Legacy of the Demon (Kara Gillian 8)

“Rude bastards,” he muttered.

“And they tried to make me the underlay, because I had Elinor’s essence and the right genetics,” I said.

Szerain tweaked the loop of a second sigil then sank back into the chair. “Rhyzkahl had no idea you carried it until that night he hijacked your portal to escape Peter Cerise’s summoning.”

“The night that changed everything,” I breathed. I’d been trying to summon a luhrek named Rysehl to aid in my investigation of a murder thought to be the Symbol Man’s work. But instead of a goat/dog/lion-looking creature, I got a breathtakingly beautiful but seriously pissed off demonic lord. “When he shredded my bindings like tissue paper, I thought I was a goner.” I snorted. “Then he looked deep into my eyes, and it suddenly turned into a seduction. Now I finally know why.”

Szerain fell silent for a moment. “I apologize for placing it on you without your consent,” he said, voice remote. “As I said before, it was supposed to be your grandmother. Gracie was ready and willing, and I had the firewall to give her control. However, Xharbek opposed the plan, and when I proved to be unmalleable, he found an alternate way to stop it.”

My breath caught. “Rhyzkahl.”

He nodded. “There was already deep friction between us. Rhyzkahl blamed me for Elinor’s death and felt I had no right to use her essence—without including him, that is.” A weary smile pulled up. “He felt I was getting too big for my britches with my sworn summoners, and despised my arrogance in planning to make a pseudo-Elinor via Gracie.”

“And all Xharbek had to do was dangle the bait for him,” I said.

“He swallowed it whole.” Szerain shook his head. “I was arrogant, which is why I didn’t see it coming. My focus was on Peter Cerise’s summoning, and I got blindsided. Rhyzkahl tried to get Vsuhl from me, but I managed—barely—to fend him off, keeping the blade and the essence it contained.”

“Which must have pissed him right the fuck off.” My leg jiggled with poorly suppressed excitement as the sequence of events became clear. “Except he saw a way to hurt you where it counted and took control of the summoning portal. Suddenly he’s in a room full of your summoners. Your precious sworn summoners. Time to die.”

“Precisely. Moreover, he sensed another of Elinor’s bloodline in the room.”

My eyes narrowed. “Tessa, who he left unharmed.”

“Rhyzkahl devised a plan to acquire Vsuhl, along with Elinor’s essence, then groom Tessa as a host who would be dedicated to him.”

“Essentially taking your game away so he could play it himself,” I said. “Xharbek must have liked that.”

Szerain grimaced. “Very much so. He’d have Elinor’s potential in a configuration he could completely control even though it would be years yet before Tessa came fully into her abilities.”

The rest crystallized. “Then I was born—with the bloodline and the genetic ability to be a summoner.”

Regret and guilt darkened his eyes. “I had to act quickly. When you were only a few hours old, with the help of Helori, I released the essence from the blade and attached it to you. You were too young for me to install the firewall, though. That couldn’t happen until you came into your own as a summoner, and the mental pathways were formed.”

My throat felt tight. “But by then, you were exiled.”

“Things started falling apart long before that.” He flung himself out of the chair and began to pace. “Not long after the bloody summoning, Katashi died, and Xharbek didn’t hesitate to replace him with a syraza doppelganger, to better control the new age of summoners. He then made absolutely sure that Tessa found her way to syraza-Katashi for training and, in due time, to the demon realm to be properly groomed as the Elinor-host by Rhyzkahl—after placing a temporary block in her memory so she wouldn’t realize he was the one who killed her mother.” His steps slowed. “But eventually Xharbek figured out that you held the essence. It delayed his plans by fifteen years or so, but he’s nothing if not adaptable. He shifted his attention to making absolutely sure you received training as a summoner so that he could eventually use you.”

My pulse grew unsteady. “That’s why my father was killed. Xharbek had fake-Katashi pave the way for me to end up in Tessa’s care so that I could be trained as a summoner. Had to get those mental pathways formed, right?”

For an instant Szerain looked as if he felt every one of his three thousand years. “I’m so sorry.”

“Except, Xharbek didn’t need a good summoner.” My words sounded thin to my ears. “Didn’t want a good summoner, ’cause that would be harder to control. That’s why I got only the most basic of training.”

“I intended to train you properly and to ov

erlay the code from Elinor’s journal as your firewall. You were thirteen when I started making surreptitious plans to bring you to the demon realm.” His hands tightened into fists. “Xharbek disagreed and attempted to tweak my thinking.”

The air seemed to thicken as his aura grew heavy. Out of instinct, I shrank back into the futon.

“I’d learned much during my time in the interdimensions making post-cataclysm repairs,” Szerain continued, “including how to covertly shield my mind with rakkuhr. I wouldn’t tolerate interference in my plans for you, and I pushed Xharbek out of my head, consequently revealing that I knew how to shield. My resistance drove him to assault me with greater and greater force until I finally lashed out with rakkuhr, bound him in ropes of it—and discovered it’s like kryptonite to the demahnk. It weakened him, but he redoubled his efforts to control my mind. I had no recourse but to add more rakkuhr and tighten it until he . . . stopped.”

He took a deep breath, and his aura retreated. “Long story short, I scattered his essence across the dimensions. His absence gave me the freedom to finally locate the control-focus in my mind. I ripped it out, effectively crippling myself while I struggled to assimilate all of the memories that flooded in.” He snorted. “Crappy timing, though. The demahnk council freaked when Xharbek went poof, and contained me. I refused to tell them why I was unreadable or how I scattered him, and so they gave me three choices: Open to them and be reconditioned.” A shudder went through him at the mere thought. “Go into submerged exile on Earth until Xharbek collected himself and returned. Or go into stasis—with zero awareness of the worlds, the flows, anything—until Xharbek gathered himself and returned.”

“Fucking hell,” I said. “You didn’t really have much of a choice, did you?”

“I didn’t think so at the time. But I also didn’t think I’d be submerged for fifteen years. Or that it would be so horrific.”

I was on my feet and had him in a hug before I realized it. His arms wrapped around me, holding me close.