Page 51 of Hexes From Exes

“Cass?” he asked, his voice barely above a whisper.

“Yes, it’s me! Rick, what happened?” She was trying to keep the hysteria out of her voice, but seeing him like that made her nerves fry. If this is what he looked like after a few days, she couldn’t imagine what would be left at the end of the week when they executed him.

“Ynnia,” he said, his voice hard.

Cass flinched. Of course, that fucking psychotic demon would be part of this. Of course, they would torture him first.

“Rick, what…why did they arrest you?” she asked. He turned his head to her, and she thought she saw his lips turn up into a smile.

“Because I slept with a human,” he said.

Why was he smiling at that? Why was he openly admitting it? Rick was a terrible liar, but he also wasn’t an idiot! He knew that if he admitted to what he did there’d be punishment!

But who could have predicted that they’d sentence him to death?

“They’re going to execute me,” he told her, the same vacant smile on his face.

Cass’s heart lurched. “No, Rick, they won’t. They just want to make an example of you. I’ve already started some appeals. They didn’t even have a demon represent you…”

“I’m ready to die,” Rick interrupted, his head turning back to stare at the ceiling.

“Don’t say that,” Cass said. She sank to her knees, her fingers wrapped tightly around the bars. She needed to get him out. She had to rescue him. But how? Her gaze darted around the room, trying to find where the locks were, where the entrance and exit was. Something.

A sudden breeze interrupted her erratic attempts. Was her time up already? There’s no way, she hadn’t been down here five minutes! To her surprise, the door at the end of the hallway remained closed, but the air continued. It was coming from inside Rick’s cell. At first it was a small breeze, just enough to tickle the hair on Rick’s head. Then the wind picked up, a sudden whipping that nearly knocked Cass on her ass. Her eyes widened as she watched the wind swirl and collect, wrapping itself around Rick. She could smell something on the breeze - vanilla, herbs, scents of the human realm.

Was he being summoned? By who?

Rick’s lips parted again in a smile, and he exhaled a single word on his breath, “Stephanie.”

The human woman. She was the one summoning him! She watched as the wind collected and wondered, frantically, if it might work. Rick said that when being summoned with Poppy’s spell it was like he was compelled, like he might just portal to the human realm without the need for Jerry or the portal platform. If the magic was strong enough, maybe that’s how they got him out of this mess!

But the wind died down and Rick remained on the floor, unmoving and broken.

Another minute passed in silence before Rick moved, his hands flying to his chest, his face contorting in pain. “No,” he groaned.

She saw his muscles stiffen and his body shake and for a moment she thought he was having a seizure. If she called for help, would anyone come? Instead, she watched uselessly, helplessly, trying to find some way into the cell to help him. She was left shaking the bars and calling his name until he stopped jerking, his body now limp.

“She used my name,” he groaned.

“What?” Cass asked, just glad that he’d stopped shaking. This new limp Rick wasn’t much better, but he no longer looked like he was actively dying.

“She tried to summon me with my name,” he said, rolling onto his side away from her.

He told her his name.

Rick hadn’t even told the council his name, the one they had plastered on all the posters to make a fool of him wasn’t his real one. He’d told Cass his real name right before they broke up, an attempt to keep their relationship together even though it was crumbling. She’d tried to scrape his name from her brain, knowing it held too much power for her. It made ending their relationship even harder. Yet he’d told this human his name, told her how important it was and what it meant, after only a few weeks with her.

“Rick, listen, I’m going to get you out,” she whispered to him. She doubted there were cameras here, the demon realm wasn’t fond of that type of surveillance. Still, she felt the need to keep quiet. “Rick, don’t worry, I’m going to get you out,” she said again, standing. She had no idea how, but she needed to do it quickly. He wasn’t going to make it until his execution day, Cass knew that with cold certainty.

“Bye, Cass, I really did love you. As a friend now, but back then, a lot,” he said, his eyes closing. He thought this was goodbye forever. Cass couldn’t let that happen. Something was going on here, something way more important than Cass could grasp at that moment.

When the elevator dinged open, Cass was standing there, waiting. She gave a half-hearted smile to the enforcer and dabbed the corner of her eyes. She watched what buttons he pressed on the elevator, what numbers he entered on the keypads, which directions he headed.

She was going to get Rick out. Tonight.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Cass ignored Zed’s frantic attempts to contact her after her visit. He knew she was going to see Rick that night, but she couldn’t bring herself to tell him what she saw. He was already a wreck without knowing the details. Cass instead sent him a message saying she saw Rick and she’d talk to him tomorrow, that everything was fine. If he kept freaking out, he was going to draw way too much attention to Rick, and Cass didn’t need that.