vibrant, curling around the edges of the shield, compressing it. Slowly, slowly, the diameter of the white brilliance shrank, to a hula hoop, a porthole, a dinner plate.
Crosby let go and leaped back. As he turned to run, a whip of green snaked out from the edge of Silas’s magic and coiled around Crosby’s knees, bringing him to the ground. The white disc vanished, and Silas’s lash became a nest of tentacles, whirling in loops around every inch of Crosby. The tip of one plunged into Crosby’s open mouth, gagging him.
Darien whooped, though his voice was so thin and raw that probably no one else heard him. He realized he’d toppled over, and his cheek lay pressed to the dirt, but that was all right. That was okay. He hadn’t killed Silas with his stupidity at the house. I did it right.
Silas stalked over to the captive sorcerer. Or demon, or both. Hopefully both. Crosby struggled against the bonds, his eyes bulging, but he seemed well immobilized. Silas squatted by his head. “Time for this to end. I’m going to send you where you belong.” He dodged, as the demon snorted at him, a glob of snot sizzling on the stone. “Do I have to plug your nose too?”
Grim paced past Darien toward Silas, dragging a headless crow by one wing to deposit it at his feet. “Best finish it, your wizardliness. You can’t save the man. Let him go.” He turned his head and spat out a feather. “Tastes like raw chicken. Fegh.”
Silas frowned at Grim. “Crosby was a friend, once.”
“He became an enemy, long before now. Let him go.”
Silas sighed. Without looking at Crosby, he waved a hand. A tendril separated off the others, wound around Crosby’s neck, and yanked. The man stiffened, then went limp and still.
“Is he dead?” Darien asked hollowly. Did Silas just kill him?
“Yes.” Silas sat on the ground. The coils of green still wound around the corpse glowed with power.
“Are we done?”
Grim said, “Sadly not.”
The corpse’s mouth opened wider than humanly possible and the demon’s voice said around the muffling tentacle, “Now was that necessary? You killed my ride.”
Silas’s tentacle tip withdrew, letting the mouth fall to more human proportions, but the other bonds closed tighter, pulsing.
“Let’s make a deal.” The demon voice didn’t seem to need the mouth to move. “I can do so much for you, if you let me. Wealth, followers, spells, power.”
“Piss off,” Grim muttered, when Silas remained silent.
“You don’t even have to let me in,” the demon cajoled. “Give me the boy. He’s full of holes anyway. You can bind me to you, and I’ll make your wildest dreams come true. And you get that boy’s body as a bonus, yours to own and fuck. Imagine what we could do.”
A hot tide of rage gave Darien the strength to say, “Hey, if he wants to fuck me, he can. No need for your slimy ass.”
“Shh,” Silas said to him. “There’s nothing he can offer me that I want.”
“What about a longer lifespan?” The corpse’s eyes fluttered. “If not for you, then the boy. You necromancers live long, and he’s set to go early. I could―” Its voice shut off as a huge tentacle stuffed its mouth beyond full.
Silas stood, and Grim trotted to his side. Pacing together, they circled the demon, three times round, counterclockwise. A thin trail of green rose behind them, growing thicker with each pass. As they ended the third pass, all the loops of green around the corpse snapped back to the perimeter, reinforcing the wall. The corpse rolled over and stood, head lolling.
It raised its hands to hold its head straighter. “You don’t want to do this.”
“I most certainly do.” Silas raised his hands.
“Don’t you want to know how to save the boy? Send me back and you lose him.”
Fear tugged at Darien’s chest, but it was distant enough to ignore. He said, “Worth it to see you rot in hell.”
The corpse’s eyes glowed red. “I won’t rot there. I gain power there.”
Silas suddenly sounded exhausted. “In a thousand and one years, you’ll be someone else’s problem.” He looked over his shoulder at Darien, his expression unreadable. “Even if he’s telling the truth, I can’t bargain with a demon. I’m sorry.”
“Did I ask you to?” Darien found he could move his fingers enough to give the demon a fitting salute. “Banish his ass.”
For a long, breathless moment, Silas stared at him. If he was waiting for something, Darien had no idea what. He