“Leave her be, Magnimus,” Kobal warned.“You’re already walking a thin line. If you don’t prove valuable tome, your life is forfeit.”
“I understand,” he said and gave Kobal’swrists an awkward pat. When Kobal sneered at him, his handsstilled. “I’ve never fed from her,” the barker said to me andnodded toward the bearded lady. “Everyone is to see her as shehated herself most. She’s been untouched since she entered Hell,and I created this world around her.”
“You have been busy,” Kobal said.
“I’ve been learning,” the barker replied.“Preparing.”
Preparing for what? For war? For Kobal orLucifer?
The barker smiled at me—Magnimus, I remindedmyself. “If you would follow me, I can take you from here," he saidin a silky-smooth voice.
“Let him lead,” Kobal said with a jerk ofhis head at Corson and Bale. He thrust Magnimus away from him andback into their hold. Kobal turned and enfolded me in his armsbefore lifting me against him once more. I snuggled closer againsthis chest, inhaling his familiar and much loved fiery scent.
I glanced back at the bearded lady. Her gazeremained focused on me as Kobal walked through the broken jars anddisgusting remains of the things that had spilled across the floor.Hawk walked beside us; his lip curled back as he tried to avoidstepping on the things littering the floor.
“You caused quite a bit of damage to myworld, child of Lucifer,” the barker shot over his shoulder at me.“You and your friend.”
“Asshole,” Hawk muttered.
“I hate that guy,” I murmured in Kobal’sear.
He shifted his hold on me to kiss myforehead. “He will pay,” he said and glanced at my ankle as weemerged from the tent.
CHAPTER 19
River
Hawk walked beside us as Bale and Corson ledthe way between a row of now empty booths. I didn’t know what hadhappened to all the people and demons who had been hawking theirgames before, and I didn’t ask. The less I knew of Magnimus’sworld, the happier I’d be. The hush now enveloping the carnival wassomehow creepier than all the noise had been.
At the end of the row, a door shimmered intoexistence. “Myexit,” Magnimus called over his shoulder.“Anyone else who comes through here has to find the only other wayout. Most don’t succeed.”
Corson reached around him and pulled thedoor open. Bale released Magnimus’s arm and stepped through thedoorway before returning. “It’s his place,” she confirmed.
I watched as the three of them vanishedthrough the doorway with Hawk close behind before Kobal followedwith me in his arms. I didn’t know what I’d been expecting ofMagnimus’s place, but it certainly wasn’t the elaborate cavern weentered. Thick black furs were laid out on the floor and hangingfrom the walls. Numerous shelves had been chiseled into the rockwalls surrounding us.
The flames of the fire shooting up fromsomewhere below could be seen through a hole in the wall. The firedanced and played across the goblets and bottles lining theshelves. Around the fire, a mantle had been carved from the rock.In the middle of the vast cavern was a long table with silvercandle holders on it. The flames of those tapered, white candlesflickered in the holders.
The warmth of the place was comforting, andthere was almost a coziness to the fire and colorful furs that Iwouldn’t have expected from the twisted barker. I doubted any ofthose furs had been harvested from Pooh and his brethren; they alllooked far too inviting and fluffy for that to have been thecase.
Thirst seared my body as I realized, aboutten feet away from the fire, water trickled down the rocks. Atleast I thought it was water, but who knew in this place. The waterformed a pool about five feet around in a hollowed-out section ofthe rock beneath the trickle. If thatwaswater, I was goingto drink it all and then bathe in it for hours when the pool filledup again.
Adjusting his hold on me, Kobal set me onthe ground and stepped in front of me. Corson and Bale released thebarker when he tugged at his arms. Except he wasn’t the barkeranymore, or at least not the barker I knew. No, now a demon sostunning stood before us that Michelangelo himself would haveitched to immortalize him.
Magnimus’s ice blond hair swept back fromthe chiseled planes of his face. His eyes were an impossible silvercolor I recognized from the flash I’d seen in the barker’s beadyblack eyes earlier. He had a lithe build with broad shoulders and atapered waist. The only thing marking him as demon were thesix-inch-long, black horns curled back against the sides of hishead. His hair mostly covered the horns, but from what I could seeof them, they were smooth and polished.
The form-fitting clothes he wore were madeof a material I’d never seen before. It looked as light as theflaxen clothing we wore, but the sheen to it reminded me of silk.The collar of his shirt dipped down to expose part of his barechest. The ebony color of the clothing emphasized his pale hair andsilvery eyes.
“So you have been stuck with a mortal as aChosen. What ever will you do, Your Highness?” Magnimusinquired.
In response, Kobal raced across the cavernso fast that I barely saw him move. Magnimus stepped back, but hewasn’t fast enough to dodge the punch Kobal drove straight into hisnose. Bone cracked and blood burst free as Magnimus’s hands flew upto cover his broken nose. Kobal swung an uppercut at him thatlaunched him off his feet and sent him hurtling into the tablebehind him. Candles tumbled over, the flames sputtered out asMagnimus slid across the table before coming to a stop in themiddle of it.
Corson and Bale grinned as they stepped awayfrom Magnimus, who was trying to push himself up on the table.Before he could regain his footing, Kobal slammed his hands down oneither side of him. I thought the table would buckle from the forceof the blow, but it trembled and held firm.
Kobal’s eyes were molten gold when he leanedover Magnimus. The demon wisely didn’t make a move. “Youeverspill another drop of her blood, I will drain everylast bit of yours from you, and that will only be the beginning ofwhat I do to you. Do you understand me, Magnimus?”
Magnimus held his hands up before him. “Iwill guard her life above my own from now on.”
Kobal hesitated, seemingly torn betweenwalking away from Magnimus and continuing to beat him into a bloodypulp. “Let us hear what he has to say, Kobal,” Corsonsuggested.
