“I see that we have failed once again.” His voice was pleasant but somehow sucked the warmth out of the air.
Mike, still frozen from having Cecilia riding shotgun inside of him, somehow felt colder even hearing it.
The stranger shook his head, his dark curls unmoving.
“And who are you?” Mike asked.
“You may call me Amir. If you would like to invite me in, I would be happy to speak with you.”
“Do you think I’m dumb?” Mike fiddled with the goggles, curious what the man looked like using its different settings. Through the goggles, Amir may as well have been a shadow. He had no heat signature or even a heartbeat. Amir’s magic was somehow invisible to the goggles’ power. “There’s no way in Hell that I’m inviting you in, and I am not giving you my house.”
“The house is an issue for another time. I only want what is mine.” Amir’s eyes fell on Lily. She had bounced off the stone wall and was currently caught up in the damaged branches of the hedge Mike had hidden behind when he’d fallen off Zel. Her eyes were now wide in terror, and her now frantic struggle to get free had only further entangled her, so she started tearing through the branches with her claws.
“Nothing here is yours,” said Mike.
“I beg to differ.” Amir’s eyes locked on Mike. “I will offer you a one-time deal, Mr. Radley, but you will only have moments to make it, so please, hear me out. I am a patient man. I am patient enough to simply wait until you have passed away, leaving this place to the next Caretaker. I am patient enough to convince the others that this fight we have with you is not worth the toll it has already taken on my colleagues. I am patient enough to admit defeat and return again when you have been long dead in the ground.
“However, I have no patience for disloyalty. That succubus belongs to me, and I will have her back. Hand her over to me, right now, and we will go away.” Though his face was dark, his teeth were bright, making him look like a sadistic shadow.
Mike watched Amir, then looked at Lily. She scrambled out of the bush, her dark eyes on the stranger at the edge of his yard.
“I don’t know that you really have any bargaining power,” Mike said. “With this sundial, I can keep you out of here for the rest of my days.”
“Indeed. But you will be under house arrest. I will wait for you to step away, and I will kill you. A lifetime of being stuck in that tiny little home, wondering when we will try again. Paranoia at every hour of the day. Or you could return my property and have your freedom and my word that we will never bother you again. It seems to me that you are getting the better end of the bargain.”
“Mike.” Lily’s voice shook. “He means it. He won’t just kill you either. He’ll make you suffer.”
“What? Do you want to go back with him?”
“She does.” Amir held out his hand. “Even if she doesn’t know it. Return her to me, and I will take Kali and Sebastien away and leave you in peace.”
Mike chuckled. “I wagered my soul to gain her servitude. She can’t break the deal.”
“But you can.” This time, when Amir held out his hand, Mike could see the shadows clinging to him. It was like he had been poorly Photoshopped back into the real world, the extra dark lines around his body the main indicator. “Now hand her over. I won’t ask again.”
Mike sighed. He walked to the edge of his yard, the stone lions at his side. They were an extension of the house and, while activated, he could feel them in his mind, eager to obey a direct command or act of their own accord. Unfortunately, he knew they couldn’t pass the boundary of the house, which meant he couldn’t just sick them on Amir and end this right here and now.
When Mike was about ten feet away from the boundary, he stuck his hand in his pocket. Amir’s smile grew impossibly wide.
“You know what? Maybe she is too much trouble.” Mike frowned. “Wait, hold on.” He pulled his hand out of his pocket and felt around on the outside of his pants, then looked around. The dagger and its sheath was tucked into his back pocket, and he casually closed his fingers around the hilt. “That’s so strange. Where did it go?”
Amir’s smile faltered. “What happened?”
“Well, sometime between yesterday and today, I ran out of fucks to give.” Mike grinned sheepishly. “Guess you’re just going to have to be patient enough for me to grow a new one, or something.”
Amir’s eyes narrowed, and the ground shook, but Mike held his ground, his eyes never leaving Amir’s. The rain had finally stopped, and the sun was coming out, but the tension in the air was suddenly so intense that he tightened his grip on the dagger.
“You are a dead man, Mike Radley.” Amir knelt to pick up Kali, then lifted her easily. “You should have taken my offer.”
That cold feeling spread in his gut, but he was ready. An arm made of shadows quickly crossed the space between them and seized him by the shirt collar. Mike swung up his arm, the dagger clutched tightly in his fingers, and severed the shadow limb. It tumbled onto the ground and shattered, freezing the grass around him. The edge of the geas sparkled momentarily, and when Amir sent another shadow limb in to grab Mike, it exploded on the edge of the geas and ran like wet ink down onto the ground.
“Do you want me to check my pockets again, Amir?” Every fiber of his being told him to run away and hide, to flee from this man, but he felt it deep within his being, that voice of reason that
