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I force the Phaelix to his knees by the back of his neck.He stares up at me with hatred simmering in his blood-red eyes.

My mother stands, her back straight and stiff.“What happened?”

“Our portals collided.”I give the vermin a shake.“He was on his way in just as we were leaving.”

“How is this possible?”my father asks.

“Portals bend toward one another,” my mother says.“If they’re created close enough to each another, one vortex will pull the other one in and vice versa.”

“Like magnets,” Elsie muses.

My father stares at me.“Who in the dragon created a portal for him?The Phaelix don’t have powers.He couldn’t have done it himself.”

I grin at the Phaelix.“That’s what I’m going to find out.”

The Phaelix glowers at me.

I switch to his language.“What’s your business on Earth?”I already have a good idea, but I want confirmation.

He spits a guttural curse at me.

My mother and father are fluent in the Phaelix tongue.They understand what I’m saying.Elsie doesn’t.I repeat the question in our language.

The Phaelix pulls his lips away from his sharp teeth, offering me a sneer for an answer.

I let his nape go with a shove and catch his wrist in another bruising grip.“This is what’s going to happen.You’re going to tell me everything I want to know, or I’m going to melt you bit by bit, starting with your fingers and your toes.”

He snaps his teeth at me like a rabid dragon.

“Fine.”I lift his arm and squeeze hard enough to break his bones.“We’ll do this your way.”

The pain forces him to splay his fingers.He swallows the agony down, his throat rippling and his teeth clacking with the effort.

He’s a tough one.Let’s see how long he lasts.

I focus my power on his little finger.His scaly flesh bubbles, his sharp claw dropping with a glob of goo and a clunk on the ground.His chilling scream pierces the air as he grabs my fingers and tries to dislodge my hold on his wrist.When that doesn’t work, he simply clings to his arm, holding it up in the air as he whines and wheezes.

“Don’t make me ask you twice, Phaelix.For every breath I have to waste, I’ll take another finger.”

He heaves, sucking air through his teeth.

“Did you go to Earth to bring back a human slave?”I ask.

“Yes,” he hisses.“Yesss.”

“For whom?”

“For me.”He snaps at me again, seemingly unable to resist biting like an animal.“For me.”

My father crosses the floor and stops short of the Phaelix, forcing him to crane his neck to look at my father.“To do what with?”

“To sell,” he says, writhing in my hold.

“Where?”I ask.“I destroyed the market.”

“A new market.”He spits at my feet.“New.”

“Where?”I ask again, melting the first digit of his index finger for making me repeat myself.