Free The Demon's Covenant by Sarah Rees Brennan Page B

“The messenger who came to see me said that Gerald might have invented something like a second sigil. A mark to give him more power. How much stronger is the Aventurine Circle?”
    â€œDon’t worry,” said Alan. “They’re strong enough.”
    They passed under the shadow of the trees that marked their entrance into the north side of the city. Alan glanced up at them, the branches heavy with their dark green summer armfuls.
    â€œThese used to be called dancing trees.”
    Mae smiled. “I didn’t know that.”
    Alan’s smile flashed back at her, brighter than the red, setting sunlight that sifted through the leaves and glanced brilliantly off his glasses. “Yes, they used to hang people in them and leave them up in the branches. Sometimes in pieces. Then in the wind the pieces would—”
    â€œOkay, I get it,” Mae said hastily.
    â€œOh,” said Alan in a different voice. “Sorry about that. I just thought it was interesting.”
    Mae wondered if that was how Alan dealt with terribleand frightening truths, how he dealt with Nick: by making even nightmares come to life a subject of intellectual curiosity.
    â€œWouldn’t it be more convenient,” she began instead, “wouldn’t it be simpler, rather than getting in touch with this Celeste woman, if Nick just dealt with Gerald and the others?”
    Her shoes hit cobblestones as their conversation crashed into silence. She kept walking; after the first glance she looked at the sandstone walls and not Alan’s tightly controlled face.
    â€œHow do you think he’d deal with them?” Alan asked at last, his voice a thread strung taut enough to snap.
    â€œWell,” Mae said, and thought of her own hands covered in hot blood. The words died on her lips.
    Alan said it for her. “He’d kill them all.”
    â€œThey’re murderers.”
    â€œ
They’re
not my concern,” Alan answered. “Walk me through this plan of yours. So we ask Nick to kill them all. He does it. Mind you, I’m not entirely certain he could do it.”
    â€œI thought demons were the ones with all the power,” Mae said. “That’s why magicians give them innocent people to possess and destroy, isn’t it? I thought that was the whole point of demons.”
    They went right down another narrow street, this one with shop fronts fitted into the old sandstone buildings.
    â€œThink of magic as like electricity,” said Alan. “Nick’s power is like lightning in the sky. It’s powerful, it can strike the ground and burn everything it touches, but you couldn’t use it to turn on a light or iron a shirt. The magicians are conduits. Through them, the magic can be transformed into something smaller but often a lot more useful.”
    â€œSo Gerald wasn’t lying. Nick could use Jamie as a channel for his power. It would help him to have a—a pet magician.”
    â€œYes,” Alan admitted. “But Nick’s too proud to come to anyone for help, even if he needed it. And he doesn’t. He’s not hurting for power, and it’s not why we came here.”
    â€œI didn’t think it was,” said Mae. “I know better than that. Gerald might think so, though. And that’s interesting.”
    Alan’s eyes narrowed thoughtfully, as if seeing things from a different point of view. Then he nodded, and Mae felt a pleasant little sense of accomplishment, like she’d been working on mathematical problems with a very bright partner and had found one answer before he could.
    â€œSo let’s say Nick kills them all,” said Alan, and the slight warmth that had gone through Mae was followed by a chill. “Do we stop there?”
    â€œI don’t understand.”
    â€œDestroying the magicians would be a good thing to do,” Alan remarked distantly. “I’d be pleased. Next time somebody came to me for help