Cold Breath

Caia barely slept for a week and a half. Not that any of the others would know it, since she stayed more or less locked in her room, poring over books. She ate rarely, and then she slipped into the kitchen late at night to grab something. She had a lot of reasons to avoid the others; most importantly because Yalara and Balaal’s voices were now constantly in her head. Mocking her, torturing her. She knew how to defeat Yalara; that knowledge wasn’t particularly difficult to come by. Accomplishing it was another story. By acting as his Conduit, Yalara was steadily absorbing some of Balaal’s demonic essence. And in turn, he was taking her humanity; using it to cloak himself in the guise of being human so that he could wander wherever he pleased, unnoticed. What everyone but Caia seemed to be overlooking was the fact that that meant soon, he would be able to cross the wards. They were set up to repel a Ninth Ring demon, but by taking human essence, Balaal could trick the wards. It would still be painful for him to cross them, but he could do it.

Plus, he had a piece of Caia’s soul. Souls don’t much care for being ripped apart; her missing link, so to speak, would be drawn to her, trying to reconnect to the rest of her soul. It seemed simple enough, but souls were powerful. The force of her soul trying to fuse itself back together could help Balaal over the wards too. Which is why Caia needed to know how to destroy him, as of yesterday. It was extremely difficult to concentrate with two taunting voices assaulting her all the time, but Caia didn’t tune them out. They were calling to her from wherever they were hiding, and what neither Yalara or Balaal could possibly know was that Caia could hear more than their voices. She could hear things in the bakground; things that may help her figure out where they were holed up with their ice demon.

And then they had a shot at defeating the bitch and her demons.

To stop Yalara, they needed to sever her link with Balaal. Conduits had to wear a talisman that contained both their blood, and the blood of the demon for whom they were acting as Conduit. They had to wear it all the time. Taking the talisman from Yalara and breaking it would sever her connection with Balaal, rendering her completely human again. Getting close enough to do so would be difficult, since with her demonic essence Yalara would be powerful. And she was a skilled mage to boot. Destroying the talisman would also restore Balaal to his full demon glory, which meant, of course, that he would rip Caia’s soul out and eat it. She shuddered at the thought. But Yalara needed to die, or else the curse she cast over Briar would only get worse until she became like one of the ice minions that attacked them.

And killing Yalara while she was still siphoning Balaal’s demonic energy would be nearly impossible. Balaal was a Ninth Ring demon, King of Shadows. It wasn’t particularly clear how one went about killing a Ninth Ring demon. And the others needed to do it fast. Balaal would be distracted for a while; tearing out souls was time consuming work even for a demon. It should be long enough for the others to work the spell or ritual needed to destroy him, if Caia could just find the damn spell or ritual.

She growled in frustration and shoved the latest book aside. She rubbed her face tiredly then stood up and paced the room while Hex watched her curiously from his perch on her bed. “King of Shadows,” Caia muttered. “King of Shadows. How do you kill the King of Shadows?” Hex yowled and stretched, rolling contentedly in a beam of light filtering through her window. Caia stared at him for a moment, something starting to click in her brain.

“Of course,” she murmured. She dove for her bag, pulling out a book of demonology that her father had scribbled in. She had made sure to salvage it before she left Centrum Mundi. She flipped wildly through the pages until she reached the small section about Balaal, and other lesser shadow demons, few as they were.

“Lux Solis,” she read slowly. It was her father’s theory about the only thing that could truly kill Balaal. It meant “light of the sun,” but of course it was far more complicated than that. Magic usually was. Scholars debated the very existence of Lux Solis. Essentially, it was dragon fire, angel’s blood, and the venom taken from an allegedly extinct spider called sol aráneam that absorbed sunbeams as they reached earth, and had woven nets out of them. Plus its venom was made of pure fiery light that could incinerate anything it touched, and their very bodies glowed like liquid gold. All of this somehow collected by an impossibly powerful mage or alchemist and put together inside a teardrop-shaped vial made of dragon hide and unicorn bone. There were rumored to only be three in the entire world, assuming any existed at all.

There had to be at least one. Her father had been sure he had a lead; he had even written someone’s initials in his notes. L.E. Caia chewed her lip. She had no way of figuring out who L.E. was supposed to be. Sighing, she sank onto her bed. They had to find a way to defeat Balaal before it was too late. Even if they killed Yalara, Balaal would be loose to wreak whatever havoc he wanted. And there was the matter of the ice demon. It had to be destroyed or banished. It was a lower Ring than Balaal, therefore easier to dispose of, but that wasn’t saying much. Creating the sigils to trap a Seventh Ring demon should be standard enough; surely Jervan and Alan could work a banishing spell. Caia rubbed her temples, her head pounding.

“Giving up, Caia? I must admit it took longer than I expected.”

Caia scowled as Yalara’s smug voice slithered through her skull. But she kept her eyes closed, concentrating. She had been hearing echoes in the background whenever Yalara spoke to her. If she could just pinpoint what they were, then maybe they could find her hiding place. Caia expanded her hearing, stretching it to the point where every sound was painful, making her very bones shake. She gritted her teeth and pushed harder. Water. She was sure that she heard dripping water. Dripping on stone.

“Oh Caia you’re really no fun anymore,” Yalara pouted. “What’s the matter, cat got your tongue?” Yalara’s laugh reminded Caia of a snake about to swallow an unsuspecting mouse, but she ignored her foster sister’s taunts. Her muscles ached and her head felt like it may explode, but if she could just hold on a little longer… A heavy metal door banged somewhere in the distance. Wind whistled forlornly, and then another bang. And that steady drip of water. Caia’s eyes snapped open and she nearly tumbled off the bed. She let her hearing return to normal decibels, gasping. Her ears were ringing, her head hurt and her face was pale and clammy from her efforts, but she knew where Yalara was.

“Go suck a satyr’s dick, Yalara,” she said, and the mocking voice stopped abruptly. Caia rose to her feet, excitement making her heart pound.

“I’m going to kill those little friends of yours, you know.” There was no mirth or jeer in Yalara’s voice now. It was pure hatred. “I’m going to rip their flesh off their bones and make a dress out of it.”

“I see your sense of fashion still hasn’t improved. The bigger they come, the harder they fall, big sister.”

She hissed. “Don’t call me that! Never call me that! I am not your sister!”

“No, you’re a rancid bitch.” Caia summoned her strength and hummed a deep bar of song that blocked Yalara’s voice, casting her tendrils of magic away from Caia. For the time being, at least. Caia yanked open her door and practically ran to the kitchen, where the others were eating lunch. Or rather, picking listlessly at their food in moody silence with all the curtains drawn.

“I figured it out!” Caia shouted triumphantly. She stared at them as they raised their heads. “What the hell’s the matter with all of you? Why is the house so dark?”

“Well, we’re a bit depressed,” Thaddeus said. “Except for Knox, who got a new boyfriend, against the advice of everyone else.”

Knox flushed and glowered. “Kaleb is not my boyfriend,” he mumbled. “And it was only your advice.”

“Yeah, great, whatever. I’m not interested in Knox’s butt buddies. We have more pressing matters at hand. Like, I figured out where Yalara’s hiding Balaal and the ice demon.”

That got everyone’s attention. “How could you know that?” Jervan asked.

“Because she’s been talking to me every day since the attack on Briar.”

Jervan shot her a disapproving frown. “Caia, you should have told me so I could put up a blocking-”

“To hell with the blocking spell! I know where she is, and she doesn’t know that I know. We finally have an advantage here.”

“So where is she?” Briar demanded and Caia cocked her head. “Impressive,” she remarked. “Very forceful. She’s under the damn Sanctum.” Caia shook her head. “Arrogant little shithead. There must be chambers and tunnels underneath that most people don’t know about. But of course the Archivist would know. She would know where all of them were. She would even know how and where to create a new chamber expressly for her nefarious purposes. And I have a feeling that soon she plans on unleashing hell, more or less literally, right here in Centrum Mundi. Because she knows that the Sanctum is the safest place in the city, in the heart of the Conclave strong hold. And everyone will flock there when shit goes down, thinking they’ll be safe there. And then Yalara and Balaal show up and massacre them all.”

A weighted silence met her announcement. “So what do we do?” Dash asked quietly.

“We prepare ourselves for the battle of a lifetime,” Caia said. “And we kill Yalara before she gets the chance to raze Centrum Mundi to the ground.” She looked at Briar. “Now’s the time to prove yourself, Mouse. I’m going to help you get those illusions of yours up and running, because we may need them. And we need to keep searching for a way to stop Balaal. Alan, can you do a banishing spell if you find one, for the ice demon?”

“Of course I can,” the mage replied, looking slightly insulted.

“Good, then find one. A strong one. Emerson, come with me.” She gestured to Briar, who reluctantly rose from her seat to follow her. Tate caught Caia’s arm as she walked past. “I need to talk to you,” he said quietly. Caia told Briar to meet her in Caia’s room, then followed Tate into the hallway. “What?” she asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

“You can’t just resign yourself to death, Caia.”

“Tate, I already told you-”

“Well I refuse to believe it’s the only way. I’m going to find a way to help you.”

Caia felt like her heart was withering. She drew a sharp breath. “You wanna help me, you do it by forgetting about me. Live your life, Tate. Take care of your sister, and the others. Marry a nice, normal, pretty girl and have normal, pretty babies and pretend you never met me. Because that’s better for everyone.”

“Forget you? I don’t think that’s possible, Caia.”

She could make him forget. She could easily sing a song and wipe herself from his memory entirely. She should do it. But she couldn’t. She was selfish, and even though it would be better for him to forget, she wanted him to remember her. She shoved her father’s book into his hands. “You wanna help, then see if you and Jervan can figure out who L.E. might be, and where we may be able to find a Lux Solis.” She pushed past him and joined Briar in her room.

“All right, Mouse. Let’s see what this glint of yours can do.”