“That’s the only door with a guard. My money is on that one being Chuan Ren’s cell. Ouch. Wrath demon,” Jim whispered as we huddled together peering around a corner at a door in front of which a human-looking guard sat—a huge human-looking guard, one that, were it actually human, would probably be a multimillion-dollar star linebacker.

Jim eyed me as I sank to the ground with an inaudible moan of dismay. “Agathos daimon. A wrath demon.”

“Yeah, nasty business. I don’t suppose you’ve ever dealt with one before?”

I shook my head.

“I hate to say it, but you’re on your own here,” Jim said with sickening cheerfulness. “I might be able to harm a lesser demon, but a wrath? Nuh-uh. Those guys are death on two legs.”

“I know,” I said, thinking frantically while keeping an ear cocked for anyone who might choose to stroll down the corridor in which we crouched.

Wrath demons, for those of you who aren’t bound to a demon lord, are the first lieutenants in a demon lord’s legion of minions. If you think of the worst qualities of various mass murderers, psychopaths, dictators, and sadists, and roll them all together into one beefy package of just about indestructible bulk, you’d get a pale approximation of a wrath demon.

And lucky me, there was one standing between Chuan Ren and my future.

“There’s only one way we’re getting past that door, and that’s to take out the wrath demon. Right. Jim, you’re going to be the distraction.”

“Me?” it yelped, its eyes huge. “It’ll destroy my gorgeous form in about two seconds flat!”

“No, it won’t. You belong to another demon lord, and you know the rules about demons destroying each other—it’s grounds for extermination. Just pretend that Aisling is here, and she sent you down on some errand or other.”

“That’s a first-class demon!” Jim protested. “I can’t talk to it! I’m only sixth class.”

“There’s nothing in the Doctrine that says you can’t. Just come up with some story that will buy me a couple of seconds.”

The demon made a face. “Even if I do come up with a story, it’s not going to believe me. Bael wouldn’t let me wander around without supervision.”

“It doesn’t have to believe you, it just needs to be focused on you for a few seconds while I slip past it.”

Jim looked skeptical. “Wrath demons can see shadow walkers, you know. They can even see into the shadow world.”

“But not very clearly. If you hold its attention, I can slip into the shadow world and get by it into Chuan Ren’s cell.”

“Get in, maybe,” Jim admitted grudgingly. “But how are you going to get out?”