Page 100 of Beauty At Stake
“Oh, right. You guys didn't hear that part.” I grimaced. “Evidently, there were a few Demons left on Earth, working, when you put the lockdown on Hell. She summoned one of them. So, I assume she's got a Demon here somewhere. I can'tconfirm that since I don't have any magic currently, but I can't imagine her releasing the Demon.”
“Son of a bitch!” Star cursed.
“Anyway,” I went on, “can you track our comm devices?”
“Already got you, Ambassador!” Sullivan called out. “We're on our way.”
“Thanks, Sullivan. We're in an iron cage. I think it's subterranean.”
“We'll find you,” Daxon vowed. “There isn't a hole deep enough to keep me from finding you, love.”
“Aw, I love you too.”
“And I love you too, Daxy-waxy,” Killian added. “My hero.”
I smacked him but also laughed.
“You can say that again after I rescue your dumb ass,” Daxon muttered. “Now, we'd better go dark for a bit. One of you needs to hide your comm in the cell in case that traitor realizes that they still work within a hakhil.”
“On it,” Kill said. “And out.” Kill pulled out his earpiece and found a ceiling beam to tuck it up on. He winked at me and sat down.
“It's funny,” I said. “When you have magic, you often forget how powerful technology can be. Sarai thinks she's safe because of that hakhil. She never considered that it wouldn't block things like radio waves.”
“That's why Dad started Gentry,” Kill said. “Damn, he's brilliant.”
“Yeah, he is. And yet, his daughter is sitting in an iron cell, drained of magic.” I flounced my arms. “I can’t believe a human captured me again.”
“To be fair, she's a sorceress, and she laid a fucking insane trap for you that her traitorous lover lured you into.” Kill pulled me in against his side. “I mean, what the fuck was that thing?”
“I believe it was a one-way portal,” Star said. “It shut down as soon as Rue jumped through.”
“Star thinks it was a portal,” I said to Kill since he didn't have his earpiece anymore.
“Well, duh.” Killian rolled his eyes. “Thanks, Harry Potter. A portal?” He shook his head. “That was more like a rath.”
“I think a rath is pretty much a portal.”
“No, it isn't. A portalteleportsyou from one place to another. It's a lot like Apportation but with people. A rath is a tunnel through the in-between. It's permanent.”
“But then, that would make Sarai's trap more like a portal, wouldn't it? It was only temporary.”
Star chuckled but there were sounds of movement too.
Killian grimaced. “Thanks, babe. Way to support your man.”
“Sorry. I was just trying to understand why you were so opposed to it being a portal.”
“Because a portal's magic is too close to a psychic ability and that would suggest that Sarai has some innate psychic ability.”
“That might be true.”
“I don't want it to be true. That's my point.”
“Why?”
“Because that would make her like a council member. I'd rather think of her as a normy human who only gets magic from sucking it out of dead things.”
“Gross, Kill.”
