The demon knocked people aside and slashed others with his claws. I didn’t even need to keep the demon in sight; I only had to follow the grisly trail of fallen and bleeding people.

“What are we chasing?” Phaelan panted. He’d sheathed his rapier. Smart man. Crazy, but smart. The street was too crowded, and he didn’t have a target. I did.

I dragged some air into my overworked lungs. “Purple demon,” I rasped.

“You can see him?”

“Yes!”

“You sure?”

I had plenty of responses to that, but didn’t have time or the breath for any of them. If we survived, I could always smack Phaelan later.

What I thought were ridges on the demon’s back unfolded into a pair of batlike wings, and the thing went airborne above the people crowding the narrow street. I swore, and ran faster.

I caught sight of him again where the maze of buildings emptied into an enormous city square bordered with coffee-houses, pubs, bookstores-places students liked to go between classes. The kids called it the Quad. If the demon wanted victims or hostages, he’d just found hundreds to choose from.

It was a sunny day, midmorning, and the beginning of the semester. The Quad wasn’t just full; it was packed. Hovering above it all, his leathery wings keeping him about ten feet over the unsuspecting students’ heads, was my quarry. The kids felt the whooshes of air from his wingbeats and looked up and around in confusion. They had no clue what was right over their heads and I didn’t want them to know. With knowledge would come fear, and with fear could come a stampede. That did not need to happen.

The demon looked at me and grinned, exposing a mouthful of needle-fine teeth, and gestured with spidery fingers at the bounty spread below him. His for the taking, and the bastard wanted me to know it.

Unless I stopped him.

So that was it. He wasn’t trying to get away; he wasn’t even trying to snatch a student for a snack. Though he wouldn’t mind taking one with him for later. He wanted me to fight him, and he wanted me to use the Saghred to do it.