My chisel cut into stone, slig through the quartz with difficulty as I tapped it slightly with the hammer. Bits of the crystal fked as the diamond head of the chisel carved out a curving path, f the basis for the circle.

  The stone room I was in had aire sheet of crystal c the floor and little else, only a sial door that led to the Bck Fme hideout. I’d brought several nterns inside, hanging them around the room to give enough light.

  I wiped some sweat off my brow, both from how hard it was to carve and the tension of knowing even a small mistake could lead to my death. Quartz was one of the few materials that could el the energies we needed without breaking, but also fked when you applied force with the right tools. Such as the diamond-tipped chisel in my hand.

  I wished I could use wood, paper, or even dle wax, but knowing the amount of power that would e through the other side, they’d burst alight or explode the moment I activated the circle.

  The Imp was still sleeping, which, as much as I hated to admit it, was an issue. I’d need him to check over my work and make sure I’d drawn this all correctly. Also, w with only one eye was very different from two.

  Or we could just risk all dying a horrible and perverse death. Knowing the demon who’d been responsible for my birth, that robably the case.

  My mother had been very insistent on him being the perfect gentleman during their time together, although I had my doubts about how truthful that all was. She’s hidden things from me like all parents do with their children.

  Unfortunately, thanks to a very rge amount of alcohol one evening, I’d gotten aire earful of things involving the two of them I wao hear evehan the series of torturous deaths he’d inflicted on people while on the mortal pne.

  I shuddered at the memory, trying to banish those thoughts from my mind. All it did was draw the attention of the only other person in the room.

  Versalicci’s lecture for Melissa had not taken long since she’d shown up right after. Versalicci had assigned her to watch over me as I worked and, mostly, had not distracted me too much from chiseling the quartz.

  At least she seemed determio get ba my good graces. Versalicci probably hadn’t told her I was not a member of the Bck Fme any more.

  It took about ten minutes int the diagram for the first question to e.

  “So…you’re trying to summon the boss’ father?”

  “No,’ I said, etg out a groove into the stonework. “Even if I had enough power to, summoning a duke of the hells would be a death sentence for all of us the moment the seals broke. T him through, we’d either need aire team of Diabolists w in unison, all of them with ten times my experiehat or a lot of sacrifices te that gap, and even if I was alright with that, we’d not have enough.”

  Melissa rolled her eyes. “Well, you aren’t in charge, and it’s not like this city is g in people who deserve to die, so how many would we need?”

  “Two-thirds of the city’s popution, give or take a few thousand.”

  Almost a minute of chiseling passed before Melissa regained her voice. I fihe inner circle and started on the lines linking the two.

  “You’re---you’re joking,” she said weakly. “That’s…must be millions of people.”

  “5.815 million,” I said. “You might bridge that a little with some people being signifit enough to t for ten or a hundred souls, maybe even a few thousand with some of them, but it doesn’t adjust the math too much. I suppose if you could capture Her Majesty and bring her here, that might be a signifit enough sacrifice, but I wouldn’t reend that. Too likely t through Her Most Profane Majesty instead.”

  “How?” she muttered, seeming lost.

  “Close, personal e. Our current queen killed Her Most Profane Majesty, and that leaves marks in the world. Marks that our former queen could use to pull herself out of hell instead of the intended devil.”

  “No, I meant, how could it take this many souls? Surely it ’t be this hard to summon the Duke if he’s your and the boss’ father.”

  “They summoned parts of him. Little ks keeping his full sciousness, but nowhere near his power. If he had been here in his full form when he’d ceived the both of us, we wouldn’t be Infernals. And before you ask, the reason we aren’t summoning a piece is any manageable piece would be too powerful for the gover not to notid also not strong enough to hahe problems that would cause. We are just going to kno his door instead and see if he’s willing to talk to us through a window.”

  And hope that talking was all he wao do.

  “To think the boss’ father is that powerful,” Melissa mused to herself.

  “He’s not that powerful,” I said. “Retive to the demons that make their way here? Yes, if only because one of the thirteen kings would probably cause reality to break apart on a local level if they came through. And they’re just the rulers of our hell.”

  Hell was, as far as anyone could tell, infinite, and the only thing known for certain was that parts of it were lio parts of the material phe thirteen kings were rulers of the part lio this geographic region.

  Mind you, thinking of entities more powerful than them existing did not do anyone any good. If sutities broke through, everyone was already dead.

  "About earlier, I am..."

  "Don't bother," I said. "The only reason you have frettiing me up is my e to Versalicci. Would he still have scolded you for disobeying his instrus? Yes, but he made sure that the person this lesson was tered on was one where you'd immediately realize how screwed you would be if he wasn't you his idea of mercy. Think on that."

  The sileretched on as I fihe circles and their eg lines, now w on the runes drawn iween. I stopped occasionally, sulting the book I’d gotten from Versalicci. Five years on, my memory of the ritual circle was still quite good but o take any risks.

  Versalicci was fetg the ingredients for the ritual itself, leavio finish this. I worked on the symbols, cutting intricate patterns into the stone.

  By the time I finished, it must have been a couple of hours ter as I carved the st symbol into pce. I didn’t know how much time had passed as I examined each symbol and pared them to the books. I’d added more, extending the number of circles to add them in. Further tightening of the hole I was about to drill through reality.

  Versalicci still wasn’t here.

  I turned my attention to Melissa. “You don’t have the talent, do you?”

  That flustered her, although she’d been fidgeting since our earlier versation ended.

  “Why would you think that?”

  I sat down across the Quartz from her. “Versalicci loves his tests, loves his little lies and intrigues. You didn’t know I was his sister. I doubt you knew I was a diabolist. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have bothered beating me up. But most importantly, because I ’t think of another reason to have you in here except to watch this in practice.”

  “Or he sent me io monitor you,” she replied.

  “There will be watchers keeping ahrough the walls like during our ‘private’ versation. If you have it or not, there is one universal piece of advice all Diabolists would be served by learning. Don’t.”

  As if ohe door opened, Versalictering with reagents piled high.

  Definitely on cue. I was being watched.

  “Ah, sister, busy terrorizing one of my employees? Melissa, you go back to yur duties.”

  The other infernal left, shutting the door behind her while Versalicci put the reagents on the floor.

  “I’ll he Imp awake to che this. Which means another cow,” I said.

  “Hungry little demon, isn’t he?” Versalicci said, and at the same time, a familiar voice spoke in my mind.

  First her and now you with puttio sleep! The Imp howled inside my head. Demons do not sleep, cast-off of my lord! Do you know how stra feels?

  “I’ve had a few others pin to me about it. Holy, I believe more sleep will do you all some good. Sister?”

  “Check the circle, Imp. Make sure everything is in pce while I check the reagents. I’ll eat another cow.”

  The varients were mostly reted to the diabolic, that and a few vials of blood as a sacrifice. Less messy and difficult than trying to cut a goat’s throat in the middle of this. Too much ce it would damage the circle.

  “How fresh is this?” I asked, eyeing a curved the shape of a sickle.

  “How fresh do you think, sister? Demons aren’t on. Trade in their reagents is rare, and I don’t have arust to summon anyone in demons, even if they are just Scraelings.”

  The truth, my instine, till I squeezed on the cw. Liar. Scraeling cws degraded the moment you cut them off. It would have crumbled in my fingers if it was older than three years.

  Just another remio rust my instincts around him.

  “The array is bigger than it was in the past,” Versalioted, looking at the symbols.

  She’s added more in the way of bindings and safeguards, the Imp said. Progeny or no, my master will not take kindly to the amount of bindings reted to straining lust you have added. But the circle itself has no mistakes.

  “Too bad. My circle, my bindings. Unless you obje being more focused than he would normally be?”

  Versalicci raised an eyebrow. “It’s never been a problem before. I don’t see the point is all.”

  His ition will fun regardless of your shag of him!

  “I didn’t know how dangerous this was before,” I said back. “I want as little risk as possible that parts of him leak through the barrier, especially when it’s you and me alone in here.”

  “An unfounded , but I’ll not question this. Is it ready, then?”

  I finished looking through the materials he’d brought. Everything seemed in pce. I would not ask for the source of the blood and some of the other reagents. Don’t ask questions you don’t want the ao.

  “It is. I’m assuming you’ve warded this pce to tain Diabolic traces?”

  It wouldn’t do to light a bea for the Imperial gover if only because they’d be here before I could escape. Except for my as at Lady Karsie, nothing I’d done up till now would be rge enough for them to detect. This, though, opening a window to a Duke of the Hells, no matter how small, would have an immediate response.

  I put the various pieces in their pces, the vials of blood in one hand.

  “Let me peer in here, make sure the room is safe to do this in,” I said.

  “Shouldn’t you have dohat first? And I already tell you, nothing ihat will interfere with a little unication ritual.

  I ignored him, iaking a breath and closing my one eye.

  I hadn’t wao do this, but trying to do this blind would be insanity. I opened my eye, peering into the are.

  Ten corpses y across the quartz, none of them Infernals, all twitg and jerking. They’d all been tortured, with shallow knife wounds in non-vital areas, and blood leaking all across the ritual circle.

  Huh, this wasn’t as bad as I thought.

  Traces of blood crawled all over the room, ging to walls and floor in humanoid shapes. Echoes of the past, murder after torture. At the far end of the room one was more defined, a roiling shape made of blood and little scraps of flesh, lying down, waiting.

  A spirit waiting to be born, and not a pleasant one.

  I put more diabolism into the quartz, enough in case the spirit interfered. I didn’t have a quarrel with it. Hells, if Versalicci was unaware of the f creature made from the people he’d killed in here, I wouldn’t provide him any hints.

  A quick s of the room showed no ns of spirits. A stone spirit would e through during the ritual, but the ritual would keep them away.

  Spirits would instinctively know what it was. And if a spirit came ihat wouldn’t shy away from a Duke of the Hells, I couldn’t stop it regardless.

  Diabolism came at my call, aided by the Imp. Bits of shadow came at my call, f into a chisel that I set on the quartz’s mirror self.

  I tapped owice, thrice, each time sending fkes flying and a crack developing iructure. Not enough to break, but enough to let things flit past.

  The varients burst alight, fmes eating at them as something strained against the crack. The quartz shuddered.

  “Your blood calls on you, Duke of the Hells,” I said, crushing the vials in my hand. Shards of gss cut into my finger but then closed themselves right after.

  The blood flew for the ter of the quartz, going through the hairline fracture and beyond. It burrowed in, going past the spirits of the dead still lingering in this room.

  A sed ter, those vahe spirit formed out of blood stilled. I closed the eye, then reope, closing my view of the are.

  The quartz breathed, shifting up and down like someone’s lung, a craing in the ter here ierial, traveling across the middle.

  Only to stop at the innermost part of the diagram in any dire.

  Versalicci whistled as he walked the outer breadth of the array, looking down at the split. It widened, only to stop as I put my hand oermost circle. The entire array lit up, red traveling down the lines and into the crack.

  It shuddered again, but the split stopped trying to move. Instead, something slipped out.

  Reeking of sulfur, it pushed out past the crack, f into a cloud of red and yellow particles between me and Versalicci, six dark crimson cores f in the middle of it.

  Mast- The Imp tried to say only for it to choke on its words.

  I kept my hands on the circle, even as the surrounding air heated up. The cloud turned four of the cores towards Versalicci, and two towards me. Versalicci said something, but I could not hear, the inside of my ears like furnaces. Father kept the versation private. Instead, I kept my hands on the circle, even as the quartz heated.

  By now, the ter boiled, a sea of liquid quartz. I didn’t see what y beyond, closing my eyes. My hands burned as the quartz beh them heated. My lungs burhe air itself scorg them. Somethirickled from my ears and eye, but I kept my hands on the circle.

  The cloud plunged into the boilier, disappearing as the quartz stopped bubbling. I didn’t let go until Versalicci came over, nudging me.

  “He’s gone.”

  I lifted blistered hands from the quartz, and tried to get up and say something. Instead, I fell.

  Versalicci dragged me off the quartz before it could burhen sat down beside me.

  “This was supposed to be a lesson. He’s angrier with you than I am, so he meted out punishment. Here, drink.”

  Not having any ability to refuse Versalicci, I took a few swallows of the bottle he passed and immediately felt better. I sat up, looking at the still-melted ter of the quartz square.

  “I believe that settles our business here,” I said, mouth still dry. “I think it’s time for you to fulfill your end of the bargain?”

  I kept a wary eye on Versalicci, hand still grasping diabolic tethers to the Quartz. If he’d only kept me alive to tact our father, now would be the perfect time to kill me. Of course, the moment he gave a hint that way, I’d finish breaking a hole into the wall between pnes. I’d wager whatever demoies crawled through would eat him before the Imperial Gover came here to seal it back up.

  “That it is,” Versalicci agreed, leaning against the door. “Let’s have it here, if yoing to hold that gate hostage.”