Kobal lifted my hand to kiss the back of it.“It’s the inherent side of your abilities that you relate to themost.”
“So there is absolutelynoway Icould ever turn like Hawk has.” I hadn’t realized I’d been holdingonto some hope for that until the words left my mouth, but now Ifelt as deflated as a popped balloon.
“There is a chance she could keep all of herabilities and gain more if she turned,” Magnus said. “She’d be asight to behold if that happened.”
“Not a chance worth taking,” Kobal repliedflatly. “It’s not open for discussion.”
“Fine then.” Magnus rested his hands on thetable and leaned toward me. “If you’re to remain mortal, then it’stime for you to start digging deeper into those angelic powers ofyours.”
“How?” I asked.
“What fuels your abilities?”
“Fear fuels the fire, but strong emotionsfuel my ability to draw on life. Especially…” I bit my lip as mygaze drifted to Kobal. “All things with Kobal enhance the flow oflife within me.”
“Because you know you have nothing to fearfrom me,” Kobal said. “No matter what happens between us, you haveno fear of me, even when others would run screaming.”
“That’s because you would rip the head offanother,” Corson said. “Whereas hers is safe around you.”
“Heis your main conduit,” Magnussaid to me. “But we’re going to have to throw you into somesituations where Kobal can’t be there, and they’re going to have toscare the shit out of you. I can conjure some things that will haveher spitting fire like a harroc demon.”
“I’m not sure I want to know what that is,”I muttered.
“I’ll show you,” Magnus replied with a happyclap of his hands that once again had him hanging out in the“dislike” column.
Beside me a man of nearly six feet suddenlymaterialized. His entire body was a blood-red color, even his eyeswere nothing but lava pits of flickering flames. Opening his mouth,fire spewed from him in a wave of heat I swore I felt against myface. I nearly toppled from my chair before Kobal grabbed me andsat me upright.
Across the way, Hawk leapt to his feet andpulled his knife free. Drawing back his arm, he whipped it at thecreature, but it vanished as suddenly as it had appeared. The knifebounced off the wall and fell to the floor with a clattering ting.I struggled to catch my breath as Kobal loomed up beside me, hiseyes turning amber when they locked on Magnus.
Before any of us could react, Kobal launchedover the table, seized Magnus by the throat, and lifted himeffortlessly into the air. Magnus’s feet swung out as Kobal spunhim and slammed him into the wall. Magnus’s fingers gripped Kobal’shand, but he remained otherwise unmoving.
“What were you thinking?” Kobal snarled.
“Seeing how prepared she was. Instead ofattacking the demon, she fell over. That’s not good, Kobal,” Magnusreplied in a soothing tone of voice that only caused Kobal’s holdon him to tighten.
I thrust my shoulders back. “It took me bysurprise.”
“That will happen to you more often than notdown here. You must be prepared to fight, always,” Magnus said.
“I’ll tear your hands off if you try thatagain,” Kobal vowed.
Rising to my feet, I placed a soothing handagainst Kobal’s chest. “He’s right. I don’t like what he did.” Iwas firmly in the dislike camp at the moment, but I had a feelingMagnus would always have me swinging back and forth like a pendulumwhen it came to him. “But he’s right. Hawk reacted better than Idid. I’ve had a lot of training, but Magnus can help the two of usbe prepared for things we never knew existed. I need a crash coursein whatever he’s got.”
Kobal dropped Magnus so suddenly that hetook a stumbling step to the side before righting himself. His handwent to his throat as he cast me a grateful look. Lowering hishand, Magnus straightened his shirt and grinned at me. “Let’s getstarted then.”
CHAPTER 25
River
Extreme hatred for Magnus was the camp I wasin a few hours later. I had literally stepped into the hauntedhouse from Hell. Except these monsters were allowed to touch me,poke me, burn me, ice me, scream at me, and one of the littlechinchilla bastards bit me.
Some of the world surrounding us was acreation Magnus had woven around me and Hawk. Unlike the carnival,when we touched the illusions here, they faded away, or at leastmost of them did. Mixed in with the illusions wererealcreatures Magnus had brought forth from his carnival. Not knowingwhat was real and what wasn’t made it all the more unnerving.
I had no idea where the others were. Perhapsthey were close by watching us. I knew Kobal wouldn’t go far, butI’d convinced him to leave while this went on. He wouldn’t be ableto sit back and idly watch as one thing after another came at us,even if most of them weren’t real. Plus, even if Morax couldcommunicate mentally with him, it would be best if someone went towait for Shax, Morax, and Verin to join us with some more demontroops.
I didn’t think Magnus would allow us to diein these illusions, but for all I knew, he might. Or at least me;Hawk was immortal and more one of them than I was now.
Walking through the narrow tunnel of fakerocks surrounding us, I limped from the gouges thechinchilla-looking thing had left on my leg before I’d managed todislodge it with a blast of fire. Hawk looked as bad as me with historn clothes, battered face, and blood dripping from a gash in hisside.
