Chapter Eighteen

The food, if you could call it that, was still sitting uncomfortably in the pit of my stomach when they came for us. I made a last stab at negotiation. ‘Look,’ I said reasonably, ‘I have important information to impart. If you could take me to the guy in charge, I’m sure we can sort all this out.’

None of the many demons who were standing in the corridor and gawking at me answered.

‘Or gal in charge,’ I added. ‘If you lot are all about equal rights and it’s a woman who’s the boss, that’s great by me. I’ll talk to her too.’

All I got was silence then one of the demons, somewhat younger than the others, stretched out an inquisitive finger and poked me. He snatched his hand back and cackled. The demon next to him looked at it in awe. I was tempted to lunge towards him and see what effect that had but I had to make sure that none of these demons saw me as a threat. Frankly, from what she’d told me, the threat was the tiny pixie by my side. She was about as far removed from Lexie as it was possible to get.

We were taken to an open doorway. Peering out, I saw row upon row of demons arranged round a large open area where we were no doubt meant to fight. Hoardings, with lethal-looking spikes poking out, were in place around the audience, presumably to protect them from the evil they were here to watch.

There weren’t just Fomori in the crowd; I spotted various different races, including Sidhe. A frisson of fear ran down my spine; they were baying for my blood and I hadn’t even done anything. They hated me because of what I might do, not because of anything I had done. I wanted to march out there with my hands on my hips and tell them they were being ridiculous. Not that they’d hear me; now we were almost at the arena, the noise was deafening.

The surface of the arena was covered in grey-coloured sand. Here and there were dark patches; I knew without getting close that they were blood. I hissed through my teeth. There had been a lot of variables to consider before I crossed into the Lowlands but I hadn’t imagined anything like this.

There was a loud beating of wings. From this angle, it was difficult to see what was happening but the vast shadow of a winged Fomori was visible across the sand. I guessed he was someone important because the crowd immediately hushed. He began to speak, his harsh voice reverberating around the rickety stadium. He was the MC.

‘Hammer time,’ I whispered.

The pixie glanced at me. ‘They don’t let us have weapons,’ she informed me. ‘It’s not meant to be a fair fight.’

I nodded; an explanation at this point would be far too complicated. And pointless. As the MC demon droned on, and the guards at my back bounced around in a buzz of excited anticipation, I raised and lowered myself on my toes and cricked my neck. I couldn’t imagine just how shite things were about to get.