Chapter 47
Anastasia Lang's POV
The pale, gaunt demon with its lifeless white eyes still stood before us.
It hadn't made a single move.
"What do you mean we'll have to fight it without magic?" Rosalie asked, frowning.
"Do we even have to attack it?" Azalia said, glancing down at the map.
"It's gone quiet," she murmured, slipping it into her back pocket. "I almost feel sorry for it."
"Feel sorry for us instead," Taylor muttered.
"Its consciousness doesn't seem to be here," Aaron observed. "That's what the lack of pupils suggests."
He kept his eyes fixed on the demon.
"So maybe we don't have to attack it."
He paused.
"But the longer it keeps us here, the easier it'll be for it to take control of our minds... and break us."
"Only if we don't break it first," I said.
Part of me wanted to step closer—to see whether the demon would react.
But I couldn't.
Something deep inside me held me back.
Instead, Aaron took the first step.
The demon didn't move.
He took another.
Then a third.
Still nothing.
We all watched in complete silence.
"Huh." Aaron tilted his head slightly. "Maybe I can get even closer."
He started to take another step—
when a sharp crack echoed through the air.
Soft.
Almost quiet.
Yet it sliced through the silence like a blade.
And it was terrifyingly familiar.
A wave of ice seemed to wash over my entire body.
Bone-breaking.
A second later, Aaron's body collapsed to the ground.
His arms and legs twisted into impossible angles.
His neck bent in a way no human neck ever should.
My whole body froze as my mind finally caught up with what I was seeing.
I didn't want to believe it.
But...
No one could survive a neck twisted like that.
"It wasn't me!" Rosalie cried, horror consuming her. She stumbled toward him, only to stop herself, too terrified to get any closer.
My eyes searched desperately for the slightest movement.
Anything.
The rise of his chest.
A twitch of a finger.
But he remained completely still.
My throat went dry.
He had known too much.
And it seemed the demon had decided to eliminate him—
using Rosalie's own power.
No one spoke.
The world itself seemed to have stopped.
We needed to think.
To act.
To survive.
Yet none of us could tear our eyes away from Aaron.
"I know this isn't the time..." Azalia began quietly before faltering.
"...but it can't block my voice."
I forced myself to breathe.
Slowly.
Trying to keep the fear from swallowing me whole.
"Then sing," Taylor said quietly.
"But I don't know if I'll be able to take control of—"
"Sing."
He cut her off, his voice sharper than before.
"Trust me."
Then, without a word of warning, Azalia began to sing.
The moment her voice reached me, my stomach lurched violently, as if it were trying to crawl up my throat.
I clamped my hands over my ears.
Across from me, Rosalie did the same, but she wasn't fast enough. She turned away from us, unable to suppress a violent gag.
Taylor remained perfectly still.
The scorpion perched on his shoulder stirred, its glowing eyes darting from side to side.
I shifted my attention to the demon.
Its entire body jerked.
Slowly...
it began to blink.
Its pupils hadn't returned yet, but there was no mistaking it now.
Consciousness was coming back.
Life was returning to its face.
I immediately reached for my magic again.
This time, it answered.
Its familiar, bright voice rang clearly inside me.
But what could I possibly do?
Would poison even affect a demon?
My eyes desperately searched every inch of its body.
I had never studied demonology.
I had no idea how creatures like this were supposed to be killed.
Aaron had been our only hope.
Had been.
It took everything I had not to look back at the body lying on the ground—the one that had been alive only minutes ago.
Cloudy yellow pupils slowly began to form in the demon's eyes.
What would happen once it fully regained consciousness?
Then what?
We didn't have a plan.
We had no idea how to stop it.
Or what other abilities might be hiding beneath that deceptively fragile body.
As those thoughts raced through my mind once more, my gaze shifted past the demon to Rosalie.
She had managed to straighten up, but her face was still deathly pale.
I stepped closer and gently nudged Rosalie with my elbow.
She looked at me, confusion written all over her face.
Slowly, exaggerating every word, I mouthed what I wanted to say, hoping she'd read my lips.
Azalia and Taylor couldn't keep the demon occupied forever.
The next move had to be ours.
I had no idea whether this would work.
But we had to risk it.
Rosalie gave me a hesitant nod before turning her eyes back to the demon.
I did the same.
Then I signaled for Taylor and Azalia to stop.
The moment I uncovered my ears, I hurled a cloud of poison toward the creature while Rosalie struck at its bones.
"Taylor, help us!" I shouted, releasing another wave of poison as Rosalie attacked again.
I thought I had finally figured out how Taylor's magic worked.
Maybe he amplified the abilities of others.
Maybe he could strengthen our attacks enough to bring the demon down.
But what happened next was something entirely different.
Our three powers merged.
As one.
The combined force surged beneath the demon's skin.
The air filled with sickening cracks.
Something inside its body snapped.
An inhuman sound tore from its throat.
Before I could even draw another breath—
its body went limp.
It collapsed to the ground with a heavy thud.
Everyone seemed to exhale at once.
Azalia's knees gave out, and she sank to the ground, too exhausted to hide it.
Rosalie burst into tears.
As for me...
I stood frozen, unable to decide which emotion to listen to.
Relief.
Or grief.
They crashed together inside me until I couldn't tell one from the other.
"Oh my God..." Azalia whispered as she struggled back to her feet.
"Look."
We all turned toward the demon.
Its eyes were open.
Focused.
Watching us.
Not like something that had just died.
Quite the opposite.
It looked as though it had just awakened.
Illariana Arden's POV
My body moved before I could think, instinctively reaching for his burning—almost scalding—hand.
Seris cried out in agony as the two of us were slowly swallowed by the flames.
I couldn't let go.
I couldn't let the fire take him.
"Let him go!" Kaeron barked. "We can only save one of you!"
"No!"
"Ria!" Pria shouted. "We can't reach Seris!"
"Let go," Seris forced out through gritted teeth, his eyes squeezed shut.
I could feel his pain as if it were my own.
As though every ounce of his suffering had become mine.
"Never."
I tightened my grip, ignoring every attempt he made to pull his hand away.
The fiery vortex grew stronger.
So did my grip.
So did my determination to see this through without losing anyone on our team.
"Kaeron!" Seris shouted. "Grab her!"
I felt Seris prying my fingers apart with all the strength he had left while Kaeron locked an iron grip around my waist.
"Don't give up," I whispered through clenched teeth.
"We're all destined to die someday," Seris said quietly. "So why not die saving someone else?"
His nails dug painfully into my skin, so deep that tears spilled from my eyes.
"Just... don't make me regret this."
Kaeron gave one violent yank—
and Seris and I were torn apart.
A second later, the flames swallowed him whole.
A scream tore from my throat—raw, broken, consumed by agony.
I struggled violently against Kaeron's grip.
I wanted to hit him.
To punish him for saving me.
"Ria, calm down!" Loretta's voice cut through the chaos as shadowy ribbons wrapped around my wrists, binding my hands.
"We couldn't lose both of you." Pria grabbed my shoulders and shook me hard. "Pull yourself together. Otherwise, Seris won't be the last person you watch die."
I swallowed hard and gave a faint nod.
But inside, I was drowning.
In guilt.
In anger that burned through every part of me.
I was furious at the Selection.
At the people who had created these cursed trials.
At the demon.
At Kaeron for saving me.
At Airis for nearly breaking me.
But most of all—I was furious with myself.
I could hear Loretta's voice.
I could hear Pria speaking.
They were discussing something.
Making a plan.
But I felt impossibly far away from them.
"We have to pull ourselves together and figure out how to defeat it," Loretta said. "It's obvious that Ria's fire is somehow destructive to the demon..."
And then it hit me.
I'm the only one who can kill this demon.
And at the same time...
I'm the only weak link in a team of the strongest.