Legacy of the Demon (16 page)

The shade around him flickered with emerald and sapphire sparkles as if the sun shone through gem stones. I didn't know if the tree was telling me to go the fuck away since I'd done enough damage, or saying
It's okay, I'll help him.

It was beautiful, and I felt like shit.

Tears stung my eyes. I spun away and fast-walked to the house. The headaches encouraged the lords to forget the thoughts that triggered them. Maybe this one would also erase that I was a cruel bitch.

But even if Rhyzkahl didn't remember what I'd done, I would.

I slumped to sit at the kitchen table. Fillion mewed fiercely, then climbed up a chair and onto the table, trotted over to me and jammed his head into my chin.

“You just want a treat,” I said but accepted the nuzzle. And of course gave him a treat. Cats were pretty cool for cheering a body up.

Ooh!
I pushed up from the table and ran to my bedroom where Squig was curled into a tight ball of fur on my pillow. I carefully scooped her up then hurried out back as quickly as I could without jostling her fully awake.

Rhyzkahl still lay huddled at the base of the tree, eyes squeezed shut and face etched in pain. As gently as possible, I settled Squig into the crook of his neck. Neither kitten nor lord opened their eyes, but Rhyzkahl shifted one hand to cup the kitten closer and murmured a word that didn't sound like demon and definitely wasn't English. Squig yawned mightily then revved up a loud purr. The lines of pain in Rhyzkahl's face eased a bit.

Exhaling in relief, I slipped away and returned inside, then snuck a peek out the window. Rhyzkahl was stroking the kitten with gentle fingers. Good. We both felt better now.

My phone buzzed with a message from Idris. <
Video chat in five?
>

I texted back confirmation then headed to the war room with its video conferencing setup. At precisely five minutes after his text, his call came in, and the wall screen lit up with his image. He sat at a table in a mobile camp, camouflage net overhead and DIRT personnel bustling in the background. Sweat-streaked soot and grime covered his face, and one sleeve of his maroon
fatigues hung in tatters. A heavy bandage was visible on his forearm.

“Looking good out there, Idris,” I said. “How bad is the arm?”

He shrugged. “Only fifteen stitches. I'd just sling-shotted a reyza when a savik decided that getting its claws on me was more important than anchoring the rift.”

“Ouch. Glad you're still in one piece,” I said. “Would you mind writing up how you do those arcane shield busters?”

“Sure can. I'm in touch with a guy who wants to design a gun for arcane specialists—combination mini-grenade launcher, super-Taser, and rifle. He says he can build it where it'll fire a disruptor sphere that can be followed with bullets.”

“Dude, my squad would pee themselves if I handed them a weapon like that,” I said. “If you think your guy is legit, tell him to work up a prototype. I'll make sure it's seen by the right people.”

“Awesome. From your message, it sounds like I have a lot to catch up on.”

“Uh-huh, and there's more since I called.” I proceeded to brief him on the pre-anomaly tangle and the situation with the rakkuhr and the mutations. I gave him a moment to curse his demonic lord-father's part in it before I moved on to Giovanni's arrival. After that, I texted copies of the Jontari memoir, and we spent a good five minutes hashing over possible reasons for why we'd been kept in the dark, and by whom. Even though we didn't come up with definitive answers, it felt good to talk it out with another summoner who shared the same confusion and outrage.

I went on to describe my discovery of the AWOL four in the Beaulac area. “It was odd. Like they're here but not.”

“You could check out places that've had arcane activity in the past to narrow down where they might be holed up.”

“Good idea. I'll do that.” I scrawled a note to myself. “Now for the other big news. Fixing the pre-anomaly powered up the Spires, and Pellini and I kind of finished switching them on. Turns out they're a gate that's been dormant for thousands of years. Kadir's Earthgate. It's working.”

His face lit up, then he let out a whoop and leaped up to punch the air. “A gate! That's incredible!” He dropped back into the chair, grinning. I found myself grinning as well. I hadn't seen him
enthused
since before the Mraztur captured him.

“That must mean the ways are open,” he continued. “Summonings might be possible again.”

“Right, though I wonder how having a gate will affect the need to summon.” I tugged a hand through my hair. “I don't know if the demons can use it. Lords can come through. Kadir is on Earth . . . somewhere. And Mzatal is working rifts with Helori for transport. You've probably seen him mentioned in DIRT reports from China, Nigeria, and Australia.”

I might as well have thrown a wet blanket over his joy-fire. “I thought you'd found a way to bring him through,” he said then slammed his fist against the table. “So, just like that, the qaztahl have access to Earth with
Kadir
as the gatekeeper. After all we went through.”

“At least it
has
a gatekeeper. I don't know what the hell Kadir is up to, but we need Mzatal's help, and he's dominating the other lords right now.”

Idris blew out a breath. “You're right. It's just one more level of complexity to keep up with. It'd be nice to have a chance to come up for air once in a while.” He looked down and fiddled with his bandage. “I don't think it's in the cards for me, though. I saw
her
today. At least I think I did.”

I took in his demeanor and tone. “
Tessa
?! Where? What happened?”

“She was on the roof of a building overlooking the rift. As soon as I spotted her, she ducked down. By the time the incursion was settled enough for us to check it out, there was no trace of her and no clue of what she was up to.”

A pang of sympathy went through me. Idris was Tessa's son, but he'd never had a chance to know her—or know what she felt toward him, if anything. Hell, we weren't even sure if she had any clue she was his mother. I had no doubt that, where she was concerned, his emotions were a messy soup of longing, confusion, and anger, along with an aching need to
know
the true story.

I tilted my head. “I'm thinking of having her house painted black,” I said. “And I'm stealing her rosebushes. I'll probably end up killing them, but I'm feeling kind of immature and petty.”

“And take that stupid Welcome sign, too.”

“Ha! I'm burning that thing.”

A whisper of amusement crossed his face, then he nodded to someone off camera before looking back at me. “I need to get going. Rift burped.” He smiled. “It was good talking to you, Kara.”

“Ditto. You take care of yourself.”

The screen went blank.

“Kara?” Pellini called from the front room. “You need to come here.”

My heart skipped a beat. “Cory?” I shoved up from the chair and broke into a run. “Is he okay?”

“Honestly, I have no idea,” Pellini said.

I slid to a stop then could only stare. The red rubbery egg was gone, and the sofa bed had buckled under the weight of a four-foot-wide sphere of what looked like polished obsidian laced with pulsing luminescent red veins.

I finally found my voice. “That's him?”

Pellini gave me a
look.
“Unless someone snuck in, kidnapped Cory, and left a small asteroid behind, I'm thinking that odds are it is indeed him.”

I moved close and peered at the surface in amazement. “The arcane is active all over it, so I'm going to assume Cory is still alive and well in there.”

“If the egg was Phase Three, and the final mutated form is Phase Four, then what is this?” Pellini asked.

“Phase three and a half, I guess,” I said with a shrug. “The Feds didn't have anyone in a ‘meteor' phase. They'd concluded that the Fours were emerging changed from the red jelly egg—the chrysalis, according to their terminology.” So was
this
the last phase before the mutation? Worry resurfaced. What would Cory
be
when he emerged?

“I'm betting this is the actual chrysalis,” Pellini said then leaned close and squinted at the sphere. “How long do you think this phase lasts?”

“I have no idea, but my oh-so-accurate guess is not too long. They had a couple of people who'd already been transformed and who weren't discovered in this chrysalis stage.” I shook my head. “My tongue keeps wanting to say ‘crystal-fitz.' Let's keep it simple. Pod.”

I regarded the pod and my poor, smushed sofa bed. “I'd love to try and roll him into the corner to clear space, but I don't dare. Not after people died when the gel-stuff was disturbed.”

“Yeah, well, you can't anyway.” When I shot him a perplexed look, he continued, “Squig and Cake were chasing Sammy through the living room as I came in, and when I tried to avoid stepping on a kitten, I lost my balance and fell against the pod. Hard. That sucker didn't move a millimeter.”

“Weird.” I cautiously placed my hand on the surface. “It doesn't look big enough to be that heavy.”

“I'm not sure it's an issue of weight, per se.” Pellini spread his arms and nodded down at his bulk. “I ain't exactly a little guy, and it felt like falling into a building.”

Curious, I gave an experimental push, then a harder one. The thing might as well have been Thor's hammer.

“Y'know, I think Cory can stay right where he is,” I said, earning me a bark of laughter from Pellini. My phone rang, a welcome distraction from Cory's predicament, even with the caller ID showing Knight. I headed out to the porch before answering. “Hey, Marco.”

“Kara,” he said, voice strained. “I'm sorry about yesterday.”

“No, I'm the one who owes you an apology. I was being bitchy, and you didn't deserve to have me take it out on you.” But surely my bitchiness wasn't enough to warrant the undercurrent of anxiety in his tone. “Is everything okay?”

“Not really.”

My heart sank. “Shit. Did you get in trouble over not reporting Giovanni?”

“No.” He paused. “I'm . . . sweating. A lot. It's red.”

My heart finished dropping all the way down to my toes. “Are you able to drive?” I even managed to keep my voice mostly calm.

“Yeah. I think so.”

“Can you make it here?”

He exhaled. “I'll make it.”

“If at any point you feel like you might not be able to keep driving, you fucking call, got it? We'll come get you.”

“I will. Thanks.”

“Marco, no matter what happens, I promise we'll take good care of you.”

He hung up without replying. My anxiety had retreated, but dread took its place. I returned inside and filled Pellini in.

“Huh.” He frowned. “Does that kill your theory that having arcane abilities is a protection?”

I massaged the back of my neck. “I don't know. I'm not sure if Knight's abilities are arcane or something else.”

Pellini's mouth twisted. “Don't know about you, but I sure hope they're something else.”

A cry of alarm from the guest room cut our discussion short.

“Shit!” I dashed down the hall and careened into the room.
On the bed, a disoriented Giovanni clawed from beneath the blanket, eyes wild with confusion.

“Giovanni.” I grabbed his shoulders. “You're safe. It's okay.”

A small measure of the panic left his eyes as he took in the sight of me, though the confusion remained.

“I'm Kara. Kara Gillian.” I released him and eased back.

A frown puckered his forehead. “Sì, Kara.” Except he pronounced it Kah-rah. He muttered something in Italian, gaze darting around the room, then switched to English. “You cannot be here. Where is Elinor? Elinor!”

At least I was pretty sure that's what he said. I hadn't counted on a language barrier since I knew he spoke English, but apparently the seventeenth-century version had evolved in accent and pronunciation and inflection in the past three hundred plus years.

“I can help you understand me better,” I said, slowly and distinctly. “But you need to come with me.” I added gestures to get my point across.

He scrambled up and backpedaled shakily toward the window, rattling off a stream of Italian that included my name, Elinor, and Szerain. I had no clue about the rest. My smattering of nexus-imbued Italian was useless, since mine was the current-day version.

“Pellini, a little help!” I advanced on Giovanni and threw an arm around him as his legs gave way. The sight of Pellini sent him into more of a panic, but he weakened as he struggled against me and passed out when Pellini reached him.

Pellini looped one arm around Giovanni's waist and drew his arm over his own neck. Giovanni topped me by only a few inches but was solid enough that I was glad to relinquish him.

“To the nexus,” I told Pellini. “I'm hoping that if I can connect him to modern Earth flows, we'll be able to update his language and orient him.”

“Makes as much sense as anything else,” Pellini said with a shrug. “What about your other guest?”

I thought about it for less than a heartbeat. “I don't have the time or energy to deal with Rhyzkahl or his bullshit.” Or the stomach to force him into his house so soon after the headache incident. “Let him see. Let him wonder. There's nothing he can do about it, and he'll find out eventually.”

Pellini chuckled under his breath and helped me get the unconscious Giovanni out the back door and across the porch. Rhyzkahl sat against the tree with Squig beside him. He didn't
look at me with malice, which told me he didn't remember my Cruella de Kara act. But shock registered on his face as he recognized the supposedly long-dead Giovanni, and his gaze remained locked on us until we made it onto the nexus and I raised a curtain of potency as a privacy screen. We could see out, but he couldn't see in.

Pellini laid Giovanni at the center of the slab then retreated to the grass. “Can you keep him calm while you're doing the language trick?”

“I can get him nice and chill.” I crouched beside Giovanni and tapped in to the super-shikvihr that flowed around us then traced four floating pygah sigils over Giovanni. Envisioning calm clarity for him, I placed one each on his forehead, throat, chest, and abdomen. His aura shimmered over his body like a layer of azure fog and, with slow precision, I selected delicate strands of local potency and attached them to it, then more and more until I had five times the number I would have needed for myself.