“This,” I declared, displaying the five vials of dark demon blood cradled in the foam lining, “is Nazhivēr’s blood.”

When I’d first laid eyes on this case in Claude’s apartment, I’d never imagined vials of Nazhivēr’s blood would someday be useful to me. I’d only taken the case because it was evidence of Claude’s crimes—and now, I was beyond grateful I’d had the foresight to grab it before police and MPD agents had swarmed the location.

Tori’s disbelieving stare jumped from the case to me and back again. “Where—and how—did you get his blood?”

“Well, um … technically speaking, I stole it. Claude—or, rather, Xever was trading it to vampires in exchange for their saliva.”

“Because vampire saliva affects demons.” Tori flicked a curly lock of hair away from her face. “Is that why there are illustrations of vampires in the cult grimoire?”

“One of the reasons,” I murmured. I’d seen enough of the grimoire’s contents to wonder how much of Xever’s experimentation had fed the cult and how much of the cult’s twisted ideas had fed Xever’s experimentation.

Selecting a rolled paper, I slid the elastic off. “Amalia and I put together a ritual that we think should work. We can’t be sure …” I added, the bright hope in Tori’s eyes worrying me, “but this is the best we can do without any testing.”

With help from Aaron, I unrolled a large sheet of drafting paper, on which Amalia and I had drawn out an altered version of the three-circle ritual array. If all went to plan, we would use this spell to summon Eterran out of Ezra’s body.

Ezra studied the drawing, then reached out. As he pointed to the center of the second circle, his pale left eye flared with Eterran’s power.

“This …” A guttural accent roughened his voice. “What is this?”

“Zylas added that part,” I hastily explained. “He said it’s for—”

The infernus hidden under my sweater buzzed with heat, then crimson power streaked off my chest. Zylas took form beside me, red eyes narrowed on the demon mage.

“It will bind the blood to its nearest brother.” He smirked. “You do not know this vīsh, Dīnen et Dh’irath?”

“I have never seen it before,” Eterran replied, a sneer creeping into his voice. He either didn’t notice or didn’t care that Aaron and Kai had gone rigid beside him. “Is it real vīsh, Dīnen et Vh’alyir?”

“You think that if you do not know a magic, it is not real? Smart. You will live long thinking that.”

“I know more vīsh than most Dīnen ever see.”

“Because you are broken, so you needed greater power, na?” His smirk taking on a meaner edge, Zylas dragged his claw across his inner elbow. “You learned how to heal too late, Dh’irath.”

I shivered, hoping that gesture didn’t mean what I suspected it meant.

“You learned to fight like a coward, Vh’alyir,” Eterran retorted viciously.

Zylas opened his mouth, but before he could fire back an insult, Ezra blinked the red glow out of his left eye. With an annoyed grimace, Zylas prowled away from the demon mage, his gaze sliding around the room.

Focusing on the ritual, I launched into an explanation of the changes Amalia and I—and Zylas—had made, and what the others could expect. As I spoke, Zylas ventured through a doorway into what I assumed was the kitchen.

Breaking off, I shot a worried look over my shoulder. “Don’t break anything, Zylas!”

His voice drifted back to me. “Mailēshta.”

“Uh…” Aaron frowned in the demon’s direction. “Do you mind calling him back where we can see him?”

“He’ll be fine,” I assured him, silently reinforcing my warning to Zylas to keep his hands to himself. “As I was saying, if the binding portion of the ritual works correctly, then the magic should link to the nearest Dh’irath demon—in this case, Eterran.”

My crash course in demon-mage ritual summoning took several minutes, and when I finished, Aaron, Kai, and Ezra headed into the kitchen, following in Zylas’s tracks. I was tempted to call the demon back into the infernus, but he hadn’t been inside many houses. What was the harm?

Heaving a tired sigh, Tori dropped into a chair. I stepped around the table and sat beside her.

“Any luck with a location?” I asked.

“Not yet.” She slumped. “I’ll find something, though.”

I glanced at the intricate array. “We’ll need a large circle. Much larger than standard so we can fit two circles inside it.”

“I’ll find something,” she repeated. “How long will it take to set up the ritual and stuff once we have a location?”

“A couple of days, then the Arcana will need to charge for three more days.”

She mulled that over, the anxious crease in her forehead deepening. “Robin … are you sure this will work?”

Sure? How could I be sure? This had never been done before. As far as history was concerned, no one had ever unmade a demon mage. We’d ventured from experimental Demonica into completely untested magic.

“As long as we can link the Second House blood to Eterran specifically,” I said quietly, “I believe it will work. The big question is … whether Ezra and Eterran will survive the separation.”

Tori paled slightly.

Amalia folded her arms. “Not to be insensitive or anything, but they’re going to die anyway. Better to try, right?”

Yeah … that remark was absolutely insensitive.

“I never said I didn’t want to try,” Tori retorted coolly. “Besides, it isn’t my choice. It’s Ezra’s—and Eterran’s—and they want to try.”

Amalia glanced toward the kitchen as though ensuring the demon mage in question wasn’t about to walk in. “And what about after they’re separated, assuming it works? It’d be just great if we freed Eterran only for him to turn around and kill us all.”

Tori snorted. “You don’t seem too worried about Zylas killing you.”

“I worry about it every day.”

I winced. Zylas didn’t seem to frighten Amalia the way he used to, but she might never be completely comfortable around him.

Tugging the draft paper from under the grimoire, I rolled it up. “We don’t need to worry about Eterran yet. We’ll be summoning him into a circle, and he’ll be trapped there until we free him.”

Tori frowned. “Trapping him in a circle isn’t much better than leaving him stuck inside Ezra. I don’t see him agreeing to a regular contract-infernus-type deal.”

“We can cross that bridge when we get to it,” I replied vaguely, not wanting to delve into the specifics of my mission to open a hell portal and send Zylas home. “There may be options you haven’t considered.”

“Options like what?”

I shrugged. “We—”

A muffled shout interrupted me, the sound followed by a thump that came from the basement.

Peering at the floor as though she could see through it, Tori asked sharply, “Where are the guys?”

“Where’s Zylas?” I yelped, shooting to my feet.