Prince of Demons 2: The Order of the Black Swan (12 page)

She looked at the ring and said, “Bruce!”

*

Wishes are mysteries filled with shadows and light.

In the third and last part of the Prince of Demons trilogy. Lana seeks out The Order’s best witch tracker for help. She hopes to reunite with Brave for a calmer, quieter courtship, with the goal being a happily ever after for a prince of demons and a Dallas finance manager turned adventurer. That’s when the adventure
really
begins.

L
ana had been
so sure that the problem was calling Brave by his earned name rather than his given name, but nothing happened and she was starting to feel really stupid sitting in her room with a packed duffel rubbing a ring and shouting out names. Still, she wasn’t ready to give it up.

She thought perhaps she was on the right track in thinking that the name she called had to be exact or the spell or program or whatever directed the ring wouldn’t work. So she tried Bruce the Brave. Brave the Bruce. Brave Bruce. When no combination of Brave and Bruce worked, she ventured Hey Asshole just on the off chance.

Convinced that it was a puzzle and that she hadn’t yet tried everything, she mentally went over what Dart had told her again, which then brought Dart into question. Perhaps Dart thought of Brave in terms of his title instead of his name. That induced a string of attempts that began with Your Eminence.

Prince.

Prince Brave.

Prince Bruce the Brave.

Prince of Demons.

After exhausting every idea she threw the duffel off the bed flounced back against her pillow with a long loud, “UGH!”

She stared at nothing for a few seconds and then yelled at the ceiling. “HOW’S THAT FOR MONOSYLLABIC!”

The dungeon of Renagoth Anh

One of Brave’s
subjects, adept in the arts of magic, had spelled the ring so that it was connected to him like an invisible thread that pulled at his solar plexus whenever Lana called his name while holding the ring. For the past hour the repeated pull had nearly driven him insane.

He’d struggled to free the manacles that held his wrists chained to the wall and roared until his ragged vocal chords could no longer make the sound of a whisper. It was painfully ironic that his prison looked almost identical to the one he’d created for his fantasy game with Lana.

He was hungry, dehydrated, and nearly exhausted, but those things were a subcategory of need compared to his desire to respond to Lana’s call. She either needed him or wanted him and he didn’t care about the distinction. All he cared about was staying alive until he could respond.

Lana woke when
sunlight streamed through her window. She opened her eyes and looked at the pattern the light made on the wall across from her bed. She could see the shadow of the crack she’d made when she threw the ring.

The ring.

When she realized the ring wasn’t on her thumb, she scrambled out of bed and began rifling through the covers. It wasn’t in the bed. It had rolled under. Not wanting to take a chance on losing it again, she decided to wear it where she could feel it at all times. She slipped it onto the index finger of her right hand. It was several sizes too large, but she had a plan. She opened her jewelry box and found a small simple ring that fit her index finger. It would serve to hold the larger ring in place.

The sensation of wearing something new settled into her awareness as the ring seemed to mold to her body and spirit.

She sat back down on the side of her bed in rumpled clothes, with sleep in her eyes and a feeling of foreboding. Something was wrong. She knew with every fiber of her being that Brave would come if he could. Knowing that decision making always goes better with caffeine, she put the tea kettle on and used her kitchenette to make some dry toast to go with strong tea with honey. While the water heated and the toast toasted, she brushed her teeth, threw cold water in her face, and brushed her hair down. If Brave did show up, she didn’t want to look a fright.

She cut the toast into dainty squares, for no reason other than the fact that her mother had done it when she was a child and it made her feel comforted and cared for. As she nibbled, she listed possible options and came to the conclusion that, sometimes there’s only one option on the horizon.

*

Don’t stop now. Get
Prince of Demons 3
here
…