Bec than I am by the demons bearing down on us.
Grubbs stares at the Demonata, eyes narrow and glinting yellow. His fangs grow an inch, his lips stretching with them. He grabs hold of my hand and Bec’s. Energy spirals up my arm. I tense against it but then the voice of the Kah-Gash murmurs to me.
I don’t entirely trust that inner voice, but even if I wanted to reject the union, I couldn’t. The magic within me warms to Grubbs’s and I feel power well up from nowhere. The shock of it makes me gasp. My skin crackles and my fingers dig into Grubbs’s huge paw. My legs go weak, then steady.
We’re drawing power from all around, from the earth, people, demons, the sky. Everything’s linked. There are connecting lines everywhere, between humans, objects, the Demonata, the stars. The Kah-Gash was here before any of us, holding the sixty-four zones of the original universe together. And it still binds us in place—it just doesn’t define the universes as tightly as it used to.
But it could. With the power coursing through me now, I could quench the sun by snapping my fingers, and open a tunnel between universes. Make myself ruler of all worlds, people, and demons. Limits exist only in the mind. As the Kah-Gash, I’d set those limits, not be bound by them. I could—
“Let’s just kill these demons and leave it at that,” Grubbs says, shattering my dreams of universal dominance.
I blink, coming out of the spell I was under, amazed by how swiftly I gave in to temptation. Grubbs and Bec might not be the jokers in the pack. Maybe
But there’s no time for self-doubt. The demons are almost upon us. Our werewolves are howling and the soldiers are readying their rifles. Another second or two and all will be chaos.
Grubbs roars and I feel the magic of the Kah-Gash draining from me—from Bec too. Grubbs is the focal point through which the power is channeled. No way of fighting it now. The energy that we’ve sucked in explodes through Grubbs, mixed in with his roar.
A stream of raw power envelops the demons and stops them cold. Their eyes bulge as they choke in a net of magic. We hold them in place a moment, as easily as we’d trap a colony of ants by lowering a jar over them. Then Grubbs blows on them the way he’d blow on a feather.
The demons shoot backwards, through the walls of the building, then through the window between universes. The startled mage is blasted through as well, torn to shreds with most of the demons. When the area is clear, the stream of energy fans out and crackles across the face of the window. It glows brightly, then crumples, and the patches of light which were used to create it flood back to us along with the magic. The stream swirls around us, breaking up into vortex-like tendrils. Then Grubbs lets go of my hand and Bec’s.
The power dwindles in seconds and the lights drift away. It’s like nothing ever happened—apart from the huge hole in the front of the building.
“Wow,” Grubbs says, flexing his fingers and staring at them. “That was great.” He looks up at us and grins. “Let’s find more demons and do it again!”
A couple of hours later, in a hotel suite even grander than the last we stayed in, Grubbs is still itching to pick another fight, but Bec insists we should focus on Beranabus. The pair are arguing heatedly. I’ve kept quiet. Dervish, Meera, and Kirilli say nothing either. We chipped in during the early stages of the argument, but for the last hour it’s been pretty much Grubbs and Bec yelling at each other.
“Forget about crossing,” Grubbs shouts, towering over the small, slender girl. “I say we wait for them to come. With the power of the Kah-Gash, we’ll drive them back every time. They’ll soon realize they can’t win and head off for softer pickings on other worlds.”
“You think that’s acceptable?” Bec retorts, not intimidated by the grotesque, wolfen teenager. “We pass them along and let others suffer?”
“Like Meera said, we only care about this world,” Grubbs huffs.
“Leave me out of this,” Meera snaps, but both ignore her.
“What about Death?” Bec jeers. “Will you repel the Shadow when it attacks?”
“Why not? Death might be more powerful than the Demonata, but the Kah-Gash can trump it.”
“No,” Bec says. “Death is the ultimate power. If we don’t strike now, it will grow stronger and come to find us.”
Grubbs shrugs. “Do I look worried?”
Bec smothers a curse. “You were all for attacking earlier. You wanted to go for Death like a dog after a rat.”
“That was before you brought Beranabus into the equation. I’d still go if you only wanted to have a crack at the Shadow. But you want to free a dead man. That’s what this is really about. Your beloved
“What are you talking about?” Bec screeches and appeals to the rest of us. “Has he gone mad? Do any of you know what—”
“Beranabus was afraid,” Grubbs interrupts. “That’s why he told you to send Kernel after him. It wasn’t so he could study Death from the inside and learn its secrets. He realized his soul might be trapped and he didn’t want to spend eternity in the grasp of the Shadow. He hoped Kernel could get him out. You know that’s true. You knew it from the moment you suggested the idea of rescuing him. Tell me I’m wrong.”
Bec says nothing. Her face was red with anger moments before, but now the flush fades. Her lower jaw trembles. She looks ashamed.
“This is personal,” Grubbs growls, facing us like a lawyer addressing a jury. “She’s not thinking about beating Death. She only wants to set Beranabus free.”
“What’s wrong with that?” Meera asks quietly. “He was her friend. You’d do the same for Dervish in that position. So would I.”
“I wouldn’t,” Kirilli pipes up.
“No surprise there,” Dervish mutters.
“It’s too dangerous,” Grubbs yells. “I liked Beranabus but I’m not going to risk everything to save his soul. Hell, he might not even be there. Maybe Death didn’t claim him.”
“It did,” I say softly. “I’ve been studying the lights while you were arguing, concentrating on Beranabus. A few started flashing as soon as I focused on him, and more have joined them. It’s not like when I search for someone living, but if his soul hadn’t been absorbed by the Shadow, no lights would flash at all.”
“OK, it took his soul. So what?” Grubbs shrugs. “How many of you want to risk a rescue? Who cared about the mad old buzzard that much?”
He looks around the room. Kirilli instantly shakes his head. Meera nods firmly to show she’s on Bec’s side. Dervish looks uncertain. “We owe him,” he says.
“We owe a lot of people,” Grubbs grunts, “but we can’t always repay our debts. You taught me that. A Disciple doesn’t risk his life to save a few people, not when the fate of billions is at stake.
“If I think we have a real chance of hurting the Shadow, I’ll jump at it. But if we’re just going over there to free Beranabus’s soul…. That’s not right. Beranabus wouldn’t have thought so either—not until he crumbled at the end.”
“What if he didn’t?” I ask angrily. “I spent more time with him than any of you. I never saw him ask for favors. He was the most selfless person I knew. What if he really did hope to learn something that might help us?”
“I’m not willing to take that chance,” Grubbs says.
“You’re a fool,” Bec shouts.
“Maybe,” Grubbs sniffs. “But it looks like we have a tie, three votes for each. You, Meera, and Kernel want to ride to the rescue. Kirilli and I have more sense. And Dervish…” He looks to his uncle for a final answer.
Dervish sighs. “I agree with Grubbs. We can’t let personal feelings cloud our judgment.”
“What if it was personal for
“It’s not,” Dervish says wearily. “If Grubbs was in that position, I’d do all I could to free him. But he isn’t, so there’s no point—”
I nod slowly.
