Page 198 of Bedeviled

From far below us comes a crash.

The fairy and I share a look, and in an instant, the conversation dies away.

Despite all of the Bargainer’s previous protests, he scoops me and Nero up and flies us straight down the middle of the curving staircase.

Well, flies is perhaps the wrong word. More like plunges us.

We’re essentially in free fall, floor after floor whizzing by.

I see more paralyzed fae and rooms that appear to house thousands of scrolls. All of it flashes by within seconds.

I can’t say how far we descend before I smell smoke.

Goblin’s tits.

The scrolls are burning.

CHAPTER 48

The Bargainer jerks me and Nero to a stop on what appears to be an arbitrary floor.

I stagger a little before I catch the center railing. Far beneath us, a disturbing orange glow emanates from the depths.

“Your sugar daddy seems to have started a fire on one of the lowest levels,” the Bargainer says. “So this is what we’re going to do: I’m going to get down there and extinguish it, hopefully before this entire place goes up in flames, and you and your pet demon are going to remain here, where you can watch for your deranged soul mate and maybe try to stop him, ’kay, sugar?”

I swallow down my bile and nod before I can fully process his words.

With that, the Bargainer seems to levitate up from the floor toward the open space in the middle of the staircase.

And then he falls.

I swallow my scream as I lean over the railing and watch him free fall down, the shadows seeming to follow him.

Halfway down, indigo magic snaps out from one of the levels, enveloping the Bargainer in an instant.

I swallow a scream as the iridescent blue power rips the fairy from the air and drags him off.

“Holy fucking imps,” I breathe, glancing at Nero.

The panther looks like someone shit on his birthday cake, which honestly, same, bro.

Seems like we found Memnon.

I rush down the stairs. As usual, Nero is faster still, and I lose sight of him within a matter of turns.

Now there’s not just a hint of smoke; bilious wisps of it rise from the growing inferno below.

I cough, then stumble a little before I force my magic out to clear a path for Nero and me. Even still, it’s becoming harder to breathe.

I’m so distracted, I nearly pass the floor the Bargainer was dragged to. It’s only the sight of Nero prowling toward a looming, ominous figure that has me pausing.

Memnon.

My knees go weak at the sight of him.

The sorcerer is backlit by fire as the scrolls behind him burn. At his feet, looking like a sacrifice, is the crumpled form of the Bargainer.

Memnon’s eyes rise from Nero to mine.