Isaac simply nodded, his throat too tight for words, and followed Whichello out into the hallway, where Marcus already waited.
The enforcer took one look at their faces and straightened, hand moving toward the weapon at his hip. “What happened?”
“Dimitri has Isaac’s friends.” Whichello’s voice had shifted back into command mode, the earlier softness gone. “We’re going to retrieve them.”
“We?” Marcus’s gaze moved between them, understanding dawning in his eyes. “You’re taking Isaac into a hostage situation?”
“Isaac is going with or without my permission.” Whichello started walking, forcing both of them to follow. “I’d rather be there to keep him from getting killed.”
They moved through the castle at a pace that had Isaac nearly jogging to keep up. Whichello’s long strides ate up distance while Marcus kept pace on Isaac’s other side, close enough to grab him if he tried to bolt. Not that Isaac planned to run. Not when they were actually going to help Danny instead of locking Isaac away like a helpless maiden.
The main entrance hall was empty, just shadows and the eternal twilight filtering through stained glass windows. Whichello headed for the doors without slowing, and they swung open before he reached them as if the castle itself was eager to let them leave.
Cool air struck Isaac’s face as they stepped outside, sharp and clean after the stuffiness of the castle. The grounds stretched out in all directions, manicured lawns giving way to wild forest that looked like it had never seen human touch. Or demon touch. Whatever.
“The portal is this way.” Whichello led them across the lawn toward a structure that looked like a gazebo made of black stone and dark metal. Runes carved into the pillars glowed faintly in the dim light, pulsing with power that made Isaac hesitate.
He really hated using shadows to travel. It always left him nauseous.
They reached the gazebo and stepped inside, Isaac praying he didn’t spew his guts out when they exited on the other side.
Chapter Nine
The portal swirled to life at Whichello’s touch, a vortex of darkness that made Isaac’s stomach lurch just looking at it. Whichello went through first, then Isaac stepped into the void, which felt like falling and flying simultaneously.
When they emerged in the woods close to Danny’s, Whichello steadied Isaac with a hand on his elbow. “I’ll stay back until you’re inside. You’ve got two minutes, then I’m coming in regardless.”
“Two minutes,” Isaac repeated, though the words felt hollow. Two minutes could be forever when someone had a knife to your best friend’s throat.
Or to yours.
He started walking, his feet carrying him forward on autopilot while his brain screamed that he should turn around and let Whichello handle this. But Danny’s face kept surfacing in his thoughts, the real Danny who Isaac had sat with through panic attacks and bad days and every moment his best friend had felt like giving up.
Isaac approached the house, each step across the cracked sidewalk feeling as if he was walking toward his own execution. The porch light flickered, casting shadows that jumped and twisted against the vinyl siding. This was such a monumentally stupid idea. If he survived this, he was going to need therapy. And possibly a shovel to bury whatever was left of his common sense.
Whichello and Marcus waited two blocks back, far enough that Dimitri wouldn’t sense them immediately but close enough to reach Isaac if things went sideways.Whenthings went sideways. Isaac wasn’t naive enough to think this would go any other way.
He reached for the doorknob before he could talk himself out of it. The metal felt cold under his palm, and when he turned it, the mechanism clicked in a way that reminded him too much of the passage door in his bedroom. That same soft sound that preceded a mindfuck Isaac wasn’t ready for.
He pushed the door open and stepped inside. The house sat silent around him, too quiet for a place that should have people in it. No television noise. No conversation. Just the hum of the refrigerator from somewhere deeper inside the house and the sound of his own loud breathing.
The door slammed shut behind him.
Isaac spun around, hand already reaching for the knob, but Dimitri stood there blocking his path. Two other demons flanked him, faces Isaac didn’t recognize. Both were built like they spent their free time throwing cars for entertainment. One had scars running down the left side of his face in patterns that looked too precise to be accidental. The other had eyes that reflected light like an animal’s, yellow and predatory.
“You actually came.” Dimitri’s mouth curved into something that might have been a smile if it had contained any warmth whatsoever. “Alone, even. You’re either incredibly brave or catastrophically stupid.”
“Where’s Danny?” Isaac kept his voice level despite the way his pulse thundered in his ears. His eyes swept the living room, taking in the overturned coffee table and the lamp lying broken on the floor. Signs of a struggle or staged to look like one. “You said if I came, you wouldn’t hurt them.”
Dimitri tilted his head, that false smile widening. “Did I? I don’t recall making that exact promise. I said to come here alone, and you’d find out what happened to your friends.”
The demon to Dimitri’s left laughed, a sound like rocks grinding together. Isaac’s stomach dropped somewhere around his knees. Something about this was off. Way off.
“So where is he?” Isaac took a step sideways, trying to get a better angle on the room, on any possible exit that wasn’t blocked by three demons who looked eager to rip him apart. “Where are Danny and Ash?”
“How should I know?” Dimitri shrugged, the gesture casual and dismissive. “Probably at Frothy Pine, I think it’s called. With the terrible music and the bartender who can’t make change without using a calculator.”
The words took a moment to register. Then they hit, and Isaac realized the truth of the situation. “You don’t have them.”
