Page 34 of Dancing With Demons

Tolmond shoots me a dark, hungry look, and then he’s on his way. A few students linger about in the gardens outside, and I watch them work.

I’ve learned more from watching them than I have from Tolmond since we began. I don’t know if it’s because I’m human, and therefore he thinks I’m more fragile than his demon students, or if it’s because he’s grown to care for me, but he’s never taught me anything like this. They whisper words I’ve never heard, or simply shut their eyes andpull, that strange pull I feel from both within and without at the same time, and then from nothing they createsomething.

I’ve never wanted anything more in my entire life.

Evening storms here are vicious, and the rain goes from a soft, ever-present drizzle into a stinging, angry assault. Even the most studious of Tolmond’s pupils flee indoors, but none dare to enter his private laboratory.

Even I pause at the door. I don’t want to betray Tolmond’s trust, but the magic inside of me is begging to be freed.

“I don’t have a choice,” I tell myself. My voice sounds more firm than I feel, and it propels me forward. Soon I’m inside his strange laboratory, soaking wet from the rain but too fascinated to care.

In fact, it could be an excellent starting point. The students outside summoned fire as though it were second-nature. Surely I can manage to dry myself off a bit.

Right?

The center of the room seems safe enough. All of the specimen jars, reams of notebooks, and odd-looking pieces of equipment are far enough that I probably won’t catch them on fire. Probably.

Everything worth doing has its risks, I suppose.

Tolmond told me that the key to channeling chaos magic is control, but focusing my mind on growing the flowers did nothing. It was only when I freed my mind, turned it towards the magic, and let the magic lead me instead that anything grew.

I suspect humans might channel this magic very differently than demons. Maybe that’s why he’s so leery of teaching me.

And so I don’t think about what I want the magic to do at all. I simply shut my eyes and breathe into it until I can see the sparks of color behind my eyelids. The fine hair on the back of my neck stands on end, and for a terrifying second I am so cold it’s as though I was dropped into a bucket of ice.

Heat slams into me without warning, knocking the breath from my lungs. I’mburning, and I can’t even scream. All I see are swirls of purple and black. All I can taste is smoke.

And then the heat is gone.

I pat my tunic and pants, terrified that I must have caught them on fire somehow, but the only evidence I cast a fire spell is the lingering scent of smoke hanging in the air.

“Much more useful than flowers,” I congratulate myself with a grin.

My limbs feel loose and sated, as though I’ve just spent a night in one of my demon’s beds. I take a deep breath and stretch.

Glass plinks to the floor and breaks, a crash that sends me jumping.

Something skitters behind me. Soon all I can hear is the crashing of glass and another sound, one that turns my stomach in disgust. It’s a soft chittering, almost like a series of clicks, almost like…

“Oh, shit.”

…a horde of dark brown, shining insects as tall as my knee. They click their mandibles, and wet, viscous liquid drips to the elaborately painted tile floor. Chaos magic crackles among them, spurting and popping in dark purple smoke.

Mychaos magic.

“I brought you into this world,” I tell the beasts. “I can take you out.”

How hard could it be to squash several dozens of hungry, predatory, newly created demons that seem to be communicating as some sort of swarm? I just dried my own clothes, and I’m still feeling invincible. I raise my hands to the ceiling andpull. I reach with my mind towards my heart andpush.

Nothing.

Nothing.

“Come on, come on,think.” I climb on top of a desk and send a silent apology towards Tolmond for knocking over an intricate metal device. This move buys me a little time, but my demonic progeny quickly learn how to climb.

Everything on the desk becomes a weapon. I beat them back with thick books and bottles, but there’s only so many items I can use. The other desk is too far away to leap towards, and soon they’ve swarmed atop it, too.

My panic builds the magic inside of me, and I release it, but all that does is sprinkle spindly silver flowers across the floor.