Legacy of the Demon (Kara Gillian 8)

“Well, you both have quite the temper—ow!” Szerain laughed and ducked a second demonstration of that temper. “All right, all right. I don’t think you’re descended from either Amkir or Mzatal.”

I put my hands on my hips and narrowed my eyes. “What about the headaches and stripping memories and whatever other control the demahnk have over the lords? How does that not count as direct harm?”

Szerain lifted his shoulders in a shrug. “Zack is too weak to challenge the constraints and give me the details of demahnk’s cryptic moral code.”

The light dimmed several more degrees, and I held back a nervous shudder. “Tell me about the Dekkak summoning before this dimensional bubble thing pops. I need to get the gimkrah, but what then? You said to be lordy, but how do I—”

Szerain jerked his hand up to cut me off, tilting his head as if listening to a distant sound. “Fuuuuuck. Elinor’s earlier freakout attracted Xharbek’s attention.”

A shiver ran down my back. I suddenly felt like a glowing fishy trying to hide from invisible sharks, all too vulnerable in the sea of darkness. “You need to get back to your stronghold.”

“I will, once you’re back on Earth.” Szerain flicked his fingers and set a whirlwind of crimson rakkuhr sparks dancing over our heads. “This will give him pause,” he said with calm certainty. “Go home. Now.”

How the hell was I supposed to do that? Yet even as the thought surfaced, I instinctively called up the sight and sound and feel of the nexus and the super-shikvihr, the scent of pines and damp grass, the familiarity of Pellini’s resonance and his gruff laugh.

Szerain scattered the sparks. The glow of the dimensional pocket shifted to bloody red, save for a rapidly diminishing patch of golden light. My way out.

I dove for it, reached for home and the strand of potency that would show me the way. Nexus. The tree. Pellini’s aftershave. The screech of blue jays. Kittens chasing a butterfly through the grass.

An arcane shove from Szerain propelled me onward into razor-filled snot.

“Dekkak on the full.” Szerain’s voice echoed distantly, fading. “Elinor. Bunker diagrams. Reach for us exactly two . . .”

Two what?

I crashed onto the nexus and tumble-slid from the center to the edge. Ears ringing, I flopped to my back and stared up into grove tree leaves alight in green and purple jeweled splendor by the late afternoon sun.

“Kara!” Pellini dropped to his knees beside me. “Jesus fuck, I’m glad to see you. Are you all right? You scared the crap out of me.”

I gave him a shaky thumbs up.

“Thank god,” he breathed. “I damn near had a heart attack when you disappeared, but I kept hold of the strand. I could feel you, but that’s it.”

“You did good,” I said as I heaved up onto my elbows.

He blew out a breath and shifted to sit. “I knew if I lost you Jill would never let me hear the end of it.” He crooked a weak smile as I laughed. “So, did it work? Or have you been bobbing around in the ether examining your life choices this whole time?”

“I already know my life choices are questionable,” I said with a grin. “But yes, it worked. I met with Szerain.”

Chapter 23

I filled Pellini in on the stuff he needed to know and left out everything else—an editing of events that he was totally fine with. Like everyone else in the compound, he knew we had mind-reading enemies and didn’t expect, or want, to be privy to the more sensitive info. Once that was taken care of, Pellini headed to the war room while I hurried to the basement to give yet another censored briefing—though with a far different tone.

Jill looked up as I clattered down the stairs, a whisper of annoyance on her face at the noise.

“I just talked to Szerain,” I announced and leaped down the last few steps. “And Ashava’s doing great!”

“What did he say?” She shoved up from the chair like a starving tiger lunging at a hunk of prime rib. “Where are they? Tell me everything!”

“We didn’t have a lot of time,” I said. “But Szerain said she’s healthy and smart and strong-minded.” I grinned. “Ashava keeps them on their toes.”

“She’s such a little thing.” Jill sank to sit again, face full of relief and wonder and worry. “It’s hard to think of a baby as strong-minded, but I know she’s . . . different.”

I quickly recounted what I could of my meeting with Szerain, taking care to emphasize anything that was even remotely related to Ashava. As I spoke, the stark lines of tension in Jill’s face eased. Her daughter was not only alive, but thriving, and that knowledge melted away a generous portion of her fear and distress like a flamethrower on a snow bank.

A measure of the worry returned when I explained that the imperator summoning was now our only viable option. Jill wasn’t at all happy with the new development, but she didn’t waste time snarling about it. After giving me a bone-cracking hug, she dove right back into her research.

A call to Idris was next on my agenda. There was nothing in the rule book that said I had to do the summoning on my lonesome, but even if he couldn’t break free of his DIRT duties, I figur