the demon repeated, correcting my pronunciation while sending a fresh stab of pain through my head.
“Zyrus.” I winced as I hissed the name. With his voice in my head, the “U” became more of a soft “I,” sounding like “ZEAR-ris.”
Zyrus.
But something frightening happened this time when it said the name. The pain was gone. I could still sense the demon’s emotions, like its pleasure and amusement at my saying its name, but the nausea that always accompanied it was gone. I was also starting to get thin snatches of the creature’s thoughts.
“What the fuck?” I demanded, lurching to my feet while dumping the books in my lap onto the footstool.
I could feel the demon organizing thoughts to formulate a response. It was all murky and gray, but I could actually feel it more clearly now as if we were connected. Yet before Zyrus could explain, a heavy pounding echoed through Simon’s old rooms as someone demanded entrance.
“I know you’re in there, traitor!” the warlock shouted as he pounded on the door.
Excitement built in Zyrus as it moved from hovering close to me to the door. It was hoping the warlock would force his way inside the rooms. This creature was not on my list of people it could not kill. The thoughts were coming more clearly now as the demon was focused on the intruder. It had been far too long since it had killed something. It had been feeling frustrated since it had failed to kill the magical intruder in the basement at the parlor and was eager to rip into the flesh of something.
“Wait!” I said in a low voice, trying to tighten the leash on the demon without needing to actually lock it away within the symbol. Putting the demon away meant that I would be on my own against the warlock if he did come into the rooms.
The demon pulled back slightly and was far from pleased about it.
He means to do you harm.
“I don’t doubt it.”
Let me protect you, Master.
Even with our new connection, my skin still crawled at that hissed word. There was a layer of malevolence to the word I hadn’t sensed before. Zyrus wasn’t pleased with its newest yoke, but was willing to accept it if it got it closer to its goal.
“The council has tasked me with dismantling the defensive spells on Simon’s rooms,” I shouted back at the warlock while trying to push down the demon’s thoughts and desires.
“You gave up your right to have access to his books and notes, traitor! Come out of there!”
“I’m not finished with defenses in here. I’m having some trouble unraveling them all,” I lied.
“Let me see what kind of mess you’ve made,” the warlock grumbled as if he were dealing with a particularly slow child. I knew he didn’t give a damn about me and cared only about getting access to Simon’s work.
There was a rattle of the doorknob and for a breath, time stood still. I hung on the edge of the abyss with Zyrus floating just over my shoulder. This warlock was invading these rooms and meant me harm. He was eager to get his hands on Simon’s research, though I wasn’t exactly sure what interested him. It irked him that I might be touching it, a traitor to the Towers and my mentor.
I exhaled. My heart beat once. Twice. “Be quick,” I whispered.
The door started to swing open and total darkness consumed the rooms again. I sat down in my chair as the door slammed shut. The warlock muttered something in surprise and then there were only his screams.
I felt myself being torn into two pieces. A part of me was sick at the sounds of ripping flesh and organs, accompanied by the high-pitched screams of terror and pain that finally gave way to low moans that followed the warlock into his death.
The other part of me was swept up in the demon’s glee. There was such joy in its triumph, in the shredding of the warlock who had meant to cause me pain and possibly even death. Traitor. The warlock called me a traitor, and I knew he had no intention of sharing Simon’s research with his brothers and sisters of the Ivory Towers. He had killed countless people in his years as a warlock and Zyrus had put an end to it at last. The world was better off with this monster gone. With the help of Zyrus, I had made the world a little bit safer.
When the