Page 74 of The Devil Went Down to Laughlin
“It’s almost big enough,” she murmured. Better not to advertise what she’d learned too loudly, just in case August didn’t know exactly what was happening with the portal. “Caleb, we have maybe minutes before — ”
August lunged toward them with inhuman speed, reminding Delia of nothing more than those frightening “fast zombies” from the 28 Days Later films. Somehow, Ty managed to intercept him, and the two of them slammed into the earthen wall hard enough to make dirt rain down from the ceiling.
“Now would be good!” Ty called out, face taut with effort and strands of hair coming loose from his ponytail. Bony fingers tight around his arms, August Sellers snarled, baring teeth that were now nothing close to human, and instead looked like the fangs of some terrible creature of the ocean’s depths.
Delia’s mind raced as she fought to come up with a solution to an utterly unprecedented situation. How could they seal something that existed between dimensions? She was just a real estate agent with a few special powers, not one of the Avengers or something.
Self-defeating thoughts like that wouldn’t help, though. She needed to focus on a solution, no matter how crazy it might seem.
Looking away from Ty, she saw the curving patterns carved into the packed-earth walls. She’d been so focused on the river’s energy that she’d barely noticed them, but now….
“Caleb,” she said, “look at the walls.”
He followed her gaze, taking in the intricate patterns carved into the earth around them. “What about them? Those are the same patterns August used to bind his minions to him. They’re not going to help us.”
“That’s where you’re wrong,” she returned, and Caleb frowned, clearly not understanding what she was trying to get at. “They’re binding patterns, right? So why can’t we use them to bind the portal and close it forever? Just because August made the things doesn’t mean we can’t use them for our own purposes.”
Understanding warmed Caleb’s cola-brown eyes. “How are we supposed to get them to work for us?”
“They need to be powered by someone with the right kind of energy.” She paused there before adding, “Someone with demonic blood.”
August must have overheard their discussion despite their best attempts to speak quietly, because his struggles against Ty became more frantic. “No!” he roared. “I will not be denied again!”
With a surge of desperate strength, he shoved Ty off him, throwing the half angel to the ground, and began chanting in harsh, guttural words that made the air itself writhe. Now Delia could see the shape of the portal beginning to grow solid on the far side of the chamber, even as the boundary between worlds grew thinner and thinner. Somehow, it felt hard to breathe, as if the emerging gate was starting to suck the oxygen out of the air itself.
“Do it,” she told Caleb, her tone urgent. “I’ll help you.”
Mouth grim, Caleb pulled back a bandage on his palm, revealing a thin cut that looked as if it had only begun to heal. As crimson drops of blood hit the earthen floor, they began to glow with a strange inner light, oddly beautiful, as if he’d dripped a scatter of garnets on the ground.
Then they joined hands again, his blood smearing against her fingers. She couldn’t pay attention to that, however. No, she had to focus on the shapes carved into the walls, sigils that seemed to twist in on themselves, almost like the ancient ouroboros symbol, but more complicated, darker…something that could trap energy within, just as it had trapped the minds of the men the demon August had seized for his own uses.
But if those shapes were traps, that meant they could also trap the magic being used to create the portal, could render it inert.
Caleb stared at her, dark eyes now intense with a combination of concentration and comprehension. The symbol placed at the north position of the compass began to blaze, red-hued light rippling along its mind-bending curves.
I think it’s working, she said, and Caleb nodded.
I think you’re right. But don’t stop.
As best she could, Delia gulped in some air, forcing it past the tightness in her chest, and then moved her focus to the symbol at the east compass point. A few seconds later, flames moved along it as well.
Caleb’s grin now reminded her of one that a warrior who’d just lopped off an enemy’s head might wear.
Have I told you that you’re brilliant?
Not recently.
A third symbol caught flame.
August snarled and raised his hands, dark energy forming around him like thunderheads on a hot summer afternoon. “You’re going to regret this, you interfering bitch!”
But instead of attacking her directly or trying to break her contact with Caleb, the demon turned toward the weakening portal, now just a faint shimmer in the air. Mouth wide in an unholy grimace, he began tearing at the boundary itself with clawed fingers as he tried to widen the breach through sheer force.
Wind came out of nowhere, whistling in the still air inside the chamber.
Every scene Delia had ever seen in a sci-fi film where people got sucked out of the airlock suddenly began to replay in her head, and terror sent adrenaline surging along each nerve ending.
“He’s going to try to pull me through!” she shouted at Caleb.
