“Oh, no, don’t worry,” I said. “I’m not going to abandon you. You’ll have plenty of company…just as soon as I tell your comrades where you are.”

He let me get as far as the front door, then banged his shoulder against the floor to get my attention. I peeked around the bedroom doorway.

“Yes?”

He grunted and gnashed at his gag. I yanked the sock from his mouth.

“Ready to talk?” I said.

“Untie me first.”

I laughed.

“Then no deal. You’ll take what you want and leave me like this.”

“No, I won’t, but since you don’t know me well enough to trust my word, I’ll meet you halfway. I’ll untie your feet now. Then, if I do betray you, at least you can run.”

He let out a stream of obscenities, at least one of which lost something in the translation to English.

“Keep that up and I’ll stick the sock back in.” I cast the lie-detection spell. “Now start talking or I start walking.”

He snarled, but, after a moment, spat out his part of the incantation.

“How can the Nix be caught?” I asked.

Another hesitation, then, “By killing the host body.”

“I know that. But you did it without the sword. How?”

For at least a minute, the only sound was the grinding of his teeth, as he struggled to think of some other way out of this. Finally, he said, “By killing…and yet not killing.”

“I don’t do riddles.”

He leaned back to look up at me. “No? Why? Because they require you to use more than your fists and your feet? Not much in that pretty head of yours, is there?”

“No. Just enough to trick you.”

His eyes narrowed.

“Can we skip the insult toss?” I said. “The sooner I’m out of here, the sooner we’ll both be much happier.”

“She must be killed, but not allowed to die.”

“Deliver a mortal blow, you mean.” I paused, thinking it through. “If the host is still alive, she can jump free. If the host is dead, she can jump free…unless she’s skewered on the end of an angel sword first. But during that time between life and death, she’s stuck, isn’t she?”

Dachev glared at me.

“Yes or no,” I said. “Is she trapped in the host when it’s stuck between life and death?”

“Yes.”

“But how do you pull her out? A spell?”

“No.” He paused then, but I could tell he wanted this over with, so after a moment, he said, “Her spirit starts to separate as the host dies. You’ll see it. At that point, she’s powerless—she can’t transport herself and she doesn’t have her demonic strength.”