Chapter 18 Sagitta
Sagitta
Ignoring the pain in my leg, I whirled around to glare at my younger brother. He stood at the perfect angle for the morning sun’s blinding rays to block his view. When he stepped beneath the roof’s shadow, I saw his expression clearly. He looked as furious as I felt.
Even his sudden appearance was cold and calculated. I scoffed at his over-the-top drama. I was too pissed off to play his games.
“It was you, wasn’t it?” I demanded. “You summoned that imp to Chase’s apartment.”
Cygnet narrowed his dark eyes, and the corner of his lip curled in annoyance. “Yell it louder so the whole temple can hear you.”
Chase and Hartford both choked—Chase on his spit, and the doctor on his stale coffee.
“Wait, what?” Chase asked. He stared wide-eyed at Cygnet until he finally put two and two together. “You put that demon in my house?”
Hartford slammed his mug on his desk loud enough to momentarily seize everybody’s attention. Droplets of coffee sloshed onto some stray paperwork and he swore under his breath. He pushed the documents aside, shook his head, and sank back into his chair.
“Listen, I don’t care if y’all fight over classified bullshit, but at least shut the damn door so it stays private,” he ordered. “The last thing I need is to be dragged into this shit as an eyewitness...”
Cygnet raised his heeled boot and kicked the door closed without taking his glare off me.
In the tense moments of silence that followed, Chase looked thoroughly confused. He looked to me for guidance, but I wasn’t a good role model at the moment. I was too busy fuming.
“Cygnet,” I said slowly. “Did you or did you not purposely summon a demon into the mortal realm?”
He pulled out a small red handbook from beneath his black cloak and flipped it to a specific page. “Yes, I did. And according to our code, that’s permissible for fighting other demons.”
“You put it in a civilian’s home!” I snapped.
Even Hartford’s brows rose to his hairline, but he kept his mouth shut.
My accusation hung in the air for a few charged beats. Then Cygnet’s mouth curved into a nasty, smug smile.
“You’re right. It’s too bad Chase doesn’t count as a civilian.”
“What are you talking about? Of course he—”
My blood turned to ice.
Cygnet thinks Chase is still possessed, I realized.
As if my first two failures weren’t painful enough, this was how I learned that Cygnet had such little faith in me. He didn’t trust me to see the job through. He must’ve assumed I was screwing around at Chase’s apartment, treating it like a vacation instead of work.
The worst part was that there was a scrap of truth in that.
But Chase was no longer possessed. Faust was gone. It took multiple tries and methods, and it pushed my patience to the limit, but the demon had finally been exorcised.
Hadn’t he?
A million terrified thoughts raced through my mind, and I had no time to process any of them. Cygnet was already drawing his sword. His black blade gleamed sickly green beneath the fluorescent lights.
And I noticed something too late.
There was no protective rosary wrapped around the hilt of Cygnet’s sword.
In his rush to prove a point—to prove he was a better exorcist than me—my brother had forgotten to shield his blade.
In this moment, his sword was not a holy weapon, but a regular one.
One capable of hurting a human. Of killing one.
Dread tore through me like claws. Even shouting for Cygnet to stop would take too long.
It was going to be an accident—an awful miscalculation on Cygnet’s part. A horrific, brutal accident.
But accident or not, he was still going to kill Chase.
Cygnet swung his blade with deadly precision.
Before I could even scream, an ear-ringing metallic clang echoed through the room.
Chase’s hand shot up. He caught the blade between his fingers. There was no blood. His fingers were diamond-hard, and where his blunt fingernails had been seconds ago there were now long black claws.
The claws of a demon.
My heart sank, and a sickening feeling churned my stomach.
I had failed. Again.
But... Chase was alive. And despite the unbelievable nature of what I’d just seen, I had no choice but to believe it.
The demon had saved Chase’s life.
I would’ve sank to my knees had it not been for the adrenaline pumping in my veins. I ran to Chase and grabbed his arm. Cygnet backed off, his expression cold.
“Chase,” I cried. But as his name left my lips, I already knew that’s not who I was looking at. It was Chase’s body, but those blazing eyes, long fangs, and confident aura belonged to Faust.
Still, I couldn’t bring myself to let go of Chase’s arm. My fingers trembled as they dug into him.
The terror reminded me of a painful old wound. I refused to lose somebody I cared about again. And even though I knew the danger had passed, the fear lingered in my body, like poison chipping away at my nerves.
Cygnet broke the silence. “I told you so.”
I whirled on my brother with a snarl. “You could’ve killed him!”
“He’s possessed. He won’t be killed so easily.”
“You didn’t know that until you swung your blade! Where’s your rosary?”
A flash of panic crossed Cygnet’s face. His eyes rounded as he glanced down at his hilt. He looked slightly pale.
He hadn’t meant to forget his rosary. It was an accident. That was the slightest bit of consolation. But I was still furious, and the next words out of Cygnet’s mouth made me even more so.
“Yes... You’re right. I was reckless,” he admitted. “But come on, Sagitta. You’re not as stupid as you’re acting right now.”
I couldn’t believe him. He could’ve murdered a civilian, and all he cared about was arguing with me?
My voice trembled with anger. “How did you know he was possessed? Tell me.”
Cygnet crossed his arms. “After you left the temple, I followed you.”
Of course he did. It was so obvious that I didn’t bother getting offended. There were more serious issues on my mind.
“You lied to me, Sagitta,” Cygnet spat. “I expected it from the demon, but not from my own brother.”
I glared back at him, too furious to back down.
“You don’t understand,” I ground out.
“You let a godforsaken demon walk around the city!”
I bit my tongue, not wanting to argue with the truth, but my silence allowed Cygnet to continue his tirade.
“I suspected Chase was still possessed when you left the temple, so I tailed you. Every moment you were together in public, I was there.”
I felt like ice was dripping down the back of my neck. How much had he seen? There must’ve been a mountain of incriminating evidence...
Suddenly, my heart plummeted. There was something even worse, too.
“And yes, I saw you two kissing in the alley,” Cygnet muttered. Then he levelled a grave look at me. “Don’t tell me you, of all people, fell under the demon’s spell.”
A disgusting feeling swirled in my stomach. The insinuation that every intimate moment between Chase and I had been engineered by Faust was the last straw.
My temper exploded. I was so betrayed and scared and angry that I couldn’t think straight. I launched myself at Cygnet, ready to wrestle him to the floor and wipe that arrogant know-it-all look off his face.
Chase—Faust—grabbed my arm. He held me back before I did something I would inevitably regret. But in those heated seconds, I wished he hadn’t intervened.
I grunted with effort, trying to yank my wrist out of the demon’s grip, but he was unbelievably strong.
Leagues stronger than Chase, who had carried me in his arms for kilometres to the temple.
I sensed that Faust put in as much effort towards holding me back as a human pinching a piece of tissue paper.
His raw strength should’ve unnerved me, but I was too strung out to care.
Cygnet frowned as he glanced between me and the possessed Chase. He didn’t seem to understand why the demon had gotten involved.
“Oo-kay, time out on the violence,” Hartford announced.
He got up from his seat and strode in between us with his palms out, like a trainer separating a pair of bickering dogs.
“As entertaining as this is, let’s cool it for a sec.
I just patched up Sagitta’s leg. Don’t make me work again so early in the morning. ”
Cygnet’s brows flew up so high they disappeared beneath his black bangs. “What happened to your leg?” he asked, shooting me a concerned look.
A bitter laugh escaped me. Now he cared?
“Nothing important.”
Cygnet took a step closer. “Sagitta—”
I looked pointedly away. Was it mature of me?
No. But I was mired in my feelings and not yet in the mood to reconcile.
Instead, I wordlessly pulled up my pant leg to reveal Hartford’s stitch job.
Cygnet paled at the sight of the wound. He knew Hartford was a good medic—even if my injury looked decent now, he understood that it had been a mess before.
“I... didn’t mean for you to get hurt,” Cygnet said quietly.
I dropped the bunched fabric to hide my leg again. “You summoned an imp to our apartment and you thought nobody would get hurt?”
Our apartment. It slipped out before I knew what I was saying. But Cygnet didn’t seem to notice. He was still staring at my leg.
Hartford, however, did notice. I saw him smirking from the corner of my eye. Stupid drama-loving asshole. I would’ve told him to get lost if we weren’t standing in his office.
“It was just an imp,” Cygnet said defensively. “Even an apprentice can kill one.”
“I was unarmed, and Chase was asleep.”
Cygnet’s expression shifted from concern to judgment again. “I see. Were you together?”
That was it. I’d had enough.
“Yeah, and you know what? We fucked right before that, too.”
Cygnet’s jaw dropped. As I marched out of the room, I heard Hartford belt out laughter. Chase—or whoever was in control—caught up with me. I assumed it was Faust, given the snickering.
“I’m not really in the mood,” I announced without turning around.
“Aw.” He sounded disappointed. “Not even if I give the body back to Chase?”