Alex’s right hand burned like he’d shoved it into a pot of boiling water. His nerves screamed and his flesh crackled like fried chicken that had been left in a pan for too long. His left hand clenched so tightly that his fingernails bit into his palm. He gritted his teeth, not even daring to draw in a breath and lose focus, and pushed against the portal even harder.

“I would suggest stopping,” the demon’s voice split through Alex’s concentration. “If you continue, you will die.”

Alex’s teeth gritted. Electric power thumped against his arm, now buried nearly all the way up until his shoulder. He couldn’t even feel his fingers anymore.

“I’m not giving up,” Alex snarled. “I’m going to open the damn portal.”

His concentration faltered. Answering the demon had only taken a brief flicker of thought, but he didn’t have it to spare. A powerful force slammed into Alex’s chest and folded his knees like they were made of paper. His hand flew from the portal as it snapped back to a flat shape and all the air was knocked from his lungs as he was slammed into the ground.

Alex let out a pained groan. His arm burned in agony at his side. He vaguely made Claire’s concerned features out above him as he dug his good hand into the vibrant blue grass and shoved himself upright, his breaths coming in ragged gasps as he tried not to think about the source of the fatty, fried smell lingering in the air.

“Why?” Alex rasped.

“You should be grateful that I warned you at all,” the demon said. “Perhaps I simply should have watched.”

“Not that. Why can’t I open the damn portal? What unfair bastard puts a portal on the top of a fucking mountain and then doesn’t let anyone use it?”

“Me,” the demon said through a bark of laughter. “I told you. The portal is mine. And even if you could open it, it would lead to nowhere. Tell me. What world do you hail from?”

“Earth,” Alex rasped through his gritted teeth as he resisted the urge to clench his charred arm. He was pretty sure that would only make it worse.

“How original. And are all those who come from your planet as arrogant as you?” Chains rattled as the demon tilted its head to the side. “Or are you unique in believing that all roads through the universe lead to your home planet?”

Alex’s stomach sank. “I was kind of hoping to wing it. Why wouldn’t it go back to Earth? Shouldn’t a hole in reality go two ways?”

“You slipped through the cracks between worlds,” the demon said. “It was no luck that you landed in the Mirrorlands. It is the vastness of space that connects everything. It is where all that falls lands. The wastebin of existence, a catch-all for anything and everything. Those passageways are a one-way trip.”

The demon’s words rang against Alex’s ears, joining in with the wind howling beyond the crown of the mountain. His good hand tightened at his side. They’d come all the way up here just to find that there was no way forward.

I won’t accept that. There has to be another way.

“I refuse to believe that there isn’t a way to open the portal back up in the other direction,” Alex said. For some reason, the pain in his charred arm was starting to recede. There was a good chance it might have been shock. “If there’s magic, then it has to be possible.”

“Oh, it’s possible,” the demon agreed. The chains holding it rattled as the demon contorted itself to move so its whole body was facing them. “Just not for you.”

“Hold on,” Alex said, flexing his stinging hand. He looked back to the portal. “I don’t know that you’re telling the truth. I could have just done something wrong.”

“You could have,” the demon agreed. “Perhaps you should try again. Maybe use your other hand this time around — or better yet, toss the girl in first. See what happens.”

I swear the portal felt like it was opening. I don’t trust this monster. It could be lying… but I’ve got a good way to find out.

Alex let his head thunk back against the grass.

“What are you doing?” Claire whispered. “What’s going on? And are you okay?”

“Resting, I’m arguing with a demon, and no,” Alex replied. “I need an hour.”

“You’re just going to lie there? In defeat? You gave up faster than I expected,” the demon said, derision dripping from its words. “Perhaps I—

“I didn’t give up.” Alex glanced at the monster out of the corners of his eyes. “I’m just resting.”

“Resting,” the demon repeated. “Directly before me? Do you want me to crush you for your insolence?”

“Why would you?” Alex countered. “You get nothing from it. I reckon anything I do now is more entertaining than just squishing me, and an hour is nothing to you, right?”

The demon didn’t respond.

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

Alex sank back into the grass with a groan. He had an hour to kill.

***

Time dragged its heels through the mud, but Alex’s waiting finally came to an end. The pain in his hand had receded even further, but he was pretty sure it was because the nerves in it had been burnt to a crisp. He still couldn’t feel his fingers. That was a problem for later.

That’s an hour. Glint, sorry buddy, but I need you again.

The air beside Alex shattered as Glint’s claws raked through it, forming an entrance for him to emerge from his Spatial Mirror. The Shardwalker stepped out and looked to Alex for his orders.

“Can you open that spatial rift?” Alex asked, pointing at the buzzing energy.

Glint didn’t budge.

“Open the spatial rift,” Alex amended, changing his request to a command. Still, Glint did nothing.

Could just be too complex.

“Try cutting the spatial rift.”

Glint strode up to the swirling energy and brought his claws down. They struck the purple magic and sheared through it — or rather, the magic sheared through Glint. By the time the Shardwalker’s hand stopped moving, its claws had completely vanished, reduced to small stubs. Alex winced.

“Okay. Uh… shove yourself into the rift.”

Glint threw himself into the energy without a flicker of hesitation. There was a sharp hiss followed by the very brief smell of burnt meat. Alex summoned Glint’s card to his hand to check on the monster. It was dead.

Was the demon telling the truth?

“Have something you need to talk out?” Claire asked with a worried frown. “That can’t be a healthy coping mechanism.”

Alex burst into laughter. “Noted. And I was just testing something. Glint can’t feel pain, so I wouldn’t feel bad about it.”

“Are you done?” the demon asked.

“Depends on what you’re offering,” Alex replied.

“Who said I was offering?”

“You said it wasn’t possible for me to open the portal an hour ago. This is your portal though, right? So you can open it.”

“I could.”

“Will you?”

“Perhaps.” The demon’s head tilted to the side. “Tell me your Soul Manifestation.”

Alex hesitated. He wasn’t so sure he wanted to go about sharing the details of how his class worked with clearly malicious, chained entities. They were usually chained for a reason. That said, he’d already given away his ability to summon Glint. “It… lets me summon monsters. I’m an Evoker.”

“A fool could tell that you are an Evoker,” the demon said dryly. “Being an Evoker is nothing unique. Being an Anomaly is slightly unique — but your Soul Manifestation, like every other, is completely unique. Unique and remarkably uninteresting, I suspect, but I will be the judge of that. You will tell me what it is if you desire my assistance.”

Alex summoned his status and read back over everything he knew, trying to see if revealing details about his abilities could somehow come back to bite him in the ass. Nothing he found implied it.

His ability to use Glint’s powers when the monster died was his real unique ability, and the demon wasn’t asking for that.

“My Soul Manifestation gives me cards called Spatial Mirrors that I can use to store Mirrorlands monsters. Whenever they die, they return to the mirrors and stay there until they reform an hour later. Why does that matter?”

The demon didn’t respond immediately. It tilted its head to the side in thought, and the chains holding its arms swayed slightly as it twitched.

“What?” Alex asked, unnerved by the demon’s lack of response more than everything else it had done.

“That could work,” the demon mused, voice little more than a whisper. It swallowed. “Yes. You could work.”

“You’re going to have to give at least a little bit of explanation before I start agreeing to anything. I’m not joking when I say you’d have to kill me before I willingly give you control of my body or some shit like that.”

“I am not going to steal your body from you… but we could help each other. Quid pro quo,” the demon said. It leaned forward and the chains tightened, binding and stopping it from getting any closer. “I suspect my desires are not too difficult to discern.”

“You want to get out of here.”

“Every prisoner longs to be free. I am no exception.”

“Most prisoners also have a reason for being imprisoned,” Alex said slowly. “And I’m going to be real, I don’t think there’s jack shit I’m going to be able to do to break those chains. I only have one Spatial Mirror as well and it’s got Glint, so you can’t get into one of those.”

The demon let out a derisive snort. “I have no desire to trade one prison for another. I will not be trapped within one of your cards. It is a moot point. They have no hope of containing my power, even if we had both been willing.”

“Then—”

“You are still Novice 2. You have yet to achieve your third Auxiliary skill,” the demon said, cutting Alex off mid-sentence. “For that reason alone, there is something that can be done.”

“Are you going to say what it is, or are you just going to keep blue-balling me?” Alex asked.

The demon’s lips split apart in a smile. “I asked about your Soul Manifestation because I needed to confirm that your soul would have similarities to mine. I can give you the power to unlock one of my own Auxiliary skills. It will let you travel through the Rifts at will. To sweeten the deal, I’ll even help you use it the first time around.”

Alex fought to keep the eagerness from his voice. “And what do you want in return?”

“Far less than what I offer,” the demon replied. The chains holding it rattled, which ended up being far closer to a thunderous roar due to their size. “Carry a small piece of me with you until we can find a way to break the chains binding me.”

“Let’s say I agree. What will happen when the chains get broken?”

“I suspect I shall try to kill you.” Excitement flashed in the demon’s eyes and it extended a hand toward him, only stopping when the chains jerked taut. “But by then, you should have at least grown strong enough to attempt running away.”

Alex’s eyes narrowed. “I’m not running anywhere.”

A laugh echoed from the demon’s glassy lips. “I can already feel the thrill of battle. You seem to enjoy challenges. How about it? A challenge for the ages. Just take this prisoner’s hand.”

Claire sent Alex a worried look but said nothing as he looked at the huge hand, several times larger than his head, waiting before him. She probably didn't have the best idea of what they were speaking about, but it probably wasn’t too hard to guess.

Alex’s jaw clenched. The demon was probably trapped there for a reason — but if he was honest, he cared more about surviving than what it had done.

There was only one way forward. He stepped forward and pressed his burnt palm to the demon’s. Huge fingers closed around Alex’s arm, and a name burned itself into his mind like it had been branded by an iron.

Berith.

“Alex,” Berith breathed, his name curling from the demon’s lips like twisting smoke. “This is going to be fun.”