Ruby Shadows Read online

  “I don’t think so,” he snarled. “You’re to be held here for the hearing. After that, the Council of Elder Demons can decide what to do with you.”

  “But you can’t do that to me,” I protested, feeling panic well up in my throat. “Laish specifically told me to come back to you so that you could send me home.”

  “Lord Laish is not here anymore, thanks to you,” the old demon said stiffly. “For the sake of his memory, I will allow you to stay sequestered in his rooms here at the top of the Citadel until the hearing instead of locking you in the dungeon. But that is the last kindness you can expect to get from me or anyone by invoking his name.”

  “But—” I began but he was already calling for some guards.

  “Conduct Ms. LaRoux to Lord Laish’s private living quarters,” he instructed the burly demon who came at his summons. “And then stand guard at the top of the stairs and see that she does not leave.” He turned to me. “Your hearing will be held at first light tomorrow. I suggest you enjoy your comfortable quarters while you can. I very much doubt you can expect such living arrangements when the Council hands you over to Druaga.”

  Before I could answer, he swept out of the library, leaving me alone with the burly demon guard and a very, very bad feeling in the pit of my stomach.

  ~ ~ ~

  “My Lady Gwendolyn? My Lady Gwendolyn, are you there?”

  The soft knocking at the door of Laish’s living area got my attention. Not that I was doing much more than staring at the pattern in the thick carpet and wondering how in the Hell—no pun intended—I was going to get out of here before the travesty of a trial began. If Druaga got his hairy hands on me…but no, I couldn’t think about that. I couldn’t.

  “My Lady Gwendolyn?” came the squeaky little voice again.

  Sighing, I got up and went to open the door. Standing there, bowing and nodding anxiously, was Bobbin, the little imp I’d befriended the last time Laish and I were here. Which seemed like an eternity ago now, even tho it had barely been two days.

  “Yes, Bobbin, what do you want?” I asked.

  “Oh, my Lady Gwendolyn, it’s not what I want but what do you want?” He searched my face as he tugged nervously at his sharp little horns. “Master Belial says you’re to have anything you want for dinner—anything at all. So what can I get for you from the kitchens?”

  I frowned. Belial knew full well I couldn’t eat anything from the Infernal Realm—not without getting caught here indefinitely. Yet he had sent Bobbin to taunt me with the offer of food. He might as well have sent the little imp with a note telling me to give up—that I was going to be stuck here forever.

  “Nothing—I don’t want anything from your kitchen here,” I snapped.

  Bobbin’s little face fell. “All right, my Lady. Please forgive me for disturbing you.”

  The dejected look on his little face was more than my conscious could take. Yes, I was being held prisoner in Hell and I had little chance of escape but it wasn’t right to take it out on someone who just wanted to help me.

  “Wait, Bobbin, I’m sorry, it’s just that I can’t eat food from Hell.” Suddenly I had a thought. “You said I can have anything I want?”

  “Anything! Anything at all.” Bobbin looked up at me, his eyes shining hopefully.

  “Well, I don’t know if you can get to it but Laish left me a supply of the food I can eat,” I said. “They were in Kurex’s saddlebags—you know, the big horse we were riding?” Just thinking of the massive Demon-steed made my heart ache. Where was he now? I hoped resting quietly in the stables. I couldn’t bear to think of him being mistreated by his huge demon master.

  Bobbin was already nodding his head eagerly.

  “Yes, yes, the saddlebags! I know where they are—I can get them for you!”

  “Well, as long as you won’t be putting yourself in any danger,” I said hesitantly. I could just see one of Kurex’s big feet coming down by accident and squashing the little imp.

  “No problem, my Lady Gwendolyn—no problem at all!”

  Eyes bright with excitement, he turned and scampered off, happy to be sent on a mission.

  I barely had time to sit down and worry about him before Bobbin was back, lugging the heavy saddle bags behind him. I thanked him very much and gave him a kiss on the cheek which made him blush with pleasure. Then, as soon as he scampered off again I pulled the heavy bags to the couch in the living area and started digging for the food Laish had left me.

  Luckily it looked like nothing in the bags had been disturbed. Even my battered plastic Zephyrhills bottle and the books Laish had let me pack were intact, as was the food.

  I hadn’t meant for Bobbin to bring me everything but now I blessed his curly little head. At least I wouldn’t be thirsty or hungry and the books gave me a way to pass the time while I tried to think of a way out of here. I wished one of the spells might help me get out of my sticky predicament but since giving up my virginity without forming a soul bond had halved my powers, that was out of the question. Still, at least looking through the books was something to do besides brooding.

  I leafed through the spell book I’d picked, looking at spells at random. There were the usual suspects—love spells, charms for good health and hexes for your enemies. Also an interesting spell for warding and protection of the innocent—that one must be to use on children to keep them safe. Then I came to one I’d been looking at before—a spoken spell to bring hidden things to light.

  “Hmm,” I muttered to myself. Some of the words were written in curling, archaic handwriting that I would have had a hard time understanding if I hadn’t studied Grams’ grimoire so thoroughly. She had lots of old fashioned spells like this. Without even thinking about it, I whispered the words under my breath.

  “As ye be lost, so be ye found.

  As ye be hidden, so be made known.

  As ye be cursed, so be set free.

  By the power of the Goddess

  By the rule of three

  I invoke thee, I invoke thee, I invoke thee.”

  As I finished speaking the words of the spell, a surge of power went through me, surprising me.

  “Oh!” I gasped. But I didn’t have time to wonder at the electrical rush that still tingled in my fingertips. Something fluttering near the corner of my eye caught my attention. Eryn, my pet moth, had risen from my shoulder and was beating her wings wildly in agitation.

  “Hey, little girl,” I said, worried about her. “Are you okay? You—”

  But I never got to finish the sentence. For at that moment, Eryn landed on a spot on the floor right in front of my feet. Then she began to grow and change so rapidly that if I would have blinked, I would have missed it.

  One minute there was a postage-stamp sized moth with tiny, feathery wings sitting by my feet. The next, a girl with long, pale blond hair and frightened purple eyes was staring me in the face.

  I recognized her at once—it was the girl I’d seen in the Mirror of the Eye and she was standing right in front of me.

  Chapter Thirty-three

  Gwendolyn

  “Gwendolyn?” she asked, looking at me. “Oh, Gwendolyn, thank you! I thought I’d be a lily-moth forever.”

  “Eryn?” I stared at her blankly. “Is that you?”

  “It is.” She came forward and took me by the hands, looking earnestly into my face. “Ah—I knew I’d be able to touch you, even in my true form,” she said, smiling. “Your heart is pure, then.”

  “If you say so.” I shook my head. “But I don’t understand. How…why…?” There were too many questions—I couldn’t get them all out so I just shook my head and decided to start from the top. “Who are you?” I asked.

  “One who has been lost for a long time.” She made an expansive gesture with both hands and the feathery cape she wore around her shoulders rustled. I stared at it, my mind working on something I couldn’t yet name.

  “Wait a minute—that’s no cape. Those are wings,” I exclaimed. “You…you’re an�