Destroyer Rising by Eric Asher

me into a deadbolt. As soon as
I came within three steps of the door, the waterfall cut off and
the door clicked.
    The door cracked open slightly. “Who’s there?”
    “You ordered a pizza?” I shouted back.
    The door swung inward and Nixie stared at me. Her
hair was shorter, barely to her waist now, and her eyes sparkled in
the torchlight. “Damian? Why are you here?”
    “I have an hour to kill before I head to the Burning
Lands.”
    Her eyes narrowed. “Come in.” She stepped back into
the room and I followed her inside.
    I closed the door behind me and heard the waterfall
start up again. Nixie settled onto an ornately carved chair by a
stone table.
    “Are we safe to talk here?” I asked.
    “As safe as we can be. Glenn is in Falias from what I
understand, and the Queen has not been seen here in over a
month.”
    “Cara?”
    “What?” Nixie asked. “Oh, no, I mean the queen of the
undines.”
    She hadn’t so much as hugged me after I mentioned the
Burning Lands. I guess she already understood what I was getting
myself into.
    “I will not pretend to be happy about this, Damian.
Things with the Queen have been … there were several deaths before
her faithful left this place. Having you in an uncertain situation
is not ideal.”
    She sounded cold, calculating. I wasn’t sure what to
say. “I’m sorry,” was all I mustered.
    She shook her head. “Did you hear from Mike?”
    “No,” I said, sliding out the chair beside her after
setting my backpack on the table. “Vicky … something’s
happened.”
    She sat up straighter. “What? What happened to the
child?”
    I told her the story of the black scars and the
demon’s voice. It was the incantation I used that caused her to
cross her arms.
    “You banished a demon? How? Where did you learn
that?”
    I unzipped the backpack and slid out the Book that
Bleeds.
    “Nudd’s balls,” Nixie said. “How in the world did you
get that?”
    “You know what it is?”
    She nodded. “The Book that Bleeds is a thing of old
stories. The kind of tales we use to terrorize our young.” Nixie
leaned forward and reached towards the book before pausing. “Do you
understand what could have happened if Ezekiel or Philip had ever
gotten their hands on this?”
    “I’ve only read part of it, but yeah, I get the
gist.”
    She frowned slightly and met my gaze with her
crystalline blue eyes. “What do you intend to do in the Burning
Lands?”
    “Find Mike. Find Vicky’s devil, and destroy
Prosperine utterly. It should break the bond.”
    “It could kill the child.”
    “Maybe not.” I pried the book open at the latest
manuscript I’d stuck between the pages. “Look at this. It says that
something bound to a demon can survive its destruction if it, in
turn, is bound to a Timewalker.” I went on, running through another
page of text. “I don’t know what a Devil’s Knot is, though.”
    “It’s a ward,” Nixie said. “You are gambling with a
great many lives, Damian. You have to understand that you could
fail. Vicky could lose to Prosperine, and the Destroyer would be
reborn into this realm.”
    “That’s …” I sighed and slouched into my chair.
“That’s why I wanted to see you. In case things went sideways and I
didn’t make it back.”
    Nixie’s eyes flicked rapidly to the side. “What do
you mean?”
    “In case something happens, I had to tell you I love
you.”
    “Damian, I don’t like this. Don’t think like that.
You have to come back.”
    I didn’t say anything more on it. I closed the Book
that Bleeds and slid it back into my pack. Nixie watched the trail
of blood as it ran from the table and then vanished into the
ether.
    “How are the witches?”
    She inhaled and exhaled through her nose. “It has
been quiet since we thwarted the tidal wave. The Queen is still
scheming, and we don’t know what she’ll do next. There have been
deaths, though, on both sides.”
    “Who?”
    “No one you know, but friends.”
    “I’m sorry,” I