If he wanted the scraps of power he could obtain, then I’d give it to him through obeisance rather than tortured screams.
“How are you imagining you might show me respect, diabolist?”
The first thought to cross my mind was the deal the lawyers had offered.
“A favor? Favors?” I asked.
“I have subordinates.”
“Surely a Lord as great and powerful as yourself must have use for expendable assets?”
“You offer your lives?”
“I offer to risk our lives,” I said. “But I beg for tolerance. We’re new to this, our repertoire is limited. We’ll need time to prepare for any task.”
“Again, you scheme, you plot.”
So close. We were so close.
“I ask your forgiveness. When dealing with one as great and powerful-”
“Your flattery is painfully transparent, as well.”
“Can we call it awe, instead?” Rose jumped in. “We were talking about what it meant, to be Conquest. Surely awe is Conquest’s due.”
“You take turns trying to manipulate me,” he said, and there was a note of anger in his tone.
“What other choice do we have?” I asked. “In this, you can see our surrender.”
“Can I? I ask, do I?”
In me, no. I was only just starting to fight.
I wasn’t one to pray, so I merely closed my eyes and hoped. Hoped Rose would-
“Yes,” Rose said. “I don’t like it. Not even a little bit. But I don’t see another choice. I guess we’re surrendering.”
“Then we have the groundwork for a deal,” Conquest said. “I will find a way to shatter the barrier and access the house. You will give me access and lend your presence as the Thorburn heir to command the beings you summon. You will also do me three favors. Do them in any order, but I expect one done a day.”
“What favors?” I asked.
“Doing what diabolists do,” Conquest said. “There are three entities in my domain that I have not yet bothered with. Two are lesser, and one is problematic on other levels.”
“Entities being…”
“Being the sort that diabolists deal in. A human twisted by a mote of diabolic power, left in the wake of a being that passed this way long, long ago. A twisted goblin that even other goblins steer clear of. And an abstract sort of devil, not so powerful that it is worth the trouble of binding it, unless you have an expendable diabolist to attempt the deed. I want each bound, captured, and brought to me.”
Okay, fuck. A little more than I was expecting to have on my plate.
“We accept,” Rose said, “With the proviso that we may need some things, and some more information.”
“Hold on,” I said.
“We surrendered,” she said, and she sounded angry. Or frustrated, I couldn’t tell which.
“You’ll have some limited resources and information. Do you accept, diabolist?” Conquest asked me.
Fuck, this was not what I wanted to deal with. I’d hoped for simpler errands. Less delineated errands.
This threw a wrench into things.
“Why do you even want them?”
“Because power over others is achieved in steps, through footholds,” he said.
“I guess I have to,” I said.
“I’d like to hear a yes.”
Fuck. I’d cornered myself.
“I will strive to carry out my end of the deal,” I said.
“It is nearly midnight now, outside of my domain,” he said. “You have from midnight to midnight to accomplish one task. The same goes for the next day, and the next. By then, I should have the means of accessing your house, or we can negotiate for further errands to buy you a stay of execution, in a manner of speaking.”
“Got it,” I said.
“And I’ll need a certain guarantee.” he said.
He turned his hand over, and a metal cuff dropped halfway to the ground, where it then dangled from a chain.
Fuck.
“What guarantee?”
“If you want to leave my domain to carry out these errands, you’ll wear it,” he said.
I felt that ugliness worming its way through my gut once again. Horror, nausea, unease ratcheted up to eleven.
I looked at Rose, and I saw her expression change. Concern?
How wary did I look? How green around the gills?
“We accepted,” I said. “We had a deal. A compromise.”
“No, I had your surrender,” he said. “If we don’t still have that, then I don’t see a reason to let you leave. Twenty four hours can pass, I can say you failed to carry out your end, and punish you accordingly.”
Fuck.
But there was no way I was letting him set his hands on me.
I couldn’t really surrender, not like that.
As if on an impulse, Rose stepped forward, extended an arm, and forced the shackle shut around one wrist.
The chain disappeared, and her arm dropped to her side.
The connection, however, between her and the Lord, took an entirely different shape. A connection that wasn’t a cord, but a chain.
“I wanted the diabolist.”
“Through me, you have the diabolist,” Rose said. “There’s a strong connection between us.”
Conquest deliberated for a moment.
“I tire of this. Begone, both of you.”
“Both of us?” Rose asked.
“You’ll have what you need to begin the hunt in a few hours. Take the time to sleep, in the meantime.”
With that, a door rose from the ground.
Couldn’t leave anything behind. The hatchet, Rose…
Rose and I both walked to the door. I grabbed her hand, then for safety’s sake, I grabbed June too. In my hurry to leave, I pulled her behind me.
As we passed through the doorway, I felt Rose’s wrist crumble in my hand.
When I looked behind me, there was no door, and there was no Rose.
When I looked in front of me, I saw a parked car. Rose stood in the window, where my reflection should have appeared, faint. Wearing my coat.
She raised one wrist, showing me the shackle and the seemingly endless chain that trailed off to some far-distant point.
I looked at the car, trying to get my thoughts in order, but emotion boiled to the surface.
I kicked, hard, denting the door of the car. Then I kicked again, this time striking with enough force to dislodge the mirror from the side of the car.
Ow. My foot.
I picked it up.
“Jesus, Blake.”
“That did not go according to plan,” I said, as I strode away from where we’d been dropped off.
“No kidding. Can- can you keep that mirror steady? You’re not leaving me much space to work inside.”
I tucked it under one arm.
“Better.”
“I’m sorry, for all that,” I said. “And thank you.”
“For what?” she asked. I wasn’t sure which that was in reference to.
“For… everything there. It was a clusterfuck, I fucking nearly melted down, and I only managed because you bought time. And that shackle…”
“We support each other, eh? It didn’t look like there was a snowball’s chance in hell that you were going to accept that.”
We walked in silence for a few seconds.
“Let’s not bring up hell, okay?” I asked.
“Right.”
“You did a fuckton of the supporting there,” I said.
“But you found a way to get us out. That gives us a chance.”