Page 33 of Last Gift: Supernatural Battle

My insides froze at that word in particular. “What did she look like?”

“Like I said, she was mostly covered. Scarf around the head, neck, and chest. Long sleeves and pants. Boots. She was tall and moved like a fighter.” His green focus burned into me. “Why did your expression change just now?”

“My demon told me that she was trapped, remember?” Figuring out what fostbwyke meant had taken forever. “She made it clear her trap wasn’t my divination affinity—that she was somehow here while being trapped elsewhere too.”

Huxley blinked. “You think that was her?”

I didn’t know what to think. “How could my demon be a person of her own, though?” I pursed my lips. “The woman you saw seemed corporeal?”

“I believe so. When she hit at the demon gate, it rippled.”

I released a pent-up breath. There went that theory. Plus, if my demon were stuck in the other realm, I wouldn’t be alive by now. The demon king would use her against me. “I’m grasping at straws. Forget it. What did the woman do next?”

“It’s like she heard someone coming,” he continued. “She stopped hitting at the barrier and sank into a crouch. She held a finger to her lips, and then pointed to the next gate—the one where the other army had come from.”

“So you went there.”

He glowered. “Well, I expected she might have something helpful to say. She didn’t seem… vicious. Or like she wanted to fight. She wanted to help. You would have gone too.”

“I wasn’t criticizing you, Huxley. I was making a statement.”

He lost the glower. Most of it.

“What stopped you from telling me this earlier?” I asked.

Huxley glanced away. “When I said the words aloud, they seemed so foolish. I went to the other gate because a demon told me to do it.”

It really did. And yet— “Anything can sound stupid if you put it in ridiculous terms. There are things you might’ve done differently in this whole situation. Have you reflected on those?”

“I should have told Sven or Corentin I was going to the other gate.”

I dipped my head. They—and Wild—shared a powerful charm where they could exchange thoughts. Alerting Sven and Corey would have taken a few seconds. “I don’t consider your decision as stupid. Going to the other gate was a risk, but you calculated that based on what you interpreted from her behavior at the time. Now, you may make a different choice.”

“I don’t believe she was trying to trick me,” he said in a curious voice. “I think she was discovered on her way to the other gate, but why was she trying to escape? Who is she?”

“We may never know.” I was curious too. Damn grimoire magic. “I do know that you should have told me or someone else about her immediately. This is valuable information.”

“How so?”

“Because it shows there’s a chance not all demons agree. As we know with our coven, division is weakness. We could use that against them. The demons seemed so subservient to the higher castes. Clearly, they can act independently too.”

Huxley colored. “Right.”

“Thank you for telling me now,” I said. “It may be worth reflecting on what beliefs about yourself led to the delay in doing so.”

He colored further. “I will. Sorry, Tempest. I’ll make up for it.”

“I know you will. What color were her scales, by the way?”

“I could only see the ones on her hands. They were black.”

Black. We hadn’t encountered a demon with black scales yet. “I wonder if that’s powerful or weak.” Black and white could probably be either.

The magus hummed. “Powerful, I think. Based on how she moved.”

Another mystery for another day. “How are you and Spyne?”

Huxley smiled. “Good. I’m not sure why he puts up with me.”

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