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I hoped it was a far kinder one than this.

Belle took a deep breath, then turned to face us. “They all chose to move on.”

“Let’s hope the rest do,” I murmured and touched her arm lightly.You okay?

We seem to be asking each other that a lot recently.

You’ve spent a lifetime worrying about me, so it’s about time I returned the favor,I replieddryly.And don’t say it comes with being a familiar, because there’s no way in hell Eamon worries about Monty the way you do me.

Her amusement ran down the line between us.Eamon is a law unto himself. But his witch also doesn’t have the habit of throwing himself into situations and thinking about it later.

Are we talking about the same Monty?

“Will you two stop having private conversations?” the man in question said wryly. “We have a demon to banish and a thrall to rescue. Let’s not piss off the unstable vampire any more than necessary by wasting time.”

I saluted lightly. “Moving on as ordered, boss.”

He snorted. “I may technically be head reservation witch, but we all know who that mantle really belongs to.”

I grinned and moved on, still trying to avoid the bones even if their ghosts were no longer present to moan in distress over us stepping on them. But I’d only gone a few more yards when the tunnel began to widen out into the larger cavern. I slowed, scanning the darkness, all senses alert for any sign of magic or a trap.

Nothing.

The demon scratched and growled to the right of the cavern, hidden by the deeper darkness, its anger so palpable the air practically burned with its force. I had no sense of Roger, though, so I reluctantly retrieved the ring from my pocket and wrapped my fingers around its silk casing.

The pulse of life was distant.

Maelle distant.

Meaning this is something else Jaqueline was truthful about,Belle said.Not that I think we can believe everything else is the truth.

Agree.But right now, her ratio of truth to lie was sitting pretty high. I shoved the ring back into my pack and glanced at Aiden as he stopped beside me.

“I’m not smelling Roger or anyone else in there,” he said. “The scent of blood and flesh lingers, and there’s an odd sulfuric scent I presume is the demon, but Roger is absent.”

“What does Roger smell like to you?” I asked curiously.

He glanced at me, his eyebrows raised. “Like Maelle, just not as … dead.”

“Ha.” I returned my gaze to the cavern. “Jaqueline said she’d pinned the demon to Roger, so he has to be here somewhere.”

“I think we need a little more light on the subject,” Monty said, and cast his sphere out into the cavern.

Its pale light washed across stained stone and the remains that floated in the nearest lake—there were two, one far smaller than the other—but didn’t really touch the deeper shadows. Monty’s magic briefly surged, and the sphere brightened.

Revealing the demon. Its skin was as black as sin and covered with fine hair that seemed to move with a life of its own and reminded me somewhat of a sea anemone. Its features were narrow, almost animal like, with cat-like eyes that glared at us, a long narrow nose, and no mouth. But this thing fed on emotions rather than flesh, so I guess that wasn’t surprising.

My gaze dropped to the ground, looking for Roger, and my stomach twisted.

Jaqueline had lied. The demon wasn’t leashed to Roger.

It was leashed to his severedleg.

Chapter

Five

“Ah fuck,” Ashworth said. “Our resident vamp is not going to take this well.”