Binding the Shadows (Arcadia Bell #3)(84)

Dare laughed. “Oh, my. If you could see the look on your face right now. You really have no idea what you are. It’s delightful. Has no one ever tried to bind you? I’m so glad to be your first. Ironic, since you were the first to bind me in this very bar. Doesn’t feel so good, does it? Being trapped like a rat. Terrible on your heart. But you’re young—you’ll survive. And I’ve got worse things planned for you. Much worse.”

He turned around and opened the front door. Three beefy Earthbounds in suits shuffled into the bar. He said to them, “Beryl will mark you.”

The binding triangle was big enough to enclose a table—maybe five feet at the base, and another five to the tip of the vertex. I retreated, moving as far away from Dare and his men as I could go. Got zapped again. Yelped in pain.

“Oh, Miss Bell. The mighty Moonchild may possess every knack that ever existed—”

What?

“—but all the Æthyric myths agree that she has two weaknesses. First, her powers aren’t as strong during the day. And second, she is susceptible as any common demon to a standard binding.”

A whimper got caught in my throat. This couldn’t be happening. He was lying again. I blindly reached out and touched the boundary, crying out in pain when I felt the binding react. “I’m not a demon!”

“But you’re not human, either, are you?”

When I was able to crack my eyes open, I saw Dare’s henchmen gathered around Beryl, who was removing a flat metal tin from his suit pocket. He screwed the top off. Something dark sat inside. Dark red. He pushed his thumb into it, like he was readying himself to offer fingerprints, and then swiped the substance across each of the men’s foreheads.

I’d seen this once before, in the Hellfire caves. When Merrimoth threw Lon into the fighting ring with a summoned Æthyric demon. His forehead had been marked.

A mark that allowed the wearer to step inside a binding without breaking it.

The three big men looked up at me with menace behind their eyes.

Shit.

Dare’s voice floated behind them. “Word is spreading. You are the most coveted creature between the two planes. Your mother may be making claims about you. But she isn’t here. I am. And last I checked, you were my employee. My property. Mine to command, whether you like to think so, or not. Nobody quits until I say they do.”

He stepped to the side and leaned against the bar, stuffing his hands in his suit pockets. “I’ve got a wonderfully inventive portable demon cage in a van out back. You’ll be coming home with me tonight.”

“Fuck you.”

“However, I want you to know that I’m a man of my word,” he said, rubbing his hand over his head. “I won’t welch on our bargain—I’ll tell you what I know about your dead brother. But first, let me show you what happens to people who defy me.”

The three marked men approached the binding.

My hackles rose. Brain went blank. Panic sifted through my limbs, turning them to jelly.

Had to use the moon power. No choice. But when I tried to reach for it, the binding reflected it. Pain shot through my chest. I howled.

Trapped.

Bound.

Not a damn thing I could do.

The first man tested his foot against the binding. He smiled and stepped into the triangle with me. As he did, I tried again for the moon power, hoping the binding was weakened enough for me to snag it. No such luck.

His fist felt like iron against my cheek. The pain was sharp and excruciating.

They were on me so fast. Three giant men in such a small space. I tried to defend myself for half a second, but it was no use. One grabbed my hair, then violently wrenched my arms behind my back. The last one punched me in the face. The pain was unreal. Bones cracked. Blood flowed. They were going to bash my face in—maybe they already had. My shoulder popped, and my arm went numb.

Someone jabbed me in the stomach. All the air left my lungs. Blood choked the back of my throat. My arms were released, and the pain in my shoulder rocketed through me. My knees buckled, and I dropped to the floor.

But they didn’t stop.

They kicked me in my chest. Ribs cracked.

They kicked me in my back until pain radiated up and down my spine.

Someone stomped on my foot. My ankle cracked and broke. I barely felt it. I couldn’t feel anything anymore.

I wasn’t afraid to die. I was almost glad it was coming. This would all be over. I would start again, some where else. Another plane. Somewhere my mother couldn’t touch me. Somewhere Dare couldn’t touch me.

My cheek lay against Tambuku’s wooden floor. I was curled on my side. I could still see out of one eye. I stared into the spotlight until I imagined it was a tunnel of white, ready to suck me in and whisk me away.

Dare’s voice broke through my reverie. “Enough. You’re going to kill her.”

Please, just do it. I wanted to say it out loud, but one side of my jaw was definitely broken.

I looked up at Dare with my one good eye. He was smiling down at me. Beryl stood by his side. The men who’d beat me were breathing heavy. One shook out his fingers. His knuckles were bloody.

“Go drive the van around and bring the cage inside,” Dare said absently.

The air shuddered. A dark shape wavered behind his head. Beryl’s hair fluttered. Enormous black wings sounded like a flag snapping in the wind.