The Devil’s City (Hidden Legends: Prison for Supernatural Offenders #5)

Chapter One

Freedom had never been a privilege afforded to a guy like me. All my life, I’d been scraping by with the bare minimum, taking only what I needed to get by. I’d been really fucking good at it, too, but that life was over.

Now, the entire world was mine for the taking. Anything I desired, I could have.

And why not? I was a freaking demigod, and no one was going to stop me— not even the Warden. We’d escaped his prison, and we were finally free.

I held tight to my Familiar's scales as the wyvern flew high above the French nature reserve, where my friends and I had been hiding for the past two weeks since our escape from the Darke Institute. The wind whipped through my hair, and my Air magic buzzed throughout my body in exhilaration.

This was true freedom. There wasn’t a soul around for miles, and I was completely surrounded by my elements. Earth and Air magic pulsed through my veins, and the setting sun touched my skin.

Hold on tight, Charlie, Oberi stated through our telekinetic bond.

He should know me better by now. I spread my arms out wide and let out a gleeful laugh as air rushed by me. Oberi dove downward, and my stomach leapt into my throat.

“Wahoo!” I cried as I plummeted toward the ground. I relished in the high. I’d never felt anything quite like it.

Oberi shifted his weight, and we leveled out over the treetops. He pumped his wings, pulling us higher into the air. I squeezed my legs against his form and held tight to the spines on his back. Oberi flipped through the air, and I laughed as my stomach flopped in my abdomen.

“Again!” I shouted over the roar of the wind.

As you wish, Oberi said. He was having just as much fun as I was.

Oberi reared his head upward and tilted his wings. We flipped over backward… and I loosened my grip. I slipped off his back, and although my heart hammered as I fell through the air, I’d never been more at peace.

I tumbled through the open air, my arms spread out wide as I took in the thrilling sensation. I couldn’t see the incoming treetops, but I felt them with my magic. I intended to catch myself with my magic, but instead, a loud cry came from above me, and Oberi plucked me out of the sky with his talons. He tossed me upward, and I landed on his back again.

I’d never gotten to be a kid, or felt that careless sense of freedom other children had growing up. For the first time, no one was going to hurt me for letting my guard down, so I was going to enjoy it as long as possible.

I couldn’t stop laughing as I clutched one of his spines and righted myself again. “That was incredible!”

You were about to become shish-kabobbed, Oberi said.

“Relax,” I told him, patting his scales. “I’m a big boy. I can catch myself.”

Playtime is over, Oberi said. We’re supposed to be scouting.

“Well, what do you see?” I asked. Oberi was our eyes up here in the sky, but I could sense supernaturals with my Elf magic. I didn’t feel a soul anywhere.

Nothing but trees and mountains, Oberi said. No signs of life.

“Perfect,” I replied. If I could live in the wilderness with my friends the rest of my life and no one bothered us, I’d be golden.

We can’t stay here forever, Oberi said, catching my thoughts. Eventually, we have to get back to fighting the war.

Out here in the nature preserve, it was easy to forget the supernatural communities were bombing each other. It had only been two weeks since we escaped the Warden, but already it felt like the man had only been a figment of my imagination— a specter I’d conjured up while being locked up in the Darke Institute for Supernatural Offenders. Of course I knew he was still out there, but some days it was easy to forget a whole world existed outside of this little slice of heaven my friends and I had created.

I spot a white wolf, Oberi reported.

“Let’s see what she found,” I said.

Oberi swooped out of the sky, and we landed in a small clearing. I beamed, still riding the high of the flight. I slid off his back, and he transformed into a husky beside me.

The white wolf approached. “Did Oberi see anything?” she asked.

“Nothing,” I said. “What’s your report, Kallie?”

My friend’s heavy footsteps became light as she transformed back into her sorceress form. “I didn’t pick up anything for miles— not so much as a scent.”

“So we’re still safe,” I stated.

“For now,” Kallie agreed as we started back toward our camp. “But we’re going to have to get moving soon, Charlie.”

“Why?” I asked. “If the Warden was able to find us, he would have by now.”

“That’s only because we have strong wards keeping him from tracking us,” Kallie said. “But we can’t survive out here without resources. Eventually, someone is going to notice us. We can’t keep going into town.”

Our first night here, we’d portaled to the nearest town to steal food. Ava was feeling reckless and wanted to shoplift, and Marcus was too chicken to stay in the woods by himself. Kallie and I were both strong illusionists, and our illusions were enough to give us shelter and clothing, but illusion food had no substance, and we’d starve without real food.

My illusions were getting better. The clothes I created were solid, and they’d stay that way forever, unlike Kallie’s illusions that vanished when she got too far away from them. I’d even learned how to apply color to my illusions, which was significant progress. But any food I tried to create had no nutrition. It really fucking sucked, because I was all too familiar with the ache of hunger, and it seemed like the one thing I couldn’t provide my family with at will.

My days of thieving and conning had come in handy, because at least if I couldn’t conjure real food, I could steal it.

And maybe that was the problem. I’d grown up fighting for scraps, and my relationship with food was far from the best. I never once believed that food could be permanent, and so it was impossible to create it.

I knew how to get resources one way or another, but unlike before, I was no longer starving. I could take whatever I wanted, and not a damn soul on this earth was going to prevent me from doing that.

I’d never had so much fun stealing things than when I did it with my friends. I used to be scared that I’d get caught, but now, I was unstoppable. Ava didn’t care one way or another if we stole shit or not, and I had to admit, her encouraging me to misbehave only made me want to commit more crimes. The Institute hadn’t changed that part of me at all. If anything, it’d only made me a better thief, and my wife was more than willing to be my partner in crime.

Up ahead, I heard a door shut, then the sound of my wife’s wheelchair on a ramp as she came out of the cabin. Our camp was nestled in a tiny clearing, just big enough for a cottage, a campfire, and a picnic table. Kallie had created a nice little cabin with her illusion magic that we’d been staying in, and it was spacious and comfortable. We had a roof over our heads, and really, that was all I could ask for.

“How’s the temperature?” Ava asked in the distance. She must be approaching the campfire, where Marcus was brewing our potion.

“It could be hotter,” Marcus replied. “I need the potion at a rolling boil.”

“Here, let me help,” Ava offered.

I heard the crackle of a fire, then the snap of bubbles.

“Perfect,” Marcus said, though his voice sounded strained.

“Are you hungry?” Ava asked, sounding concerned. “We have a few extra rations.”

“No,” Marcus answered, almost too quickly. “Save it for the others. Charlie and Kallie will be hungry when they get back.”

“You haven’t eaten all day,” Ava pressed. “There’s enough for?—”

“I said I’m not hungry!” Marcus snapped.

“All right,” Ava huffed, and I knew she had to be rolling her eyes. I heard the rustle of a bag, then a gasp.

A twinge of agony rippled up my back, and I knew instantly it had come through our bond. The pain ebbed slightly, but Ava had failed to hide it from me. She was powering through and using her healing magic to help with the pain of dealing with her spinal injury, but it wasn’t always enough.

Kallie grabbed my arm, and I stopped in my tracks. She pulled me behind a big tree and lowered her voice. “Charlie, they’re getting worse. We need to make a decision.”

“You’re talking about leaving,” I stated flatly.

“We have to do something,” Kallie pressed.

It felt like an impossible ask. I’d never felt safer than I did in this forest, shielded from the world by these trees and encompassed by my element. Here, my wife had a warm bed to sleep in every night, and my Familiar could roam free. The last thing I wanted to do was leave. No one would bother us here. Everything would stay perfect.

“Charlie,” Kallie prodded when I didn’t say anything. “We can’t keep hanging around. Marcus is on the edge of losing it because he doesn’t have his antidepressants. If he’s not brewing that potion, he’s in bed, and it’s only getting worse. Ava’s off her bipolar meds, not to mention she’s out of painkillers. That’s dangerous for both of them, because Ava quitting her lithium and Marcus stopping his SSRI’s abruptly could really hurt them. Ava’s healing magic is only enough to prevent the worst side effects, but if she doesn’t get back on something soon, she’ll start having withdrawals or she’ll go completely manic, not to mention Marcus is already showing signs of a depression relapse. None of us want him to get suicidal again. We need to go find some medication for both of them. And if you and Ava want to keep getting it on like you do, you’re going to need a new dose of birth control.”

I groaned. “Okay, fuck. I don’t need a lecture on safe sex.”

“You do need it if it’s going to get you to move,” Kallie insisted. “I know you were on birth control at the Institute, and that it was specially brewed using magic. I know where we can get our hands on more.”

“If we run, we can’t ward ourselves from the Warden,” I argued. “Wards don’t work that way. They’re stationery, so our wards are the only thing keeping him from finding us right now. Besides, we don’t know where the next key is, so why are we talking about leaving when we don’t know where we’re going next?”

“We’ve been here too long. We need to move to another isolated location,” Kallie argued. “Wards or not, the Warden will eventually track us down.”

“Okay, so let’s do that forever, so we can’t be found,” I said, completely serious.

“You can’t keep living your life only looking ahead for the next couple of days.”

“Why not? It’s worked before.”

“Look, you can sit around and convince yourself that running is the only way to survive, but we all know what will happen if we don’t find those keys,” Kallie said. “What happens when you die and you’re trapped in the in-between forever, just like all the other souls, because you never opened the Elven Gate? We can’t do nothing while the Warden is taking over the world. I know you like it here, Charlie. But you have to decide once and for all if you’re going to lie down and take it, or if you’re going to go after the keys.”

I rubbed my face. “We can’t go anywhere, anyway. Moving is risky without the anti-tracking potion, and Marcus hasn’t finished it.”

“I know we should wait, but I don’t think we can any longer,” Kallie insisted. “Not when it comes to their meds, at least. These two need some happy pills.”

I hated to even consider Kallie’s argument, because all I wanted to do was keep my friends safe behind our wards, never to face the Warden again. But they weren’t safe if they weren’t getting the medical care they needed. I turned my attention back to my wife. In the distance, I could hear her rifling through papers. She’d barely taken her eyes off the files we’d stolen from the Institute since we got here. We’d been studying what the Warden knew, so we could accurately predict where he was going and how to face him. It was a long, arduous task that I could tell was weighing on Ava-Marie. Even from here, I could hear the quiet moans of discomfort as she shifted in her chair.

A ripple of pain slipped through our bond, and it felt like someone had lit my spine aflame. I grabbed the trunk of the tree to keep from falling over. Ava usually shielded her injury from me, but the fact that she couldn’t anymore was telling. She was in far more discomfort than I could fathom, and the only reason she was getting by was because she was so used to being in pain.

“All right,” I agreed. “We need to come up with a plan.”

“Let’s go talk to the others,” Kallie suggested.

We approached the camp. Ava immediately slammed our bond shut when she heard us approaching. She hadn’t realized we’d been in the trees, or that I’d felt her pain only moments before. It wasn’t that she was trying to hide it from me. Rather, she didn’t want me suffering alongside her, because no matter how much of her pain I felt through our bond, I couldn’t take it away from her.

“How was the flight?” Ava asked, keeping her voice even.

“It was nice,” I said, but the high I’d felt had vanished. Now I was more worried than anything. To steady my hands, I approached Rishi, who was lounging on the picnic table atop the files Ava was studying. I stroked the cat’s fur, and he purred under my touch. Alette fluttered by and landed in my hand. Sprigs quickly joined her, tickling my fingers with his spindly legs. The sentient twig climbed atop the moth, and he gave a tiny cry before she took off, fluttering him around the campsite.

“The perimeter is clear,” Kallie reported. “How’s the research going?”

Ava shuffled papers around. “I found a file detailing the Warden’s experiments. He’s somewhat cryptic with his notes, almost like he was intentionally hiding details in case anyone came across them. But from what I can gather, stealing our powers and becoming a demigod himself is only the first step in his master plan. With enough power and inferichite, he should be able to make demigods out of anyone.”

“So he’s building a demigod army?” I asked roughly.

“In theory, he could,” Ava said. “He’s limited by inferichite, though, because it takes so long to grow.”

“He’s got plenty,” I stated. “Now that the Institute is destroyed and we escaped, he has no reason to leave the inferichite perimeter around the property. He could’ve dug up all those crystals to reuse.”

“Yes, but now they’re his weakness, too, since he’s a demigod like us,” Ava pointed out. “Just being around inferichite is going to slow him down.”

“Slowed down or not, he’s still got to be going through with the ceremonies,” Kallie said thoughtfully. “We already know he’s had demigods working for him for a while, though I think we can reason that Esther and Mad Dog are both natural-born demigods. How many more do you think he’s created by now?”

“And who?” I added.

Ava flipped through a few more papers. “I’m not sure. From what I can tell, the ceremony won’t work on just anyone. The subject has to be strong enough to withstand a demigod’s power. He killed a lot of people running his experiments, and he’s surely killing again. But whoever he’s recruiting, they surely have to be as loyal and crazy as Esther and Mad Dog?—”

A sizzling sound cut her off, and we all whirled toward the fire.

“No!” Marcus exploded. “No, no, no, no, no!”

His voice grew with intensity with each passing word. It sounded like his potion had boiled over. No one had quite forgotten how he’d gone psychotic the night we broke out of the Institute. We’d all been a bit on edge, hoping it wouldn’t happen again.

Kallie was right— he really needed his meds.

“Marcus, calm down,” Ava insisted. “I’ve got this.”

The temperature around us dropped, and the sizzling stopped. Ava had used her Fire magic to kill the campfire and stop the boiling.

Marcus began pacing back and forth. “This is all wrong. It’s not working!”

“What’s the problem?” Kallie asked. “Maybe I can help.”

“You can’t come along and fix this with your false realities and illusions!” Marcus raged. “We need better ingredients— real ingredients.”

Marcus wasn’t acting like himself. He didn’t usually yell at her about things like this. He was losing his patience with Kallie, and that was telling of how low he felt. He definitely was getting depressed.

“Hey, I’m good for more than just my illusions,” Kallie snapped. “Get me a list. I’ll get whatever you need.”

Marcus scoffed. “From where? I need magical plants, Kallie. In case you haven’t noticed, they aren’t exactly bountiful in this stupid forest.”

Kallie walked over to Marcus, and his footsteps came to a halt as she shook him. “Marcus, I need you to pull yourself together and get me that list. I know a fae apothecary not far from here. Charlie and I will go. I’ll portal us there, and we’ll get everything you need.”

“You’re not going to find what I need at any random apothecary,” Marcus insisted.

“I’ll find it at this one,” she promised.

The message was loud and clear. This wasn’t just any fae apothecary, bound by the rules of Malovian law. She knew about black-market dealers, and she was willing to walk us into danger to get what we needed. It was either that, or eventually let the Warden find us. We really needed this potion if we wanted to move about without being tracked.

“What if someone recognizes you?” Marcus demanded.

“I can disguise us with glamour,” Kallie said. “It’s a simple illusion that will conceal our features. See?”

Magic tingled over my skin and across my nose. I had no idea what I looked like, but judging by the way Marcus gasped, I must’ve looked like a completely different person.

“What if the Warden’s tracking you?” Ava asked nervously. “You’ll be leaving our ward.”

“We’ll be quick about it, before his spells can find us,” Kallie said. “We have to take the risk to get the ingredients.”

“All right. Give me a minute.” Marcus came over to the picnic table. He must’ve conjured a paper and a pen, because he began scribbling something down. The paper rustled as he handed it to Kallie. “I hope this place really has the stuff, because if it doesn’t, we’re fucked.”

“We’ll get it,” Kallie promised again, though I heard uncertainty in her tone. “Charlie and Oberi are with me.”

Magic bloomed in front of us, and Kallie took my hand and led me through the portal. The temperature dropped, and my feet hit solid pavement. Voices came from somewhere nearby, echoing off walls around us. It seemed we were in some sort of alleyway.

“Get down,” Kallie hissed.

The three of us ducked, and I leaned against the cold metal of a dumpster. I knew that feeling all too well, after spending many nights on the streets. I missed the forest already.

“We’re in the alleyway behind the pharmacy,” Kallie said. “They’re closed for the night, but there are cameras on both sides of the alley. I should be able to scramble the images with my magic.”

“The pharmacy?” I asked. “I thought we were headed to a black-market dealer?”

“Two birds with one stone, Charlie,” Kallie said. “The pharmacy is a front for the magical dealings that happen behind the counter. We’re getting Marcus and Ava their meds and the ingredients for the potion. These places are usually warded against magic, so we’ll have to get in the old-fashioned way.”

We could try bartering first, Oberi suggested.

“With what?” I questioned. “They’ll spot an illusion from a mile away.”

“Come on,” Kallie hissed. “We don’t have much time. Oberi, keep watch.”

On it, sister, Oberi said.

Kallie dragged me forward. She pulled something out of her hair and shook out the strands, nearly smacking me in the face. Kallie knelt beside the building, and the lock wiggled as she stuck her bobby pin inside it.

“Once I get this open, an alarm will go off,” Kallie said. “We’ll have to disable the alarm system immediately.”

I smirked. Working with Kallie was better than any thief I’d teamed up with in the past. “I’m guessing you know how to do that.”

“You learn security systems really quickly when you’re a vigilante assassin,” Kallie said proudly. The lock clicked, and the door swung open. “We’re in.”

We hurried inside, and Oberi slipped through the door behind us. A keypad beeped as Kallie hacked it to disable the alarm system before it could notify the owners.

“Done,” she announced. “Come on. The pharmacy is this way.”

Kallie led me down the hall, and the air expanded to a huge room, like the grocery stores back home. She picked another lock and disabled the alarm system again. I entered some sort of storage area. I reached out and felt shelves, all lined with bottles.

“You and Oberi find the meds,” Kallie said. “I’ll cover the apothecary and get the ingredients on Marcus’ list, and get you your birth control. We’ll meet back at the exit in three minutes.”

“Got it,” I agreed.

Kallie fled the room, and I heard her footsteps racing down the hall. Oberi was already sniffing around, searching the shelves for the medications we needed. In husky form, he was particularly sensitive to smell, and he didn’t need to read the labels to know which meds Ava and Marcus usually took.

Here’s the lithium, Oberi said, nudging his nose at a bottle on the shelf. I felt for it and gathered several in my arms. He hurried down the aisle and found the antidepressants, along with painkillers.

The bottles were big, at least a quart each. I wanted to take as many as possible, so we didn’t run out. Whatever we didn’t need, I could sell for real cash, so I could make sure my family had whatever they needed. I’d given up drug dealing a long time ago, but I’d do it again if I had to.

That should be it, Oberi said. Let’s go.

I left the storage room, but two bottles slipped out of my arms. I knelt to pick them up, and another one slipped.

Screw this. I went to create a backpack so I could carry them that way.

An alarm squealed overhead, and my heart lurched. Everything happened so fast I couldn’t quite process it. The magic concealing my features disappeared. Oberi barked once, then came the sound of her phoenix cry.

Something’s wrong! Oberi screamed in my mind.

I felt her shift again, and Fire blazed across the bond as she became a Fire unicorn. Shelves knocked over as her form grew, and the smoothness of Water magic filled the bond. Her horn poked me, and I jumped out of the way before I could be impaled by her narwhal horn.

“Oberi, what’s happening?!” I screamed.

I can’t control it! she cried.

The bond shifted again, becoming masculine. I heard the unfurl of leather wings as he shifted. Oberi grew so large that his wyvern scales squashed me against the wall. The ceiling shook overhead, and dust rained down on me. Shelves crushed under his weight. Oberi barely fit inside the store.

The alarm came to a sudden stop. Although the room had gone silent, I could still hear the heavy pulse of my panicked heartbeat in my ears. Oberi shifted again, shrinking to the size of a husky.

“What the hell happened?” I demanded.

Some sort of magic, Oberi said.

“Yeah, I figured that,” I growled. I slung the backpack over my shoulder, the medications rattling around inside of it. “Let’s go, before it happens again.”

I started for the hall to find Kallie, but the sound of a male voice stopped me.

“You’re not going anywhere,” he sneered. He spoke in a Malovian accent, so he had to be some kind of shifter. “Hands in the air, or your girlfriend dies!”

Kallie let out a pained cry, as if the shifter had her by the hair.

I went to cast a battle spell, but Oberi barked. He’s got a dagger to her neck!

“Charlie!” Kallie cried, causing me to hesitate. She knew all too well what I’d do to this guy if given the chance. “If we kill him, we’ll attract attention from the whole supernatural community!”

“The glamour’s gone,” I seethed. “Better to leave no witnesses.”

“Kill me, and she dies with me,” the shifter threatened.

Kallie could kill him in a heartbeat, but she was right. If we left a trail of bodies, other supernaturals would come after us. We had to get out of this clean, and without anyone on our tail.

“You think you can steal from me?” the shifter said with a laugh. “Some thieves you are, casting magic in my shop. My spells have revealed you for what you are.”

I realized that I’d fucked up. Kallie had said we couldn’t cast magic to get through the wards. I didn’t realize a simple illusion spell would set things off, as it wasn’t an outright attack. I mentally kicked myself for the stupid decision. The spell had stripped us of our glamour and forced Oberi to reveal all five forms, all for a dumb backpack.

I had to find a way to get through to this guy, because we weren’t leaving here without our stuff. I didn’t care if Kallie thought we couldn’t leave bodies behind. I would if I had to.

“Please, sir,” I said sadly, throwing in a voice crack for show. When you wanted to run a con, you had to play to what was important to the person you were trying to fool. Hopefully this guy had a shred of empathy. “We don’t mean anyone any harm. My wife is in a wheelchair, and in a lot of pain. We have nothing left, and we just want to help her. Don’t you have a family? Wouldn’t you do anything for them?”

He didn’t seem to care. Instead, he scoffed and said, “You think I’d believe a sob story like that? I should be turning you into the authorities right now!”

“So why aren’t you?” Kallie asked.

“Because I’ve seen what you can offer,” he practically sang. “I’m willing to forgive you for trespassing and sell you whatever you want, in exchange for one of those wyvern scales.”

“What do you want me to do? Just pluck one off his back?” I sneered.

“If you don’t want me turning you into the authorities, you will!” he demanded.

“That’s a rip-off,” Kallie spat. “One wyvern scale is worth a hundred times what we’re here for!”

“You destroyed my entire pharmacy!” the shifter roared. “I think it’s a fair trade.”

“Or I could just kill you and walk out of here,” I said with a shrug. Screw conning the man. I was ready to get this over with.