Chapter 10

10

It was a barren world. A dark forest with scarce, burned trees, with sand-like flat black ground, somehow firmer, and … were those red eyes peeking from behind the trees?

“We’re definitely not alone,” Rage said, holding his spear tight. “Remember, be prepared for anything.”

We dropped each other’s hands, but no one else reached for weapons, as we all fought with magic. And in Wyatt’s case, his wolf self.

To be honest, this place didn’t look much different from the top of the cliff, and the terrain we had been traveling through earlier—everything dry, dead, and black. But down here, the air felt heavier, it felt darker and vicious.

I considered myself brave, but if I hadn’t come with my friends, I wasn’t so sure I would be able to continue.

“What now?” Lacey asked.

“We keep moving,” Rage said. He glanced at Barn and Mill and pointed to eleven o’clock. “That direction?”

“Yes,” both of them answered.

Spear in hand, Rage marched ahead and we followed. I tried keeping a leash on my magic, but it didn’t want me to. At least I knew I could summon my Celestial sword in a second if needed.

As we walked among the dead trees, the creatures that had been hiding behind them moved away, to more distant trees, but they kept on spying on us. I kind of expected an attack from them, but after an hour of walking, I decided they were more afraid of us than we were afraid of them.

For that hour, barely anyone talked. All we could hear were our footsteps on the ground, the snapping of dried branches when we stepped on them, and our breathing. Everyone here was tense and their breathing elevated.

Another hour or so went by and slowly the scenery changed. The dried, dead trees became increasingly sparse, until at some point, there were barely any left. Small inclines started shaping the ground, but we stopped when we were faced with an actual valley.

We paused at the edge, right where the ground sloped down. The valley was wide and long, but it didn’t look deep.

“We should go around,” Mill said.

Rage gestured to the length of the valley. “It’ll cost us hours.” He looked down at the valley. “Let’s cross it.”

He was the first to jump in, followed by Drake, Jasmin, and Zad.

Wyatt and Farrah walked down, their feet skidding on the loose pebbles over the dry terrain. The two vampires and the other demons jumped in too. Lacey shrugged at me and then started walking down the steep side of the valley.

Rage was halfway through the place when I stepped in.

Instantly, the ground rumbled and fell, bringing in a cloud of dust around us. My stomach plunged up and I widened my stance, sure I would fall and be swallowed by dirt.

Then it all stopped and the dust settled.

“Everyone okay?” Drake asked, glancing around.

I looked around, checking that yes, everyone was okay, but we were in a different place. Well, it was still the same valley, but somehow it had become deeper and now the edge of the valley had become a canyon and its edge was at least thirty feet up, if not more.

“How—” The words died on my lips as dark light crackled from my left and I turned to it.

A figure knelt in the dead center of this place, his hands stretched to the sides and shackled to two short, dark pillars.

“A demon,” Zad muttered.

“A higher demon,” Jasmin said.

As if just now aware that he wasn’t alone, the demon lifted his head, his long dark hair billowing around his sharp face. Where was the damn wind coming from?

His dark eyes zeroed in on us, his head tilting slightly. “I haven’t had company in a while,” he said, his voice rough, deep.

Drake took a couple of steps toward the demon but stopped at a safe distance. “Who are you?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know.” The edge of the demon’s hard lips curved up.

“Why are you here?” Jasmin asked. She glanced back at us and whispered, “I had no idea we had a higher demon imprisoned here.”

“Did you see a fireball falling from the sky?” I asked. That was the only question that interested me.

“I’ll answer all of your questions,” he said, the curve along his lips increasing. “If you free me.”

“No,” Rage snapped.

“If you’re here, then there’s a reason,” Drake said.

Jasmin shook her head and turned to us. “He can’t go anywhere. Let’s move.” She glanced at Rage and said in a deep voice, “We can come back after, with reinforcements, and find out more.”

Rage dipped his chin once. “You heard the princess,” he said to all of us. “Let’s go.”

I frowned, hating that we were wasting this opportunity to find out if he had seen any traces of Levi and Ylena, but I also got the feeling he wouldn’t answer anything, no matter what we did to him.

With a sigh, I turned and started walking toward the huge, straight wall.

A yelp came from my right, where Lacey was a second ago.

I whirled on my heels and stilled.

Darkfire wrapped around Lacey’s middle as she hovered in front of the demon.

He inhaled deeply as he sucked her magic into his through the darkfire connecting them both.

“He has magic!” Farrah shouted.

“And now he’ll have more,” Wyatt said with a snarl.

“Let her go!” I yelled, calling my magic. As usual, it flickered, but didn’t answer. All right, sword it was. I extended my arm and my Celestial sword appeared in my hand.

However, before I could do anything, Rage stepped to my side, a spear of darkfire poised over his shoulder. “I’ve got this.”

“You’ll hit her,” I muttered.

“No, he won’t,” Drake said, his gaze trained on Lacey as she gasped, her arms outstretched beside her, her skin growing paler by the second.

Rage threw the spear and Drake zoomed with his incredible speed. He grabbed Lacey’s hand and tugged as far to the side as she could while wrapped in darkfire, and Rage’s spear flew toward the demon’s shoulder.

At the last second, the demon twisted, somehow bending his arm and bringing the chain around his wrist up.

The spear hit the chain, breaking it.

With a wicked half-smile, the demon rose to his feet and inhaled deeply, taking more of Lacey’s magic. Drake pulled and pulled her, but the darkfire didn’t budge, not even when the vampire lord attacked it directly.

“He’s going to kill her!” I walked closer, ready to slice him open before he broke the other set of chains.

“I don’t need to kill her.” He inhaled one more time and then the darkfire disappeared. Lacey fell heavily over Drake.

Ice shards, light magic, and darkfire rained in the demon’s direction but all he did was create a wall of darkfire that reverberate with each assault but didn’t break.

Undeterred by our attack, the demon wrapped darkfire around the chains that still connected his right arm to the pillar and tugged. It groaned but held. He closed his fists, putting more of whatever magic he still had on it, and pulled again.

This time, the chains broke.

But what he hadn’t seen was Jasmin sneaking behind us all, behind him.

She reached him and placed a hand on his back.

Instantly, his shoulders slacked and he turned to her with dopey eyes.

“She’s using her magic on him,” Zad observed.

Her siren magic.

The one that entranced anyone in her web, made them enraptured by her, inescapable from her clutches, and dictated she had to consume souls to survive.

“I didn’t know it worked on demons,” Farrah whispered.

“Me neither,” I noted. Especially a higher demon.

Unless he was faking it.

The demon stared at Jasmin in awe. He reached for her, grasped her arms, ran his hands up her neck, and cupped her face. It was as if he couldn’t get enough of her.

And then he leaned in to her for a kiss.

No, not faking it.

Jasmin turned her face and his lips planted on her cheek. Closing her eyes, Jasmin placed a hand on his chest and inhaled. A shimmer appeared around the demon, almost like a faint glittery, dark snake.

“Is that …?” Wyatt asked, his eyes wide.

“His soul,” Zad said, his voice clipped.

The demon’s soul swirled around them, until it found Jasmin’s parted lips. She inhaled deeply through her mouth and took his soul in.

“Delicious,” the demon muttered. In a matter of seconds, he crumpled to the rough ground and Jasmin stepped back, as if he would stain her shoes if he kept on touching her. “My master will want to know about you …”

He went still.

Drake helped a dazed Lacey up, then toed the fallen demon. “Is he dead?”

The princess shook her head. “No. I took a lot, so he’ll be weak for a long time.” She glanced at Rage. “Probably long enough for us to come back and question him.”

Rage nodded. “Right. We should find out who is he, why he’s here.”

“Who put him here,” Jasmin said.

“And who his master is,” Drake added.

I ran to Lacey while the others chained the fainted demon back to the pillars.

“Are you okay?” She nodded, but wobbled to the side, and I held her arms so she wouldn’t fall.

“I’m okay,” she whispered.

“How … is your magic?”

“It’s fine. It’ll be fine.”

“Are you sure?”

She nodded again. To me, she felt weak and dazed, and she needed rest. But we had to get out of here. I grabbed a cereal bar from my bag and handed it to her. “Here. It’ll give you some energy.”

She took the cereal, but her movements were sluggish as she unwrapped it and took a small bite.

When the demon was secured on the pillars once again, Jasmin started weaving a ward around him. “So he won’t be able to get free until we come back.”

“I can help,” Lacey said. She shoved the last piece of cereal bar in her mouth and walked to Jasmin.

“You were just drained by a demon!” I argued.

“He didn’t take much,” she said.

I watched with hawk eyes as Lacey helped Jasmin, and they wove a fine thread of magic around the demon. Should he wake up and break the chains, he wouldn’t be able to get through the ward.

At least, that was the hope.

Rage looked around us. “Let's get out of here.”