Page 35 of Daughter of the Dark

“Here, as in, this is where we leave the horse?” Solana peered down the street and pressed her hand to her dagger. It was only mildly warm. “I don’t think—”

Someone pounded on a door. Solana spun around to find Reyes with his fist raised, standing in front of a blue house with yellow, orange, and pink flowers painted on the windows.

“What are you doing?” she whisper-yelled, rushing to grab Reyes’s cloak and yank him back. “It’s the middle of the night! People are sleeping!”

Reyes ignored her and pounded on the door again. “Open up in the name of the king. Failure to comply will result in forced entry and search and seizure. Any damages incurred by inaction will be the fault of the homeowner alone.”

“Reyes, what is this?” Solana caught sight of a curtain folding back in the window next door. Faces peeked through the dark and then disappeared. A tingle of alarm tickled her palms.

The door swung open and revealed a man and a woman, their faces grim and haggard, their eyes burning with tears and determination. Solana had the urge to step back, but Reyes stepped forward. “There’s been a report made that you are harboring demons. We simply need to check the grounds to clear the claim.”

Solana’s mouth dropped open. Harboring muki, in their house? Who in their right mind would do such a thing, and where could they possibly keep it contained? Solana was about to yank Reyes away by the sleeve of his cloak—clearly he was misinformed—when the woman glanced at the man, whom Solana assumed was her husband, and she saw everything she needed to see in one single look.

“Reyes…” Solana whispered, her voice drifting off.

He turned to her, his silver eyes glowing in the moonlight, and placed a hand over hers. “I know,” he said calmly, and that was all. Two words, and then he turned and strode into the strangers’ house, and Solana had no choice but to ignore every alarm bell ringing in her head and follow.

The moment she stepped into the house, her dagger blazed hotter than a pyre. She hissed and snatched her hand back. Wherever it was being kept, it was far enough that the walls of the house had concealed it from her. One of Reyes’s hands went for his sword and the other went out toward the man and woman standing an arm’s breadth away.

“Where?” he demanded of them, voice low.

The woman was crying too hard to do anything but shake her head, her stringy brown hair flying back and forth. The man placed a hand on her shoulder and squeezed comfortingly, the defeat in his eyes more than enough to punch a hole through Reyes’s wariness.

“You have our word that we won’t hurt them.”

“Them?” Solana screeched. She slapped a hand over her mouth and winced. “Sorry,” she said to Reyes.

“Down the stairs, in the cellar,” the man finally said, voice ragged with pain. “Be careful.”

The warning was not comforting, and Solana chided herself for not asking questions, for being agreeable, for leaving Qhilli and the simplicity of the callejon for this utter insanity. People in the callejon didn’t have the space to harbor muki, physically or mentally. The amount of energy that would take was more than anyone could spare.

It was almost as insane as those who worshipped the demons. For the first time, she wondered if the servants might be harboring muki as well. It didn’t matter—it was none of her concern, and she wished this wasn’t either. Three hundred ilyas a week might not be enough, after all.

Still, she followed Reyes deeper into the long house. The wood floors creaked as they walked through the kitchen and down a hall that ended with a paneled cutout in the floor. They would have to open the panel and descend blindly into a dark room where an undetermined amount of muki resided.

Reyes pulled two vials from somewhere in his cloak. Solana hoped there were a few in every pocket. “Quick and quiet,” he said and handed her one. “Inject it deep enough into any part of them, and it should easily subdue them.”

“How deep is deep enough?”

Reyes gave her a look. “Shove it in as far as you can,” was all he said before his fingers were digging underneath the panel and the door was lifting and the total darkness underneath them was on display. Solana sucked in a deep breath and tried to calm her racing heart. She could barely hear anything over the pulse in her ears, but she didn’t need to hear them to know they were near. Her dagger was giving more than enough warning. It wouldn’t surprise her to find burns on her hip at the end of all this.

Reyes descended first, his steps smooth and soundless. Solana followed carefully until the dark swallowed her as well, and then Reyes turned to face her, pointing behind him. The opening above provided enough light for Solana to see that the narrow space beyond the stairs was empty. To the right were a couple of sleeping mats pressed against a stone wall. To the left, the space opened up far enough that the light couldn’t touch it.

The shadows shifted. Reyes saw it and paused, one foot on the ground and one foot on the steps. Solana was still solidly on the stairs and felt more exposed than ever.

They should have run. They should have never come down there. Solana reached for Reyes, ready to tug him out of there with her when the shadows pounced with a screech.

It punched into her chest and stole her breath. There were glossy eyes and wicked teeth and then Solana’s head hit the wall and all she saw were blotches of black. Her arms shot out and pushed against the muki, keeping its teeth from ripping her throat out. It was so small in her hands, and slippery, vicious desperation limning every lunge.

She felt its claws rip into her flesh and screamed. It would tear her to ribbons given the chance. Solana would die down here, in a dank and dark cellar, by the hands of terrifying tiny muki.

“The vial!” Reyes screamed from nearby. She could hear him grappling with his own demon, grunting and cursing as teeth snapped in the air.

Solana’s eyes landed on the small vial an arm’s breadth away. Her arms shook as she held the muki as far from her as possible. She would have to let go and duck at the same time and hope that the momentum would send the muki into the wall. If it didn’t, she would die. If she couldn’t reach the vial, she would reach for her dagger, consequences be damned.

Solana refused to give herself even one moment to hesitate before she was ducking and reaching, the tips of her fingers brushing against the glass until it rolled into her grip.

Between one breath and the next, she whipped around, hands out and the vial extended between them. It caught the muki in the throat, the otherworldly blue glow disappearing as Solana pressed the opposite end. It snapped at the air like a rabid animal. Foam flew from its lipless mouth, and then it simply stopped.