Inside the Flame (Elemental Mages Book 2)

by Rose O'Brien

  He pulled back and gave her that smile again. Her hand floated up to caress his face and his eyes drifted shut.

  “What I’m offering isn’t perfect, or easy, but it’s real,” he whispered.

  He wasn’t offering her the moon and stars, and they might not live long enough to seal that deal, but it was very real.

  “I can get you home,” he said, his voice rough. “Even if you decide to have nothing to do with me. Whatever you want your life to look like back on Earth, I’ll do everything I can to make it happen. Even if I’m not a part of it. You can tell the Corps and everyone else to go to Hell. I’ll back you.”

  Her hand shook a little as she ran her thumb over his cheek.

  “I pick you,” she whispered as she stared into those indigo eyes. She leaned forward and pressed her lips to his. She’d meant it to be a quick, chaste kiss before they made the mad dash for safety, but his arms came around her like hot steel and his tongue teased her lower lip. She opened for him and reveled in the feel of him in her mouth. His hand found her breast and—

  “I hate to interrupt the tender reunion, but we’ve got company,” a harsh voice said from the doorway.

  “Jen, this is my brother, Xander.”

  “Charmed,” Jen said, catching sight of the dark-haired man with the same startling indigo eyes as Theron.

  But that was where the similarities ended. Where Theron was a light in the darkness, this man was a part of it. He was as tall as Theron, but leaner through the frame. Xander was still an imposing figure, though. It was just that he was less Captain America and more Daredevil.

  “I think I might have a way out of here, but we need to get moving,” Xander told them.

  Theron pulled away from Jen, his expression grim as he unholstered a pistol and checked the magazine. “How many are we dealing with?”

  “Looks like two runway models. You know them, Jen?”

  “Yeah. Couple of demon lieutenants. You two, in the back bedroom. I’ll deal with them.”

  The brothers exchanged a look that communicated volumes in nanoseconds, but moved to the back bedroom and shut the door.

  Jezebeth and Astaroth came breezing in the front door about thirty seconds later, their heels clacking on the wood floors. No knock, no tentative, “Hey Jen, it’s just us.” They rolled in like this place was theirs. And it was. These demons never had any intention of giving her anything. This place was her prison cell, and they were the guards.

  Jen did her best to paste a smile on her face as she went back to cooking the food that had been brought in from the Earthly realms for her. She focused on chopping vegetables while resolutely not looking at the bedroom door.

  She did glance at the thing that looked like Madison where it sat in the living area playing with a doll, wondering how well the creature would play the part. Would it alert the demons that her rescuers were hiding in the house.

  “Lilith needs to see you upstairs, Jen. She sent us to get you,” Jezebeth said, tossing her blonde hair over her shoulder and smiling a little too wide.

  “Did she say what it was about?” Jen asked, not taking her eyes off the cutting board. She couldn’t go with them, not now. In her head, she called to the shades nearby, feeling dozens begin to coalesce beyond the exterior wall of the not-house.

  “No,” said Astaroth. “But we have a lot of work to do if we’re going to stop Falak from invading your world. That means we need to start collecting spirits to feed o—I mean power up with.”

  “Does that mean we’re going to the Earthly Realms?” Jen asked, trying desperately to keep her tone casual.

  “It will mean portal travel—” Astaroth started to say. Jezebeth stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. Her dark eyes narrowed sharply as she stared at Jen.

  “The details aren’t important,” she said. “We don’t want to keep Lilith waiting. Trust me.”

  Panic gripped Jen low in the gut.

  “I just need another minute,” she said, her words coming too fast, her nervousness plain.

  Jezebeth moved impossibly fast around the counter and grabbed Jen’s upper arm hard.

  “We need to go now,” she growled, her features twisting into a terrifying facsimile of human.

  There was a soft thump from the bedroom as something shifted, and the demon’s head snapped around with a lizard-like quickness. Jen’s heart kicked into a gallop and tried to claw its way out of her chest. It was now or never.

  In her mind, she called to her shades, watching as they oozed through the wall, obeying her with a frightening speed.

  “Restrain the demons,” she said, her voice a croak as it squeezed past a throat constricted with fear.

  Shadows wrapped themselves around Jezebeth and Astaroth and the Madison-thing. The girl-copy wailed, and Jen’s heart squeezed for a moment. It wasn’t real. That thing was a demon wearing the face of a child to manipulate her. Nothing more.

  “What are you doing, Jen?” Astaroth hissed.

  “I’m not going anywhere, and neither are you,” Jen said, proud of herself when her voice didn’t shake. She kept the butcher knife she’d been using to chop veggies in her hand as she came around the counter.

  “What we are going to do is talk about how we open a portal back to Earth.” Jen loomed over the two demons. By now, her shades had pinned them to the wicker sofa.

  “Release us!” Jezebeth screamed at the shades.

  “They’re under my control, now,” Jen told them. “There may be no free will left in them, but there are still some echoes of feelings in there. And they don’t like you.”

  The three demons screamed in frustration, but they were completely immobilized in the embrace of the shades.

  “Tell me how to get out of this city and open the portal back to Earth, and I’ll make sure they let you go when I’m gone,” Jen said, trying to keep the words slow and even.

  Jezebeth let out a derisive laugh. “We’re going to break your mind, you stupid bitch. You’ll be as compliant as these shades when we’re done with you. I told Lilith we should have broken you instead of trying to befriend you, but she never listens to me.”

  A white hot anger bubbled through Jen’s chest at those words. How could she have been so stupid to have considered even for one second that these creatures would ever treat her as anything more than a tool? It didn’t matter that she’d thought she’d lost Theron. It didn’t matter if she’d been two steps from full dark side.

  The knife was at Jezebeth’s throat before she could even think about it. The demon chuckled.

  “You think that’s going to hurt me?”

  Jen didn’t answer, the knife shaking in her hand from the incredible rage. The knife moved, slicing the white skin at the demon’s throat.

  A neat cut appeared, but no blood. The cut knit back together as Jen watched.

  Jezebeth laughed again. “We’re beings of energy. While everything takes form in this dimension, we control the form. That’s our gift. We don’t bleed.”

  Jen heard heavy booted footsteps behind her.

  “They don’t bleed, but they do burn,” Theron’s voice said behind her. Turning, she saw him, one hand wreathed in a bluish purple flame.

  The demons’ eyes all went wide.

  “Hellfire,” Astaroth whispered in a quaking voice. “How can he control hellfire?”

  “Not important. What is important is that I destroyed Agramon with it, and I’ll destroy you, too, if you don’t answer Jen’s questions,” Theron said, a small smile tugging at his lips. Xander stood behind them, a twin set of daggers in his hands.

  “You got an upgrade to your powers,” Jen said quietly.

  “So did you,” Theron said, eyeing the shades.

  Theron reached toward Astaroth and the demon flinched back as much as she could. He closed the distance so slowly, it was almost imperceptible. A strange thrill went through Jen. She wanted the demons to hurt, to scream. They’d hurt her, they wanted to hurt other humans. She wanted revenge.
/>   “Do it,” Jen whispered, not even realizing the words had slipped from her until Theron shot her a shocked look.

  “Don’t!” Astaroth whimpered. “I’ll tell you!”

  Theron backed off slightly.

  “The elf. You need the elf, Kahler. He’s the only one that can open the portal. You’ll find him in the chambers off the lower level. Near the room where Bridget first brought you through.”

  “Astaroth! Lilith will kill you for this!” Jezebeth screeched.

  Xander spoke up. “We need to get moving. I think she’s telling the truth. Do you think the shades can hold them?”

  “For a while, at least,” Jen said.

  With a thought, the shades completely enveloped the demons, cutting off their screams as they closed over their faces.

  ***

  Their group moved quickly through the complex, flat out running down the winding obsidian stairs. Jen only paused for a moment when they encountered the hellhound out in the hall. Theron had explained as they moved that Sparky was his familiar now and the source of his newfound hellfire powers.

  She told him about discovering her new powers and how they worked.

  As they moved, she called shades to her, forming a billowing shadowy wave behind them. They encountered two minor demons on the descent. The shades enveloped them, pinning them motionless and silent to the ceiling.

  Xander took point, and he seemed to know the way far better than she did. She shook off the questions she wanted to ask him. They had bigger things to worry about.

  In a matter of minutes, they were back in the room where she’d first arrived in Hell. The bluish purple flames of torches were still burning. Just as Astaroth had described, they found the elf, Kahler.

  Xander took the elf from behind, moving with an uncanny silence. His dagger was at Kahler’s throat in the space of a heartbeat.

  “One move and I’ll end you,” Xander said. “Open a portal back to Damascus and I’ll let you skip off into the damned sunset.”

  The elf’s voice was steady, almost bored, as he said. “You must be the Wraith. Bridget warned us you might come looking for vengeance for the fire-slinger.”

  Xander maneuvered the elf around and began pushing him out to the main chamber. The elf’s eyes went wide as he caught sight of Theron.

  “No vengeance needed,” Theron said, hellfire leaping to life in his hand. “Not dead, yet.”

  “Open the portal,” Xander growled in the elf’s pointy ear.

  “Why should I? Wraiths leave no one alive. I might as well take my chances that the demons will arrive soon. You’ll likely kill me either way.”

  “There are worse things than death,” Xander said through clenched teeth. The dark mage’s eyes narrowed in concentration and he pressed his free hand to the elf’s back. Kahler’s eyes went wide for a moment and his face twisted in pain.

  Suddenly, he dropped to his knees, a strangled scream escaping him, and Xander let him fall.

  Leaning down, Xander said softly, “I just ruptured all the ligaments in your knees. Elves heal fast, but you’re still looking at days of agony knitting those back together. Now, open the fucking portal before I start getting creative. I’m a water mage. You’re about seventy-five percent water. I can make all kinds of things burst, rip, and boil.”

  Xander’s expression was cold as a stone, except for the small twist of his mouth on one side. He’d done this kind of thing before. A long time ago, Jen would have recoiled at this kind of violence. Now, she felt relief. Kahler deserved all of this and more.

  Panting, the elf levered himself around to a sitting position, pain contorting his slender features. His hands moved in a complicated pattern and a hole appeared in reality, spinning with a hundred bright colors.

  The three of them looked at each other.

  “How do we know it’s Damascus on the other side and not the middle of the Atlantic or something?” Jen asked.

  “We don’t,” Xander said, turning resolutely toward the portal that was increasing slowly to the size of a person. “I’ll go through and check. If it’s safe, I’ll come right back through.”

  “Isn’t there a safer way?” Theron said, stepping to his brother’s side.

  Xander laughed loudly and harshly. “Safe is a fucking relative term right now, man. I’m a water mage, if it’s the middle of the Atlantic, I’ll be fine.”

  “And if it’s a volcano, or two hundred feet off the ground or two miles underground?”

  “Then I’m screwed, and it’s been nice knowing you.”

  “I can’t let you do this.”

  “Yes, you can,” Xander said with a sad smile. “You need to protect Jen. Get her back to the Council. They need her and she needs you.”

  With that, Xander stepped through and disappeared in the swirling rainbow.

  Theron drew one of his pistols and pointed it at the elf.

  “Any sudden moves, or you drop that portal, or he doesn’t come through, you’re done for,” he told the elf.

  The silence and tension stretched as they waited. What must have only been a few seconds felt like hours.

  “How long will it take?” she asked.

  “Hard to say. We’ll give it a minute or two. Time doesn’t seem to line up well between the dimensions. A few seconds there, might be a few minutes here.”

  Jen felt the pressure around her change just before her feet left the floor. A scream tried to escape her throat, but the air was being sucked right out of her lungs. Fear gripped her as she realized that she’d felt this before, back in Damascus.

  As her back hit the stone wall, her body pinned by a gale force wind, she was able to take in a few details. Theron was similarly pinned across the room, his gun ripped from his hand. He was gasping for air, just like Jen was.

  Bridget stood in a doorway that hadn’t been there before. It was happening all over again. If she could have screamed in rage she would have.

  “You two are so fucking bad at this.” Bridget laughed.

  Theron’s eyes were wide as they locked on Jen. She could see that he tried to call his fire, but it was disappearing in the gale force of the wind. They were going to lose again. Despair ripped through her. Bridget wouldn’t leave him alive this time.

  The air mage’s curly hair didn’t even move in the wind as she stepped forward and retrieved the gun, aiming it at Theron’s head.

  “Point blank, this time, I think. I’m going to empty this clip in his head. There is going to be nothing left when I’m through.”

  As she raised the weapon, rage poured through Jen, hot and icy cold at the same time.

  “Stop her,” she gasped.

  Her shades leapt to obey, surrounding Bridget in a swirling cloud of shadow. A shot went off, but the bullet ricocheted off the stone ceiling.

  Slowly, the force of the wind pinning Jen to the wall let up. Theron slid down the wall across the room.

  “Restrain her,” Jen whispered.

  She pointed at the elf, who was trying to drag himself across the floor toward the newly opened doorway.

  “If you go any further or let the portal drop, I’ll have those shades tear you apart,” she told Kahler. “Got it?”

  The elf froze and nodded.

  Jen walked slowly to where Bridget stood. Her body was obscured from the shoulders down by the shifting shades. Her face was red as she strained against their hold. Wind whipped around her, but it wasn’t concentrated, merely pulling at Jen’s clothes and hair.

  “I should tear you apart piece by piece for what you did,” Jen said, her voice shaking with her rage.

  Theron moved up beside her, one pistol trained on Bridget’s head, the other on the elf.

  “What I did? Ask your precious fire-slinger about what he’s done. About what the Council has done. The mages have been ground under the boot heels of lesser races for thousands of years. We’re just pieces of meat for their endless war machine.

  In a mocking tone she grated, “Keep the peace. R
estore the balance. Risk your life. Watch the people you love die violent deaths. And give your children to the Academy on their seventh birthday.

  “Yes, I made a deal with the enemy. I murdered my brothers and sisters in arms. It was still better than living in that system. Dying is still better than living in that system.”

  Jen stepped back, stunned. A murderous madness shone in Bridget’s eyes. Bridget had betrayed her people, her comrades. She’d nearly killed Theron and had put Jen in the hands of demons. She’d plotted the invasion of their world, planning to hand innocent humans to a demon army. Nothing justified that, not even a brutal system.

  Rage rumbled within her again. Without speaking, the shades tightened around Bridget, causing her to grimace in pain.

  “If you’re going to do it, fucking do it,” Bridget said in halting gasps, unable to draw a complete breath.

  But hadn’t Jen been on the verge of joining the demons herself? She’d been on the edge of a supervillain origin story just a few hours ago.

  Theron caught Jen’s gaze with his. “You don’t have to do this. If you want to kill her, I won’t stop you, but it will mean human blood on your hands. Trust me, it haunts you. No matter what. We can take her back through and hand her over to the Council for justice.”

  Theron was right. Did she want to live with Bridget’s death on her hands for the rest of her life? “She might have information,” Jen said. “We should take her back.”

  She looked into the traitorous mage’s eyes, the rainbow colors of the portal swirling behind her. Suddenly, Bridget’s head tilted backward and a wound opened in her throat, blood pouring in a gurgling stream down her chest.

  As her head fell forward, Xander appeared behind her, a dagger gleaming in his hand. Shock coursed through Jen for a moment. Theron stood in stunned silence.

  “She was a rogue mage. The kill was mine,” he said softly, wiping the blood on his cloak and stowing his dagger somewhere hidden. “Portal’s good. Dumeril’s on the other side.”

  With a thought, the shades released Bridget’s body and it slumped to the floor. Xander stood over the mage as she died, staring at her face as the light left her eyes, like he was drinking it in. A chill raced across Jen’s skin despite the heat of the room.