The fiend stood up and dusted himself down with a mildly irritated scowl. ‘Clever move,’ he said. ‘But not clever enough.’ He crooked his little finger and etched out a quick rune in the air in front of him. It flared bright scarlet – and then I was thrown upwards.
My stomach rose into my mouth as I jerked into the air. This was no simple magic attack, and I wasn’t rising a few metres only to come down to earth with a hard thump. Within three seconds, I was ten metres in the air. Then fifteen. Then twenty. My arms and legs flailed but I was powerless to stop my ascent.
I spotted a white face staring out from one of the tenement windows. All the residents must have been awake by now, but few of them would be brave enough to peer out for fear of being dragged into whatever battle was underway.
But not all of them were cowering. ‘I’m calling the police!’ a shaky voice shouted. ‘I’m calling them now!’
I saw another face at a different window that was wide open: it was an older woman, dressed in a white nightgown. Cumbubbling bollocks. I waved at her frantically. ‘Stay away!’ I shouted. ‘Don’t get involved!’
It was too late. The fiend far below me was already drawinganother attack rune and I knew this one wasn’t aimed at me. He was planning to hurt that woman; in fact, he meant to kill her.
I had to stop him. I was still moving higher and higher; in another moment, I’d be above the roofline. At some point the bastard below was going to release me and enjoy watching my body go splat in front of him when it hit the ground again.
My mouth flattened. If I was in the sky, then I might as well act like the sky. It was time to show the fiend that I was more than he thought.
I fixed on his position below me as he drew the last curls on the rune, then I sucked in a breath and shot out a bolt of lightning from my fingertips. It arced down and struck him on the top of his bald, golden skull. His body jerked and he started to collapse – but unfortunately so did I.
I was descending far faster than I’d ascended and, as air rushed past me, I lost my grip on Gladys’s hilt. I yelped and writhed. In the nick of time, I pushed a surge of air magic into the space beneath my falling body. Half a second before I hit the ground, its counterforce pushed me upwards. Instead of spilling my organs onto the street, I landed on all fours only slightly winded. Gladys clattered to the ground a few metres away. Phew. That had been close.
The fiend was still in a heap – I couldn’t tell whether I’d killed him or not – but suddenly he was the least of my worries. Chuchi burst from the alleyway, roaring at the top of his lungs.
Panicking, I sent out a jet of fire magic in his direction but he was incredibly nippy for such a large creature and dodged it easily. Before I could muster another magical attack, he raised his fists. I tensed as I waited for the inevitable blow, half-expecting him to knock my head clean off my shoulders. Instead, there was another blast of magic – and this one didn’t come from me.
I didn’t know exactly what the fiend had done, butwhatever rune he’d etched had summoned up enough power to burn the ogre’s eyeballs and burst open his vast ribcage to reveal his still-beating heart.
Chuchi let out a single long scream and fell forward. I scrambled away in the nick of time to avoid being squashed by his dead weight. He gave a final shuddering gasp and then he was still.
I turned my head and stared at the fiend.
‘Minions aren’t what they used to be,’ he said. As he got to his feet, he rubbed the burn on the top of his head where my lightning had struck him. ‘I told him to stay out of this. It’s his own fucking fault.’
I could do little more than gape; I couldn’t begin to compete against his sort of power. I was so very, very screwed.
The fiend adjusted his shorts, pulled the waistband higher, then ambled towards me. ‘I believe introductions are in order.’ His nose twitched. ‘You know, you smell most peculiar – like … stinky marshland.’ He shrugged amiably and held out his hand. ‘I am Vargas.’
Uncontrolled earth magic flooded out from me and rocked the ground beneath our feet. Vargas tilted his head, dropped his hand, and looked at me curiously. ‘Sorry,’ I muttered, then I winced. Why the fuck was I apologising to a bloody fiend?
Rather than attacking me again, he raised a hairless eyebrow. ‘Interesting,’ he said. ‘You do not have full control. And yet, you are … what? Thirty years old?’
I eyed him warily. ‘Nearly.’
‘How have you managed to live so long without burning yourself out?’
So he hadn’t spotted the tell-tale ring of silver around my eyes. ‘Dumb luck, I guess.’
He scratched his chin. ‘You are not a fiend – not yet anyway – but your powers indicate that you were sired by afiend.’ His face loomed towards me. ‘I will know your name,’ he said in a commanding tone. ‘And I will know your parents. Tell me who they are.’
He was within touching distance now. My mouth felt painfully dry and I shivered.Stop it, Daisy, I told myself sternly.Don’t let him see your fear.
I raised my head and met his blood-red eyes. ‘My name is Daisy Carter.’
‘Who sired you, Daisy Carter? Where have you come from?’
This time I didn’t answer; I was trying to work out how to play this new angle. Perhaps I wouldn’t be dead soon after all.
‘Magic like that doesn’t manifest in fiend-born children unless their parents are very powerful, so that rules out most of the other fiend fuckers. You’re either Zashtum’s get – and I’d have heard about it if she’d gotten herself pregnant – or you’re a product of Baltar or Athair.’
Vargas started to circle me. ‘And Baltar gave up on his attempts to create a child of his own more than a hundred years ago.’
