The demon made a face. ‘‘Even if I do come up with a story, it’s not going to believe me. Bael wouldn’t let me wander around without supervision.’’

‘‘It doesn’t have to believe you, it just needs to be focused on you for a few seconds while I slip past it.’’

Jim looked skeptical. ‘‘Wrath demons can see shadow walkers, you know. They can even see into the shadow world.’’

‘‘But not very clearly. If you hold its attention, I can slip into the shadow world and get by it into Chuan Ren’s cell.’’

‘‘Get in, maybe,’’ Jim admitted grudgingly. ‘‘But how are you going to get out?’’

‘‘I’ll worry about that when the time comes. Can you find your way back to the linen closet once I’m in with Chuan Ren?’’

‘‘Yeah. Assuming Wrathy there doesn’t squash me into an incredibly handsome black pulp.’’

‘‘It won’t. It won’t know for sure that Bael doesn’t have a reason for accommodating Aisling.’’

‘‘You’ll leave me,’’ it wailed softly, giving me a pitiful look. ‘‘You’ll go off and leave me alone here.’’

‘‘Aisling can summon you at any time,’’ I pointed out.

‘‘Not if I’m imprisoned, she can’t,’’ Jim said, glancing down the hall to the cell doors. ‘‘No demon gets out of those cells unless Bael wants them out.’’

‘‘Oh.’’ I wanted to point out that the likelihood of Jim ending up in a cell was slim, but the worried expression in the demon’s eyes stopped me. ‘‘Well, that doesn’t matter. I promise I won’t leave Abaddon until you’re with me again, or safe, OK?’’

‘‘All right, but if you forget, I’m never going to let you live it down.’’

I patted the demon dog on the head. ‘‘I won’t forget. Give me about five seconds before you distract the wrath demon.’’

‘‘If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were taking lessons from Ash on how to come up with a wacky plan sure to go wrong,’’ Jim said as I shadowed and slipped across the hall to the far wall.

I crept down the hall until I figured I was just outside of the range at which the demon might see me, holding my breath as Jim sauntered around the corner, whistling a jaunty tune.

‘‘Heya,’’ it called to the wrath demon, who stood up and glared with suspicion at Jim. ‘‘How’re they hangin’? Assuming you got yourself some, that is. I myself have a really nice package. Aisling, that’s my demon lord, says that it’s just lucky that I’m furry; otherwise, she’d have to put a pair of underpants on me, ya know what I mean? Heh-heh-heh.’’

I gave a mental eye roll at Jim’s choice of distracting topic, and moved into the shadow world. I’d never been in the parts of the shadow world where it touched Abaddon, and was taken aback for a moment by just how radically different it was. Whereas the normal shadow world was a slightly off version of the real world, the Abaddon-tinged version was a dark place that seemed to be made up of the memory of nightmares, with objects twisted in a parody of the original.

The wrath demon, oddly enough, didn’t look any different in the shadow world, although there was a black corona that surrounded it. I was careful to avoid touching that as I squirmed past it, opening the cell door that was locked in the real world.

Chuan Ren sat immobile, her back to the wall of a bare cell that consisted of a repulsive straw pallet, a bucket that was no doubt used as a latrine, and a battered tray of what looked to be raw entrails heaped in a repulsive blob.

I stepped out of the shadow world and was instantly slammed against the wall, Chuan Ren’s claws digging deep into my throat.

‘‘You,’’ she spat, her dark eyes glowing with a red light.

The dragon shard inside me filled me with instant fury. Scarlet claws burst forth from my fingers, the silver scales following immediately as they rippled up and over my arms. I fought not just Chuan Ren, but the shard itself, which desperately wanted me to fully shift into a dragon.

‘‘If you kill . . . me, you’ll never . . . get out,’’ I managed to gasp out as Chuan Ren attempted to throttle me.

I didn’t expect her to release me at that, but to my surprise, she did just that. Her hands dropped to her sides, allowing me to slide to the floor, my fingers back to being my own. I rubbed my neck, coughing and wheezing as I tried to get air into my abused windpipe.

‘‘Gabriel said he would not free me,’’ she said, suspicion thick in the air.

I nodded, clearing my throat a couple of times to make sure I could talk. ‘‘He can’t buy your freedom. Bael guaranteed that. But we don’t need to get him to give you up when you are being held here against your will.’’

She grabbed my collar with one hand and hauled me to my feet, giving me new respect for her physical strength. ‘‘How?’’

‘‘Aisling will recall you. Since she’s the one who banished you here, she can recall you without going through elaborate ceremonies, or getting Bael’s permission.’’

‘‘Aisling,’’ Chuan Ren said, her lips curling as she all but spat the name. ‘‘I will see her dead for what she’s done to me.’’

‘‘I don’t think so,’’ I said, shoving her hand off me. ‘‘In fact, you’re not only going to be polite to her; you’re going to call off the war against the green dragons. Unless you like spending your time as Bael’s guest, that is.’’

An interesting parade of emotions passed over her face. Fury, disbelief, and more fury were followed by suspicion, and finally a cold, calculating look that indicated she was weighing her need to leave Abaddon against her desire to continue the war.

I expected some sort of protest on her part, but once again she surprised me. I guess it was because she had been wyvern for so many centuries, and thus used to making decisions on the fly, but she took less than a minute to work through all of her anger and allow reason to take its place. ‘‘There’s nothing to stop me from declaring war again,’’ was all she said.

‘‘That’s between you and the green dragons, although I should mention that your son has promised us the use of the Song Phylactery in exchange for freeing you.’’