“I got caught here by Willie, a demon,” she started to explain. “My mother and Eva–and Arachne, I guess–came to rescue me. They got captured and–and I just want us to go home.”
Zagan rolled his neck. Four loud popping sounds echoed through the small cell. “I suppose I might be able to do a small favor,” he said. “After all, I did collect a good amount of information from your soul. Thanks for that, by the way.”
Juliana blinked. Her eyes grew wide as her heart started pounding harder than it had been. “My soul? What do yo–”
“Don’t fret over nothing,” Zagan said with an exaggerated sigh. “It is back, safe and sound, within your body. No harm done. Let us get back to the topic at hand. We were discussing a favor for you.”
Slowly, Juliana nodded. Her mind raced over what exactly Zagan would have wanted with her soul. When had he done whatever he had done to it in the first place?
Probably before she awoke in the prison.
That had disturbing connotations. Had he done something to Shalise as well? Was that why Prax had taken over her body?
No. Situation at hand. Shalise wasn’t here right now and, though she only had his word to go off of, her own soul was fine.
“Can you get us out of here?” she asked in a timid voice.
Zagan hummed. He rolled his neck again. One of his hands scratched at his chin.
All theatrics. Juliana’s heart sank. He was going to say no.
“Pick one.”
Juliana started. That wasn’t a no. Though it might as well be. “One what?” she asked, already knowing the answer.
“One of the people you just named while explaining your situation.”
As expected, she thought with a nod. That might be as good as nothing at all. Still, she closed her eyes to concentrate.
If she picked her mother, herself, Eva, and Arachne would all still be stuck down here. The moment her mother recovered–if Zagan even dropped her off somewhere where she could get help–Juliana knew that she would be back. They would be back at square one.
And by then, Willie would likely have figured out how to keep her from summoning Zagan again. Even if she did summon him, Zagan himself would probably kill her.
No. Her mother wasn’t a good choice.
Juliana ruled out herself without hesitation. She couldn’t just run away and leave them behind. They had all come for her.
Eva was the most promising candidate. She could figure out something.
Probably.
Juliana frowned with a furrowed brow.
Maybe not. She had just jumped into Hell after Juliana without any visible plan. Juliana could hope that she would learn from her mistake and come up with something better, but it might not be enough. And Arachne had just let her do it, even following after her.
Juliana almost laughed at the idea of picking Arachne. That bitch had stabbed her mom. Even if she thought it was necessary to get them out, Juliana wasn’t about to forgive her that easily.
Besides, she probably had the same problem that Genoa suffered from. Namely, she would be rushing back in to save Eva, getting caught in the process.
No. Definitely not Arachne.
“Alright,” Juliana said. “I’ve made my choice.” She was feeling quite smug with herself in spite of the situation, though she tried not to let it show on her face. It was probably the choice Zagan wanted her to make anyway. Some secret test of character.
Taking a deep breath, Juliana opened her mouth.
“Willie.”
“The demon of this domain?”
“The same,” Juliana nodded. “If you’ll only get one of us out of here, I’d like it to be him. Preferably in a body-bag, or the demon equivalent.”
Zagan threw back his head and laughed. It was a full, mirth-filled laugh that almost seemed like it should be coming from Santa Claus. Certain depictions of him, anyway. Despite the jolly tone, the noise edged on her nerves.
It wasn’t something that should be coming from a powerful devil.
The laugh trailed off and Zagan looked back down with a golden glint in his eyes. “You have a bit of a vicious streak, yeah? I like that. Very well, Juliana Laura Rivas, I accept your proposal.”
Juliana let out a long sigh of relief.
“You’ll forgive me if I do not make this into an official contract. As I already have one with dearest Martina, I cannot enter into a second. Nevertheless, I am a demon of my word. Let us see what this talkina can do, shall we?”
He stretched out one hand towards her.
Nodding, Juliana slipped her comparatively tiny hand into his powerful grip and allowed him to help her to her feet. She wobbled back and forth. Everywhere hurt.
Zagan moved his hand to her shoulder and waited until she found her balance.
When he wasn’t threatening to kill her, he could actually be kind of nice.
An incredibly stupid thought crossed her mind for the briefest of moments. Juliana dismissed it so fast that she barely had time to feel both horrified and awed at the idea of Zagan becoming her Arachne. There was no way in Hell that would happen.
With her balance regained, Zagan gave one firm squeeze of her shoulder.
And her world promptly turned inside out.
Starting at the point of her shoulder where his fingers touched, Juliana’s skin started peeling back. Muscle followed soon after. It pulled away from her skeleton, joining her flesh in a sort of prison around her skeleton.
Somehow, she was looking in on her own skeleton. It stood in the bubble of her flesh with her vision on the outside.
The skeleton cracked. Starting from her shoulder, it looked much like a piece of wood being placed in a grinder. Bone shards flew off somewhere behind Juliana’s vision. Thick red marrow followed after.
Skeleton mostly out of the way, Juliana could see her own internal organs. Heart, lungs, stomach, brain, it was all there.
But not for long. Like her skin, it flipped inside out, stretching back behind her sight.
As soon as the last of her intestines twisted around and vanished, a thundering crack echoed inside her head.
Juliana collapsed to a hard wood floor, landing in a rancid, steadily growing pool of her own vomit. Shaking as she was, Juliana only had the vaguest awareness of Zagan’s shiny shoes taking a single step away from her.
She caught the tail end of a sigh before finding herself on her feet once more. Her green dress had been fully repaired and not a drop of sweat, blood, or anything marred its cloth. And that was just the dress. She felt much better as well, though there was still a pain in her arm–likely broken–and center of her chest.
Whatever Zagan did, she wasn’t going to complain about the little things.
Looking up at him, Juliana took a step back.
Dark smoke leaked out of the sides of his nostrils, slightly occluding a bright gold glow from his eyes.
“Take care mortal. My patience is not endless. Had your vile liquids touched any part of me…” He shook his head.
The smoke started to disperse and the more subdued glint in his eyes returned as he looked back at Juliana. After tapping his thumb against his chin three times, he waved his hand in her direction.
A flash of movement caught her eye beneath her vision line. Juliana looked down. Her forest-green Victorian period dress had changed to a black and gold miniskirt. Very mini-miniskirt.
Juliana gripped the hem and pulled downwards. Her movements stopped with a jerk as she realized her top was connected to the skirt. And it didn’t go much higher than the skirt went down. Juliana didn’t have much chest to speak of, but she wasn’t quite ready to show it off to Zagan all the same.
Instead, Juliana just curled inwards, trying to cover as much of herself as she could. Not even Eva wore skirts this short. She shook her head. I’m alive. A little embarrassment is nothing compared to that, she tried to tell herself.