He chuckles.“You’re braver than I imagined. Your kind is frail. Many would have run by now. You’re stronger than them. Strength is an admirable trait, witchling. I should have known you would be fierce.”
Fear pools in my belly and wraps itself around me so hard that I feel like I’ll crack in two. I want to run. Desperately. But where am I going to run? To Buffy? My best friend is on patrol for the mini-demons with the man that tried to murder me. She doesn’t think I’m strong enough to fight alongside her.
But she would if you told her about your magic, I remind myself. I swat the thought away. I’m not even sure what it is that I’m doing with magic. There’s nothing to tell.
I could tell her about this, though. If we solve Charlie’s brain drain book problems and my dreams. Plus, if I got the demon to stay out of my head with a deal, especially if that deal with a demon helps us put an end to everything that’s been goingwrong, well, I could tell her that. She’d understand that. She’d know I could help her the same as anyone else in the gang if I put a stop to the mini-demons and helped Charlie.
She’d have to with the proof in front of her.
“Where does your mind wander, witchling? I cannot see it now.”
I open my mouth to answer him. Even as scared as I should be, as frightened as I was, the closer I am to the demon the more calm I become. I feel safe. Why do I feel safe? Come to think of it, the closer I am to the demon the calmer he is, too.
“What happened to your riddle talk?” I ask the demon. I wiggle my fingers at the rock. “You’re getting less decoder ring needed in there.”
“My mind grows clearer by the second, witchling.”
“But why?”
“Think. You know why. You know me. Free me.”
A shiver runs through me. He keeps saying that. I can’t even say that he’s wrong. I know this place, the light pulled me here, the sense of peace running through me now feels familiar and right. It’s the exact feeling I had lost in my nightmares when the only way to safety was to follow the light.
Why did I feel safe in the dark with that voice? Why do I know his eyes?
“Free me,”the demon growls and for a second I almost ask how.
“Meadow, don't let that demon get in your head!” Charlie yells and I snap out of it. At least, a little bit. Is the demon in my head? Is he making me feel safe now? Is he tricking me? I eyeball the crack in the rock but there’s no clues there. It has to be a demon trick to get me to help him, which I almost did. Demons aren’t truthful, at least according to Wrath.
“Always take care to watch your words with a demon. We’re crafty. Always on the look out for a good deal. Only strikea bargain with a demon if you are prepared to pay the price. Everything must be paid sooner or later, Meadow.”
Any safety I feel right now is an illusion to get me to make a deal with this demon, but what could he possibly want from me? I don’t know how to get him out of rock jail. What could I possibly have that he needs?
The demon shifts, the light behind him shines in my eyes, forcing me to squint to keep sight of him to make sure he isn’t up to any funny business. If I could, I would stab him through the opening but my blade isn’t long enough. I glare at my stupid short blade. Next time, I’m bringing a sword.
“Is it you? You’re the one doing this to him? You’re the one in my head when I sleep, aren’t you?” I lean closer to the rock so Charlie doesn’t hear me. “What the hells were you doing in my basement? Some places are off limits.”
The demon sighs.“I have walked with you in your dreams, but that was to help you. I only spoke to you when your mind was feeble.”My cheeks burn hot when he says that. He’s not wrong. I was coming apart those nights in the basement. It’s called sensory deprivation. I don’t know why my parents used it to “fix me”, all it did was make me feel like I was losing myself.“As for your friend… I have no hand in that. However, I can speak on those that torment your friend’s feeble mind.”
“Hello? Did he just call me stupid?” Charlie asks.
I point the knife at the rock opening. “Offering up information on yourself isn’t going to get you out of that rock.”
“I have naught to do with your friend’s weak mind. It’s the mages you want and the mages are going to end you if you don’t listen to me. Free me if you want to live. Now, Meadow.”
Mages.
Mages have been gone for centuries in Sweet Tooth. Wrath swears they’re alive and thriving“in environments much moreattuned with the natural state of being,”but I never thought that state of being meant trying to scramble Charlie’s mind.
“Why would mages want Charlie’s brain?” I look around the clearing, fully expecting to see robed figures coming towards us but there’s nothing. I edge closer to the rock. “Where are they? I mean-who are they? What are you talking about ending us?”
The demon chuckles.“I can tell you the first quite easily, witchling, but you won’t like the answer very much and you’re running out of time.”
“Running out of time for what?”
In the distance a horn blows, the sound is so loud the ground beneath me heaves with the vibration. I throw a hand out on the boulder to catch myself from falling, I’m right up against the boulder, the crevice just an inch from my cheek.
The silver eyes drop to my level until I’m eye-to-eye with the demon.
