Chapter 36: Game On

  Smoke curled up from Devin’s lips as he took a drag.

  Cole watched him. He knew confrontation was inevitable, but he decided to try and get some information before the battle to the death started. If Tanner was still in reach, he wasn’t going to waste time because pride demanded he swing first.

  “Where is Tanner?”

  Devin took the cigarette from his lips and sighed.

  “Gone. The moment we learned about the freed kids, he hightailed it out of here.” Devin shrugged. “He’s a coward.”

  Cole’s fingers tightened on the Crozier without him meaning to. He felt the staff’s presence in his mind, that faint hum.

  “How did you learn the children were let go?”

  Devin’s eyes flicked, just once, measuring how much he should reveal. He looked amused that Cole had asked.

  “Let’s just say there is a reason Veritus made a deal with you.”

  The name hit Cole cold. Veritus. A thing with a voice, a will, and a grin that had never belonged in a human face.

  Devin looked around at the compound, at the ash layered on the ground, at the scattered guns, at the ruined barricades. Something stirred in that anger behind his eyes, something that didn’t match the calm suit and straight tie.

  “You did a lot of damage to my home.”

  Cole didn’t bother looking around. He already knew what he’d done. He could smell it. Ash had a smell, dry and old, and Devin’s green fire had burned into it too, giving it that faint toxic bite.

  “You trafficked children to demons,” Cole said. “I’m going to kill you. Here. You’ll be a bad memory by the time I’m done. Eventually, I’ll forget even that.”

  Devin’s expression held for a moment. Calm. Controlled. Then the corner of his mouth twitched, and Cole saw a flash of something raw under the mask.

  Devin finished his cancer stick and flicked it to the ground. The ember pulsed in the ash, then it died.

  He stared at Cole, silent, making a decision.

  Cole didn’t move. He leaned on his staff and let the silence sit. If Devin wanted to talk, he’d talk. If he wanted to fight, Cole would fight. Either way, it ended here.

  “Not gonna lie,” Devin said finally, voice low, “I want you to pay for this. I’m fucking pissed.”

  The anger behind his eyes surged, then tightened back down. Devin took a slow breath through his nose, as if he was trying to trap the rage inside his ribs.

  “But I only take good bets,” he continued. “Beating you? Not sure that’s a bet I want to make.”

  Cole’s eyes narrowed. The words were casual, but the meaning wasn’t. Devin was a man who understood power. Understood risk. Understood when to bargain instead of bleed.

  “So, how about a negotiation,” Devin said. “I’ll tell you where Tanner is headed. He’s the one who took the kids to begin with.”

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Cole didn’t answer right away.

  He thought about it. Of course he did. Information mattered. Time mattered. Every hour Tanner stayed ahead was another hour he could disappear into whatever hell Veritus and Wrath had built together.

  But Cole had already made a deal once.

  He could still feel the shape of it in his chest, that bitter taste of choice forced by circumstance. The way Veritus had smiled when Cole said yes. The way the demon had taught him, instantly, that “information” could mean anything if you didn’t define it.

  Cole wasn’t making another deal with another monster.

  The decision must have been clear on his face, because Devin’s expression shifted into something resigned and irritated.

  Devin straightened his tie.

  “Okay then,” Devin said, soft and almost polite. “Game on.”

  With a flick of his wrist, green flame lashed out.

  Cole felt it before he fully saw it, the heat rolling off it in a wave. It wasn’t normal fire. It looked sick. Like it was burning the air itself.

  “Ashen Aegis.”

  The shield caught the flame just in time. It stopped in front of Cole, crawling and hissing across the invisible barrier. The heat radiated off it hard enough that Cole’s face tightened and his eyes watered.

  Devin didn’t stop.

  His eyes blazed with anger now, the calm suit and controlled posture barely holding back what he really was. More fire snapped out, whip-fast, slamming into the Aegis again and again.

  Cole felt each impact. The shield rippled, strained, the line in the sand forced to hold.

  Devin moved as he cast, walking sideways to change angles, looking for a weak spot. He was testing and probing. Trying to see where Cole’s magic ended.

  Cole’s jaw set. He wasn’t going to give Devin the satisfaction of seeing him flinch.

  “Choir of Verdict.”

  Authority descended over the area.

  It hit Devin. Cole saw it. The man’s steps slowed, his shoulders tensed, his breath hitched for half a second. His anger spiked, and the green fire around his hands flared brighter, but he didn’t drop to his knees like the others had.

  He resisted.

  Enough to keep moving.

  Devin bared his teeth.

  A sword of green flame formed in his grip.

  It appeared with a hiss, the air warping around it, heat bending the world. The blade didn’t look solid, but it moved like it was. It had weight.

  He rushed Cole.

  Fast.

  Too fast for a man in dress shoes. Too fast for someone slowed by Choir.

  The sword slashed toward Cole’s neck.

  Cole didn’t step back. He didn’t have to.

  “Ashen Aegis.”

  The blade hit the shield with a violent hiss. Green flame spread across the barrier, crawling, trying to eat through the line in the sand.

  Cole felt the pressure. The Aegis held, but it held the way a door held against someone kicking it. It wasn’t effortless anymore. Devin’s magic had teeth.

  Devin leaned into it, trying to force the blade through, eyes narrowed with hateful focus. The air between them shimmered. Cole could feel the heat against his face.

  Cole raised his Crozier slightly, calm even as his body registered danger.

  “Black Halo Lance.”

  Shadows sharpened around Devin’s feet and behind his legs, then turned into seraphic black light that stabbed toward him.

  Only Devin’s free hand snapped up.

  A shield of eldritch fire flared into place. Acidic green light exploded for a second, and Cole’s lance deflected with a crack, carving a black line into the ground as it struck elsewhere.

  Cole’s eyes narrowed further.

  So Devin had defense too.

  Actual skill.

  Cole moved.

  He began to stalk around Devin, circling, forcing the man to turn, forcing him to manage spacing. He didn’t rush in and swing his staff. That wasn’t the fight.

  The fight was control.

  Devin tracked him, sword held ready, flame rolling off it in waves. His anger was visible now, in the tightness of his jaw, the way his eyes stayed locked.

  Small skeletons flashed through Cole’s mind.

  Cole’s rage remained quiet and usable.

  “You’re not so tough,” Devin snarled.

  The insult wasn’t for Cole. It was for Devin. It was what men said when they needed to convince themselves they still had power.

  He held up a hand, and a ball of crackling dark green flame formed there. It was denser than the whips he’d thrown earlier. This one had weight. It hissed and popped.

  He hurled it.

  Cole watched the arc, evaluated it in a split second, and didn’t bring up his shield.

  It went wide.

  It missed him by several feet.

  “You need better aim,” Cole said, voice flat.

  A wild grin spread across Devin’s face.

  Satisfaction. He’d been waiting for Cole to say exactly that.

  “Or perhaps you need better awareness of your surroundings, asshole.”

  Cole’s gaze snapped sideways.

  The green fire had hit a car.

  The flame clung to the metal. It crawled along the hood, slipped through a crack, and Cole saw it vanish beneath the chassis.

  Heat built immediately, fast and wrong.

  Cole’s authority stat tightened in warning, sharp and urgent. A clear message in the way his body reacted, the way his instincts screamed.

  Cole’s eyes widened.

  The car was going to explode.

  Any moment.

  And Devin was still smiling.