“Noted,” Andras drawled. “Now, do you want to give this a shot, or do you want to impress me with your towering height some more?”
Drew narrowed his eyes, taking that as the challenge it was. He dipped into the inner well of power within him, even as he pictured two demons, based broadly on the one they’d met first. He didn’t want to use any of the demons that had been in the settlement in case they ran into them again. That might draw attention to them. When he was happy enough with the image, he whispered, “nos cela,1” and allowed his magic to flow out of him.
Andras reeled back, his jaw dropping in shock. “Fuck!”
Drew’s heart dropped. “Did I do it wrong?” He wondered which part he’d messed up. Had it half worked? Had he made them look like some monstrous, twistedversion of a demon?
Andras slowly shook his head. “Uh, no. No, it uh, it worked,” he said haltingly.
Drew stared at Andras, trying to see the glamour. His aunt had one of those old 3D Magic Eye books, and it was a little like that. If he let his eyes unfocus, then almost lookedthroughAndras, he could see the image of the demon he’d projected at him. It made his brain hurt, though, so he let his eyes adjust so he could see Andras once more. “What’s wrong then?” Drew asked.
“Nothing’s wrong.”
Scoffing, Drew crossed his arms over his chest and glared at him . “Bullshit. You’re actingweird. Please tell me what’s wrong so I can fix it.”
Andras sighed, and his pale grey eyes were serious as he met Drew’s gaze. “Zach told me how powerful you are. I mean, it’s obvious since you have afucking familiar! And yes, I saw you crack open the ground itself like it was nothing, which is crazy. Something likethis,though. Seeing you do something you’ve never done before . . .”
Drew’s face scrunched up in confusion. “What the fuck are you talking about? You’re not making any sense!”
Andras ran a hand through his pale curls and gestured in an agitated manner. “Glamours aren’t a rare form of magic. Lots of people—demons, angels, humans—can do them. The thing about glamours, though, is if youknowsomeone is using one, it’s pretty obvious when you know what to look for. Small imperfections, things that aren’t quite right. To everyone else who isn’t looking closely, they don’t even notice these things. They just overlook them because those tiny little imperfections aren’t important. Do you get what I’m saying?”
“Yeah, I think so. It’s like AI ‘art.’” He raised his hands to use quotation marks around the last word. “It’s gotten to the point where a lot of people can’t tell it’s AI, but if you know what to look for, it’s obvious. It’s not always even the weird fingers or the blurred backgrounds that give it away. It’s soulless and has that uncanny valley vibe to it.”
“Exactly,” Andras agreed. “This was your first time doing a glamour. Thereshouldbe lots of obvious tells to show me you’re glamoured. You also weren’t just glamouring yourself, but me as well, which makes it even harder. But Drew, there’snothing. If I didn’t know you weren’t a demon with cloven hooves, an extra set of arms, and a truly ugly-as-fuck face, I would, with absolute certainty, say you were a real demon.” Andras shook his head again. “It’s one thing to be told how powerful you are, and to see you perform feats of magic others can’t do, but I guess seeing you do regular, run-of-the-mill magic so flawlessly is what’s really hammered it in for me.”
Drew could feel his cheeks heating, and he tried to shrug it off. “I’m sure it wasn’tthatgood.”
“It was,” Andras disagreed. “And it’s absolutely terrifying.” He paused, and then huffed. “Ihateknowing I look so damned ugly.”
Drew rolled his eyes. “Hashtag thoughts and prayers. Truly, my heart goes out to you.”
“There’s no need to be heartless. Think of all the poor demons whose lives will be poorer for not being able to gaze upon all of this.” Andras gestured at his real face.
“And you’re still not as gorgeous as Zach,” Drew told him, completely serious.
Andras’s shoulders slumped. “I hate how good-looking that asshole is,” he grumbled.
“No you don’t. You get to admire the view too,” Drew pointed out.
The demon sighed wistfully. “And what a view it is.” He cleared his throat and then hooked a thumb over his shoulder towards the village. “We really should get going.”
Drew nodded and crouched down to allow Leila to jump back up onto his shoulder. The urco fell into step beside them and they headed onwards.
They stood in the mouth of a dark alley, across from the inn. It was nearing dusk, and the square was bustling. Despite their glamours, they’d tried to move through town unseen, not wanting the sight of the urco to cause a panic.
“What now?” Drew asked. “How are we going to get in with Princess?”
Andras thought for a moment and then said, “I’ll go and get us a room. You and Princess sneak around to the back of the building to the rear courtyard. Once I’ve got a room, I’ll open the door at the top of the stairs, and we can sneak him in that way. He can stay in the room while we get some food. It’ll give you a chance to search the floor under the tables for the ring.”
“Won’t they have cleaned the floor already?”
Andras arched one of his delicate brows and reached out to pat Drew’s cheek. “Oh, my sweet summer child. You really are so innocent. It’s ademon inn. Do youreallythink they clean the place regularly?”
“They might!” Drew protested. “You shouldn’t make assumptions about their cleanliness just because they’re demons!”
“No, I’m making assumptions of their cleanliness based on the factI’ve been inside and seen how filthy it is.”
Drew rolled his eyes. “Fine. Whatever. The plan sounds good. What are we going to do for money, though? Zach magicked some up for us last time, but I don’t know how to do that. Can you?”
