Page 24 of Demon Demands

Stone rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m from Oren.”

“I don’t really know what the fuck that means either,” Novak complained.

“I’ll add a map of the Underworld to that pocket-sized book you asked for,” I assured him with a lopsided grin. “The history and geography of the Underworld isn’t important right now. I’ll teach it to you another day. All you need to know is that we’re headed south, that way.” I pointed out the direction we were about to travel in, sliding the word south into Lira’s mind.

Everyone stopped talking as the hellhound pack turned south, following Lira’s lead. They kept a steady gait, falling into a single line as we crossed over the unsteady sands of the Lilk desert.

Each step Lira made was copied by the pack, trusting their alpha to keep them out of the hidden dangers covered by the wind-blown sands. Whether it was snakes or traps set and disguised to capture unsuspecting victims, Lira and I would be the first to find out.

“We’re getting closer,” Grim informed me just as Lira stopped. She growled quietly, more vibrations in her chest than noise, and I dismounted. Calling my wings forward in case the ground fell out beneath me, I silently begged my demon to wait until we were closer.

I needed a clear head for spotting any traps that had been laid out, and I knew she wouldn’t care. She was more impulsive than I was, but we had to be smart and hopefully arrive undetected. We had to catch Hannibal off guard if we were going to leave with Jack. And I wasn’t fucking leaving without him.

We. We were not leaving without him.

“Palmer?” I called, keeping my eyes focused on the miles of desert in front of me.

“Yeah, Love?”

“Would you dismount and come up here, please? Walk as closely as you can to the line of hounds. That path is clear, but there’s something in front of us.”

I heard his feet hit the ground, and the sand crunching under his boots as he padded slowly to me.

“What do ye need, Love?” He asked. Stepping up to my right side, my arm brushed against his chest as he gazed down at me, waiting for an answer.

“I need you to blow the sand away, in a straight path that we can walk. I can handle whatever it is that’s hiding. It could be a pit or a serpent of some sort, but it’s not magical. I can’t smell anything or feel any traces.”

Palmer lifted his right hand, bringing his focus to his task. A small vortex formed in front of us, pushing forward a few feet at a time. After forty feet or so, the problem was clear. A colossal, hibernating scorpion was coiled up, and where there was one, there were often dozens more.

“Fuck,” I hissed. “Palmer, stop.”

The vortex collapsed, covering the SUV-sized scorpion back up. I breathed a sigh of relief when it didn’t move, but the thought of treading around it filled me with dread.

I turned my head, glancing over my shoulder at Dolyn. “Are we in Scorpion Valley?”

“No, that’s due west of here. I’ve never seen a giant scorpion this far south,” he responded quickly, shaking his head at me.

“We’re closer to Hannibal than we thought then.”

That was good, but godsdamn, waking that thing up would be a terrible thing to do.

“Palmer, do you think we could make a sort of bubble around it? Like a soundproof barrier, but thicker? We should be able to maneuver around him without waking him if we could… but worst case, we need something thick enough to hold him inside.”

“Yeah. I’ll put a barrier up, but it might wake him up when I do. Instead of me talkin’ ya through the spell I’m gonna use, try copyin’ the way my magic feels. It’ll be quicker than explainin’ it.”

What Palmer said gave me pause, but I kept my face carefully neutral as I nodded at him. His barrier appeared, creating a slightly orange bubble around the scorpion.

I quickly added my own. The dark pinkish color of my magic held a blackened tint to it, and when mixed with Palmer’s, it reminded me of the sunrise in the Underworld.

“Lira, lead the pack. We’ll catch up when you guys are past this thing.”

Tilting my head to the left as Lira and the pack trotted away, I thought through every interaction I’d had with my mage. I hated when shit didn’t add up, and I knew that whatever he was hiding would help fill in those missing pieces.

And probably explain his hot and cold behavior.

Dropping my expression, I turned shrewd eyes onto Palmer. “I told you that I wouldn’t push you, Palmer, but I think it’s about time for you to start explaining some things to me.”

He nodded, closing his eyes as he sighed. “Yer right. When we can get a moment, just the two of us, I’ll explain everything.”