Page 66 of Hell Bent

“Because you’d feel guilty.”

“Because I like you!” Alex shouted. She forced herself to lower her voice. “And yes, I’d feel guilty. I rescue you, you rescue me. That’s what you said, remember?”

“So if something goes wrong, that’s what you do.”

Dawes cleared her throat. “We do need someone.”

Mercy stuck her hand out. “Mercy Zhao, roommate and bodyguard.”

Dawes shook it. “I … Pamela Dawes. Doctoral candidate and…”

Alex sighed. “Just say it.”

“Oculus.”

“That’s a really good code name,” said Mercy.

“It’s my office,” Dawes said with as much dignity as she could muster. “We’re not spies.”

“No,” said Alex. “Espionage would be too easy for Lethe.”

“Actually,” Mercy said, “there’s speculation that the term spooks for CIA operatives originated from so many recruits coming from Skull and Bones.”

Alex laid her head down on the table. “You’re going to fit right in.”

“Just tell me where to start.”

“Don’t get excited,” Alex warned. “We haven’t even figured out how the Gauntlet works or if we’ve got this whole thing wrong.”

Dawes gestured to the blueprint of Sterling. “There’s supposed to be a circuit, a circle for us to complete, but…”

Mercy studied the blueprint. “It looks like you’re headed around the courtyard.”

“That’s right,” said Dawes. “But there’s no way to complete the circuit. The path dead-ends at Manuscripts and Archives.”

“No, it doesn’t,” said Mercy. “Just go through the University Librarian’s office.”

“I’ve been in that office.” Dawes gave the blueprints a firm tap. “There’s a door to Manuscripts and Archives and a door out to the courtyard. The sundial door. That’s it.”

“No,” Mercy insisted. Alex felt like she was watching a boxing match where the fighters threw citations instead of punches. “I don’t know why it isn’t on the plan, but there’s a door behind the librarian’s desk, right beside the fireplace, the one with that funny quote in Latin.”

“Funny quote?” Alex asked.

Mercy tugged on one of the rosettes at her neckline. “I can’t remember what it’s from, but it basically amounts to ‘Shut up and go away, I’m busy.’ The door is easy to miss because of the paneling, but my friend Camila showed it to me. We walked right through. It takes you to the Linonia and Brothers reading room.”

Dawes looked like she was going to jump out of her chair. “To Linonia. Directly around the courtyard.”

Alex hadn’t followed much of their debate, but that she understood. A hidden door. A way to circle the courtyard that wasn’t on the blueprints. “We can complete the circuit. We can finish the Gauntlet.”

“See?” said Mercy with a grin. “I’m helpful.”

Dawes leaned back in her chair and met Alex’s gaze. “You’re Virgil now. It’s your call.”

Alex threw up her hands. “Fuck it. Mercy Zhao, welcome to Lethe.”

What must be understood is that demons are creatures of appetite. So though their powers are virtually without limit, their understanding is decidedly more constrained. This is why they are so easily distracted by puzzles and games: They are most engaged by what is immediately before them. This is also why the creation of material objects out of nothing proves so difficult. Gold out of thin air? Costly in terms of blood sacrifice, but easy enough. An alloy? Slightly more difficult. A complex item like a ship or an alarm clock? Well, you had best have a rigorous understanding of their workings because I can guarantee the demon will not. An organism more complex than an amoeba? Nearly impossible. The devil, my friends, is in the details.

—Kittscher’s Daemonologie, 1933