Released (The Eternal Balance #3)(36)



“Wait?” I was confused, not to mention annoyed. We didn’t exactly have an abundance of time to play with. “Wait for what? You said the stone was here.”

“Technically, I didn’t say that.” The grin Van flashed was mischievous, but if the expression of fury on Jax’s face was any indication, the demon wasn’t amused.

“Van,” I warned, and I grabbed a handful of Jax’s shirt. I yanked back as hard as I could. I did manage to move his body, but the demon held its ground.

“Relax.” She waved her hand in the direction of the main trail. “The stone itself isn’t here, but the key to unlocking it is.”

“All right,” Azi said. I could hear the skepticism in Jax’s voice. “Then let’s stop wasting time and get it.”

“Yeah. See, there’s a little catch.”

“Catch?” If she wasn’t careful, I wouldn’t be able to spare her Azi’s wrath—not to mention my own.

“I told you, the stone is protected by magic—that includes the stone itself and all ways to get the stone. We can retrieve the key tonight, after dark, but the stone can only be removed on the first day of the full moon.” I started to protest, but she held up her hand. “The full moon is in less than two days.”

I glanced back at the gate, at the sign with the hours and cringed. “They close at dusk.”

“Then we should probably get in there and find a place to lay low for a while.”



Van had taped a sign to her car window stating that it had broken down and that she’d return in the morning with a tow truck. After that we hunkered down in the Out of Order bathrooms at the other end of the park. The sun was almost down, and Azi was restless, pacing from one end of the bathroom to the other. Not that I could blame it. I felt the same way.

As if the smell wasn’t bad enough, being cooped up with Azi and Van was more than enough to send me binge drinking for a year. It was a constant back and forth of barely veiled threats.

“So when it’s dark, then what?” The silence was starting to get to me, the tension in the small space thick enough to smother what little patience I had left. Van was acting strangely. She kept sneaking glances at Azi and me when she thought we weren’t looking. I started wondering if maybe she planned on screwing me over. “How do we get the key?”

She hesitated, and I saw it. An unmistakable flinch. “The key should be fairly easy to retrieve. It’s in a hollowed out tree just north of here.”

I wasn’t the only one who saw it. Azi growled and grabbed the witch by the front of the shirt, spinning her back against the closed stall door. The sound echoed in the small space and made me cringe just a little. “What are you hiding?”

Van’s face paled. Her mouth fell open, and her shoulders shook with a sob. She twisted her head in my direction. “Sam…”

“Don’t look to me for help. Azi is right. You’re hiding something,” I said, doing my best to keep calm. I was furious that she’d lied about something, but I was also worried about what the demon would do. It was livid, barely refraining from tearing her head from her shoulders.

“I’m—”

The demon gave her a good shake. “Answer me!”

She threw her hands up in a show of surrender. “Okay! Okay…”

Azi let go of her but didn’t back away. “Speak.”

“There is no key.”

I didn’t know Van. We weren’t friends or anything. But for some reason, I still felt betrayed. “Why the hell would you lie about that? I told you how important this was. And your magic—”

“That’s why we’re here,” she said, pleading. “I didn’t lie about helping you. I will. But I told you, I want my magic. There’s a locket hidden in that tree I was telling you about. I need it.”

“Why wouldn’t you just say that?” I glanced at Azi, who still hadn’t backed away. If it wasn’t careful, the demon would give Van a heart attack.

Van’s expression hardened. She turned from me and fixed her gaze on the demon in Jax’s skin. “I wasn’t sure you’d let me come here. You’re obsessed with what you want. With getting the stone. This has no bearing on your task.”

“I made you a promise,” I said, annoyed.

Van was still looking at Azi. “And you? Would you have let me come get it, knowing that it was the only way to get my magic back?”

Without hesitating, Azi shook Jax’s head. “Of course not. I do not care about you or your magic. Only the stone is of importance.”

Van glared at me, justified, and I sighed. I yanked hard on the back of Jax’s shirt and dragged the demon away from her. “No one is double crossing you,” I said, gently pulling her away from the stall. “You have my word. Now can we please just be honest with each other?”

She watched me for a moment, then nodded slowly. Just once. “Okay. Fine. I wasn’t lying about the other parts. There are certain conditions under which the stone can be removed. It’s at the Dandus Nature Preserve, tucked away in an underwater cave, removable on the first night of the full moon.”

“Underwater cave?” While I’d never been terrified of the water, semi-recent events—almost drowning while trapped in my car the day Jax came back into town—had made me a little gun shy. “How underwater are we talking here?”

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