“I’m only in here for the moment.” It straightened slowly and frowned down at her. “And when I free myself from this cage, I will cause you pain in ways you cannot possibly imagine.”
“I don’t know about that,” she said. “I’ve got a pretty vivid imagination.”
“It’s true. She does,” Michael added, making her smile.
“Speaking of,” she said and held her injured arm out to him. “Help me with this, would you?”
He furrowed his brow.
“Blood calls blood. It’s time for daddy to lend a helping hand.”
A wicked smile lit his face.
Michael took the blade he was playing with, sliced a neat line through the layers of Juliana’s bandage and peeled it off. He tossed it aside.
“Go kill the camera at the end of the hallway,” she told him.
He jogged to stand underneath it, jumped up and pulled it off the wall. He used his knife to slice through the wires.
She dropped her chin to her chest and took a deep breath before looking back up at him. “When I said ‘kill the camera’ I didn’t mean it literally. There’s a button on the control panel.”
He glanced at it, shrugged and threw the camera over his shoulder. She couldn’t imagine why her headache kept getting worse.
“Just make sure we’re not disturbed,” she told him. He leaned against the door.
She dipped her finger into her wound, wincing at the pain. Using her blood, she sketched an image on the floor of the hallway.
“What are you doing?” the demon asked, turning its head from side to side in an attempt to get a better view.
She ignored it and continued to draw until she had a rough representation of a rowan tree. It was a good thing the power behind the image depended on her intentions rather than her artistic ability. The rowan tree was a symbol of power for the fae. It featured in many of their myths and was even thought to have played a part in the creation of the first fae. It was a sacred symbol and she was using it to call one of the higher gods of the dark fae.
She flung a few droplets of blood across the image. “By blood I call blood. Aeron Rowantree, I summon thee.”
The air over the image began to simmer and then take shape. The man that stood in front of her was slightly taller than she was, but sported her raven hair and green eyes. He was all angles and edges, only his hair broke up the hardness. It was pulled back into a loose ponytail though on occasion he left it to flow in soft waves around his shoulders. He smiled when he saw her. “You have summoned me. What is it you desire?”
She lifted her chin to indicate the cell behind him. He turned and waved a hand through the air, freezing the demon and its host in place. “Why are you in my daughter’s mate?”
A peek at Michael showed his eyes widen briefly and his jaw set at the statement. Juliana rose to her feet when she realized her father had control of the demon. “I thought you couldn’t control demons that didn’t belong to you.”
“Yes, well...” Her father shifted on his feet.
She narrowed her eyes. “I thought you didn’t like demons. That you didn’t keep any because you didn’t have a use for them.” She’d summoned him hoping only that he would be able to identify who it belonged to.
“That might not have been the whole truth.” He held up his hands in surrender. “I didn’t see the point in telling you. You seemed to dislike them so much and it wasn’t like I thought you were ever going to meet one.”
Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath and struggled to retain her hold on her temper. “Did it tell you why it’s here?” she asked finally, knowing he could communicate with his minions telepathically.
He shook his head. “Not really. It appears to be beyond reason with fear.” His gaze fell on her arm and the symbol on which he still stood. “Did it hurt you?”
“Take care of the door before we get into this, would you?” she gestured to the end of the hall where Michael still stood.
Her dad absently waved a hand in that direction.
Michael jerked upright. “Hey, watch it.”
Aeron arched a brow in response. “I would think one as old as you would know to get out of the way when a god is casting spells.”
She waved her arm in front of them, reminding them of what they’d been discussing. “It didn’t do this, but it would have killed me if I hadn’t killed its host at the time. I guess now I understand why it kept telling me its master would kill it if it hurt me.”
Her father frowned and rubbed his chin with his hand. “You asked me not to tell anyone of our connection, as you feared the information getting into the wrong hands and I have not. I merely instructed my people to leave you and yours alone. I told them you were under my protection.”
“Gods, Dad. Why don’t you just give Pandora a box and tell her not to open it?”
His frown turned into a scowl. “I thought we’d agreed never to discuss that.”
“If you didn’t want it brought up, you shouldn’t have told me.”
“Yes, so you keep reminding me.”
“Can you fix this?” Michael interrupted.
Her father turned his scowl on her friend. “Yes, Michael. I can fix this.”
Michael wisely said nothing. As much as Aeron liked him, he wouldn’t tolerate disrespect from anyone.
“Someone summoned it to kill me,” she said.
His face darkened in fury. “Who?”
“I’m guessing Raoul, but I don’t know for sure.”
He pressed himself against the bars and laid a hand on top of Thomas’s head. She’d seen him do it before to shuffle through someone’s memories. After several long moments, he turned back to her with a sigh. “The spell that summoned him prevents him from revealing who it was. It also prevents him from leaving your realm even if we do manage to get him out of your mate.”
Michael leaned forward, cocking his head to the side. “Are you telling me that no matter what we do, we are stuck with a first-level demon in this realm?”
Her father shook his head. “There are two ways to return him to my lands. Only one is a viable option, but even it seems unlikely.”
When he said nothing further, she piped up. “Well, what are they?”
His mouth drawn in a tight line, deep furrows of worry creased his brow. “The first is that it completes the task for which it was summoned.”
“Yeah, I’m not okay with that. What’s option two?” she asked.
“If we knew the spell that summoned it, we may be able to discover the unbinding spell to release it from the summoning. There are hundreds of spells that could have been used.”
Her mouth curled into a satisfied smile. For once, something was going her way. “I not only know the spell. I have the whole book.”
She dialed James’s direct number at the Apocryphan.
“I need your help,” she said when he answered.
“What’s going on?”
“We found the demon, but we need the spell that summoned it. Can you send the book through a portal?”
“No. If you’re going to work with that book, you’re going to need my help.”
She glanced at her dad and Thomas who was still frozen. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“That’s the only way you’re getting the book without filling out the forms.”
