The Devil You Need

by Sam Cheever

  “Don’t do it, Astra.”

  I ignored him, slicing a new wound in my finger. My expulsion of power had healed the last one. Squeezing the wound, I threw Gerch a look and lifted an eyebrow. “If she gets close to me, hit her on the head with a rock.”

  He sighed, stepping away to give himself more room.

  Holding my bleeding finger over the fire, I squeezed it and watched a crimson drop hit the flame, creating a small explosion. As flames roared upward, I said the name of the woman I hated most in the whole world.

  Two drops later the fire exploded upward again and the evil bitch was standing before me, grinning as I stepped backward. I kept energy dancing on my fingertips as a barrier between us.

  She cocked her head. “Interesting. I see you’ve managed to regain your power.”

  “Better than ever, devil skank.”

  She pursed her lips, frowning slightly. “Well, I guess I’ll just need to do a more thorough job this time.”

  I amped the power, surrounding myself with a protective bubble. “Just stay the hell back, Crisanne. I’ll cook your black heart in your chest. In fact, don’t tempt me. I’d really enjoy doing it.”

  She stared at me through exotic, light-brown eyes that masked a monumentally evil soul. “It’s clear you haven’t put our differences aside, Astra. And yet you summoned me here. I have to wonder why.”

  I certainly hadn’t wanted to summon her. In fact I’d struggled with the idea for hours. But I needed an impressive amount of power to do what I wanted to do, and she was the most powerful person I knew who lived in the Hell environs. Aside from the three people we were hunting of course. “I need your help.”

  She laughed, then sobered as she realized I wasn’t joking. “You can’t be serious.”

  “Unfortunately I am. I need to rescue Dialle from Nestrada and I can’t do it alone.”

  Her brown gaze widened. “Nestrada? Ouch. He’s probably already gone.”

  I realized she was probably playing with me, but I couldn’t help myself. She’d voiced my greatest concern. “What do you mean?”

  “You don’t know about Nestrada?” Crisanne laughed. “This is priceless. Nestrada loves beautiful things. She’s wanted to get her hands on Dialle for centuries. Now that she has him she’ll waste no time.”

  “Waste no time doing what?”

  “Creating her work of art, of course. She’ll inject him with her venom and turn him into a living statue so she can enjoy him forever.”

  Ice filled my chest as her words sank in. Panic trickled down my spine and made the hairs on my neck rise in horror. My magic sputtered on my fingertips as my legs threatened to buckle out from under me. I’d thought we had more time. I’d thought she would keep Dialle around. I’d had no idea…

  “Shit.”

  Crisanne grimaced. “Yeah. It’s even horrible to me. But if you were planning on rescuing him I’d recommend you do it quickly. Once the moon is full in the sky she’ll sink her fangs into his belly and fill him up with venom. I’m told the venom locks your muscles into place so you die beautiful, but it fries your brain and insides so that death is excruciating.”

  All the blood left my face. I staggered backward, leaning against the tree. Turning my head I retched helplessly, feeling as if my insides were climbing into my mouth. My magic died on my fingertips and Crisanne moved. Gerch suddenly appeared, holding his blade to Crisanne’s throat. She stilled under the threat.

  I forced my knees to straighten and dragged my power forward again, wiping the back of my hand over my mouth. “You need to help me save him, Crisanne. I’ll do anything.”

  She lifted a finely shaped black eyebrow. “When you first summoned me I was determined to deny you. But knowing what’s at stake I find I’m intrigued. So I’ll tell you what. I will help you save the king.”

  Relief flooded me, even as a sense of dread rose in response to her words. The evil bitch wouldn’t help me out of the kindness of her heart. And I had no doubt I was going to hate what she required in return. I inclined my chin, frowning. “Okay. What do you want for helping me?”

  She smiled and it was like a fist to my stomach.

  “What I’ve always wanted. I want Dialle. I want to be his queen.”

  Pain sheared through me, followed by a wave of white-hot anger. “Dialle isn’t a boon to be passed from person to person. It’s up to him if he wants to make you his queen.”

  “Not entirely. You and I both know that if you want him he’ll cling to you. For whatever reason you have some kind of hold over him. I want you to walk away. Tell him you don’t love him. I will be there to pick up the pieces when you go.”

  It was my worst nightmare. Made worse by the fact that I thought it would probably work. With me gone, Dialle would be inclined to mate for the health of the court. Or to keep from succumbing to madness again.

  I wanted to blast the evil bitch between her pretty eyes and send her flying. But I knew I couldn’t save Dialle without her. And he would be dead…or worse…if I didn’t get him away from Nestrada. I couldn’t let the fate Crisanne described happen to the man I loved.

  Then I had a sudden thought. “You can’t rule with Dialle. You’re a class four. You can’t leave Hell.”

  “Not without a powerful sponsor, no. I think the king of the earthbound royals would count. Don’t you?”

  I blinked back tears and nodded, realizing I was beaten. “I’ll walk away. But first I need to help Dialle destroy his father and my mother. They’re trying to take over the court.”

  Crisanne thought about this for a moment and then nodded. “I’ll allow you to tie up your loose ends. But then I want you to leave and never return. I don’t care where you go. I just want you gone.”

  Feeling as if my heart was being wrenched from my chest, I took a shaky breath. “Okay, here’s what I have in mind…”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Fate Worse than Death?

  Foes abound beneath the moons of Hell, and difficult challenges thrive,

  Alas young miss just cannot tell, if her loved ones will survive.

  I stood on top of the ridge surrounding Nestrada’s hidey hole. Darkness had fallen over Perdigo, settling around me like a heated blanket. The silence that throbbed over the landscape beyond Nestrada’s lair created an ominous sense of expectation that made my palms tingle with unease. The heavy sound of slithering was a constant, terrifying resonance within the rocky walls of the night-blackened hole where Dialle awaited a horrific death.

  I assumed the monster’s movements meant she was preparing her killing ritual. I glanced toward Crisanne. She stood twenty yards away, her gaze fixed inside the hole as if she could see through the velvet blackness. Maybe she could. She was a resident of the Hell environs.

  “Are you ready?” Though spoken softly to avoid being overheard down below, my voice seemed to echo around us, pinging off the darkness and throbbing against my skin. I trembled against the unfamiliar feel of the night. It was thick with menace.

  Crisanne turned her head slowly, her eyes seeming to gleam through the darkness. She dipped her chin slightly. I lifted my hand over my head and signaled Gerch. The soft sound of his footfalls on the rock told me he’d started down.

  Pulling my power forward, I gazed at the mountainside across from us, knowing we’d have to move quickly. Once Nestrada saw our power marking the sky, she would be able to kill Dialle fast, before we could get to him.

  That was why I needed Crisanne.

  “Now.” My strained whisper pinged off the mountain walls, breaking the silence as effectively as a shout. I lifted my hands and shot power into the rocky wall directly across from us, my mind grabbing a picture of Olympus from my memories and transposing it with the picture my energy illuminated in the distance.

  Crisanne’s power flared thick and bright, joining mine and overwhelming it in yellow light as the wall beyond began to tremble and crack. I fought against the desire to look downward, needing to focus everything I had into my t
ask, but it was the hardest thing I’ve ever done.

  Dialle could be dying at that moment.

  I shook off the thought and focused harder on my goal. The wall across from us began to fall away, flinging deadly chunks of rock into the monster’s lair—a brand new danger for Gerch and Dialle to navigate.

  The wall split in two and blue sky showed through, bright ribbons of white rippling across its surface. A blast of arctic air gusted through the fracture, hitting me with the force of a slap across the face.

  I widened my stance and leaned into the brisk wind, praying I could hold out longer than the monster.

  The world suddenly crashed around me and I stumbled, my toes hanging over the edge. It crashed again and my power slipped downward, scoring the wall beneath our breech and sending debris flying to the ground.

  “She’s flinging herself against the walls!” Crisanne screamed.

  I dropped to my knees so I’d have a more stable base and renewed my efforts at cutting through the mountain.

  The crack widened, showing a distant range of white-capped mountains, and the frigid air thickened, smelling of snow.

  The air before me shimmered and a massive set of fangs snapped at my face, missing me by mere inches. I screamed and jumped back, rolling away from Nestrada as she struck again.

  A razor-sharp fang opened the flesh of my forearm. I leapt into the air and landed on her back, just behind her head, barely managing to send a jolt of energy into her flesh before she snapped sideways and sent me flying.

  I smacked against a tree and slid to the ground, leaping to my feet as soon as my butt hit the dirt. “Keep it open!” I screamed to Crisanne, and ran toward the monster as she turned to look at my partner in crime. Already her movements were slowing, as the dense, arctic air replaced the warmth her body needed.

  I leapt onto her head and slid down to her back, wrapping myself around her thick body as best I could. Nestrada reared up, flinging her head from side to side in an effort to repel me. I used my power to enhance my grip and held on. I’d had lots of practice holding onto Glynus as she rolled and tumbled in the sky and I thought I could hold onto the meaty monster between my thighs, long enough for her to begin to falter from the cold.

  Her tail came up and snapped sideways, barely missing Crisanne. But the other Tweener had been ready for the attack. She leapt into the air and landed several feet away, barely missing a beat in her efforts to hold the breech open.

  Snow swirled over us and frost had begun to form along the ground.

  Nestrada’s movements had slowed but the constant thrashing was keeping her body warm enough to avoid tightening up.

  I shot another jolt of power into the spot at the back of her head where I suspected her important parts had to be. She reared up, screaming, and shot a dual stream of black liquid from her fangs.

  The venom hit the icy ground and sizzled, burning its way past the ice and rock.

  Nestrada gave a final, desperate thrash that sent me flying over her head and then crashed to the ground and went still.

  I rolled as I hit the ground and landed on my feet, turning to look at the monster.

  Her long form was locked in immobility, the bottom half draped over the edge of the hole. Her tiny wings seemed frozen in mid-flutter, standing upright from her body, and her bright-blue gaze stared straight ahead, rigid and blank. Snow swirled over her form, settling in a lacy blanket.

  I glanced at Crisanne. She was on her knees, looking as if she were about to collapse onto her face. “We need to keep it open until I’m sure Dialle is safe,” I told her.

  “You’d better hurry then, bitch. This isn’t easy.”

  I ran toward the rocky steps cut into the mountainside and started down, praying we weren’t too late. Halfway down I saw movement ahead and lifted my hand, letting an illuminating ball of energy dance in my palm.

  Gerch was half carrying Dialle up the mountainside. They slipped on the ice-covered steps, nearly falling to their knees, but Gerch caught them with a hand on the rocky wall before they fell.

  Dialle was covered in blood, his silky, dark hair crusty with it, but he looked up at me and smiled. “It’s never boring around you, Astra.”

  I grinned. “Yeah, I know. It’s one of my better things.” I positioned myself under Dialle’s other arm. “Do you think you can shift us out of here?”

  He nodded. A heartbeat later we were locked beyond sight and sound. And the evil bitch Crisanne was left holding the bag.

  I didn’t feel even a little bit bad about that.

  * * * * *

  We landed in a grassy field, flat and green as far as the eye could see. Except for the circle of arrow-shaped rocks in the distance.

  I squinted toward the strange landmark. “What the hell is that?”

  Dialle handed Gerch a sword he’d pulled from the ether. “That is our destination.” He looked at me, his gaze unreadable in the darkness. “Do you still have that venom?”

  I reached into my pocket and pulled out the cloth-wrapped vial. Dialle took it from me and trickled some over Gerch’s blade. “Don’t touch this blade, old friend.”

  Gerch nodded.

  Dialle handed me a set of long knives and I held them out as he did the same to them.

  Once he’d treated his own sword he glanced up at the moons overhead. “It is almost time.”

  “What are we waiting for?”

  He jerked his head toward the rocks. “At midnight the twin moons will be directly overhead. That is when we will attack.”

  Gerch’s wide brow lowered over his black eyes in a frown. “Won’t their magics be strongest then?”

  “Yes. But so will ours and the light will help against the dragon demons. They don’t see as well in light.”

  A chill crept down my spine and my voice squeaked a little when I said, “Dragon demons?” I’d never seen one but I remembered them from stories my mother told me when I was a little ballbuster sitting on her knee. Mother dearest Danika never told sweet, soothing stories to her offspring. The world’s worst mother liked to send us off to bed with nightmares already dancing in our heads.

  I looked toward the rock formation again and realized the tops of many of the rocks were now longer and misshapen. The dark shapes looked huge with the moon’s aura behind them. Several pairs of glowing red eyes peered at us through the darkness. “They know we’re here.”

  Dialle slipped his sword into its scabbard. “Yes.” He started forward. “Let’s go, I have a score to settle.”

  The moons were directly overhead by the time we neared the rock formation. The dragon demons that had been watching in immobile silence as we approached, finally lifted off the rocks when we got close. The dragons sent fiery blasts into the sky from between bony beaks as they spread their long, black-feathered wings. I stopped in my tracks, not knowing what they would do. But they simply soared upward and began to circle the stones like vultures, their skeletal heads furthering the impression that they were enormous carrion eaters.

  I only hoped Gerch, Dialle and I didn’t provide them with a meal anytime soon.

  I moved forward, keeping one eye trained on the circling nightmare in the sky. We stopped at the edge of the circle, arrayed in a tight triangle between two of the huge rocks. Up close, the stones that made up the formation were much larger than I’d thought. Their pointed tops towered a dozen yards above my head. The rocks gave off heat and vibration, like living things, and their surface sparked orange and red in the moonlight. I resisted the urge to reach out and touch one of them, figuring nothing good could come of it.

  The evil musketeers had chosen that spot for a reason. Whatever it was, I was sure it didn’t bode well for the good guys.

  Inside the circle, said musketeers stood waiting, looking much calmer than I, and that was annoying as hell. Dialle the First, my Dialle’s devilish dad, smiled. “Welcome to my favorite spot in Hades.”

  First was tall and slim like his son, with a thick mane of silky black hair t
hat was combed straight back from a perfect widow’s peak on his forehead and hung all the way to his waist. As usual he had it tied back in a low tail, probably gathered together with a leather string, though I couldn’t tell from where I stood. His shoulders were broad, his biceps well-developed, and he had a tat of a pitchfork on one of them. I loved that pitchfork. He cocked his head as he addressed his son, his sexy eyes narrowing. “I’m pleased we finally have a chance to settle things. I grow weary of your usurpation and wish an end to it.”

  I glanced at my Dialle. His eyes had blackened, not a good thing, and his sexy jaw was taut, but he seemed calm, obviously fighting the urge to rise to his father’s bait. “I would have preferred we settle this without you murdering my entire court.”

  Dialle the First shrugged. “They can be replaced. And it made quite a statement, did it not? Particularly since the light ones believe you have shed your sanity and gone rogue.”

  Someone growled and I realized it was me. I stepped forward. “I’m just curious, how did you naughty children manage to escape the Hell environs? You were banished here for a reason.”

  My mother laughed, the sound scraping across my last nerve. “We had some help from our friends. Even Hell can be breeched if you have a strong enough advocate in the Earthly plane.”

  The evil Danika glanced toward Astis. The ethereal beauty had situated herself at the farthest point in the circle away from us. She stood behind Dialle and Danika, her too-pretty face alight with anticipation. The witch wore a long dress with a silvery sheen and clutched a tall, black staff in one small hand. A tiny flame burned atop the staff. Astis gave me a mean smile. “We meet again, ugly Tweener. I can taste your death in my mouth and it is so sweet.”

  I shrugged. “Death and I have an arrangement, I give him lots of other playmates and he leaves me alone. It’s worked out fine so far.”

  Astis frowned. “Bring it, bitch!”

  I just smiled.