“Yes.”
“I can use the power of other species to bolster my own. It’s how I’m able to unwind their magic. If you are powerful enough, you might be able to pull my magic free the way you did with the dragons. It will work the same, even though it is magic and not an animal.”
“But the magical suppression will just kick back in, won’t it? That’s what happens for the dragons who haven’t had the spell lifted.”
Her smile was slight. “Not if I can…pick the lock, as it were. If I can disentangle the magic spell before it suppresses me again, then I will be free. I will have the ability to help us escape the first level of the dungeons. After that…”
“The dragons will take over.”
She nodded as the sex demon approached, her eyes on Calia.
“You think you can fully…unlock yourself from the suppression spell while dealing with that?” I nodded toward the mess of bodies writhing in the corner.
Her thin eyebrows pinched together. She licked her lips. “I will have to,” she said uncertainly.
I was already in hot water with Dolion. He was already going to make an example of me by killing me in front of Nyfain. What did I have to lose? This was the next step in freeing us.
“How about you get ready to go, and we’ll get this party started?”
NINETEEN
FINLEY
I pushed Calia out of the way and walked directly toward the sex demon. He stopped, and his magic hit me, oozing over me like slime. My stomach churned. Bile rose in my throat. I barely kept myself from stopping and retching.
I plowed into him, grabbing his shoulders and walking him backward until I neared the others, and then I sliced into his middle with my magic and threw him. He smashed into the group of naked people.
Bodies flew to the sides in a tangle of limbs, some trying to get out of the way of the suddenly dead demon and some getting hit by the debris. The other sex demon was the next to go as power pulsed and pumped around me, throbbing into the room.
“Do not shift,” I called out, throwing the second sex demon, quickly lifeless, out of the way.
The demon huddled on the floor, looking up at me with wide orange eyes in his brown-scaled face. “Guards!” he shouted, cowering as I stood over him. “Guards!”
I bent to take him out, then thought better of it. Why should I steal the others’ opportunity for revenge?
“Anyone want my collar to strangle him?” I asked, removing it so the guards I’d eventually be confronted with didn’t get any ideas.
“I don’t need a collar.” A lady shifter pounced on him, wrapping her fingers tightly around his neck. His hands flailed, caught by a faerie and held out of the way.
“I can feel…” A shifter pressed his hand to his chest. “I can feel—”
“Do not act on it,” I barked, magic riding the command, shocking into him.
He jerked as though slapped, and he wasn’t the only one. The rest were shedding the effects of the demon’s sex and suppression magic, turning on their captors and brutally tearing them down.
A side door opened, and I realized I’d forgotten about Mr. Pee-body.
“Help,” he yelled through the door. “Help!”
Guards streamed into the room, pushing him out of the way. Before I could get to him, I was surrounded, my power still pumping out.
Get all you can from Nyfain, quickly, I told my dragon.
On it.
Power surged into me, and it kept coming. As guards swarmed me, grabbing me and attempting to throw me to the floor, I blasted out a hard thrust of power at Calia, still standing in the corner. I didn’t know if I could direct it like that, but it was worth a shot.
My chest hit the ground and someone put their hand on my head. My hands were wrenched behind me and secured with cuffs before I was yanked up and marshaled out of the room. As they turned to get me out of the door, I caught the rest of the shifters descending on Mr. Pee-body. The guards were so preoccupied with the dragon that they didn’t seem to notice. Mr. Pee-body wouldn’t be getting out alive either.
Govam’s voice rang out. “Let’s go, let’s go.”
They hustled me down the wide and luxurious corridor, then took a small arched door into what looked like the servants’ halls.
“I’ve got her.” Govam pushed his way through the others and took my shoulders.
“Just a tiny bit of trouble,” I told him, out of breath. “They deserved it, though. Seriously. There is no way you’d fault me if you knew what they were getting up to. It was not my scene.”
“I tried to warn them that you could not be controlled. I was ignored. That’s why we were waiting outside of the room instead of inside. Part of staying alive around dragons is knowing when to get out of their way.”