Page 77 of Hell to Slay

“Would you like to go last, Mel?”

I manifested my twin demonfire blades. “None of us will host your parasite, Ty.”

He let out a dry chuckle. “Perhaps you all need a reminder of what’s at stake.” He gestured for us to follow him as he began paralleling the trench, following along its shore like he was on a stroll beside nothing more than a burbling brook.

I knew where he was leading us. “Release them and—”

“I give the orders in my domain. All four of you, come with me.” Ty gestured once more for us to follow. He turned his back, and his shadowy cloak rippled and shivered as if it had a life of its own.

I’d forgotten it wasn’t a man I was dealing with, but a devil. I tried to fight against his compulsion, but my left foot stepped forward as naturally as if I’d put it there.

“Mel—” Hudson started.

Ty cut him off. “Follow me silently.”

Unlike a vampire, he didn’t even need to meet our eyes to render us helpless. I cast about for some advantage, some way of thwarting him. The four of us may have been helpless to resist and now struck dumb, but we would think of some way of fighting back.

As I followed, I desperately wracked my brain. I knew that as soon as Ty stopped moving, the compulsion would end, leaving me free to move again. But if he gave us another order beforehand, we’d be screwed.

“You know… After our last chat,” Ty said casually over his shoulder, “I finally forgave you, Mel.”

His voice was unnaturally soft, almost completely human, but I wouldn’t allow him to trick me.

I’d never been able to resist before, not even when I’d tapped into my magic. But now our magic mingled, and we were stronger than ever before. Ty hadn’t told us not to use our magic, he’d just told us to be silent. So I dipped into that deep well, gathering it before trying again.

Nothing happened.

Ty kept walking, and so did we. Silently, I grumbled inside of my own mind. I thought back to every time I’d seen Ty compel me or someone else, trying to figure out if I could attack his magic directly. Was there something there I could use?

Then something brushed along my ankle, and I realized Ty had forgotten about my familiar.

“I’m with you. You may not be able to talk, but I can. He’s heading straight for the pit of souls.”

I couldn’t see Tempest, but she must be walking alongside us as we strolled without a care along the edge of the infernal realm. To add insult to injury, my boots unerringly secured each step, never tripping over the smooth, slippery rises and dips the vines created.

“It was hard for me, but some part of me always knew you were just doing what you thought was right,” Ty continued, oblivious to our attempts to resist.

I cast about for any advantage we had, anything I could communicate to Tempest or the others to help our plight, replaying everything in my head about what I’d seen of Ty’s powers.

“Doing so pissed off Andras, of course. We’re growing weaker without my hatred for him to feed on. That’s why he’s so hungry for you now.”

I’d been ignoring Ty while I wracked my brains for a solution, but my ears perked up when he said ‘weaker.’ Was he trying to help in his own way?

No. It had to be just another of the devil’s tricks. I needed to focus. We had to save ourselves.

Every time the devil compelled someone, he did it with an order. I thought of him like a super vampire. He didn’t need to catch our gaze to control us. But as far as I’d seen, he’d never compelled someone without words. And the words themselves were important. The times he’d suggested something without really ordering me, I hadn’t been compelled.

And maybe that also meant that his victim had to be able to hear him to obey. A vampire’s power to compel his victims rested in his gaze, but maybe a devil’s compulsion required an auditory link instead. It was worth a shot.

We hadn’t wanted Ty to know we could access each other’s magic, but I could use Jax’s innate magic without any evidence. With a sliver of magic from our shared reservoir, I dialed down my sense of hearing until only my own heartbeat and breath remained. Then I shut off all sound completely.

I felt disoriented, but Ty’s original spell kept me moving. I could no longer hear the crunch of my boots on the blackened earth hidden beneath the smog. I could no longer hear my coven-mates’ heartbeats and breath — something I’d become so accustomed to without even noticing. It had become so reassuring, knowing they were present with me as long as I could hear them.

If Ty was speaking, I couldn’t hear that either as he came to a stop next to a pit. It was smaller than the one we’d rescued my mother and the other spirits from, but it had the same evil vines. This pit didn’t span the entire width of the trench, and dark flames ringed its vines, separating the pit from both the infernal realm and the periphery. Magic tethered a dozen spirits to the near wall on the infernal realm side, just as before. When I glanced down, I recognized Cyrene and La Cora’s spirits, along with the demon hunter we’d killed and the one La Cora had murdered while defenseless.

Ty turned toward the four of us, opening his mouth to speak, but I used Jax’s magic and deafened my coven-mates before he could put them under any new spell. His lips moved, but I looked away, fearful that lipreading could also sway me.

My body seemed to be under my control again.

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