Zola took a deep breath. “Me either, girl. Me either.” She paused and pulled out a small folded sheet of colorful paper. Translucent blood dripped from it for a moment, and then it was gone. “Hold the book upside down? Aperio tectus vene—”

  “That’s the one,” Nixie said as she frowned at Zola. “Did Damian write that incantation down on a brochure?”

  Zola’s lips twitched. “Looks like it, girl.” Little more was said as Zola picked up the Book that Bleeds, grimacing at the translucent blood pouring from the damned tome. She turned it upside down and spoke, “Aperio tectus veneficium!”

  Thunder crashed as a sliver of red hot silver slipped from the binding of the Book that Bleeds, and something else materialized in front of the cabin. A brief panic swept through the cabin before they realized it was Mike the Demon and the little necromancer.

  Aideen paced back and forth on Zola’s shoulder. “I’m going to be very upset if we blow up.”

  Mike held his palms out. “I promise no one will explode.” And as an afterthought, he added, “Today.”

  Zola raised the Eye of Atlantis. “What the hell else can we do?” And she spoke the words, “Omnia Caritas Destuit!”

  The Eye shattered in her hand, tiny fissures racing around the surface until it collapsed, and a brilliant ball of blue energy remained. It still looked like the Eye of Atlantis, but where before it had been a dull glass, it now had an appearance as if made of fire.

  “Two cores,” Zola said. “All we need now is the third.”

  “And an anchor,” Nixie said. “Gaia said we’ll need an anchor for the devil’s knot.”

  Zola nodded. “Ah know, girl. Ah heard the same from Koda.”

  “Gaia said …” Nixie trailed off. “Gaia said Damian is fading. We only have a few days, at most.”

  “Buck up,” Zola said. “That just means we have to hurry.”

  Nixie left to return to the water witches after a short conversation. She’d become their main contact with the commoners, and to sever that tie now could be disastrous. Aideen left for Falias to reunite with Foster and let Morrigan know what was happening.

  Zola slipped the Eye of Atlantis into her pocket and looked up at Mike. “Now then, let’s you and me discuss our vacation to the Burning Lands.”

  CHAPTER FIVE

  “You’re going to step into Tessrian’s bloodstone?” Mike asked.

  Sarah let out an exasperated sigh and crossed her arms. “That’s what she just said.”

  Mike blinked.

  Zola chuckled. “Ah like your attitude.”

  “I don’t think Vicky and Luna are too happy you left them outside,” Sarah said.

  “Ah think it’s best if Vicky stays away from any magic concerning a key of the dead. Now, if Ah get the information we need from Tessrian, we’ll have to get to the throne room in the Burning Lands. Hence our vacation.”

  Mike shook his head. “There’s no easy way to the heart of the Burning Lands. Even now, without Prosperine, you’ll need to cross the Sea of Souls. And there are a great many inhabitants of the Burning Lands who would rather see you dead.”

  “See me dead?” Zola said.

  “Your apprentice killed their queen,” Sarah said. “As far as the demons and the Geryons are concerned, you might as well have killed Prosperine with your own hands.”

  “Ah suppose we’ll worry about that if Ah survive this meeting.” Zola ran her finger down the edge of her dagger’s sheath. “If Ah don’t, Ah leave it to you to negotiate with Tessrian. We need her knowledge to locate the tetradrachm. If Ronwe says Tessrian knows something of it, Ah’m inclined to believe the demon. There’s no love between those demons, and if Ronwe can cause Tessrian some misery through us, she wouldn’t hesitate.”

  “I can’t step into a bloodstone,” Mike said. “My very nature would trap me inside it immediately.”

  “I wasn’t talking to you,” Zola said, her eyes flicking up from the dagger in her hand to Sarah.

  Sarah clapped her hands together. “I’d be happy to. Not that I want you to die—please don’t die—but if you do, you can have faith in me.”

  Mike cursed under his breath. “We should have just stayed in the Burning Lands.”

  Sarah frowned at him. “And what if it hadn’t been Zola or Nixie unlocking the Eye of Atlantis? That could have been the end of every water witch in existence.”

  “There was a time that wouldn’t have bothered me,” Mike grumbled.

  “Yes, well, things change.” Sarah reached out and squeezed his arm.

  “That they do, girl,” Zola said. “That they do. Now, you two stand back.”

  Mike and Sarah both retreated. They didn’t need to be told a second time.

  “Last time Damian stepped into a bloodstone, he went with Gaia’s aid.” Zola unsheathed the key of the dead, running her thumb around the runes and symbols carved into the pommel of the dagger. “Ah’m taking a different path. Ah only hope Damian’s notes on the Book that Bleeds are right. Guess Ah won’t have to worry for long.” She tapped on a small notepad with some of Damian’s chicken scratch.

  “You better be right about this, boy,” she whispered before plunging the key of the dead straight through the bloodstone cradled in her left palm and impaling her hand to the hilt.

  She meant to cry out in pain or shock at impact of the blunt blade, but it had cut through her as if it had been the finest scalpel. Then the world turned to blood, fading as rivers of power blinded Zola and silence choked her.

  * * *

  Cyclopean planes of crystal intersected like the geometric artistry of a madman. The searing pain of the dagger ebbed, and Zola looked down to find her left hand intact, and the dagger still firmly grasped in her right. Only now the blade was drenched in a rich red.

  Footsteps sounded behind her before a grating voice echoed all around. “It is a rare fool who would pay a blood price to open that gateway.”

  Zola reached up and pulled back the hood of her cloak as she turned toward those footsteps. “A rare fool, indeed.”

  The shock on the demon’s face gave Zola no small measure of satisfaction. Red flesh marred with canyons black as pitch contorted into a snarl. “You dare set foot in this prison? You taunt forces that could destroy you in moments, Adannaya.”

  “Ah suppose you haven’t forgotten our last encounter.”

  “When you trapped me in this pit?” Tessrian asked, her back straightening and her height increasing until she towered over Zola.

  “Ah’m here on behalf of Damian. Here to complete his pact and return you to the Burning Lands.”

  The looming form hesitated. The rising light in both the demon’s hands faded. “How much time has passed since he failed to keep his word?”

  Zola gambled, concealing the sly smile that threatened to appear on her lips. “He didn’t give you a timeframe. So long as the deed is done before he’s done, his word remains unbroken. Your failure to negotiate terms is not his fault.”

  Tessrian released a hollow laugh and settled onto an outcropping of red crystalline stone. “And what price have you come seeking, necromancer?”

  “Only knowledge.”

  Tessrian’s mouth twisted into a cracked line. “Then you should seek out Ronwe. Was it not you who freed her? Or so your apprentice claimed.”

  Zola closed her eyes for a beat. What in the hell had Damian said to Tessrian? If the boy had been stupid, they were both about to die.

  “He didn’t lie. He didn’t know. Ronwe was freed from her prison, but Ah locked her away in another.” Zola looked around at what amounted to a twenty foot cube that was Tessrian’s home. “Though her prison is a good deal roomier.”

  “I sense no lie in your words, Adannaya. I am … surprised you would release a demon.”

  “Ah can do the same for you,” Zola said, “but better. Ah can return you to the Burning Lands, as Damian promised.”

  “Then I ask you again,” Tessrian said, meeting Zola’s gaze with her infinite black eyes. “What is your price?”

  “I spoke with Ronwe.”

  Tessrian leaned back on her seat. But she had no response for that, and showed no surprise. Zola wondered if the demon had already surmised she’d been in contact with Ronwe.

  “I seek a tetradrachm. One that was known to be in the possession of demons. Ronwe believes that you may be the only one who knows of it.”

  Tessrian narrowed her eyes. “And what need would you have for an old coin.”

  Damian might have gambled the first time he visited Tessrian, and Zola supposed it was her turn to do the same. “We need to re-anchor a devil’s knot. The coin would act as a core in the transfer.”

  “My,” Tessrian said. “But you have been busy. I suppose if you seek the tetradrachm, you seek the piece of eight.”

  Zola hesitated. Of any response Tessrian might have given, that wasn’t what she expected.

  Tessrian lowered herself to the floor, crossing her legs before steepling her fingers. “And the devil’s knot… It is bound to your apprentice?”

  Zola nodded.

  “Then your apprentice is lost.”

  “That is not for you to decide,” Zola said. “But even if it were true, that means Ah’m your last best hope for returning to the Burning Lands. Give me the information Ah seek, and you will sit upon your damned throne.”

  Tessrian slowly rubbed her fingertips together, her claw-like fingernails scratching at flesh as she stared at Zola. “You necromancers take too many risks with the world. You always have, and it has always been your end. I see no reason not to help you on the journey to your death.”

  “A favor we shall return,” Zola said.

  Tessrian smiled. “Then take note of the knowledge Ronwe has kept from you. The tetradrachm and the piece of eight will not aid you in the transfer of the devil’s knot. Both are made to bind a Titan, and if you are quite mad, to steal a Titan’s power.”

  “What?” Zola said.

  “The very substance of the cores you seek should have told you as much. You befriended the wolf, and fate shows one core will be the Heart of Quindaro. Another the Eye of Atlantis, gifted to you by the water witches, if not taken by force. Powerful magicks in flesh and crystal.”

  “If that was true,” Zola whispered, “where would we find a third?”

  Tessrian crossed her arms and didn’t hide the smile on her face. “The bloodstone of Ronwe of course.”

  Zola’s heart sank into her stomach. “That stone was broken.”

  “Perhaps you can find another, then,” Tessrian said, patience bleeding away from her words before she collected herself again.

  “Perhaps we can use yours,” Zola said, bald malice in her voice.

  “And if you destroy me, or free me now to gain access to the bloodstone, what happens if you learn I was lying to you? That’s a risk you cannot afford.”

  Zola wanted to curse, because she knew if that happened everything they were trying to save would be lost, but she didn’t give Tessrian the satisfaction. “Tell me where the tetradrachm is.”

  “Bring me to the Burning Lands. You’ll be able to speak with me in the bloodstone without stepping inside. Once I’m there, I’ll tell you all you need to know. I will take you to its hiding place, and hand it to you myself.”

  “Ah accept your terms.” Zola slashed the air with the key of the dead until the red wound opened in front of her. She stepped through, leaving the whispers of the demon behind her.

  CHAPTER SIX

  Red light flashed all around in sickening bursts before all light left the world. The cabin came back into focus between one breath and the next. Mike, Sarah, Vicky, and Luna all stood at the far edge of the room by the front door.

  “Goddamned demons.” Zola looked down. The blade glowed white where it had pierced her hand. She pulled in one smooth motion, freeing her hand and the bloodstone at once.

  Aideen hopped from the coffee table to the arm of the sofa where Zola collapsed. “Let me see your hand.”

  Zola held it up, as her brain tried to catch up to her surroundings. The transition had been rough, far rougher than walking into the stone. She’d rather spend a week spiraling through the Warded Ways than step out of the bloodstone again. It had been fast, but the nausea was slow to leave.

  “An odd magic,” Aideen said, looking up to meet Zola’s gaze with a frown. “There is no wound in your hand, and the stone is intact. An illusion?”

  Zola held up the key of the dead. “It was no illusion.” Blood stained the blade down to its hilt. She studied the blood. She held the blade upright, and the runnels finally stopped, a few closing the distance that kept the hilt from impacting her palm. She leaned forward and let the key of the dead clatter to the tabletop.

  “Did you find out where the tetradrachm is?” Vicky asked.

  The group slowly filtered back to their seats as Zola shook her head. “It certainly wasn’t the answer we were looking for. Tessrian gave us information, but Ah’m afraid we’re further from moving the devil’s knot than we thought.”

  “How can that be?” Vicky asked.

  “If we choose to believe Tessrian, the tetradrachm and the piece of eight won’t act as a core for the devil’s knot. They are a different power altogether. And Ah’m sorry to say, her reasoning makes sense.”

  “Reasoning?” Aideen said. “Reasoning is not what we would normally do with a demon.” She glanced at Mike, but the fire demon showed no offense, if he had taken any.

  “The Heart of Quindaro and the Eye of Atlantis are both crystals. The tetradrachm is something else. Perhaps something older, but most assuredly something forged to imprison the Titans. And possibly steal their power.”

  “But that’s good, then,” Vicky said. “We may not need them for the devil’s knot. We can use them to gift Gaia’s powers to Damian.”

  “Perhaps,” Zola said. “If they’re for the right Titan. And if Tessrian wasn’t lying.”

  “Unless you or Koda has a better idea,” Aideen said. “I think we’re still going to need both of them. But what of the devil’s knot? What did she tell you about that?”

  “The soul stone of Ronwe,” Zola growled. “Ronwe knows what I seek. She knows I’m looking to free Damian. She could have guided me onto the right path, and yet here we are.”

  “I do not trust them,” Mike said. “There are too many pieces, too many ways for them to lead you astray, or send you into the jaws of the trap.”

  Zola let a small smile creep over her lips. “That’s why I’m going to get Ronwe’s attention.”

  She slid a piece of parchment from a yellowed envelope in the trunk and picked up the key of the dead once more. Zola wrote a letter in blood as the others watched.

  “What are you doing?” Luna asked. “A blood rite?”

  Zola glanced up at the death bat. “Of a sort, Ah suppose. It’s a letter for a demon.”

  “You mean to visit a black altar,” Mike said. “Adannaya … are you sure?”

  She finished the sentence and peered down at the letter.

  Betrayal is not forgotten.

  Instead of answering Mike with words, Zola lifted a gray candle from a tray inset in the top of the trunk. She struck a match, its eager burn perhaps a sign it had been left on the coffee table for a bit too long. But it lit the candle well enough.

  When the wax had pooled, she tilted it onto the folded letter and let it drip. She pulled a bronze seal from the trunk and sank it into the wax, leaving it to set for a moment while she looked up at Mike.

  “She lied to me, Mike. A lie of omission, but considering her current imprisonment, Ah’d like to be sure it never happens again.”

  Mike tilted his head. “If you think it best.”

  “Ah like the old demon, Mike. But she pushes her boundaries. Ah’ve no desire to break my own word to her. This is the way.”

  “I’ll go with you,” Vicky said.

  Zola shook her head. “No girl, you stay here with Luna for the time being. Keep the Heart and the Eye safe.” She pulled the Eye of Atlantis from her cloak and set it in the trunk along with the Heart of Quindaro. “Hard to find, but not impossible. We gather powers to us, and that will not go unnoticed.”

  “If you succeed, I suppose that vacation will be in order?” Sarah asked.

  Zola gave her a sly grin. “A vacation or a funeral.”

  “Or both,” Luna said. “I’ve seen some beautiful funerals.”

  She shook her head. “Ah know you’re a death bat, but Ah’m going to do my best to avoid my own funeral for a time.”

  Luna shrugged and scooped out one more handful of cheese balls from the can on the table.

  Mike looked at Sarah. “We should return to the Burning Lands. Time grows short, and I fear the risk outweighs the reward at this moment.”

  Sarah smiled up at Mike. “That’s what I like to hear.” She looked to Zola. “We’ll camp by the Sea of Souls if we don’t die. If you don’t die, meet us by the forest Damian raised.”

  “Ah have no idea where that is,” Zola said.

  “I do,” Vicky said. “I can get you there.”

  Mike looked like he was about to protest, but Sarah’s arched eyebrow convinced him otherwise. “So be it.”

  “We could travel with Gaia and come with you,” Vicky said.

  “No,” Mike said without hesitation. “Do not ever travel close to a black altar through the Abyss. You could be trapped inside a doorway no being remembers, or shatter a gateway between realms.”

  “Good to know,” Vicky said under her breath. “Never mind.”

  “Be safe.” Zola picked her keys up from the coffee table. She eyed the key of the dead before slipping it into her cloak. “There’s another can of cheese balls under the sink if you need them.”

  She patted Sarah’s shoulder as she passed. “Keep him out of trouble.”

  “When have I not?”

  Zola smiled to herself as the screen door squealed closed and she made her way back to her car.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

 

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