The prison is designed to keep its occupants alive—no matter who they are or what their powers might be. Its purpose is to torture for millennia. It will ensure my father lives until I can return his soul to him. Or, if we fail, then until the day when Esta finally meets her end, and his soul is released from her control.
In the meantime, neither Esta nor Crone will dare enter the prison for fear of being trapped in it forever.
No matter what happens, the Demon King will live.
I just hope that if his soul returns to him while he’s in the prison, the sudden influx of his power doesn’t destroy this building. The last thing we need is another disaster that could affect the Balance.
I grab Koda’s fist before he can beat it against the prison again, and I brush the angry tears from his face. “Use it,” I whisper. “Use this anger.”
He snarls at me and pulls away. “It’s time to fucking end this.”
He storms past Esta while she pouts at him. “Poor little brother.”
Koda whirls on her with a roar so savage that her mouth slams shut. “Last time you attacked us, Arga had already done all of the work for you,” Koda shouts. “This time, you’re facing us when we’re at full strength. Prepare yourself, sister.”
Esta doesn’t immediately have a comeback, and it seems Koda may have struck on a real fear. After all, when she attacked us in the arena last time, we were already half-dead and she had the element of surprise.
Today, we know what we’re facing.
Koda strides through the opening that appears in the stone wall and I follow close behind him with Roman on my heels. A light beam rests just outside the wall and we step on to it, all of us turning to face Esta who takes another beat before she gets on. Not only can we keep her in our sights this way, but we can see the energy storm that continues to engulf that side of the city.
It’s growing. Very slowly, but visibly. A mass of hazy energy filled with dust and debris and pieces of this world.
The turmoil of the Elimination must have created it, but I have no doubt Esta and Crone will have made it worse with their reckless use of power since we escaped.
The light beam carries us up over Zilron toward the arena that rests near the center of the city. The stadium is hundreds of feet wide and ten stories high with sculpted animals made of shining silver embedded around the outer wall. I’m gratified that each of the animals depicted is of a kind that owes its loyalty to me: a galloping horse, a snarling demon wolf, and a flying bat. Some of Mortem’s most ferocious beasts.
The air is brighter now that we’ve left the shadows surrounding the prison, and the rays of the new day light the arena. Even so, there’s a strange, smoky haze in the air around the stadium and my skin prickles as we approach. It’s like the remains of power, the aftereffects of magical collisions, and I wonder if the haze might have formed after we fought Esta and our power clashed with hers the first time.
The light beam carries us up and over the outer rim, across the rows of seats that were lit up with multi-colored beams when we were here last, and slowly down toward the battlefield below.
I’m shocked to see that a small section of the arena on our left has been blasted apart, leaving a yawning gap that wasn’t visible as we approached. Its edges are jagged, and through it, I can see damaged skyscrapers and the energy storm in the distance.
The remaining seats in the arena are as packed as they were when we fought here last time, but the whole space is deathly quiet. The demons sit huddled close to each other, their faces downcast. I catch sight of the orange-haired elite demon named Giltha in one of the seats we pass directly over. She was one of Arga’s favorites. Her shirt is stained with sweat and her eyes are red-rimmed, and she doesn’t look up. Not once.
She’s shivering.
They’re all shivering.
Tyrus said that Crone had imprisoned the demons but… did he meanhere?
“What the hell is this?” I edge closer to Roman as I brace for the descent toward the battlefield. Multiple runes glisten around his arms now and he continues to add to them, writing script as fast as he can while keeping an eye on our surroundings.
“Something is very fucking wrong here.” Koda stares at a point on our right, and I follow his line of sight to an open chamber close to the light beam’s path.
His mother, Carys, is sitting alone in the chamber. She’s dressed in what looks like the same black clothing she was wearing when we fought Arga, complete with a veil across her face. She’s slumped in her seat, her arms hang at her sides, and her head is bowed. We’re close enough to see that her previously lustrous, golden hair is lank and hangs in clumps.
“I don’t think she’s moved,” I whisper, shocked by the possibility that I’m right. I didn’t exactly focus on the onlookers last time, but the way they’re sitting, the sweat stains on their clothing, the gauntness of their cheeks… “I don’t think any of them have moved for days.”
“Crone’s power is keeping them in stasis.” Roman growls. “It’s like an invisible cloak pressing down on them. I sense they’re alive, but barely. Their bodies are preparing to shut down.”
Before I can leap from the light beam, Crone’s tiny figure rises up from the surface below. Her pure-white robes and porcelain hair and skin are nearly blinding in the yellow haze.
“At last!” Her voice booms out across the arena and the nearest demons jump at the sound. “The traitors have returned. Look upon your torturers, demons of Pyra-Mortem.Theyare the source of your pain. They are the reason you have remained here to witness the end of the Elimination.”
None of the demons look up, except a woman in the front row as we pass. I expect to see anger in her eyes, but instead, her tear-stained face fills with hope. A look I never thought would be cast at Roman. He is Lord Rune. The bringer of death. Or at me, the outcast, half-demon. But her gaze swivels from Roman to me and her eyes brighten. She looks down again, seconds before Crone turns in her direction.
Roman reaches for me, brushing my cheek where he painted the rune for strength. “Remember what you have to do. Don’t lose your focus no matter what Crone does. I will fight her.”
