Page 111 of Demon's Bluff
“She was happy,” I said softly. “Flying astride your shoulders, meting out justice. Saving those who looked to her from a pain she didn’t want them to carry.” I tilted my head to the ceiling. “That’s why she takes my place as the Goddess. To save me from a pain she didn’t want me to carry.But she will be happy, Adagio. And later, she will find peace. She will be allowed to set down her promise to keep her kin from heartache. She will be free. I promise you. Soon, not in forever. You will get your wish.”
I guess wishesweredifferent from regrets.
Adagio made a long, rumbling sigh. A drift of red sand sifted down the shaft…then nothing. He was gone.
My shoulders slumped…and then I jumped when the air grew stuffy, and with a scrabbling rasp, a thick, lion-tufted tail flicked into my cell. I pushed to the wall, jaw dropping when the tail was followed by gnarled feet, wiggling hips, and finally a wing-wrapped body as the ceiling gave birth to a craggy old gargoyle.
He hit the ground hard, catching his balance easily. I stared as Adagio shifted from foot to foot, wings rasping as they settled and he filled the space that was left. Glancing up at the hole, he shuddered. Dust sifted from him and he looked at the knife in my hand.
“I don’t know how to put it away,” I said as I set it on the floor. He was down here with me, and I felt myself go pale. Dude. The guy was huge, his gray skin crisscrossed with lumpy white scars. Something had shifted, and I didn’t know what.
“I listened to you at the Basilica. You rely on your friends because your friends rely on you. You understand demons better than they do themselves. What is your name?” he asked, his low voice rumbling like distant thunder against the curved walls to sound as if it was coming from right over my head.
I licked my lips. He wouldn’t hurt me, but this was really odd. I knew he didn’t care about me, but he was down here nevertheless. “Rachel Mariana Morgan,” I whispered, his presence demanding I use all three.
The tip of Adagio’s tail twitched, and I felt a pang of heartache when it curled about his feet like Bis’s. “That name will be forgotten,” he rumbled. “What is the name you will be remembered by?”
“My summoning name?” I blurted, sure that’s not what he wanted.
Adagio grimaced, his red eyes squinting at me in annoyance. “That is your name that no one speaks. Whoareyou?”
I started to say no one, and then I hesitated. I was no one to him already. He didn’t care about who I was, only what I was to Bis. “I am the world breaker’s sword,” I whispered, letting go of my ego and becoming smaller. “I belong to him. To Bis.”
“Ahhh.” Adagio’s ear flicked. “That one I know. But that is a thing of the future, not the past. The ever-after abides. As foul and broken as it is.”
I stiffened as he shuffled closer, closing one eye in a wincing squint when he breathed deeply over me.
“Or not,” he mused, a hint of confusion in his gravelly voice. “You have already ridden the back of the universe, turning the shadow of memory to bone and dust and air.”
He meant creating a new ever-after, and I smiled in remembrance. “Yeah, but Bis is the real artist.”And I am going to miss him.
“Youare the sword used to break the worlds?”
I squinted at him in apology. “Sorry if you were expecting more.”
Wings clamped tight, Adagio looked confused. “The world breaker lives,” he whispered, almost unheard. “He’s among us even now.”
“He is alone,” I countered, and Adagio seemed to start, his wide-ranging thoughts coming back to the now. “Or he will be.”
A low rumble rose from him, vibrating through me. “Wait,” Adagio said, and then he stretched a long, muscular arm up, easily finding the opening and pulling himself up and into the shaft.
“Hey! Where are you going?” I called as he struggled, chunks of rock falling as he dragged himself upward. “Wait for what?”
But he was gone, and I stared at the ceiling, tense until, with the scrape of metal on stone, the grip of Adagio’s beaten sword dangled just within my reach. I was going to get free.
But Nick wasn’t. He was not anyone’s sword, and as Adagio called down to find out if his sword reached, I usedQuaereto scratch a note on the wall to Nick in the hopes that it would survive until he found it.
“Grasp the sword!” Adagio demanded.
“Just a sec!” I called, scribbling,Ta-ta, Nick. Kiss, kiss, Rachel.
Okay, maybe that had been unnecessary and snarky, but I felt better.
I felt even better yet when I grasped the ancient silver handle with both hands, holdingQuaerebetween my teeth as Adagio pulled me up. I bowed my head, teeth clenched when my shoulders bumped and pebbles rained down. Something passed through my aura, and with a shocking suddenness, I was free and the gritty wind pushed on me.
Adagio held the sword high, and I let go to drop lightly to the ground. It was dark, but the sun couldn’t be too far away, and the pinch of time dug at me.
“Thank you,” I whispered, and Adagio leaned heavily upon his dented sword.