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I shook my head. “Not that we know of, though plenty of witches are researching, trying to find something.” But I had no hope they would succeed. All the information we had about dragons and dragon shifters was almost a thousand years old. We practically knew nothing about them.
She stared at me with such misery in her eyes. “There has to be something.”
“Careful. I’ll think you care.”
“I do care. Everything we lived through together, our conversations, our good times, that was real. I know you might not believe me, but it was. You’re my sister and I care about you.”
I looked up at the light, not wanting to cry now. No, I was about to fight a bunch of demons and those ugly Huddyriuns. I had no time to cry.
I cleared my throat. “We still have a couple more hours to go, you should go back to sleep.” I extended my legs in front of me and tried reaching my toes. I should get my body ready for the fight to come.
“What about you? You should sleep too.”
I shook my head. “I won’t be able to sleep now.”
“I don’t think I can sleep anymore either.” She sat down beside me and started stretching too.
A couple of hours went by. Ivy and I stretched for a long time, took a break, stretched again. As the time passed, I could feel the effects of the elixir lessening. Soon, I would be at the perfect point where the dragon’s magic wasn’t numb, but it wasn’t unstable either, and I could do whatever I wanted with it.
I checked the time on my dying phone for the thousandth time. “It’s almost seven.”
“Then they will be here soon,” Ivy said.
She sat on the cot and I took the chair.
Seven came and went, and no one showed up.
Ivy’s heels bounced up and down. “Something’s wrong.”
“Or Paimon is playing with us,” I mused. At least, that was what I was telling myself. “He wants to make us concerned. Agitated.” I gave her a pointed look and she stilled her leg.
A little after nine, the door finally opened and a demon appeared at the doorway. Rotgar, Paimon’s general and most trusted demon. He looked over at us with disdain.
Ivy frowned. “Where’s my breakfast?”
“You won’t need your breakfast today,” he said with a small grin. “Or ever.” He gestured for us to get up. “Now come on.”
Ivy and I exchanged a look. She was the first to stand, following him out. With my bag across my shoulders, I followed them out, and realized why Rotgar was so nonchalant. Because there were a dozen demons plus four Huddyriuns here to escort us to Paimon. If we tried anything now, we wouldn’t get far.
The group took us to the same ledge as before, and now I actually paid attention to it. To the left, the ledge opened to a bigger room where there were couches, rugs, a long table, and housewares.
Paimon stood in that room, his back to us. When he turned around with a glass of whiskey in his hand, he smiled wide at us. “My daughters.” He sipped from his drink and walked toward us.
The demons and Huddyriuns spread out through the ledge, forming a wide arc around Ivy and me. All right, I hadn’t predicted our odds. Two against seventeen was pretty bad.
Shit.
No, I wouldn’t give up hope yet.
Paimon stopped a few feet from us. “Did you have a good night?”
Ivy stared at him with pure hatred in her eyes. “As if you care.”
Paimon nodded. “True, but I’m a prince.” He opened one arm wide, as if showing himself. “I’m polite. Thus the question.”
“Just get to it,” I said through gritted teeth.
Ivy shot me an are-you-crazy look. Well, what did she want? Standing here and waiting for whatever wasn’t going to change the outcome. We had no help other than ourselves, and the only thing that could happen was for Paimon to call more of his allies to watch the show.
