Page 74 of Pain

“A blood cage?” I repeated. “What the hell is a blood cage?”

“Besides borromium, not much else stops demons from mind manipulation.”

“My fire crowns work,” Maxar pointed out.

Kenvin merely lifted a brow before continuing on. “There was a demon a few hundred years ago who went on a killing rampage. They went after young mages, shifters, and vampires. Killed many children. He said it was to cleanse the Realm of the next weaker generation.”

“Fuck,” I murmured.

“He was almost impossible to catch.” Shoy sipped his amber spirit as well. “It took all the leaders of the Realm to come together and create a blood cage, which is a cage conjured by combining all the bloods of the races, specifically the leaders of those races, together.”

“They used the Mage Queen’s—not Queen Anysa—own young daughter asbait, and when the demon came to kill her, they imprisoned him in the cage.” Kenvin took a bite of his scone, but then made a face when he realized I’d actually made it taste good. He chewed and swallowed what was in his mouth, but didn’t take another bite. “Unlike borromium which just inhibits the use of magic, a blood cage actually depletes your magical abilities. The longer you stay in, the weaker the powers you will have when you come out. Stay in long enough, and you will come out as mortal, and as powerless as a human.”

“How long do you have to stay in for your powers to be completely drained?” Maxar asked.

Kenvin shrugged. “Depends how powerful you are. The more powerful you are, the longer you stay in.”

“Okay, so we need to get all the leaders together to join blood and conjure a cage to trap Lerris and kill him?” I asked.

“Unless we’re able to simply behead him, first,” Maxar added. “Since beheading is the only way to effectively kill a demon.” He smiled wide and cheeky at all the demons in the room, but Kenvin and Shoy merely glared back at him.

“No,” Drak said so abruptly that we all turned to gape at him. “Howar can not be trusted. I won’t let you anywhere near him, Omaera.”

A small smile curled my mouth. “Thanks, Fangs, but if that’s the only way we can catch Lerris, then it has to happen.”

His nostrils flared.

“How do we get everyone together without tipping them off to what our true plan is? Because if Howar is working with Lerris, he’ll obviously warn Lerris, and our trap will be foiled.”

“Did you just use the word ‘foiled’?” Maxar asked with a lighthearted chuckle.

I scrunched my nose and grinned at him. “Maybe I did.”

“I might have an idea,” Drak said, all sullen and gloomy.

We turned to wait to hear what he had to say.

Tipping his gaze up to mine, with reluctance practically oozing out of his pores, he devised the perfect plan. “You’ve put off meeting with the other leaders since the moment you found out about the Realm. Why not finally agree to ameeting? Summon Howar, Anysa, and Ryden.”

“What’s to stop Howar from telling Lerris where we are and Lerris ambushing us?” Zandren asked.

“We plan on that,” Drak replied. “Howar will betray us. Anysa, we are unsure where her alliances lay, and Ryden will be on our side.”

Zandren puffed up his chest a little. “My dad would never turn his back on Omaera, or me.”

I could see that Drak was fighting the urge to roll his eyes. “Once there, propose a toast, and drug Anysa and Howar. Take their blood and create the cage. I doubt Howar will let Lerris handle things on his own. Lerris will be waiting for a signal. Howar won’t want to be caught up in the mess and risk having his allegiance with Lerris discovered. So then we steal Howar’s phone, have him message Lerris that you’re there and his to kill. Trap set.”

Kenvin and Shoy both nodded, mulling it over.

“That’s as good as any plan I could have come up with,” Kenvin finally said. “It’ll give you a chance to figure out if Howar really is betraying you, and what side Anysa is on too.”

“So then, we put Lerris in the cage, and then what?” Zandren asked.

“We kill him,” Maxar and I said at the same time.

“I’m still pro beheading over the blood cage,” Maxar added. “But that’s just because it’s quick, clean and satisfying.”

“I would love to watch his head roll off his body,” I murmured.

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