Ikelos (The Ephemeral: Book 2)

Chapter 18

With sweaty palms and knotted stomachs, Mason and I crept through the tunnel, slinking toward the throbbing red light at the end of the passage—inching our way to the mouth of the portal.

I could feel the potent concentration of demon energy around us. Like water vapor, the thick, disturbing atmosphere weighed on my body. It clung to my skin, to my leather armor, and it ran down my spine in chilling droplets. The darkness itself tasted of something toxic and unnatural. Not chemical, and not quite artificial, just...otherworldly.

It didn't escape me that the Pans would sense my arrival the moment I stepped foot inside the palace, perhaps even before then. We'd need to make our rescue as quick and immaculate as possible; we couldn't afford to repeat our mistakes at Belgate.

In and out, Mason and I agreed.

But as a pair known for failure, we also recognized that covert operations were not exactly our specialty, so we'd come up with a back-up plan. If push came to shove, I'd capture the Pans' attention—draw them in like fruit flies to a pool of apple cider vinegar—and let my curse loose. While the carnage unfolded, Mason would find Will and escape back into the sewer.

I didn't want to resort to such drastic measures, but I feared we might not have a choice. I just hoped Will would choose to fight with us when the sky fell.

As we moved closer, my gaze locked on the image at the end of our path: a ten-foot-wide beam of darkness erupting from the well in the center of the basement. A twister of nightmares, the raw demon energy shot upwards into the palace tower like a beanstalk. Pulsing with red lightning. Roaring like a windstorm. It sent tremors across the underground space, bouncing pebbles on the stone floor of the cellar.

I took another cautious step forward, only to throw myself flat against the wall. 

Guarding the portal were two bald, stocky Pans—demonic Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. Though they stood there armed to the teeth, they appeared entirely unaware of our presence. If anything, they looked rather bored.

Mason and I glanced at one another, stitching together a plan of attack without uttering a sound. There was no way to pass undetected, so did we knock them out and run to find Will? Did we kill them now and hide their bodies?

What would it be?

Mason didn't give me the chance to think it over. In a demonstration of true idiocy, he looped his arm around my neck and pulled me into the middle of the tunnel, straight into the demons' line of sight.

The Pans stiffened for a second, startled by our sudden arrival. Then they raised their weapons and squinted their ghostly eyes. "Hold it right there," the thicker one growled.

"I have Ikelos!" Mason declared, stepping into the red light of the cellar and dragging me after him in a ruthless choke-hold. "I've brought her to Rhea, per Sterling's orders."

I immediately stopped squirming. What.

Did he really think we could convince them of that?

Tweedle Dum smiled, and the black gums made his expression all the more menacing. "Ikelos, is that you?" He lowered his spear and sniffed. "Can barely sense you here next to the portal." He glanced at his partner. "What a pity."

I ignored the creepy remark, too intrigued by the first half of his comment.

He couldn't sense me.

That explained our ability to approach the palace and travel so many miles without a single demon encounter. The portal's soulless energy was so pungent it had overpowered the enticing memories beneath my skin. I'd faded to background noise.