Anger flared. “Can you give her a message as well? Tell her to kiss my witch ass. I bet she’d like that very much. Thank you,” I added cheerfully.
But the effect was wasted as the minotaur laughed. At least that’s what the strange, guttural gargling I heard coming from his throat as he marched away and disappeared through the steel door sounded like.
The door slammed shut with a boom that reverberated in the large cave. It felt final somehow.
Fear was a festering wound in my gut. In the right situations, a small, insignificant fear could suddenly grow, swelling up to monstrous proportions. That would happen right now if I didn’t put a stop to it.
Without Faris’s help, I was doomed.
I wrapped my arms over my middle, a sickly little feeling of dread rolling through me. I sat there for a moment, gathering my wits and my thoughts.
Damnit. This wasn’t me. I wasn’t going to let this be my end. Hell no. My heart thrashed in my chest at the sudden rise in adrenaline. I was going to get out of here.
“I’m a dark witch,” I told myself. “I have magic. Blood magic. And I’m going to get my ass home,” I added, my voice loud and filled with a heated determination. “Even if I have to break through this damn cage with my bare hands.”
“Home!” exclaimed my scrawny neighbor, and I turned to look at him. With a closer inspection, he almost appeared healthier. His blue eyes were clear and didn’t bulge out as much. His face was fuller, and there was more meat on his bones, more muscle. I could even spot some rosy tint in his skin. It was almost as though those cold cuts and water I’d given him had filled him with a new healthy body.
He hadn’t uttered a single word to me for two days. He’d been too busy scraping the bars on his cage. Looking at them now, not a single spot on his cage’s bars wasn’t scratched. Weird.
“That’s right,” I told him. I let out a sigh as I looked around my own cage. “There’s got to be a way out of this cage,” I said, peering through the bars. “If only I could reach the lever somehow...” But how could I? I was too big to pass through the bars.
A thought occurred to me. “Hey, buddy,” I said, and crab-walked over to the other side so I was staring directly at him. “Do you want to go home?” I asked. Seeing how tiny the demon was, there was a real a chance it would work.
“Home!” exclaimed the demon, eyes wide, and he clapped his hands together.
“Yes, home,” I said, and I waited for him to settle down. “Listen carefully. I need you to squeeze through the bars of your cage and jump down. Can you do that?” It was about a ten-foot drop. It might be too high for him to jump. His body might shatter on impact.
The demon’s face creased in concern, and he looked at me like it was the first time he’d ever laid eyes on me. Then he gawked at the bars of his cage, eyes wide.
“Home,” said the tiny demon, formulating the word as though trying to remember the language.
I took that as a yes. “Good. That’s good. Really good.” By the cauldron, this was going to work! Excitement pounded through my chest. “Okay. When you get to the ground, you need to go to the platform with all those levers and pull mine down. It’s the third row—the last one on the left. Can you do that?”
The demon eyed me, his features scrunched up in a small frown.
“See. If you do that,” I encouraged. “Then we can both go home. You want to go home. Don’t you?”
The demon met my eyes and then moved to the front of his cage, facing me. He pressed his body against the bars and then slipped his right arm easily through them.
I stared at his outstretched hand. “Ah... okay. Maybe you didn’t understand me the first time.” I pointed to him. “All of you.” Then I pointed down. “Down to the ground. Get it?”
The demon beckoned with his hand. “Hand,” he said again, wiggling his fingers.
My shoulders slumped. “Hell. You don’t get it. Do you? And here I thought we were making progress.”
Reluctantly, I stared at his thin, gangly and dirty fingers, knowing he wanted me to take it. But why? Maybe he just wanted to thank me for the food.
“You don’t have to thank me for the food,” I said, and a real smile formed on my face. “It wasn’t that much. Just a snack, really.”
“Hand,” pressed the demon, his long fingers wiggling as he waved his hand impatiently.
I shrugged. “What? You want us to hold hands and sing Kumbaya? Not sure that’s going to help us escape.”
He gestured with his hand again.
“Ah—what the hell. If it’ll make you happy.” What’s the worst that could happen? “Fine. I’ll shake your hand.” Feeling like a fool, I slipped my arm through the bars, stretched it as far as it would go, and clasped the demon’s hand.
I flinched at his touch. His skin was cold, but surprisingly soft.
“Okay. This is really awkward.” I said, and I shook his hand. “You’re welcome.” I didn’t know what else to say. When I tried to pull my hand away, his hand locked onto mine with the strength of a bear.
“Hey. What are you doing?” I said, panic filling me. Shit. Faris was right. He wanted to kill me. Possibly eat me.
I pulled and pulled as hard as I could, but it was like trying to pull a car with my pinky. I barely had any strength left as it was.
Fear slid through me, paralyzing and cold. “Let go of me,” I cried. “Let go!” What had I done?
“Friend,” said the little demon, and I looked up to find his face cracking into a smile. His three teeth were chipped and stained, and big fat tears slipped down his face.
My lips parted. “What?” I asked stupidly. My eyes widened as I felt the hum of power, of magic running from his hand to mine, like static electricity. A shiver took me. It wasn’t the normal cold demonic energy. It was warm. My fingertips pulsed with magic, and then it spread to my arm, to my chest, all the way to my toes. I was prickling with magic.
Another strong pulse of magic hit, and my breath was pushed out of my lungs. I stared, opened mouth at the tiny demon, his eyes sparkling with a golden glow. A shot of energy raced from my hand to my core, to my soul. Heat exploded in my chest, and then white light exploded all around, growing until white light flooded my eyes and I was forced to shut them.
The breath was pushed out of my lungs again, and I felt myself falling, falling fast.
Holy crap!
Another prickling washed through me, and my lungs rebounded, filling with cool, sweet air. I gasped as my boots slammed into the hard ground. My jaw snapped closed, and I bit my tongue.
Dizzy, I stood for a moment, confused. I opened my eyes.
I stood in the middle of a dark street and heard the sounds of cars off in the distance. I looked around and realized I knew this place. It was Mystic Quarter. I was... home.
Only then did I realize I was still holding on to the little demon.
I looked down at him, my heart thrashing in my chest as though I’d just run down the block. “You brought me home? How? How is this possible?” And why didn’t you bring me home sooner, I wanted to shout, though that sounded a little too ungrateful. Be nice to the little demon, I told myself, cause he might send your ass back.
I stared at him with my mouth open. I’d never heard of a demon capable of jumping realities, jumping through worlds as though he could create his own Rifts. He created his own portal somehow, with his magic, and took me home. That, ladies and gents, is some serious magic.