A Den of Tricks (A Shade of Vampire #54)(18)

“To reiterate,” Hansa added, “Jax, Blaze, Caia, Harper, Lord Kifo, and I will infiltrate the gorges again tomorrow, after the funerals. The plan is to find and capture a daemon in there, and force him to reveal one of the access routes into their underground cities. Lord Kifo might be able to help with that, too. We’ll find out more once we have him all to ourselves.”

“And the rest of us will stay here.” Fiona nodded. “Understood. That being said, I would like to speak to Cynara sometime soon. Preferably tomorrow.”

“The servant girl from our first dinner with the Lords?” I asked, remembering the young Iman female and her fragile state, along with Hera, her sister.

“Yes. I’m hoping we can get some more information out of her,” Fiona replied, “about anything… Avril, Heron, would you be able to join me for this? I’m hoping we could maybe bypass some of her mind-bending blocks. Surely she must have some. It could lead to nothing, but then again, with so many questions we have yet to answer, she might surprise us… I don’t know.”

“That makes sense,” Heron replied. “I mean, like you said, it’s worth a shot. Worst-case scenario her brain is already mush, but we won’t know until we try. It’s a useful way to kill time while Jax and his team check the underground cities.”

“I agree,” Avril chimed in. “Speaking to Cynara could at least help us understand the extent of mind-bending in this city. After all, there is only so much that the Exiled Maras can justify as psychological treatment and forcing confessions out of criminals. It would be good to put the issue to rest, once and for all, especially after what happened tonight. Despite the warning signs, I’m finding it increasingly difficult to believe that the Maras have anything to do with the disappearances and the daemons. If anything, the Imen seem to know more about these creatures than anyone else.”

“Well, the Imen and Lord Kifo,” I muttered.

“Yeah, but he’s a very odd exception, and I’m hoping he’ll be willing to tell us more about it as soon as he gets the chance,” Hansa offered, then took a deep breath and glanced at each of us. “Okay, time to go to bed!”

We left the infirmary, with Patrik last. He locked the door and placed another protection spell on the building. I looked out onto the gorges in the distance and froze. Using my True Sight for just a little bit of a zoom, I could see the red eyes clearly—flickering defiantly in the absolute darkness of the limestone ravines.

“Hey, guys,” I breathed, “can you look out over there and tell me what you see?”

I kept my eyes on the Valley of Screams, determined not to let those red dots out of my sight this time. One by one, my teammates joined my side, following my gaze. Their eyes narrowed for a moment, then popped wide open.

“Lots of daemons out there tonight, I see,” Hansa growled, twisting her lips with disgust.

“Ah, so I’m not imagining this. Okay,” I muttered.

“No, and I am sorry we doubted you the other night.” Hansa gently nudged my shoulder with hers. “They’re getting more brazen now.”

“Hopefully GASP will be here soon,” Jax added. “We need more than one dragon to launch a serious offensive against the daemons. And that will be either to obliterate them or force them into some kind of armistice.”

“Speaking of which,” Blaze interjected, frowning slightly, “it’s been a few days, and GASP has yet to come for us. They obviously can’t reach us via Telluris—shouldn’t they be flying out here by now?”

“I don’t know, Blaze,” Jax replied, shaking his head slowly as he gazed at the red eyes in the distance. “I’m sure they’ll be here shortly. Honestly, I’m too tired to pass any judgment on this right now. Let’s sleep on it, and let’s not forget that the asteroid belt is playing a crucial role in our communication and travel issues. Maybe they’re dealing with the same.”

Not fully satisfied with that idea, Blaze shrugged and headed up the stairs toward the Broken Bow Inn. The rest of the team followed, including myself. I kept glancing over my shoulder, the red eyes still watching.

My blood chilled and shivers ran down my spine. I cleared my throat and focused on the walk to the inn, going over everything that had happened throughout the day, while the others recounted their own versions of the events. There were different perspectives between us, but they all carried us forward toward our common goal—protecting those who could not defend themselves.

Our day so far had not been extraordinary, given the anti-climactic and yet explosive end. But we’d gotten Fiona back, and we’d killed scores of daemons back in the Valley of Screams. On top of that, we’d reset the protection spell over the city, and we’d even managed to snatch Demios out of prison, thanks to Fiona.

“Hey, Fiona.” I remembered the question that had crossed my mind earlier, the one I’d forgotten to ask. She gave me a quick glance over her shoulder. “How long do you think before the Correction Officers realize that Demios is missing?”

“I think by late morning at best.” She chuckled. “I ruffled his bed up. Made it look like he’s sleeping. They’ll probably serve him breakfast and notice something’s off.”

“What if they trace it back to us?” I asked. “Surely they’ll figure out there was something supernatural involved…”