Page 112 of Demon's Bluff
“I do this for the world breaker. When you hurt, he hurts. And he does not deserve to hurt.”
“No, he does not.” I reached out, his muscular arm warm under my hand as I looked into his red eyes, squinting at something familiar. “I only want to get home to him.”
“Be more careful. He needs you.”
I nodded, surprised when he ran a single gray-scarred finger across my jawline. A hint of the ley line lifted through me, and then his attention shifted over my shoulder.
“Gotta go,” he said, suddenly panicked. His hand dropped and his wings flashed open. Pushing down once, he was in the air, leaving a swirl of gritty red dust.
When I could see again, he was nothing more than a fast-moving shadow heading west.
I managed a weak laugh as I stared up at the red-smeared sky past the black clouds. “Come out to the ever-after,” I mocked, tired and sore as I beat the dust from my spelling robe. “We’ll steal a few spells. Have a few laughs…”
“Adagio!” came a piercing scream, echoing against the heavy, dusty air.
I spun, face going cold. It was Newt.
Chapter
27
Panic froze me as Newtshouted curses at the fleeing shape of Adagio, his craggy silhouette a darker slash against the sunset-gloomed red sky. The ley line was right there. All I had to do was back into it and will myself across.Elyse,I thought as Newt howled in anger, a sparking glow rising from her when she drew heavily on that very same line. My resolve strengthened. In the past, surviving had taken everything I had. I would not allow it to take everything my friends had, and damn it, even if Elyse wasn’t my friend, she had trusted me.
I wouldn’t abandon her.If it’s the last thing I do,I thought, hoping it wasn’t a prediction as I fingeredQuaere.
Exhaling, I centered my thoughts into the same ley line Newt was drawing on. Energy roared in and Newt spun as she felt it, her dark eyes wide when she saw I was still here and hadn’t fled. A quiver of angst rocked me; I was standing up to Newt.
“You. Stay,” she intoned. “I’ll deal with you in a moment.”
I took a breath to answer her, gasping when the ley line suddenly grew slippery. It was the same curse she had used on me before, and I gathered it to me, completely oblivious to the second spell barreling at me. Too late I saw the arc of black and red, and her spell struck, knocking me to my knees as it crawled over me, seeking a way past my aura. My breath froze in my lungs, knees pained on the cold red soil. Tighter, her grip wound,black bands crushing as I scrambled to maintain my hold on the ley line to break her spell, but it was as if it was made of sand.
“Ad coelum!”Newt shouted, her back to me and her arms out as energy ripped from her into the sky, where it exploded into an aurora borealis of red and gold to rival the sun. Spinning madly, the spell whirled the dust into a sparkling tornado about Adagio to bring him down.
I struggled to get free, but the more energy I drew in to break her spell, the more her spell crushed my lungs—until I finally figured it out and let go of the line.
With a ping, her spell broke.
I looked up, gasping for air when Adagio hit the ground with an earth-shattering thump, his chin plowing a furrow as he scraped to a halt before Newt.
The whirlwind dissipated and I stood, shaking as my eyes went from the dusty, disheveled gargoyle to the handful of surface demons scattering. I hadn’t even known they were there, their auras ragged as they ran for cover. They didn’t go nearly far enough, and even as I watched, they began creeping back like coyotes searching for scraps.
“Adagio,” I whispered. Newt stood before him, hands on her hips as she stared up at his massive strength—an ant before a monster.
“You freed her?” she shouted, furious, and the enormous being clamped his wings about himself as if embarrassed.
“She found her own way out,” he muttered, voice rumbling like distant thunder as he stared into the middle distance and lied.
I followed his gaze to the nearby line. He was telling me to leave, but I couldn’t. I wouldn’t abandon Elyse. I had to outsmart Newt, and my grip onQuaeretightened as my attention flicked from her to a surface demon, scuttling from rock to rock—ever closer.
“That works,” I whispered, then used the transposition stone to make one look like me. Quickly I overlaid the image of myself into one of them. It might give me the instant of distraction I needed, and as the remaining surface demons began to stalk the disguised one, I fell into a hunch and scuffed closer to Newt.
Adagio pinned his ears, not at Newt still yelling at him, but at me as I began to useQuaereto scrape a circle, wide and perfect, around them both. It was a stupid idea, but it was the only one I had. I couldn’t hold Newt in a circle. But maybe one drawn byQuaerecould.
Until she spun on her heel, robes furling as she turned.
“And you!” she shouted, and I froze, breath held as she blipped right over me, her attention going to the disguised surface demon.“Implicare,”she intoned, and the surface demon howled as a black mist tangled about its feet and sent it down.
Crap on toast, she was moving, and I skittered out of her way, my circle only half drawn as she stopped before the thrashing surface demon. Adagio clearly knew who I was, the gargoyle carefully stepping out of the circle as I finished scraping it. Only trouble was, Newt wasn’t in it, either.