Zoe looked around the courtroom as the dust settled. Her friends seemed as perplexed as her. She had been sure something horrendous was about to happen. For all she knew… it had. But the empty courtroom did nothing to calm her pounding heart.

The One-Eyed Crow snorted as it tidied up some documents.

“You revealed a power vacuum and all the lesser demons have scrambled to take their place upon a wet and pitiful throne.”

“But not you?” Bella asked.

“No, I have my sights set on larger goals. A crown many here would not consider achievable, so they fled to pick at the soggiest of scraps. I thank you for removing them from the city, and in return, I would like to offer you something.”

“What?” Zoe said warily.

The One-Eyed Crow shrugged.

“Anything,” it said. “You have truly helped me in a way that I would only expect from an honorable and true nemesis. I presume you do not wish to remain in Hell, and so I will assist you in exiting.”

A dropped pin could have broken the courtroom’s silence. Zoe stared at the One-Eyed Crow, desperately trying to understand what its gambit might — must — be. It merely packed its documents into a suitcase that looked suspiciously like child skin.

“Well?” the One-Eyed Crow asked. “Do you wish to leave Hell?”

Zoe wasn’t sure if the judge's deal still compelled her, but she answered truthfully anyway.

“We need to reach the Palace of New Law.”

“Ah, yes, to create a portal with yonder runeblade?”

Bella clutched her sword protectively.

“How did you —”

“I watched you fight for months, sweet Bella, do not bore me with such questions. I know a weak point that will serve you, but it will not be easy to reach.”

“What do you mean?”

“This court may be empty, but the city crawls with demons, and many are not as lawful as I, though they follow rules of their imaginings… an interesting philosophical question that, what is the difference between a rule and a law and a code when the only one to uphold any is the self? Hmmm? No takers in the debate? Very well, let me repeat my earlier gift.”

It spread a wing across the table and five hexagonal glass bottles appeared. Black liquid spun inside them like a whirlwind of feathers,

[High Proof Elixir of the One-Eyed Crow]

“Drink this and fly to the palace,” the One-Eyed Crow said. “There is an alley to the south, find the glyph shaped like this,” it traced a strange pattern in the air. “That will be your entry point back to Earth.” It tasted the air. “Your new bodies should react nicely to the elixir.”

“How can we trust you?”

“Demons do not go back on their word.”

“What?” Bella almost shouted. “You were just on trial for exactly that.”

“Ah, yes,” the One-Eyed Crow raised a single feather. “But the court found me innocent.”

“They threw out the case,” said Anton. “Same outcome, but different from being found innocent.”

“And why was it thrown out?” the One-Eyed Crow smirked.

“You bribed the jury with snacks!” said Bella.

“Snacks provided by you, I must point out. So, if I bribed, it was with your help, and thus we are all as innocent as each other. Accomplices, allies, and… dare I say… friends in crime? Yes.” It nodded and conjured a sixth hexagonal bottle. “So, tell me, friends, will you share a drink with me before you go on your way?”

Zoe glanced at her friends.

“What do you say?”

Bella and Oriz had already grabbed their bottles. They were about to pop the corks.

“To be honest, I missed the taste,” Bella said.

“Likewise.”

Anton shrugged.

“It’s whatever you say, boss.”

Zoe smiled. More and more she appreciated Anton’s single-minded commitment to her. Or at least, his lack of commitment to anything else. Did she want to trust another demon? Especially this demon that had once tried to kill her at their first meeting?

That had killed her if Bella’s testimony about those burned timelines was to be believed…

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Well, when she examined herself, she found no apprehension.

“Pass me one,” she said.

They all popped the corks on their bottles and clinked the glass. All except Skidmark. The dark-haired Scott remained seated.

Zoe walked over to her.

“Are you drinking?”

“I suppose I don’t have a choice, do I?”

Skidmark’s features were pale and drawn. She appeared to be shriveling inside herself. The polar opposite of the boisterous woman Zoe had first met — the one who threatened to kill her before turning on her teammates.

“Is this your religious background?” Zoe asked. “They’re not the demons from the Bible.”

“It’s close enough. You don’t think this is all wrong?”

“I don’t. Not really.”

Skidmark stared at her.

“You seemed different before the desert. I find it hard to believe you’re trusting demons. Maybe… maybe this is all a trap?” she stood, clutching her arms, and backed away from them. “Am I stuck in an illusion?”

Zoe glanced at the others.

“Can someone help me with this?”

“You should hold her down,” the One-Eyed Crow said.

“Forcing someone to imbibe demonic essence always goes well in my experience.”

“You’re joking,” Bella said.

“Alas, you point out my deficiency once again.”

“I thought demons needed deals,” Oriz said. “How can you force someone?”

“I cannot, which is why I work with mortals unbound by such devious decorum.”

Skidmark backed up against the walls of the court. Lightning crackled between her fingers. Her hair stood on end.

“Nobody’s forcing me to drink that stuff.”

“Of course not,” Zoe said as she slowly advanced. “Nobody will force you to do anything.”

Even as she said the words, she felt her control over the poor woman’s heart. She could so easily knock her unconscious and slip the elixir down her throat. It wouldn’t even take a minute.

Neither the Black Star nor Moth chimed in. No devil nor angel on her shoulder, it was only her in a courtroom, would she do the right thing?

“Skidmark. These potions will turn us briefly into crows. We will use them to fly over the city. I know you trust me and that you trust us,” she could feel that trust after all. “What is the problem?”

“I… what… how can you ask me that? How can any of you be so calm after everything that’s happened?”

“I know it’s a lot, and I’m far from calm — trust me on that — but we need to get out of here before we can have our nervous breakdown.”

The One-Eyed Crow closed his briefcase with a wicked snap.

“I enjoy distress as much as the next demon, but I do not believe this courtroom shall remain empty for long.”

Zoe held up the bottle.

“I’m going to drink this first, to show you it’s alright. We’ll all drink it, but then we’re going to have to go. If you don’t come with us, you’ll stay behind, and…”

What else could she say? Nobody knew what would happen if Skidmark stayed behind, but everyone knew it wouldn’t be good. Zoe turned to the others. Sometimes you have to let others choose their path. In the back of her mind, a coin flipped into the air, fate weighed, and she forced herself to open her jaw and place the warm glass bottle against her lips.

Decisions must be made.

She drank, the elixir racing down her gullet. The others followed suit, and, to her gratification, Skidmark followed suit. Pressure or preservation, Zoe would have to ask later, but for now, her flesh dripped away into black smoke and feathers. She let out a laugh as her mind fractured, and the cackle became a caw.

###

One by one, they exploded into crows. As a swooping, cawing mass they flew toward the doors at the back of the room. Their bird bodies struck and forced the doors open. Zoe lost track of her own body amongst the others. Dozens of crows, beating wings overlapping in the struggle down the corridor, the wind blowing documents from rooms.

It seemed most of the demons had fled for the Marsh. Most of the empty offices looked mundane and bureaucratic, but some were coated in blood. One open door looked in on the anteater prosecutor crucified with their guts hanging out and sitting upon a pair of scales. A white-robed physician waved a gory hand at the crows, and then they were in the lobby.

The courthouse doors were revolving and automatic and the crows filled them like an echo of the swirling black feathers in the hexagonal bottles, and then they were out in the open sky.

It was easy to see the Palace of New Law. What other building could be so large? It stood as a dome rising from the city like a concrete bubble rising from shattered bricks. Four pillars surrounded it, each hundreds of feet tall but thin and spiked at the top. Impaled bodies twitched and moaned on these pillars, stacked, bleeding down into the palace gardens below. The dome itself was a colossal skull half buried in the seething city.

Wheeling toward the terrible sight, the mass of crows flapped through the hot and smoky air above the city. The streets below glowed red with light and activity. Fire seeped from cracks in the ground, from inside buildings, and Zoe’s scattered mind couldn’t tell if it was cultivated or anarchy. Demons danced and screamed. The air filled with other flying creatures. Some snapped at the crows as they went about their business.

The crows moved as one and swooped past the other bumbling demons toward the streets surrounding the palace. There was a looped alley shrouded in the shadows of crooked buildings. Crows swooped down and landed upon washing lines hung with dripping skin.

After a moment, black smoke wafted from their bodies as they all stood in the alley. Zoe looked down at her legs. She had expected it to be hard to stand, but the elixir had reformed her broken bones. Exhaustion sank through her, but she could stand. The sights of the city pressed upon her brain. Fear trickled through her veins, but the mind of a crow formed memories differently. She squeezed her trembling hands. Soon they would be out of there.

“I don’t know if that was amazing or…” Anton said.

Skidmark leaned against the tilted brick wall and vomited.

Bella rubbed her back.

“There, there…”

“I hate this,” Skidmark said.

“It’s almost over,” Zoe said as she pointed at a scrawl of graffiti on the wall. She didn’t want to guess what the white paint was in truth. “That’s where the crow said to slice. Are you ready?”

Bella lifted her sword.

“I’m ready.”

The others nodded, and Skidmark wiped her chin.

“Let’s get out of here, damn it!”

A hunched figure appeared at the end of the hallway. Long antennae bristled from its head as it lurched toward them.

“Want to play? Want to play?” it called.

“Hurry, Bella,” Zoe said.

The runeblade glowed as Bella slashed across the brick. Zoe readied her tired chains as the portal opened. It swirled, a dull pink, grey at the borders, a wound in reality slowly closing.

Lightning flashed down the alleyway as Skidmark blasted the approaching demon. It fell to the ground twitching. More hunched figures appeared in the alley mouth.

“Play… play… play…”

“Hurry!” Skidmark screamed.

Zoe’s chains reached out, slow, painful, and gripped the edges of the portal. It shuddered up through her body but she held it steady.

“Now,” she groaned.

One by one her friends leaped into the portal. Zoe was the last. She stepped through as the hunched demons hurried toward her. The grey void swallowed her, and she hoped.

Hoped the One-Eyed Crow was trustworthy. Hoped nothing was wrong with her. Hoped the deal with the Four-Hearted Wasp hadn’t swayed her mind into accepting deals willy-nilly. Hoped the portal would take her back to Earth.

Hoped some of it — all of it — could just be over.

The portal closed around her, and she fell between worlds.