The Devil You Need

by Sam Cheever

  Without warning the witch whipped the staff around, pointing it directly at me, and blue light shot from its tip. I jumped to the side, rolling behind a rock as the ground where I’d been standing exploded upward. Dialle and Gerch started forward and I leapt to my feet, intending to follow.

  They ran two strides into the circle and stopped, their arms and legs caught in a parody of running as they hung, seemingly in midair. I stopped, watching as Dialle tried to move his arms, the strain of his effort clear on his face.

  What’s wrong? I asked him.

  A magic web. I can slough it off but it will take a minute. Can you keep them busy in the interim?

  I glanced toward my mother and saw that she and First were already moving toward Dialle. Got it. But you’d better hurry, bud. I have no idea how long I’ll be able to hold them off.

  Working on it, Astra.

  I leapt upward, aiming for the top of the nearest stone. My feet hit rock and I wrapped my arms around the narrow tip to steady myself, nearly falling as a jolt of something powerful seared through me. I held on, letting it sizzle through my system and, after a few beats, it settled down to a low-level hum that I could stand.

  Almost immediately the rock I clung to exploded under a stream of blue light. I looked up.

  Astis.

  I flung my hand out and sent magic shooting in her direction, then leapt onto the next rock, and fired again. I kept on the same way over several more of the power-drenched stones, getting more and more acclimated to the low-level vibrations with every move. I alternated my blasts to keep all three of the evil musketeers busy while Dialle worked to free himself and Gerch.

  As I fired and ducked, fleeing while power exploded all around me, I noticed that my energy was hotter than usual…more destructive than I expected. I wondered if I was drawing energy, somehow, from the stones themselves.

  Another blast of blue hit the rock I was on and the top sheared off, falling away. I fell forward and stopped ten feet from the ground, mired in the sticky air inside the circle. I felt as if I’d fallen into a vat of glue that was quickly drying around me. I struggled to free myself, watching with horror as Astis raised the staff and pointed it in my direction.

  A horrendous shriek split the air above me, too close, and I hung helpless as something that felt like knives pierced my sides and yanked me upward, lifting me toward the sky. As soon as I was wrenched free of the muck I turned my head, looking at the dark brown, ragged underbelly of a dragon demon.

  I drew my power forward and then stopped, realizing if I blasted the thing and it let go I’d fall right back into the muck. But as the deadly claws of the demon tightened, digging deep within my torso and cracking ribs like toothpicks beneath them, I almost gave in and blasted the thing anyway, just to get away from the pain.

  The demon rose straight up in the air and shook me, hard, like a dog trying to break the neck of its prey, and then loosened its grip and dropped me.

  The magic web didn’t catch me. It apparently only existed on the perimeter of the circle. The ground rushed up to meet me and I hit it hard, feeling the broken pieces of my ribs piercing through flesh. I cried out as agony sliced, trying to roll away as Astis approached. But the pain was too great and my limbs felt as if they were enclosed in lead. A moment later a small pair of silk slippers stopped next to me and the base of the staff slammed into my head.

  The world blurred and darkened and blood ran from a new cut on my forehead. I lifted my hands to blast her and she hit me again. Darkness called to me, encroaching to pull my muzzy thoughts into sweet oblivion. I realized I needed to do something or I would be dead within seconds.

  I grabbed my power and thought about the space behind Astis, praying she hadn’t extended the web to that side. The world slipped away, locked in silence, and I lost the sensation of firmness beneath me.

  I hung there, suspended in nothingness, unwilling to move forward. Peace descended. A sense of safety in the silence. Pain razored through me, even in the emptiness, and my mind tried to slip away, looking for the blessed relief of unconsciousness. Somewhere in the back of my mind I realized I would be forever lost in a nether realm if I didn’t stop my shift. But I couldn’t get my mind to wrap around it. I floated in gray nothingness, the absence of danger a siren song I could barely resist. But Dialle’s face slipped across my mental screen and I sighed, realizing I’d have to go back.

  With a monumental effort of will, I forced my mind to grab hold of the image it needed to end the space-shift and the hard ground re-emerged beneath me.

  Agony made me suck in a breath as a rock jammed my ribs where I’d landed.

  “Astra, watch out!”

  I looked up and saw the skeletal face of a dragon demon dropping down from the sky, claws extended for another pain-filled trip. “Yeah, I don’t think so, asshole.” I shot power in dual, dynamic streams that consumed the creature in a wash of heat and power and turned it to ash within a breath.

  Soft, gray cinders floated over me like dirty snow.

  With the use of my power my body felt a bit stronger, so I shoved myself off the ground and turned as Astis whipped around and pointed her deadly staff in my direction. I jerked my hands up, palms outward, and gave her everything I had. Her eyes widened as it hit her and I had a second to enjoy the look of surprised pain in her large, gray eyes before she shot backward, arms and legs akimbo, until she hit the invisible mesh of her web and stuck. I yelled, “To Hades with you fool, for God hath tired of you.” The mesh holding her ignited from the power sizzling over her skin and her slim body went up in flame. She screamed, writhing with pleasure as she burned. Nausea roiled in my gut. “Gods save me from pain junkies.”

  When the witch’s scream finally drained away, I looked around and saw Dialle battling his father with swords. I wasn’t too worried, First would have to score a killing strike, Dialle would only need to graze his father with the venom-drenched blade.

  Gerch was across the circle, fighting dragon demons with his venom-coated sword. He was covered in bloody slices and his uniform was torn in several places, but the big soldier was surrounded by dragon bodies that looked as if they’d been turned to stone.

  Apparently Nestrada’s venom was working like a charm. Speaking of which. I grabbed my long knives and looked around for my mother. A dragon demon screeched and I turned, lifting my knives toward the creature flying directly at me.

  Danika Phelps sat astride the horrible creature, her beautiful face calmly watching me as power spit in a large ball hovering over her palm.

  My dear mother, looking not at all concerned as she prepared to murder her younger daughter. Pain flared in my breast. Pain that had nothing to do with battle wounds. I’d always known my mother didn’t love me. I’d thought I’d come to grips with that years earlier. It was probably one of the reasons I killed dark worlders and felt no regret. My mother’s careless disregard for me had turned something inside me dark…twisted me just a bit.

  It was the thing that had worried me most when I’d been fighting to keep my light side alive during my Settling. But I realized in that moment that I would never really accept my mother’s hatred.

  How does one accept that?

  If I could leave it simply at that it would be bad enough. But I would now have to end my own mother, permanently. Souls that are killed in Hades did not return. When I removed my mother’s life force from her this time, it would be for good. The pain that had moved into my chest spread to my belly, twisting until I could barely breathe.

  I said a prayer for strength and, as my mother lifted her arm to fling the ball of energy at me, I leapt sideways and threw one of my venom-painted knives.

  The ground where I’d been standing spit upward, covering me with dirt and grass. The dragon my mother was riding hit the ground with a roar and skidded several feet before stopping in a cloud of dust, my knife jutting from its shoulder.

  I leapt to my feet, looking for Danika. She was half beneath the dragon, struggling to cli
mb out. I swallowed hard, realizing it was my chance to finish her.

  The ground erupted again. This time I felt the stinging heat of the power behind it and looked up. Crisanne stood on top of one of the tall rocks, her pretty face dark with rage. “You left me behind, you bitch. We had an agreement.”

  I briefly considered throwing my last remaining knife at her but my mother had renewed her efforts to get free and seemed to be making progress. I thought she’d be upright and dangerous again in seconds. “I told you I had to do this first, Crisanne. I didn’t break my promise to you.”

  “You left me holding that damn breech open by myself. Do you have any idea how painful that was?”

  I pressed my lips together to hold back a smile. I thought that probably wouldn’t go over well. “Sorry about that. I figured you’d realize we were gone…eventually.”

  “You double-crossing bitch!” Crisanne lifted her hands and I panicked, flinging my last knife in her direction. My mother stood up, turning to me and I realized she was between me and Crisanne’s power. I started forward just as Crisanne’s oily yellow energy hit my mother between the shoulder blades.

  Danika’s eyes widened and her mouth came open with surprise. I stood there for a moment, torn, watching my mother’s expression turn to horror as her magic was ripped away from her. My mind was screaming that I had to stop it. My legs tightened with the need to leap between them and take Crisanne’s power myself. I even took that first step. But I forced myself to stop. Because something ugly had occurred to me. Something selfish, which would make my life a tiny bit easier. And I just couldn’t bring myself to save the evil Danika from her current fate.

  Crisanne’s power sputtered and, for a moment I thought my mother was fighting back. But Danika Phelps was on her knees in the grass, her pretty face pale and twisted with pain.

  I knew that pain intimately. That sense of having the most precious part of yourself ripped away, leaving behind a black, empty hole that you couldn’t fill with anything. Not knowledge, or hope, or even love. It was an ending that was in many ways worse than death. I scrubbed the tears from my face and forced myself to look away. Danika Phelps had made her own choices. She’d created hell for too many people, and now she would live the rest of her life miserable and empty.

  I lifted a tear-drenched gaze to Crisanne and gasped. She stood rigid upon the rock, her pretty brown gaze glazed and fixed, and her hands straight out in front of her, power still trickling from her palms.

  My knife stuck out from her left thigh. The venom had done its work.

  “Astra?”

  I brushed tears from my cheeks and turned. Dialle was safe and whole. In one hand he still clutched his bloodied sword. “I’m okay. Your father?”

  “I killed him.” Pain slid through his gaze and I reached out, squeezing his hand in silent support. I hadn’t had to kill my mother but Dialle hadn’t been so lucky. Still, seeing my mother groveling on the ground, sobbing as her body still writhed in unaccustomed helplessness, I couldn’t help thinking Dialle might have gotten the best of the bargain.

  He wrapped an arm around me and kissed my forehead. “Let’s go home, my love. We have a court to rebuild.”

  I nodded, sniffling, and let him turn me away. It would be good to be home again. It would be good to have something constructive to do. It might even keep my heart from breaking totally apart in my chest.

  Though at that moment I doubted it.

  Epilogue

  As it Ends…

  So it Begins

  I sat in Dialle’s court chair and looked out over the room. The long, curved table was the only thing that still remained of the old council chambers. We’d returned to the court a couple of months earlier and had walked into carnage and destruction the likes of which I never wanted to witness again.

  Even during the bloody civil war between magic wielders and humans, when the magic veil was making everyone crazy, things had never been as bad as what Dialle and I found when we returned from Perdigo.

  Things in the celestial realm were bad too, as The Big Guy and the celestial army tried to deal with the uprising in the ranks of the dark angels. They’d finally managed to batten the situation back down, but the losses on both sides had been great.

  Dialle and I had spent a full week trying to record all the dead in the court and tend to the living. We’d emerged from the process changed. The darkness that had stalked us both had found a permanent spot in both our breasts, a small, unshakeable handhold that we’d forever need to control.

  But it had also given us a stronger grip on the light. Moments after we returned, the blood-covered walls had glowed with a silvery light that preceded the arrival of hundreds of guardian angels, come to help us deal with the aftermath.

  Devil and angel worked side by side for weeks returning the court to its former health and then Dialle and I had struggled to make it ours. Now glossy wood floors replaced cold, hard stone in the court chambers and hallways. Warm, soft carpets covered the floors in all the living chambers, and the court had a brand new gathering place where the court’s inhabitants could lounge on oversized couches and pillows to watch holographic films or play laser games.

  The court population was much smaller but growing every day. Something else had changed. I’d talked Dialle into allowing Tweeners and other species to apply for residence there. The diversity of Dialle’s new kingdom sometimes made things more difficult…but it also made life more interesting. And we were stronger for the change. Our magical abilities were more varied, our reach into other worlds and dimensions more extensive, and our influence nearly without limit.

  The court of Dialle the Second was vastly different from First’s rule, but that was exactly how we wanted it to be. This wasn’t his father’s Royal Devil Court. It was his. And mine.

  It was ours.

  There was only one thing missing, and I fully intended to see it remedied that night. I sighed, swiping a hand over the glossy surface of the table before me. The double doors to the court chambers opened and I looked up.

  Gerch stuck his head inside. “My queen, the dark fairies are cheating at laser bowling again.”

  I frowned. Sometimes I felt like a babysitter for the world’s most difficult children. “Gerch, I’ve already told you to handle it.”

  “I’ve tried, my queen. They won’t listen to anyone but you.”

  I sighed. “What did they do this time?”

  “They have encased their opponents in fairy string and hung them from the balcony railings. They are out of control.”

  I shook my head and stood. “Did you ask the coven for that potion I requested?”

  “I did.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, clear bottle with a stopper.

  I grinned. “Good. Mix up some cherry nectar and put that into it, then offer it to the fairies with my compliments.”

  “I hope it will kill them.”

  “No. But they’ll probably wish they were dead. It will make their wings limp for a week and remove their ability to create fairy string. Once they’re subdued, gather them up and lock them in their garden for the week. I will explain to them that we will keep neutering them until they behave.”

  Realizing how pissed they were going to be, Gerch finally smiled. “Yes, my queen.”

  I smacked him on the arm. “For god’s sake. Stop calling me that.”

  He chuckled and turned away. “Where will you be, m—” His grin widened. “Astra, my dearest friend. In case I need to confer with you again?”

  “Out of range, Gerch my largest ass-pain. I’m going to…erm…confer with the king.”

  He waggled his eyebrows and then bowed low, dancing out of range when I tried to smack him again. I watched him stride down the hall, toward the kitchens. Then I took off in the opposite direction, admiring the gilded mirrors and shiny wood consoles lining the halls. The changes had done a lot to make the court feel more cozy, more like home.

  Astra?

  I cringed inw
ardly as my sister’s voice razored across my mind. What is it, Darma?

  Where are you?

  Where I’m supposed to be. Where are you?

  Ha, ha. I need your help with something.

  I frowned. I’m kind of busy, Darma. Can’t you handle it?

  Believe me, Astra, I wouldn’t have called you if I could have thought of any way out of it. But Emo is out vanquishing a snake demon and Slayer is up to his sexy eyebrows in gargoyles.

  Feeling the promise of a long, leisurely romp under the covers with my favorite devil sliding away, I was perhaps less patient with my sister than I could have been.

  Well shit! What’s the problem? When I gave you and the guys Angel Network to run I expected you to actually run it. Not come whining to me every time you had a tiny little problem.

  There’s nothing tiny about this problem, Astra. And it’s currently standing in my office, glaring at me through one, big, blood-shot eye.

  A troll?

  Yeah. And I’m weak from the stench. I’ve never vanquished a troll before. I don’t know what to do.

  Are you sure you need to vanquish it? Maybe it just wants to talk.

  Um, I’m pretty sure the gore-covered claw currently digging a hole in my throat is a negative on the conversational option.

  Sighing, I told her I’d be right there and space-shifted to my old office beneath Angel City. I landed just outside my old office door and lifted an eyebrow at the mess. The troll hadn’t so much opened the office door as crashed through it. What was left of the wood door hung at an odd angle from bent hinges. Slivers of it were scattered across the floor.

  I peered inside, and saw the broadest back and fattest ass I’ve ever seen standing in the center of the room, obscuring Darma’s desk. Sitting atop the wide body was a squarish head that looked small in comparison to the rest of the troll, but was probably twice as big as mine. The narrow noggin was sparsely decorated with wiry yellow hair, telling me it was a girl. Male trolls were entirely bald.

  “Hey?”

  The thing turned slowly, lumbering around to the accompaniment of a choking sound that I assumed came from my sister. Sure enough, as it turned, it carried Darma with it, her toes dancing along the floor and both hands digging at the thick, gray-skinned hand wrapped around her throat. “Let her go, Venus. That’s my sister you’re choking.”