“Long before he was pulled through the daaeman circle by the Duskoff, he had been high in our military, yes. However, he was in our version of prison for crimes against our people at the time he was yanked to Earth.”

Sarafina tried not to imagine how horrible the crimes must have been to land an Atrika in prison.

“He was murdering women and children for pleasure,” Bai answered, perhaps correctly reading her expression.

She screwed her face up. “I didn’t need to know that. So, Ashe was pulled through the demon circle and then what?”

Bai recounted the story, explaining that the demon circles that the Duskoff performed were dark magick, blood magick. The warlocks would gather powerful witches from each of the elements and put them in a charmed circle that pulled their magick and life force from their bodies. That helped create a doorway between Earth and Eudae. Through it, they called a daaeman who would be tied to them for a time to do their bidding.

The daaeman called through always matched the emotional energies of the summoning warlocks. That meant the Duskoff always called Atrika through, not Ytrayi, Mandari, or Syari. In addition, the daaeman who was called through always matched the power of the witches sacrificed in the circle. The more powerful the witches, the more powerful the daaeman.

Erasmus Boyle had been called to Earth from the circle that had killed Mira Hoskins’s mother. Boyle was mega-powerful. “He lived here until he devised a way to open a doorway to return home,” Bai explained.

Sarafina nodded. “He killed six witches to do it.” She knew the story.

Bai nodded. “In the course of his quest to return to Eudae, he developed a fascination with Isabelle Novak, whom he decided to use as the last witch to secure the doorway. In order to win her regard, Ashe kidnapped Stefan Faucheux from Gribben and intended to kill him. However, Stefan convinced him to spare his life. Instead, Ashe and Stefan struck a bargain.”

She lifted a brow. “A bargain?”

“The warlock formed an alliance with Ashe. Ashe intended to return to Eudae, you see, to urge us to form an interdimensional partnership with the Duskoff, using the portal he had opened. Ashe believed bringing us this partnership would convince us to spare his life.”

Sarafina shook her head. She didn’t understand. “But that never happened. Thomas and Isabelle wounded Ashe before he limped over to the other side and was beheaded by the Ytrayi. Thomas and Isabelle were sucked in after him because the doorway was so unstable and they were there when Ashe was killed. They saw it. Ashe never hooked up with the Atrika, so no alliance could ever have been formed between the Atrika and the Duskoff.”

Bai smiled.

Sarafina fought the urge to tell him to stop. The smile of a daaeman was nothing happy. All those teeth didn’t warm her heart.