Touch of the Demon

Katashi’s severed hand dropped to the floor, its end smoking faintly. Mzatal released the strand and turned to me. I suddenly realized I’d backed to the wall, and I had no doubt I looked like a panicked mess. But that shit had been way too close. Another second, I thought, still taking ragged breaths. Another second, and I’d have been gone.

“My lord! My lord!” Idris shouted. I dragged my gaze to him. He gripped a thin strand of potency in his left hand that led to the middle of the diagram and seemed to terminate in mid-air.

“Speak, Idris,” Mzatal said without taking his eyes from me. He reached out and grasped my hand.

“I’m tracking him!” Idris exclaimed, voice betraying excitement and terror as he gripped the thin strand. “My lord! I’m tracking him. I put a tracker on him right before he went!”

Mzatal pulled me over by Idris. I followed numbly while I tried not to think about how close I’d come to being taken again. Yeah, like not thinking about the pink giraffe.

“Excellent work, Idris,” Mzatal said. I was pretty damn impressed myself. I’d barely had the presence of mind to punch the asshole. “What do you sense?”

Idris’s eyes unfocused. “Rhyzkahl. He’s at Rhyzkahl’s palace and—” Power shot up the strand in a blinding flash. Idris let out a sharp cry of pain and released the strand. He turned his hand over to peer at his palm, then paled. “Oh, fuck,” he breathed.

I tried not to show any reaction to the sight of the vicious burn, but I could see the white of the bone even from where I was. I moved to push Mzatal toward Idris, but I needn’t have bothered. He’d already moved with demonic-lord speed to clasp the injured hand between his own.

“That was very well done, Idris,” he said, voice carrying his sincerity clearly. Idris gave a very shaky smile, then hissed as Mzatal began the healing.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t hold it,” Idris said, clearly trying hard to be stoic. “But he went to Rhyzkahl. I saw that.”

“Idris, sit,” Mzatal commanded. The young summoner did so, collapsing into a cross-legged position. Mzatal crouched, maintaining his hold on the injured hand.

“My lord,” Idris said, “Jesral was there too.”

“All pre-pla

I rubbed at my temples, still trying to rid myself of the vestiges of reaction. “If Katashi had a recall implant,” I said, grimacing, “it means Rhyzkahl probably set it during one of the times I summoned him.”

Mzatal nodded, shifting his gaze to me. “Yes, and he likely has much more in place as well.” His expression darkened. “With such unprecedented access to Earth, he would not have wasted even a tenth of a heartbeat of that time.”

I scowled at how thoroughly I’d been duped. Mzatal looked back to Idris.

“Pygah and breathe,” he said as the young man paled. Idris gulped, eyes unfocusing slightly as he deepened his breathing. After a few moments Mzatal released his hand to turn it palm up. “The strike was tainted with rakkuhr,” he said. “It will be scarred.”

Idris’s eyes dropped to the ropy scar that ran across his palm. I watched as he attempted to close his hand into a fist and wiggle his fingers, and my heart clenched at the deep dismay on his face as he clearly had difficulty doing either.

Fear flickered behind his eyes as he looked up into Mzatal’s face. “How can I do tracings?” he asked, voice trembling.

“You can trace with it now,” Mzatal assured him, “though not with the fluidity of before. With work you will increase the movement and adapt so that it is again natural to you.” Confidence and calm flowed from him as he placed a hand on Idris’s shoulder. “Of this I have no doubt.”

“Physical therapy, dude,” I told him with as encouraging a smile as I could manage. “You’ll be knitting sweaters out of potency in no time.”

Idris gave me a shaky smile of his own as he flexed his hand a few times. “Yeah. Knitting.” He drew a breath, then released it in a rush. “I gotta lot of work to do.”

My smile faded as I looked at the scar on his palm. Anger seared through me, burning away the last of the fear and panic.

“We all do.”

Chapter 31

I sat on the chaise on the solarium balcony, elbows on knees, with a glass of chilled wine held to my forehead. Mzatal stood a few feet away, hands clenched at his sides as he looked out into the darkness. He was pissed, and I didn’t need to be able to read his mind to know it.

I straightened and took a long drink, worry curling through me for Idris and for myself. “I’m really glad you chopped that asshole’s arm off.”

“I was blind and I was a fool.” He spat the words out, fists tightening. “And I am unaccustomed to being either.” He exhaled forcefully. “He was within a heartbeat of taking you.”

“Yeah, that part kinda sucked,” I said, trying to make light of it and failing. Sighing, I set my glass down, then moved to Mzatal and wrapped my arms around him from behind. “He didn’t take me. You stopped him. I’m still here to a

Some of the tension left his body as he folded his arms over mine. He drew a deep breath and released it slowly. “A

I let out a soft laugh. “That’s what I keep trying to do,” I said. “Not sure if I’m succeeding.”

He turned and wrapped his arms around me, a whisper of a smile on his face as he cradled my head to his chest. “You are failing utterly in the moment.”

Exhaling, I relaxed against him. “That’s cool. Failure builds character.”

He held me close for a moment, then released me gently and draped an arm over my shoulders. Heavy clouds shielded stars and moon, and only the surging crash of waves far below reminded me that I gazed into physical darkness and not the void. He tucked me in close, and moved his other hand behind his back. “In your perception,” he began, “what has shifted on Earth in the time since Rhyzkahl first came through?”

I considered for a moment. “Well, I suppose it starts, at least for me, with finding out last spring that Peter Cerise was the Symbol Man: a serial killer who was trying to summon and bind Rhyzkahl.”

“Yes. Cerise lost his balance and all reason decades ago when—” Mzatal stopped, and I could see him mentally rephrasing it, “when his foundation was stripped from him. He was a chosen of Szerain and quite brilliant. He disappeared, and Katashi claimed no knowledge of his whereabouts.”

That he was a chosen of Szerain’s made sense to me and helped explain why Cerise had attempted to summon that lord to aid his ailing wife. “Okay, well…” I hesitated, unsure how to go into the subject of Ryan. Then I snorted. Mzatal knew I knew, so dancing around the subject seemed ridiculous at this point. Mzatal was oathbound about pretty much anything to do with Ryan/Szerain, but I wasn’t constrained by any pesky oaths. “It was during that time that I met Ryan and Zack.”

“That would not be a coincidence,” Mzatal said with a nod.

“Yeah, I’m starting to realize that.” But engineered by whom? “Ryan and I have become close,” I said. “Friends and, well, more than friends, too.” I shook my head. “Anyway, it wasn’t long after Eilahn came to protect me that we had a case go to shit, and we ended up in a weird fight with a bunch of golems. Things went downhill, and at one point I got knocked down. I was about to get totally squished by a golem, and Ryan…” I took a deep breath. “Ryan’s face went to ice. He pulled potency and blasted the fuck out of the golem, saving me.” A shudder raced down my spine. “And then he collapsed. Zack ran to him—snarled at us and told us he’d take care of Ryan.” I paused, gathering my thoughts. “I didn’t see Ryan for a week, and by then he was back to—” I winced. “—normal.”