Kari nodded. He had done the right thing, even though it had left her in danger.
Soon, the waiting was over, and Master Vlad and Master Devin joined the gathering in the waiting chamber of Black’s tower. With a nod, Kari sent Marshal Saracht into action, and he went to inform Lord Black that the deed was done. Kari hoped the marshal’s normally stoic, unreadable expression would keep the demon from suspecting they were about to spring a trap upon it. If the marshal could do his task for Kari properly, the demon would hopefully be content to sit and listen to the gathered friends speak of the battle.
After only a few minutes, the marshal came down and beckoned for the gathered allies to follow him upstairs. Kari asked Eli to carry Turillia up with them. Once he agreed, Kari went up first behind Marshal Saracht, followed by Eli, and then the rest of them. When they reached the Earl’s study, Black was seated in his chair with a cigar burning in the ashtray as usual, and he regarded the large gathering with interest. Just as on her previous visit, Kari noted the chill in the air that the fireplace did nothing to dispel, and knew the demon still lingered.
Eli carried Turillia’s body over near Lord Black, and Kari pulled back the top of the succubus’ cloak-shroud just enough to show her face. Black rose and approached, and he pulled the shroud down a bit more until he could see Turillia’s ruined neck. He made a short sound that fell between disgust and disappointment, and then put the shroud back over the body before fixing his gaze on Kari. What was he—or more pointedly, the demon—thinking?
After a few silent moments, he gave an impressed nod and then took his seat again. “I expect I owe every one of you a bit of gratitude for ridding my city of this menace?”
It was hard for Kari to tell, but it seemed Kaelin Black was in control. The demon wouldn’t have been happy to see its partner mauled or managed to nod at her the way it had.
“Well, I certainly do,” she answered at length. “If it weren’t for all of them, I’m not sure things would’ve turned out as well as they did. Between their aid in combat, research, and helping me get Turillia into a trap, everyone here helped me in some way.”
“Excellent work, demonhunter. Did you discover anything more of her plans, or why she chose my city to enact them?”
“Actually, I did,” Kari said. “Master Vlad was the one who figured out she was trying to become a demon king, a goddess, or maybe both by stealing power from the shadow demon and then locking it, I guess you could say, within herself by drinking the blood of a powerful mallasti sorceress. She very nearly succeeded without us even figuring out what she was really up to, but she made one fatal mistake.”
“She came to your world to do it?” Black asked with a chuckle.
Kari wasn’t the only one to realize it this time: the demon had erred. Kari masked her realization better than the others, and thankfully, Black’s attention was on her. She cracked a toothy smile to bluff, and said, “Well, yes, but that’s not what I meant. It was actually the fact that she raised corpses in the graveyard that did her in.”
The earl’s brow creased. “How so?”
“Her necromancy attracted the attention of a local werewolf pack,” Kari explained. “And in the end, those werewolves saved me from her, and one of them killed Turillia. You see, I wanted to keep her alive to ask her questions and try to figure out what else was going on beyond her personal goals here. But one of the werewolves killed her, because it figured she was too dangerous to keep prisoner.”
Kaelin Black laughed, though the others didn’t share in his mirth. After glancing from face to face, he looked back to Kari and shrugged. “You have to admit, the irony is rather delicious in this case.”
“Well, like I said, I wanted to get information out of her first, but I did find out one thing thanks to her,” Kari said, but she turned to Eli. “Oh, Eli, don’t stand there holding her. Put her down by the window.”
What Kari wanted was Eli’s hands free on the off chance the demon tried to fight its way out when it realized it was caught. She continued, “Turillia let a secret slip when I confronted her, because she thought she was going to kill me anyway, so no one would ever find out.”
“And what secret is that?”
“That you and BlackWing are the same person,” Kari said evenly. She put her hands on her hips, close to the hilts of her scimitars without being an actual threat.
Black’s eyes went wide, then narrowed in a scowl. “What is this?” he demanded. “You rid my city of this succubus, and now you’re going to make a play for my title? You’d best explain yourself or the marshal will be putting you and your friends into the stocks.”
I thought the demon was in control, Kari thought. But the demon wouldn’t react like this, would it? Oh gods, he doesn’t even know. How do I explain this?
If she could convince him that he was possessed and didn’t realize it, he might allow them to perform an exorcism willingly. That still left the question of whether it was Lord Black or the demon that possessed the ability to split into two. If it was something Lord Black could do naturally, it wasn’t as big an issue, but did he even realize it? That may have been what drew the demon to him in the first place.
Kari looked toward the fireplace, drawing everyone else’s gazes toward it. “Feel that chill in the air you can’t seem to get rid of, even with a good fire?” she asked, and Lord Black regarded her curiously. “That’s the mark of the demon. It’s how I knew it was in you, why you attacked me the other night, and how I know you and BlackWing are the same person.”
“Why I attacked you…? You’re not making any sense, and you are wearing my patience dangerously thin,” Lord Black said, standing up. He was a massive, imposing man, and he towered over everyone. Kari could only imagine how much more imposing he looked with his wings spread.
It was Markus who approached and held up a hand to calm his fellow earl. Lord Garant’s gaze fell over Kari. “You told me you thought he was possessed, but what evidence have you that Lord Black is also BlackWing? All evidence seems to contradict that theory.”
Kari turned her gaze back to Lord Black. “You told me yourself when I first arrived in the city,” she said, and she could see he truly was confused. The demon had left him in control, but it was still present, its cold aura lingering in the air as a biting chill. “You told me that fifty-seven years ago, you were attacked by a demon of some kind in DarkWind.”
“And killed it,” the earl countered.
“But then you ran into a gnoll shaman who told you a shadow was closing in over you and your city, remember?” Kari asked. Lord Black considered her for a few seconds before he nodded grudgingly. “I don’t think it was a gnoll shaman at all; I think it was Emma. I think she’s been watching you for a long time, because she knows what’s inside of you, and what it can do with your body.”
“Conjecture? That’s what all of this is based on?” the earl balked. He turned to Lord Garant and pointed a clawed finger at Kari. “You’re going to depose me based on the conjecture of a woman who trips over words with more than two syllables?”
“Hey!” Eli barked, stepping forward.
Kari held her friend back with an outstretched arm. “No, we’re not going to depose you with conjecture. I don’t want to depose you at all. I just want to get this demon out of you and find out if BlackWing is a part of you or the demon.”