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!”
A deafening roar went up from the demons in the darkness, and shapes and shadows surged up the stairs and through the massive doors surrounding the Assembly chamber. Their triumphant roars and starved shrieks added to the din.
“Go with them,” she ordered the Volghuls standing on guard around the columns.
I took a look and did the math. Only one Volghul was left for each of us. One on one. Now that’s what I called better odds. Yes, they were demons and we were unarmed mortals who couldn’t use our magic, but I knew for a fact we had something going for us that they didn’t—the desire to survive at any and all costs.
I felt a pressure building, and the air in the room contracted, tightened, as if something in the hall beyond was trying to suck all the air out of the Assembly. I covered my ears with my hands, trying to stop the stabbing pain against my eardrums. Everyone else did the same, demons included. Then the pressure stopped, suddenly and painfully. I lowered my hands, half expecting to see blood on them. All around us, the Assembly doors began slamming with resounding booms until they were all closed.
Beyond the doors was silence. On the dais, no one moved.
The doors didn’t open. No demons appeared to report victory to their queen. No mortals stormed the Assembly to rescue us. Nothing.
That was either really good or very bad.
“Kuitak!” the queen snapped at a Volghul.
“Your will, Majesty?”
“Take the Scythe and go free my—”
Oh, hell no.
My shoulder took the demon queen in the midsection with a satisfying thud. The Scythe flew out of her hand and skidded across the dais, disappearing over the side onto the floor below. We both scrambled for it, but not before the queen’s foot gave me a solid kick in the head, and black flowers bloomed on the edge of my vision. I shook them off and threw myself on top of her, grabbing for her throat, my weight and momentum taking her to the floor. The demon queen hissed and twisted sharply, putting us face to fangs with her on top. One of my arms was pinned between us, but the other got in two solid punches to the side of her face and she had a few less fangs.
The second punch snapped her head to the side and gave me enough leverage to flip her onto her back. Problem was I’d miscalculated how close we were to the dais stairs. I think I hit every bone in my body rolling down those stairs entangled with the demon queen. She was hissing; I was snarling. Her claws were going for my eyes; I was going for anything I could knee, elbow, or punch.
Everything was pretty much a blur while we rolled down the stairs, but from what I could hear, the boys were giving as good as they got. From the stench of burning demon flesh, I guessed that Vegard had gotten clear of the Hellgate distortion and was lobbing fireballs. Piaras’s voice rang out in a single, imperious word, and a Volghul flew by overhead, arms and legs desperately flailing. Tam’s sibilant incantations from the dais above us were tight with effort, fighting for control. I’d taken on the queen, leaving Tam to replace the void of her power with his own, to single-handedly try to keep the Hellgate from exploding, imploding, or whatever it was that a loose Hellgate did.
Tam was powerful, but he was mortal. His power had limits, and time was not on our side.
The queen and I rolled to a stop as a needle-thin shaft of white light exploded the head of the nearest Volghul. I didn’t move. It didn’t seem smart with skull-piercing lightning bolts flying around.
My mistake. A big one.
The demon queen got her hands around my throat and dug in. I screamed, searing pain following the hot wetness of my own blood running down my neck. I’d been right, her nails hadn’t survived the fight, but broken nails left jagged edges, and they were razor sharp.
A dot of blazing white light appeared in the exact center of the queen’s forehead. The fighting around us immediately stopped. The only sound was Tam’s unbroken stream of incantations and hissing, labored breathing.
The light remained where it was, unwavering.
“Her death will be your doing!” the demon queen shouted into the darkness.
A strong, deep voice came from the shadows just beyond the columns. Mychael’s voice. “Release her or share your guard’s fate.”
Just what I didn’t need—a hostage situation and a standoff all rolled into one.
Mychael’s statement was a warning; his words were raw power given voice. Demanding, compelling, those words gave the demon queen a choice, and one choice only—obey or die.
The queen swayed as if from an unseen breeze, but her hold on me never lessened. Mychael’s voice had gotten to her, and for a brief instant he had controlled her.
Her fiery eyes blazed with renewed rage. “Show yourself, mortal!”
I heard the sharp echo of Mychael’s boots as he stepped up on the stage and into the light, but he didn’t pass between the columns. He knew better. Mychael’s left arm was extended; the light beam coming from his index finger was leveled like the deadly weapon it was, never wavering from its target. In his right hand, his sword blazed with pure, white light. His entire body was surrounded by a glowing nimbus.
When the demon queen saw him, her full lips curved in a satisfied smile. “You. I should have known. Come to me, and I will allow the elfling to live.” Her words had power of their own, not the magical compulsion of a spellsinger, but the smoothly seductive tones of a temptress with millennia of experience.
“Release her and you will not die.” Mychael’s voice was calm, but unyielding.
The seductive smile twisted into a sneer. “You think you can destroy me? I will rule when you are dust. Come closer, paladin.”
“Sir, no!” Vegard shouted.
“I can feel the distortion from the gate,” Mychael assured him, keeping his eyes on the demon queen. “I need not come any farther. And neither do your brothers.”
Backup. Guardian backup. Now that was some much-needed good news.
“More flesh for my children,” the queen said in approval.
“More gifts for me.”
Mychael’s beam flared in intensity, searing a blackened circle into her forehead like a brand. The queen screamed in pain and fury, and her claws contracted. I clenched my teeth against the pain. I wouldn’t scream again.
“My children will feast on you!” she shrieked at him.
“Your children are prisoners.” Mychael’s voice was relentless. “Release her.”
“Impossible, there were hundreds.”
“Now they are captives.”
“You lie!”
“Then where are they?” he asked quietly.
The demon queen didn’t have an answer for that, and neither did I. But I had connected some dots, and I knew she wasn’t going to like the picture it made. When I told her, she’d either let me go or finish the bloody job she’d started. Anything was better than a naked demon queen on top of me.
I tried to speak without moving my throat, which was easier said than done. “You have no Scythe,” I rasped. “Saghred coming here . . . Guardians already here . . . Only I can touch the rock.” I swallowed, or at least I tried to. “And you have a beauty mark that’s about to become fatal.”
