Page 114 of The Demon's Discovery
“You’re getting promoted,” the guard said sarcastically, approaching my cell with a smug smile on his face. “Shame, I’d have liked a bit more time with you.” His eyes roved over my form again, and my stomach pitched.
I got to my feet, heart beating so fast I thought I might be sick as he freed the key ring from his pocket and began to sort through them. I wished I had time to shift into my stone form again and felt for the distant cool tingle that I’d identified as my trigger for it, reaching for it, hopeful that this was the time I could grab it and change skins quickly. I also put my hand inside my pocket, preparing to pull my dagger.
Before I could carry through with any of my plans, the cell door opened, and the guard tossed a delicate powder into my face. I was paralyzed, arms stuck to my sides. Even my head was frozen, my knees painfully locked.
The guard came into my cell and picked me up, throwing me over his shoulder like a sack of grain, much like the other man had to take me away from the ball and through the portal.
“Leave her be!” Ris yelled, a cough interrupting his complaints.
The guard just laughed as he carried me down the hall and out of the cellar. I wanted to struggle, but no part of my body was responding. I started to wonder if I’d gotten stuck somehow, halfway to stone form. He unceremoniously tossed me onto the ground once we were out of the cellar.
“I do prefer a woman with spirit,” he said, straightening his shirt. “We’d get along just fine, I think, under other circumstances. I wouldn’t have minded seeing you put up a bit of a fight. Unfortunately, you’re meant for the boss. Stay here, yeah? I need to go lock those gates.”
I wanted to thrash, to spit at him, to scream. But I could do none of those things. Shame swamped me, as I watched his back disappear into the cellar again. My elixir had failed. I had been unable to save my father or myself thanks to some kind of magic dust.
I tried to move any part of my body as I stared up at the sky and found that here, there were three moons. As clouds rolledover the white faces, I cataloged the position of the one larger moon and two satellites, in the event it mattered later. As if I had alaterto worry about. Mentally, I reached for the tingly stone skin trigger, the only thing I could think of that might free me from this terrible frozen state.
My hand twitched, and I found I could move my head a little bit. I closed my eyes, focusing on the feeling that led me to my stone form and grabbed on tight, demanding the shift I usually requested gently.
I gasped as the cool sensation washed over me and my body changed, the paralysis evaporating. “You can do this, Greta,” I muttered, ignoring the tremble in my hands as I stood and pulled the blade out of the false pocket before heading back down into the damp cellar.
I heard the guard laughing, but nothing from Ris, as I moved as quietly as I could through the first two gates. When I approached the third, I found him urinating through the bars into Ris’s cell. Cringing, I pulled the gate closed behind me, jumping as it latched with a loudsnicksound.
The guard swore, fixing his pants as he turned my direction. “What the fuck? How did you— Whatareyou?”
Somehow, that question removed any hesitation I might have had. Ris’s hand reached out and grabbed onto the guard’s shirt, holding him so the side of his face was up against the bars. He cried out as his cheek started to burn, struggling to pull away even a tiny bit.
“Give her the keys,” he ordered. His voice was deeper. Stronger.
The guard fumbled, hesitating to comply with the order, even as I drew closer. I was not scary like Magnus, with his bone spear points and double set of fangs, but I was still a gargoyle. I held the blade up in front of me, one hand out for the keys.
Ris stepped into the light, and I gasped at the vast change in his appearance. His face was flushed with color, his cheeks filled out and eyes no longer sunken. His frail body had been restored to a strong, hearty one; the one I’d seen in the smoke portrait.
The elixir had worked.
“He’ll k-kill me if I do,” the guard stuttered, cheek almost smoking it was pressed so hard into the iron bars.
“We’ll kill you if you don’t,” Ris said.
“You can’t do anything,” the guard spat at him. Ris pulled him closer with both hands, and the guard screamed out with the pain of being burned.
“Maybe not, but she can.” He looked at me, giving a nod of reassurance.
I held the point of my blade to his throat and groped around at his belt, searching for the clip I needed to unlatch the ring. The guard struggled, though out of pain or resistance, I wasn’t sure. When they were finally freed, I held them up. “Tell me which one will open his cell.”
He grunted. “No.”
Adrenaline pounded through me, and I pressed the Dark blade against his skin, the small nick immediately causing him to jolt. He began to sob, perhaps realizing for the first time that there was no way out of this for him. My stomach twisted, and my head felt light, but there was no going back from here. He sniffled and shook, but Ris never lightened his grip, and my blade only continued to widen the painful cut at the base of his neck.
“The one with three prongs. There’s a scratch in it, on the left side.”
I shuffled the keys around until I found the right one, and hastily pushed it into the lock on Ris’s cell. My heart leapt when it actually turned and the door creaked open, the guard sagging further against it as both he and the door were pulled into Ris.
“Thank you.” Ris shoved the guard away and slipped out, coming to stand at my side. He pulled the key from the lock and put the ring in his pocket.
The guard stumbled, sagging into himself. “He won’t fail. Even if I have.” He reached forward and grabbed my shoulders, forcing the blade through his own throat.
I gasped and tried to move away, but his grip on my shoulders remained firm until he began to fade, drowning in his own blood. The Dark blade made short work of him, tendrils of black streaking out from anywhere the blade touched almost instantly.
