A shuffling sound made me whip my head up to look at the other gulak demons who were all staring at their fallen friend.

Correction. They were all staring at me.

Three of them growled and started toward me.

I backed up, looking for an escape route. If I could lead them away, maybe I could use the divide-and-conquer strategy.

My plan might have worked if one of the ranc demons hadn’t decided to join the fun. He advanced on me, his weapon spewing small white flames. The look on his face told me he was hoping I’d give him an excuse to use the weapon on me. My power was deadly to demons, but it wasn’t any protection from fire.

My back thumped against something hard and cold. I looked over my shoulder at the large glass tank full of dark murky water. Something moved in the water and a black tentacle slapped the other side of the glass. I shuddered, not wanting to know what was swimming in the water.

Water?

There was no time to think. I turned and grabbed the top of the tank that sat on a metal stand and pulled with all my strength. Someone, probably the vendor, shouted for me to stop.

The tank wobbled precariously for a second then crashed to the floor, sending a small wave of water at my pursuers.

The ranc demon was at the front, and he dropped his weapon as a black... thing latched onto his thigh. The creature looked like a mix between a squid and an eel, and it obviously liked the taste of demon if the ranc demon’s screeches were any indication.

The gulaks stopped in surprise and then stepped over the rest of the flopping creatures and came at me.

I dropped and stuck my hands in the inch of water at my feet, ignoring the slimy texture as I summoned the water’s magic. Golden streaks shot from my hands, moving through the water like burning trails of gunpowder. One streak hit each of the four demons. They screamed as my Fae magic, magnified by the water, enveloped them. The ranc demon collapsed first, but the gulaks soon followed. The four of them lay twitching in the water and gasping for air.

I wasted no time. Whipping out one of my throwing knives, I aimed for the remaining ranc demon who still held a weapon on my friends. The blade sank into his shoulder, and he yelped as he lost his grip on the weapon.

I stepped back and pulled out two more throwing knives as the drex demon growled and came at me. His legs were short, but that didn’t slow him down. He bared his teeth and raised his hands, which were covered in venom-filled barbs. If I hadn’t fought one of his kind before, I might have been scared witless at the sight of his towering reptilian form.

Sounds of fighting broke out in the loading bay, but I was too focused on my own fight to worry about my friends. My first knife found its mark in the stomach of the advancing demon and he let out a roar. He yanked it out, but thankfully he didn’t have the opposable thumbs necessary to throw it back at me.

I waited until he took another step toward me before I threw my second knife.

The drex demon made a gurgling sound and reached for the knife embedded in his thick neck.

I used his distraction to strike out at him. My first drex kill in New Orleans hadn’t been a pretty one because I hadn’t known their hearts were located near their stomach instead of in their chest. I knew better this time, and I slammed my palm into his bleeding stomach, sending a powerful jolt into his heart. The demon went down in a heap of scales and claws, and I knew he wasn’t getting up again.

Good riddance.

“Jordan, I think he’s dead.”

I looked at the warriors who had taken out the remaining gulak demons. Jordan stood over the one that had wanted to keep her for himself, her sword buried in his chest. From the numerous wounds on his stomach and groin, she had worked out her aggression over the slave insult.

Whispers drew my attention to the crowd that had amassed behind me. It looked like every demon in the place had come to watch the fight, and none of them looked upset over the dead demons in the loading bay. When I turned fully to face them, fear spread across their faces and, as one, they backed up.

I let out a slow breath and pulled my power back into my core until my hands stopped glowing. I held them up for the crowd to see. “I came only to help my friends over there, and I have no beef with any of you.”

“You... killed them all,” squeaked a sheroc demon wearing a baker’s apron. “What kind of demon are you?”

A vrell demon spoke up bravely. “We did not harm your friends. No one gets involved in gulak affairs.”

“Please, don’t hurt us,” whispered another demon.

I sighed heavily. This wasn’t going how I’d hoped it would. “Listen, I’m not going to hurt any of you. Got it?”

No one spoke.

I looked up at the second floor and found Eldeorin leaning against the railing watching me with an amused expression. “Little help here?”

He grinned and the demons stared at me as my glamour lifted.

“Talael esledur,” said a feminine voice from somewhere in the crowd.

A flurry of whispers spread through the demons, and I heard the same phrase whispered over and over. Whatever it meant, it eased their fears, and they began to look at me with curiosity and reverence. Great, now what?

A thin gray-skinned demon pushed to the front of the crowd. She wore a long blue dress and there was an unusual black tattoo on the left side of her face.

“Hey, I know you.” She was one of the two mox demons I’d freed from Draegan back in Los Angeles.

She smiled timidly. “It is good to see you again, warrior.”

“How are you and your friend doing?”