At least their efforts to weaken me only slightly stung through my magus defense, but my magus power wasn’t endless.
Which meant I’d need to break out.
Breaking out of thirty magical trapswaspossible, but afterward… what would I have left to protect myself? And kill one. I didn’t have enough power to throw them offandkill them all. Plus, there must be around ten other demons who weren’t joining in on this trap.
None of my clever strategies would work from inside here. This was a big problem.
The hush of the crowd was barely noticeable from within the humming hiss of so much curling smoke. Even Carmine’s voice echoed strangely.
“Let Tiers begin.”
He had to know that I was trussed up, but not a trace of concern sounded in his voice. The gate creaked and whined open.
I grunted when the closest layer of purple tightened and I was jerked to the ground.
The demons dragged me into the arena.
Ouch. Their trap didnotcushion me from the ground.
The crowd hushed at my dignified entrance, and I had an inkling that they may be watching Carmine in the hopes of arealshow.
I cleared my throat. “Is your plan to wait me out? Or…?”
Should I goad them?
Too late.
The purple smoke tightened, and I sucked in a breath at the crushing sensation around my body.
“I love you too,” I wheezed.
Her efforts were followed by around… oh, twenty-nine other vise-like grips. They intended to shatter my scales.
Andshit,that was exactly what it felt like. I panted against the press of so much magic. They were giving it their all.
Which meant I had to give my all.
Except I couldn’t. I had to make the checkpoint, and if my theory about losing control to lust when my power was depleted was true, then I couldn’t risk a repeat of last week with Carmine. Exceptthatwas preferable to dying, if I had to choose between them.
My mind fled in all directions before one panicked tendril landed on thoughts of my son.
The power that he had over my soul was unlocked, and an utter calm spread through me. From mind to fingertips and back again.
I couldn’t panic. My trap-loving mother had taught me better than that. There was always a way out of a trap, though sometimes the only answerwaspower. And sometimes not.
I pushed power toward the gem in my boot, but again, only warmth and reassurance trickled back at me. I could use both right now, but neither would help me out of this trap.
I didn’t have enough demon power to get out. But I was more than a demon.
My magus power.
That was the only thing stopping my scales from shattering, and that would run out too. Beforethathappened, Carmine would intervene and slaughter every other player here.
They would join the thousands of demons who’d died here over centuries.
My lips curved at the thought. Becauseof course.To hold a divination affinity was to know that I was never alone, and that the living were one plane of existence.
Tiers had been played for hundreds of years. That was a lot of dead demons.
