One of the bolts struck the man next to Leah. Horrified, she watched as the man jerked and spasmed. Electricity flowed through her and locked her jaws and joints. Leah barely managed to hang on to her senses.
Abruptly, the Box stopped spinning. Lightning continued to sizzle from it, forming a direct connection to the Cabalists.
“Control it!” the Voice shouted. “Use your powers!”
Leah held on to the two men next to her. She had no choice. The electricity surging through her wouldn’t allow her to release either of them. The man on her right frothed at the mouth.
Then the Box exploded. A bright blue flash filled the room and blinded Leah. When her vision returned, only partially, a demon stood in the center of the circle.
The demon had two faces set side by side. Both of them were hideous. Scales flared along the thick neck that hooked into a massive chest. Four arms, two to a side, stuck out from the demon’s body. All of them held weapons. The legs were long in comparison to the rest of its body, and they were thick as tree trunks. A forest of horns crowned its head.
“Control me?” the demon snarled. “Fools!” He lifted one arm and laughed.
More lightning jumped from the mace in the demon’s hand. Leah felt the increased current wracking her body. The head of the man to her left suddenly exploded, scattering blood, brains, and bone—all of it cooked. Around the circle, more Cabalists suffered electrical beheading.
Then a deep, agonizing pain struck deeply within Leah’s head. There was a great release, and she knew nothing more.
Exhausted and hurting, Leah regained consciousness back in the cube room. Vomit stained the floor. She put a hand to her head, checking to see that it was all still in one piece. The last sequence—whether dream or memory—had been too intense.
Then she grew aware someone watched her.
When she turned to look, the cube demon had returned. She put her back against the wall and drew her knees up to her chin.
“You’re doing very well.” The demon almost preened. “Better than expected. During the time you’ve been here, you’ve reached out to many of your fellow humans.”
Leah didn’t speak. She refused to let the thing know how much what she was going through was affecting her.
“Other humans have died,” the demon said. “Some of those were ones that were taken after you. You have a remarkable resiliency. But, in the end, it will only make you live longer. You can’t escape. You will die here. Until you do, you will continue to aid us.”
Giving in to her anger, Leah hurled herself across the room. Even if she died in the attack, she couldn’t be used against Simon or anyone else. Dying was worth that.
The demon caught her effortlessly. One hand seized her wrist and the other clamped down on her head. It picked her up and threw her into the steel wall hard enough to knock the breath from her.
Wheezing, trying desperately to get air back in her lungs, Leah held her hands over her head to open her rib cage.
“Foolish,” the demon said. “You can’t sacrifice yourself so easily. When the time comes, you’ll die. But not until this. You no longer have a choice in the matter.”
Leah willed herself to be calm as she tried to regulate her breathing. She watched the demon intently, but she didn’t know when it left the cell. One moment it was there; in the next, it was gone.
Knowing that a door had to be in that end of the cell, Leah crawled over and examined the walls, floor, and ceiling. She found nothing. It was as if the demon had aligned its atoms with those of the wall and slid through.
When she turned back round, a box of food sat at the other end of the cell. Nothing had gotten by her, which meant that the demons entered and left her cell at will. She remained a prisoner.
FORTY-SEVEN
Warren lifted his hand and formed a shield before him. The demon’s fiery breath crackled and hissed as it struck the barrier. Flames lapped at the edges as they curled around. Waves of heat slammed into him, almost hot enough to parboil his skin.
Naomi stood at his back, using him and his shield as protection.
Daiyu and the Cabalists attacked the demon. Heavy nets, reinforced with the energy they manipulated, dropped from men inside rooms overhead. The nets popped and sizzled as they touched the demon’s skin, like electrical cables attached to opposite current. Quivering and shaking, the nets looked like live things seeking to slide away from the demon.
Kareloth struggled against the nets. He knotted all four hands in the strands and pulled. Some of the nets broke, and the energy residing within the ropes burned like fireworks. The demon breathed out again. Flames licked at the nets, but they were flame-resistant. They wouldn’t be able to withstand the attack for long, though.
Warren drew the spear from the magical duster. When Kareloth saw the spear, his eyes widened.
“Where did you get that?” Kareloth demanded.
Afraid of getting hurt, knowing that the demon was dangerous as long as it was alive, Warren made no reply. He closed on Kareloth and drove the spear at the demon’s heart.
Instead, Kareloth caught the spear and stopped it short of piercing his flesh. The contact turned the spear cherry red. Kareloth’s hands, both of the left ones, charred and cracked. He roared with rage and shoved the spear backward.
Propelled by the demon’s immense strength, Warren flew off his feet and back into the alley. He knocked Naomi down, and they tumbled in a sprawl. Only then did the agony from Warren’s own burned hand reach through his fear and fill his mind.
His hand, his human hand, had cooked. Blisters formed immediately. Black crust covered his palm. He couldn’t feel all the pain because the burns had killed the nerves. That was a small blessing. He also couldn’t move his hand. Panic
