we wanted," she said. "You are just too stupid to see it. You, coven witch, I will entertain first."

"Newt, don't do this!" I cried out, and then I gasped as Newt shoved me into a line, and from there, a little tiny hole.