Page 113 of I Accidentally Hired a Shadow Walker
“Yes.” He smiled, looking at her like she was his entire universe. The demon actually had a dreamy look on his face.
“Hey, I’ve heard a lot about you.” She waved, and I flinched, afraid she might blow my head off. “Go on and get your man. I got his back.”
Metice kneeled so Rayna could kiss his cheek, and Piko jumped over to Rayna.
Something about seeing them together like that gave me hope. They’d fought against the odds and survived. We could too. After a quick nod of confirmation, I turned from them and ran for where I knew the doorway was. The roots still shot from the ground, clearing my path of any demon who tried to attack me as I ran.
Just ten feet right of the cage that previously held Olian and Cufio was the marked spot Raymond had shown me—only it was different. I could see it! It was a tall, thin panel that rippled with energy. I searched the area for any sign of Raymond or his brother but found nothing.
“Jericha!” Olian called out to me.
I turned to find her slumped against the edge of the wall. She held her shoulder where she bled. “Olian, are you okay? What happened?”
“Yeah, I'm fine. Got cut by a dagger, but it wasn’t poisoned, so I’ll survive. I've had it worse.” She groaned in pain as she readjusted herself.
“Where are they?” I scanned the area. “Raymond and Cufio. Have you seen them?”
“In the shadows. They haven’t come out.” She pointed to the spot where I saw the two brothers disappear. “They should have by now. I don't know what's going on, but I don't know how to get in there either. None of the shadow walkers on our side are here.”
“Damn it.” I looked around to assess the situation. She was right. There were shadow walkers, but they were far away, and they were all busy with their own fights. Her orange demon ran down the hall. I wasn’t sure what he was doing, but he knocked out two others on his path.
That intuition yelled at me again and begged me to examine the cage. There had to be something to lead me to them. When I left Olian, she slumped to the ground and waved me off when I hesitated.
“Go. I’m fine.”
Inside the cage, the door now hanging limp at the hinges, I almost gave up hope of finding anything until I caught the flash of something in my peripheral. I turned and squinted to see a small slit in the air. It took me a moment before I realized it was a shadow left open. There was a thread of darkness reaching from the slit in the cage and traveling back to the doorway to Talkeen’s space.
My heart dropped into my stomach—I immediately knew what it meant. The brothers were still in the shadows, and they were in trouble. That instinctual voice told me I had to go in. It screamed at me that if I didn't, Raymond would not make itout alive.
I turned back to Olian and pointed down the hall. “Can you get your orange buddy back here to help you out? You need to leave. Now.”
“What are you talking about? We can't just leave.” She struggled to stand, stumbling back against the wall again. “This isn't done.”
“It will be, but I have a feeling this place won’t be standing when it's all over.” I glanced at the two shadow orbs, but they moved more frantically, bouncing against each other, and every time they hit, there was another ripple, a shadow that passed through the space. “Look at those things, and that’s before whatever needs to happen to take Talkeen down.”
“What are you going to do?” She pulled out a device from her pocket and pressed a small button. “He’ll be here in a second.”
I nodded when I realized she had just called the orange one.Dammit, I should have asked his name.“I'm gonna do what I came here to do. Get the others and get out.”
Without another word, I turned, a new magic humming within me, and silently called to the shadows, feeling their power stir. They responded instantly, widening the split in the space enough for me to enter.
On the other side, there wasn't a thin path for me to walk across. This was a massive field on checkered stone, and in the center of it stood Raymond. He faced off against a guy I had never seen before but could only imagine was our target. Behind him, slumped on the ground, was Cufio. He was breathing, but each inhale was a struggle, a ragged gasp for air. He clutched his side, and I could still see where the spike had stabbed into him.
“You think you can just come back here and do whatever you want?” Talkeen’s voice boomed, and the domain we stood in trembled as he spoke. “I have worked my ass off to build what I have now, and I will not let you or anyone else destroy it!”
“You know how this works. It's just business.” Raymond saw me, but he didn’t acknowledge my presence. I took that as a sign to proceed with caution and started tiptoeing across the field, keeping my position behind Talkeen’s back. “That's how you got to where you are, right? You took advantage of a situation that played in your favor. I'm only doing the same thing now.”
“Neither one of us would be in this situation if you hadn't chickened out. I had the guts to do what needed to be done. I'm the one who's going to knock Klougus off his high horse. He doesn't deserve the power he has. He doesn't appreciate it. Look at him! He's become soft, and his grasp weakens every day because of it. Now he wants to hand everything over to his undeserving daughter.” Talkeen’s head fell back on a hollow laugh, and a wave of white hair fell down his back.
“I wonder how he would feel about her if he knew she was helping us all along. But of course, the second he said he would give her what she wanted, she turned her back on me. So, when I'm done ending you and your dumbass brother, I'm going after her. I'm taking everything. I'm taking what I'm owed, and everyone in the Bane will bow to me when I'm done.”
“Wow, man, you really have been drinking your own Kool-Aid, haven't you?” Raymond laughed mockingly at Talkeen, who looked confused by the colloquialism, but it kept his rage focused on him. “I hate to be the one to burst your bubble, but none of that's gonna happen here.”
As I got closer to him, I wanted more cover for my steps, afraid he would feel the vibration. So, I used my own magic. The vines slid from my skin, creating a moving platform that was eerily silent, unlike the sound of my feet.
“What makes you think you have any chance of surviving this? I'm stronger than you are now.” Talkeen laughed. “I can feel it. You're weakened. Your time away from the Bane must havemade you soft.”
“You may be stronger than I am.” Raymond dropped his head back as he pulled his locs up into a bun. “But you ain't stronger than my girl.”
