“And just how the hell am I-”
“Visualize him flowing into the neck of that bottle and it will happen.”
I froze. “Do I have to hold the bottle?”
“Yes!”
Dammit.
“Tell the boys to release him.” Then Tam’s voice turned imploring; Tam didn’t implore anyone. “Raine, I will help you. You can do this. We can do this.”
I felt as if I were about to step off a cliff. I swallowed. “Talon, stop.” I tried to keep my voice calm and rational. “Ease your song away from Piaras and run.”
The kid looked at me as though I had lost my mind.
I wasn’t entirely sure I hadn’t.
“Trust me.”
Talon hesitated, then carefully did as I said. He’d seen me in magical action before.
“Let him go,” I told Piaras. “I’ve got him.”
Piaras couldn’t believe what I was telling him to do. His song faltered and the demon thrashed and lunged. I swore. He thought I was going to use the Saghred. The kid was going to hold that demon and get himself killed to protect me from that damned rock.
“Let him go!” I screamed.
Piaras did and dove behind some overturned tables.
Free of all constraints, the demon roared in triumph and turned on me.
I had the bottle and cork in one hand, and Tam’s power coiled inside me ready to strike.
We were ready for the son of a bitch.
I thrust my empty hand toward the demon, fingers spread, much like Piaras had done. Piaras had only focused a spellsong; I was focusing Tam. My arm shook with the effort and my shoulder was on fire. Tam’s power exploded through my body, my own surging upward to meld with it. Tam’s dark magic rushed up from the deep, primal core of him. My own magic coiled and flared through my body, seeking and triumphantly finding the source of Tam’s power. It was like a well, dark and deep. I dove in headfirst.
The demon’s roar turned to a scream of rage and disbelief, and finally to a thin shriek as Tam’s magic shoved him face-first into the bottle with enough force to knock me on my ass. I shoved the cork in and grabbed the bottle in a two-handed death grip, holding it as far away from me as possible. Purple mist writhed inside.