Page 109 of Demon's Bluff

But regardless of my pride being ground to a paste under Newt’s heel, I had to get out of here. Kisten was languishing under the library. I couldn’t save him, but I had hoped I could say good-bye, maybe, when he left. Now, even that was gone, and I blinked the sudden tears away.

“Way to go, Rachel,” I whispered, throat tight. I had dropped myself in the past thinking that, with everything I’d learned, I would be okay, but it hadn’t been enough. I needed my friends. I was never going to get out of here. I was going to die in this cruddy little hole in the ground, and Nick was going to find my bones next to Fred.

“I’m sorry, Elyse,” I whispered, knowing there was no return for her, either. I’d never see Ivy or Jenks again, never see Trent, touch his face, feel his strength, his gentleness, his love.

I sniffed back the tears as I spun the ring he’d given me, indulging in my pity party. It wasn’t as if I had anything else to do. I had risked everythingfor what? Because I was scared of the coven? Because I couldn’t leave Cincy to its fate? Because of my pride?

And then I sighed, the pain about my chest easing. No. I’d risked everything because I had used a dark curse and hurt someone. I’d come here not to evade the coven’s snare but to find a freaking Atlantean mirror and uncurse Brad. That it would free me from the coven was simple justice.

But it was still my pride that had gotten me stuck.

“Son of a moss wipe, pixy-pissed, troll-turd excuse of a demon!” I shouted, hearing my voice hit the smooth walls and floor.

Maybe if I made myself look like Fred, Newt might throw me out with the garbage,I thought. Newt had my bag and everything that was in it. Apart from being able to tap into a line, all I had was the transposition charm. That, and my wits.

Grimacing, I got to my feet. Maybe it was like an escape room where, if I could find a way out, I’d be worthy to be her familiar. I’d been down here a good ten minutes. The air wasn’t getting stale. There had to be an exchange.

More careful now, I began to explore, skirting Fred’s remains as I ran my hand over first the walls, then the ceiling, searching for the way out. Not a glimmer of magic or a hint of fresh air found me. The walls were perfect, almost as if I was in a bubble and the rock was only an illusion, like a holodeck on a sci-fi flick.

Like a glamour,I mused. Lips pressed, I fumbled for the transposition stone and peered through it. Inch by inch I went over the walls and floor and ceiling, pulling the air into my lungs with a pained slowness as I searched for a stronger scent of burnt amber until, with a jolt, I found it. There in the ceiling under my questing fingertips was a laced mesh of power glowing with a silken thread of black. It had to be covering something.

Eyes narrowed, I stared up at the ceiling.“Adaperire,”I cautiously whispered, yelping when even that mild of an open spell bounced back with a vicious fire, flicking over my aura and soaking in with a harsh warning. And yet it was proof that something was there to protect.

Stymied, I stood where I was, head craned and arms over my middle. I’d found the opening. I couldn’t see it without the stone, but clearly something was there. It was magical in nature, meaning only magic could break it. I needed something subtle to pare the spell away. I needed a knife, but not just any knife, which I didn’t have anyway. I needed a magic knife.

I lifted my brow at the first hints of an idea. I could tap a line. I had been accessing spells from the demon collective since we got here. I’d taken a summoning name this week if I had my timing right. Maybe I could get into the demons’ vault? Not for a lethal charm but for something with the exquisite precision needed to cut through a powerful spell.

I sat down right where I was, a thread of excitement spilling through me. Eyes closing, I exhaled to quiet my thoughts…then sent them into the collective. My breath caught and I felt a moment of familiar vertigo as the multitude of conversations beat at me. They were all in my head, and I tried to muffle my confusion and sly hope amid the deals being struck, complaints being made, and gossip finding a foothold.

I say Gally has no proprietary claim on the spell that allowed him to break the summoning curse,came loudly into my mind.Even if he would use it to pay his debt for letting that bitch of an elf Ceri escape knowing how to spindle line energy. The spell to give us reality again belongs to everyone.

It was Dali, the self-appointed leader of the demons, second only behind the erratic power of Newt, and I hid my presence behind a cluster of thought revolving around Newt’s recent disappearance, and perhaps it was time to trade Minias out for a more careful caretaker?

“Reserare,Jariathjackjunisjumoke,”I whispered, shuddering when the word to enter meshed with my password and I felt my thoughts drop into the vault.

The conversations vanished with a shocking suddenness as my mind shrank down to just me. But it didn’t stay that way, and soon the long-fallow memories of the demons who had died over the eons rose up from the shadows, their presence clinging to the spells they’d made, their essence angry and vindictive as they demanded I use the war curses they had twisted and stored here. I ignored them, my thoughts on one thing only:Al’s dagger. I hadn’t accidentally given it to Dali yet. It had answered to me once before. Perhaps it would again.

Quaere,I whispered into my thoughts, framing my request with my belief of its obedience.I summon you, Quaere, not to soak in my enemy’s blood but to sever their snare that would see me languish into death. I summon you at the will of your maker, Algaliarept.

Either it would come or it wouldn’t, and I felt a smile find me as my hands in my lap began to thrum, an eager thirst tickling the edges of my awareness.

My eyes opened, my sight pulling me from the demons’ war vault. In my hands was a small dagger, hazed with magic and prickling against my aura. Actually, itwasmagic, and with it I could kill demons and elves.

I was sure it would be disappointed when it found out all I wanted to do was escape.

“Thank you,” I whispered, knowing the dagger had a quasi-intelligence. It didn’t recognize time, didn’t know that I shouldn’t be aware of it until two years from now. All it knew was that I had called with the assurance that it should answer…and it did.

I stood with a renewed hope. Peering through the transposition curse, I angled the knife to the faintest haze of black, cringing as I boldly slashed through it.

Magic cramped my hand and arm, and I hunched with a muffled cry. The dagger, though, pulsed in satisfaction, and my head snapped up at the new scent of dust. The glamoured mesh was gone. A three-foot-wide shaft rose straight up through the rock. At the top, a patch of night sky showed, blacker than the walls lit by my light, and I stifled a quiver of angst.Not too late…

“Yes!” I exclaimed, deciding that if I could get into the smooth shaft, I could wedge-walk my way to the surface. I hesitated to make sure Newt wasn’t coming to investigate, and then I jumped for the opening, fingertips brushing the inside before falling short.

There was no way.

Peeved, I looked over the cell, seeing only Fred. The thought to animate him to give me a boost came and went. I couldn’t do that. Fred wasn’t going to be much help. Using a charm to propel me up the shaft wasn’t happening, either, lest I miscalculate and snap my neck. I needed something to stand on or someone to pull me out. Unfortunately, the only things up top were surface demons and the occasional gargoyle.

Gargoyle?I mused. I couldn’t call Bis, but maybe Adagio would help.