Lisa Shearin - The Trouble With Demons

Close the Hellgate. Jump through a mirror.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Tam’s lips form a word that not only told me what he thought of my plan, it perfectly described what the grunting demons were doing in the dark. I clenched my jaw and squared my shoulders, my body language telling him that if he didn’t like my idea, he’d better come up with something better, and quick. Tam had to know why the queen hadn’t gone more than a few feet away from the Hellgate. He’d opened a Hellgate before; he knew how to close one. And if there was any chance that he could close this one, we needed a way out.

Or we needed the mother of all distractions.

I couldn’t use magic right now, and I couldn’t fight the demon queen, at least not on her terms. I’d leave the Hellgate to Tam. I had to find out which mirror led to the citadel. And I’d do it using a tactic that had gotten members of my family killed about as often as it’d saved our asses. I drew a ragged breath to do what I did best.

I knew how to piss people off. What can I say? It’s a gift.

“Excuse me,” I said to the demon queen.

“Raine,” Tam growled in warning. Bond or no bond, he knew me too well.

“How long has your husband been in the Saghred?” I asked her.

Wary replaced smug on her flawless face. “Why ask you, elfling?”

“I have a reason, a reason that would concern any woman.” I was trying for calm; my heart was trying to beat itself out of my chest. “How long has it been?”

“Millennia.”

“You have had access to… uh… amusements.” I paused and forced myself to breathe. “He hasn’t. I’ve been inside the Saghred twice. There’s nothing in there but a lot of gray void and rotting wraiths. I imagine His Majesty has been doing a lot of sitting and waiting. Believe me, there’s nothing amusing about that.”

The queen’s red eyes narrowed. “What are you implying?”

I spread my hands defensively. “I’m sure it’s nothing. I don’t know all that much about mirror magic, but I do know that your husband can’t get back here through whichever one of these mirrors leads to citadel without a body.”

She didn’t glance toward one of the mirrors. Dammit.

“Then he will take a body,” she said.

I nodded. “Chances are he’ll grab himself a Guardian body, seeing that they’re guarding the Saghred. A big, strong, manly body. With manly urges,” I added meaningfully. “Urges that he hasn’t indulged in a long time.”

The queen’s full lips curled into a sensuous smile. “Then I shall welcome his return.”

Again, no glance at a mirror. Double damn.

I played my last card. “I’m certain your husband has no problem with impulse control. His only desire will be to come home to wife, dinner, and brimstone hearth.” I hesitated thoughtfully. “ However , he’ll have the Saghred, a Guardian body, and all the nubile coeds he can… whatever. The seven kingdoms at his mercy, the works. He’s been penned up in the Saghred. I’ve been in there; it’s not a resort.” I jerked my head toward Carnades and Rudra Muralin. “You’ve set the table, but do you honestly think he’s coming home?”

“You have a point, elfling.” The queen contemplated something over my left shoulder. I casually turned and looked where she was looking.

Mirror number two was escape route number one. I gave a little silent cheer and bit my lip to keep from grinning.

The demon queen gestured and at least a dozen chittering purple demons scrambled up onto the dais from the dark. Volghuls in miniature. She bent to speak to the mini-demons. “The citadel air passages, my children. Use them quietly and use them well. Go.”

The little demons leapt through the mirror to the citadel and were gone.

“They will bring me the Saghred,” the queen told me. “Instead I will release my husband once the stone is here.”

The bottom fell out of my stomach.

Last week, Piaras’s voice carried through an air duct into the Saghred’s containment room and put the stone to sleep. Now tiny demons were scrambling into those same ducts on their way to the Saghred, and the demon queen hadn’t budged an inch.

That could have gone better.

“Satisfied?” Tam muttered.

I didn’t know how much time we had until the mini-demons grabbed the Saghred and came back through that mirror, but depending on how close the exit mirror was, we might only have minutes.

There were no Guardians in the room with the Saghred. The containments on the rock had all failed, so Mychael had pulled his men back. And if the mini-demons managed to keep their chittering to themselves, they could get back here with the rock before any Guardians were the wiser.

Here. Right here. We’d be in the same room with an unshielded Saghred and a demon queen who had the key to open it. And once she did, the demon king might not be the only one to escape. Sarad Nukpana was in there, as were thousands of other things that should never be allowed to leave.

But my father was also in there.

Every last one of them was a soul without a body. And here we all were, lined up like sheep for slaughter-or in this case, possession. Sarad Nukpana could possess Piaras for real this time.

I felt a growl starting in my chest and I let it grow. I figured I couldn’t be scared out of my wits and growl at the same time.

If the queen was using all of her strength to keep the Hellgate open, that meant she couldn’t spare any magic to obliterate me. She could stick me up there next to Rudra Muralin, but she wouldn’t kill me; she needed me. And if she did get off a shot, her concentration would waver, and the Hellgate would flicker. I’d have to trust Tam to act when that happened. He’d never let me down before, and I had to believe now wasn’t going to be the first time-and the last. I dug deep into my rage, trying to scrape up some courage to go along with it. To do what I was going to do, I’d need every last bit of both and then some.

The queen’s nails were all twisty; I told myself they’d never last in a real fight. And that was what I was going to give her-a fight like she’d never had. If I died doing it, fine. At least I’d die; it’d be a damned sight better than being a Saghred-wielding demon slave.

I was a Benares. If I was going out, I was taking that bitch with me.

Of the five of us, I was the closest to her and she was mine.

I looked over at Phaelan. He smiled, showing me all of his teeth. Whatever I had up my sleeve, he wanted to be in the middle of it.

Vegard was like Phaelan; he’d wanted to kill something ever since we’d been grabbed. If he died doing it, not a problem. He was a Guardian; it was his job. Piaras’s eyes were determined-and warm brown. There was no sign of Sarad Nukpana. The goblin was probably too busy shoving his way to the front of the line to get out of the Saghred.

I felt Tam’s eyes on me. I turned just enough to see the barest nod. I let out the breath I wasn’t aware that I’d been holding. When I moved, so would he.

I shifted my weight, ready to spring. The demon queen was within range. As she turned toward Rudra Muralin, it was as though everything went into slow motion. She was turning to taunt him, and it was like I had all the time in the world. I bared my own teeth. I didn’t need all the time in the world, just two seconds to get her on the ground and get that dagger.

The queen froze, then spun around, her eyes glowing and locked not on me, but on the back of the Assembly.

I heard it. Voices coming from beyond the doors, in the halls with the eggs and their Volghul guards. Mortals and demons shouting, screaming, struggling.

“Children!” The demon queen’s voice rang out. “I release you to feed!”