Lisa Shearin - The Trouble With Demons

All under the command of the king and queen of demons.

“Mychael!”

It was Tam, he was up to his elbows in Hellgate, and the damned thing still wasn’t closed.

It was trying to open farther.

And it was no longer milky white. It was stretched so thin it was almost transparent. A riot of color pressed from the other side; faces and limbs and misshapen bodies surged against it. The tips of multiple and impossibly large claws punched repeatedly at the membrane, trying to puncture it and tear their way through. If they succeeded, it wouldn’t destroy the Hellgate.

It would destroy the need for a Hellgate.

The barriers between our world and theirs would cease to exist and the way would be open. Permanently.

Tam’s shout was for Mychael. His eyes-and his thoughts-were for me.

His thoughts. I could hear them. Tam was telling me all this. I knew nothing about Hellgates, but Tam did, and his thoughts were in my head.

He could use his magic again.

But only if he touched the Hellgate.

Tam needed Mychael and me. Rudra Muralin hadn’t been able to control an open Hellgate, or the demon queen that came with it. And the queen had to stay within inches of the thing to keep it under control. Together, we might be able to control it, possibly close it-unlikely, but possible-but it would take the three of us and everything we had.

It would take the Saghred.

In that instant I knew true fear. The paralyzing kind. Icy terror that freezes your blood and clenches your heart in its fist and won’t let go. I couldn’t move, and believe me, I wanted to. In the next few minutes, I was going to die by demon or Saghred, or maybe even both. Horribly, painfully killed. If it was death by Saghred, the rock would kill me first, then it would take Mychael and Tam.

After our failure, the demons would be free to take everyone else.

And they would start with Piaras, Phaelan, and Vegard.

A roar came from beyond the Hellgate and an impossibly large head thrust its gaping maw against the membrane with such force that I could see every curved fang, each longer than my hand. It wanted out. And unless we closed that Hellgate, it was coming out. People I loved were going to die-or pray for death.

That was not going to happen.

I might fail; I’d probably die. But every living thing on this island was going to die if I didn’t get my ass moving and do something to stop it.

I ran to Vegard’s side. “Take Piaras and Phaelan and get through that mirror. Now!”

Vegard’s face was the calm of the soon-to-be martyred. “I’ll take them, but I’m coming back.”

I didn’t believe this. Nobility was a disease around here. “Why? So you can-”

“And leave you with him ?” Phaelan jerked his head in Carnades’s direction. “You’re better off with the demons.”

“I’m staying,” Piaras insisted.

I clenched my teeth and I tried for calm; all I could muster up was barely controlled infuriation. Why wouldn’t anyone just do as I said?

“There’s nothing you can do here,” I told Phaelan and Piaras. I’d given up on Vegard. “I’m not sending you to safety; the citadel’s a war zone by now.” I blew out my breath. “Piaras, just please go to your brothers and do what you can. Go save some lives.” I felt myself smile, fierce and feral. “And Phaelan, go make Rudra Muralin pay for this-and make it hurt .”

Mychael barked orders and about a dozen Guardians ran out of the dark beyond the stage, armored for battle and armed for Hell. I thought I’d seen every weapon that could be forged from steel, but I was wrong. The Guardians’ weapons had sharp hooks and curved jagged blades-and the metal was green. If it was steel, it was no steel that I’d ever seen. Those blades had been made for a purpose, and from the black demon blood coating them, they and the grim-faced Guardians who wielded them had been doing their jobs.

A pair of them stopped in front of the only other remaining mirror. The tide of Volghuls had slowed, but not stopped. The Guardians had to wait less than two seconds for another horned demon to emerge. When it did, the Guardians impaled it as it was coming through, shattering the mirror. The men extracted their blades with a quick twist, and the upper half of the dead demon fell out of the mirror’s frame along with shards of shattered mirror. Severing the magic that linked the mirrors severed the demon coming through. And people thought mirrors were harmless.

Six of the Guardians charged through the citadel mirror in pursuit of the demon queen and Rudra Muralin-and hopefully to keep anyone from breaking the mirror from the other side and trapping us here. The remaining Guardians formed a protective circle around the mirror, steel in their hands since spells were worthless this close to the Hellgate.

In the dark beyond the stage, flashes of blue flame and demonic screams told me that the rest of Mychael’s men weren’t limited to steel. An intense volley of fireballs lit the entire Assembly as bright as day, and I saw what was out there.

Our situation just went from critical to unsurvivable.

Volghuls were everywhere. I had no idea how many there were, but there were too many, and they were too fast. While I was freeing Carnades and dodging green comets, those mirrors must have been belching Volghuls. Either that or some had survived whatever had happened out in the halls. The demons weren’t winning, but they weren’t dying, either. The Guardians were holding their own. Barely.

Volghuls weren’t our worst enemy; that distinction went to the elf standing entirely too close to the citadel mirror. Phaelan was right; I’d be better off with the demons.

Carnades Silvanus was a mirror mage, and he hated Tam and me and wanted to get rid of Mychael. I couldn’t read minds and in his case, I didn’t need to. I knew what the highborn SOB was thinking. Get through the mirror, destroy the one on the other side, and leave us all here to die or worse.

Take care of the Hellgate first, Raine; deal with the self-righteous jerk later.

Mychael took the stairs four at a time to Tam’s side, and I was right behind him.

Tam’s breathing was ragged, and his bottom lip was bleeding from where his fangs had bitten through in his effort. He tried for a weak smile. “This isn’t going as well as I planned.”

“There’s a lot of that going around.” I looked up and up some more. The Hellgate had grown taller, or maybe it was my terrified imagination. Taller, wider, longer-it didn’t matter. The damned thing was a Hellgate. Smaller wouldn’t make it any better, and bigger couldn’t make it worse than it already was.

“Mychael, how do we do this?” My voice sounded incredibly small.

He was calmly inspecting the Hellgate. The same things that gave me the shakes Mychael coolly analyzed for weakness and possible courses of action that would culminate in a brilliant plan. At least that was what I hoped he was doing. I was in so far over my head, I’d forgotten what the surface looked like.

“We banish it,” he said.

I blinked. “What?”

“Those demons want to be here. We make it unbearable for them to stay.”

I had no idea how Mychael planned to roll up the demonic welcome mat, but Tam and I needed to know, and quick.

Mychael removed his steel gauntlets, baring his hands. “Tam, when I tell you, pull your hands out of the Hellgate.”

Tam was incredulous. “But I’m the only thing holding-”

“You’re feeding it, Tam. Your body’s blocking the opening, but your black magic is feeding that frenzy.”

More monstrously huge faces thrust themselves against the membrane, stretching it so thin I saw the outline of an eyeball the size of my head.