“Impressive,” he said in an awed tone.
She flexed her arm as if assuring herself that she was “normal” again. “And what you did was wildly stupid. How have you managed to survive for so long?”
“No real idea.” He checked to make sure he still had the Tablet with him, then felt along the glassy walls, trying to pick a way through the domain toward an exit or at least some light. Not even his powers could detect anything. It was so frustrating to be this completely blind.
“Do you still have the Tablet?”
“Yeah. Not that it seems to be doing us any good. And if Kessar captures and bleeds me, it’ll be a lot worse. For everyone… especially me.”
Sera considered that. “He used the Tablet to awaken my tribe. Can you use it to do the same?”
Max hesitated. “How do you mean?”
“Can you reverse whatever he’s done to my tribe and free them again?”
He wasn’t sure he liked where her thoughts were going with this. “Yes, but I fail to see how that could be helpful.” Especially since the Amazons and Katagaria wanted him even more dead than the demons did.
“If you free them, we can drive back the demons, and I’m thinking Nala will know some way out of here.”
“Even if she does, I doubt she’ll help you and I know she won’t help me. I’m the dragon whose head she wants to mount on her wall.”
“I think I can persuade her.”
“I’m not sure I want to bet my life on this.”
“You have a better idea?”
“Fight our way out.”
She scoffed at what he considered an almost legitimate, if not sane, plan. “You think that’ll work?”
“Did I throw logic at you? No. Why do you want to be mean to me like that?”
She laughed at his teasing tone. “I’m serious, Maxis. I can get them to help us and fight them.”
“And if you’re wrong?”
“I’ll build you a nice funeral pyre.”
He let out a short laugh. “You are all kinds of not funny.”
“Do you have a better option?”
“Sadly, no. At least nothing that wouldn’t get me slapped for proposing it.” He let out a long sigh as he heard the demons closing in on them. They had to decide and move fast or they’d be captured again. “All right. We’ll try this your way with your tribe. But if I get eaten or speared to death… I will not be happy.”
She took a step, then paused. “Any idea where the demons might have taken my tribe?”
He groaned at her question. “None.”
Before she could speak, he pulled her behind him and began hammering the demons with fire again. It terrified her how close they’d come to them while she’d plotted an escape. Had he not been paying attention, the demons would have had them. As it was, they screamed from Max’s attack and fell back, into the darkness.
Max pressed her forward, deeper into the nether realm he wasn’t completely unfamiliar with, wishing he had another way out. Worse, the smell and sight of the damp cavern dredged up long-buried memories he didn’t want or need at this particular time.
In the back of his mind, he saw Dagon as the ancient god walked between their cages, trying to decide who to use next in his inhumane experiments. The young dark-haired prince who took after his father and not his Apollite mother trailed after him.
“I want to be a dragon! You have to make me one! You promised!”
Dagon had glared at the prince. “Stop whining, Linus. I’m doing the best I can. You saw what happened. The last Apollite I merged with a dragon exploded into gory pieces. You really want to risk that?”