The daemons nodded and put a couple more feet between them and our spell cluster. I used my claws to draw blood from Ledar’s upper arm. The crimson liquid spurted into a small wooden bowl, drawing a string of profanities out of him.
“You won’t get away with this! The Hermessi are on my side!” Ledar shouted.
Zane pointed to a Devil’s Weed sprig, which he’d put on the Hermessi child the moment he’d tackled him. “Nobody knows where you are,” I said. “Don’t you think you’d have gotten some backup by now?”
This was a lucky break, I thought. We’d moved fast and cautiously enough not to stir any of the other Hermessi’s attention. With Ramin being so weak, his fellow elementals couldn’t sense him as well as his own son, who was now in our possession. Ledar wasn’t getting out of here, not until we were done with him.
“Draw the second-stage symbols now, like I taught you, with his blood,” Ramin said to me.
I remembered the images he’d given me, telepathically, which I’d drawn for my crew, as well, and proceeded to recreate them with a bloody thumb along the white chalk circle. Ledar was pale as the realization dawned on him.
“You knew I’d be coming. He… He told you,” he snapped, scowling at Ramin.
“Ah, he finally figured it out.” Caspian chuckled.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we got a slow-poke genius on our hands,” Zane declared, laughing. It drew snickers from the nearby daemon garrison.
“You see, Brendel didn’t know about me,” I said to Ledar. “She didn’t know I was inside Ramin when he visited you on Yahwen. She didn’t know I’d heard it all. Ramin and I go way back, Ledar, and I have to say… I, too, am disappointed. Your father is one of the best things that ever happened to this planet, or even the entire In-Between, for that matter. You’d know that, had you bothered to get to know him before joining Brendel’s side.”
“What’s worse is that you decided to work for the ritual, instead of against it,” Zane grumbled. “You seem perfectly okay with all of us burning and dying. That’s not cool, buddy. Did you really think we’d just sit back and take it?”
Ledar blinked rapidly, red blotches spreading through his cheeks. This was shame. I could see it in his aura, burning orange and yellow. Shame and fear, because he knew this wasn’t going to end well for him.
“What are you doing?” he asked again.
“We’re taking away what makes you… well, you,” I replied dryly, finishing the last symbols from the second stage of the spell.
Ledar’s eyes bulged with horror. “My Hermessi power?”
“You don’t deserve it anyway.” I sighed. “You were going to use it on your own father. I must say, it’s disgusting, especially since Ramin only ever wanted what was best for you.”
“Then he should’ve come to me! He should’ve told me what I am!” Ledar growled. “He left me on my own, and I spent my whole life trying to understand these powers. Always an outcast, always out of place!”
“I felt you were better off on your own,” Ramin tried to explain. “There was no reason for you to know what you were until the time came for you to replace me. I was, however, working on my courage to come see you. I knew your lifespan was infinitely longer than that of a daemon. I wanted to talk to you. I just didn’t know how.”
“Brendel told me the truth about who I am and what I can do. She made me understand. She gave me purpose!” Ledar spat. “Unlike you, she didn’t hide this entire world and its opportunities from me.”
“Oh, okay, so because of your daddy issues, you decided we should all just burn and die, then?” I replied. “You selfish piece of crap! I have a husband! Fiona and Zane here, they have a baby. All these daemons… they have lives and families and people they love. You were just going to let us all die because you were pissed off with your dad?! Seriously, Ledar?”
He was speechless. His expression was blank, his aura flaring in shades of amber and yellow. “They’re too powerful,” he mumbled. “It was either that or being a prisoner… at their mercy.”
“You coward,” I hissed.
Caspian drew the last symbols, the ensemble finally ready for the spell itself, just like I’d taught him. A thread of incandescent powder had been used to line the circle, surrounding every mound of herbs and crystals along the way. Once everything was ready, we’d set the powder on fire, and the transference ritual would begin.
I walked up to Ledar and cut a deep incision into his broad chest. He winced from the pain, sweat beads covering his face and neck. I pressed a small diamond inside the wound, making him cry out. “You have to stop this! I’ll tell you what you want to know, just stop it!”
“Like what?” Fiona asked, raising an eyebrow.
“You don’t have anything useful,” I said, and drew one last symbol on his chest, with his own blood, around the wound and diamond. Caspian gave a second diamond to Ramin, which he ingested. Ruffling his feathers, he looked at Ledar. I was lying, of course. Surely there was plenty of knowledge that Ledar could give us, but I didn’t want him to use it as leverage against us, in a bid to stop us from helping Ramin. No, first, he’d lose his power, and then, later down the line, he’d talk. I’d make sure he’d have no other choice.
“Father, please,” the Hermessi child pleaded. It made me sick to my stomach, knowing he was just desperate, and not at all genuine. “You can still stop this. I deserve a second chance.”
“I’m sorry, Ledar. You don’t,” Ramin replied.
“But I know things! I can help you!”
“It won’t be necessary. I’ll be taking your memories with the Hermessi thread inside you, as well. I’ll know everything you know,” Ramin said.
Out of options, Ledar tried to fight his way out, but Zane held him down, mercilessly. With one swift move, he dislocated Ledar’s left shoulder. We all heard the bone pop, followed by a pained yelp.
“I don’t… I don’t deserve this,” he cried, tears now streaming down his tanned cheeks.
I pointed an angry finger at him. “No, you deserve much worse. Be thankful you’re walking out of this alive!”
Ramin jumped off my shoulder and settled on the ground in front of him. “It’s time,” he said to me. I nodded and used a lighter to ignite the powder lines.
“No, please! Stop this!” Ledar pleaded, sobbing like a hopeless little boy.
I had no sympathy for him. Zane, Fiona, Caspian, and I stepped back, leaving enough room for the spell to manifest. The powder lit up, the flames burning bright and green. First, the initial runes began to glow in shades of red and fuchsia, almost blinding me, as Ramin stretched his wings.
Ledar shuddered, then stilled, as if paralyzed. He couldn’t move anymore, watching it all unfold before him. The second runes, drawn in blood, shimmered yellow, and the crystals and herbs burst into blue flames. The third-stage symbols shone white, brighter than all the others.
Ramin cawed in his Ekar form, tilting his head back. His beak was wide open, and a beam of white light shot from inside—the diamond was activated. Ledar grunted, his chest wound flaring white, as well, as the diamond inside it reacted. The beam from Ramin moved as he lowered his head. It touched Ledar’s diamond, and the connection was made.
We all watched, squinting, as the light expanded around Ramin and his son. We heard Ledar’s scream. The air thickened and crackled around us, overcharged with electricity, as the spell manifested, drawing all the Hermessi power from Ledar and pulling it into Ramin.
I could no longer look. It was too bright. Closing my eyes, I waited, feeling Caspian’s arm around my shoulder. We didn’t move until we heard Ledar cry, followed by a cracking sound, like glass breaking.
