Chapter 40
Forty
HAVEN
The flames coating my fists warm my hands as I square off with the demon. Its mouth is stretched wide in what I think must be its version of a grin, showing off its rows of jagged teeth.
Terror lodges in my throat and gut, thick and suffocating, but I force it down. There’s no place for it here.
Stoking the magic within like Becks taught me, I let it radiate through me, cycling around and around as it grows in intensity.
I’m not ready for this battle, I know that, but it’s happening, so this monster is about to learn how much fight I have in me. I’m bringing this demon down.
Or going to die trying.
The demon pauses about ten feet from me.
“Finally,” it says, the word a deep rumble that resonates in my chest.
And then it strikes.
I should have been prepared, but I’m still a little too slow when it lunges, smoke and muscle colliding with me in a blur of force that sends me skidding backward across the snowy ground.
The world jolts as I hit the ground, breath exploding from my lungs, but I’m already moving, already pulling fire back into my palms as I rise up to one knee.
I hurl it without thinking. A torrent of magenta and purple flames rips across the space between us and slams into the demon’s chest.
It shrieks, the sound sharp this time. Real.
Heat scorches my arms as I pour more magic into it, feeding the flames until they burn so bright I almost can’t look anymore.
The demon staggers a step back, blackened flesh cracking and reforming where the fire licks the longest.
Out of the corner of my eye, I catch movement: Becks, fighting savagely against coils of living smoke and the mist wrapped around his limbs. He roars, fury and fear bleeding into the sound, straining toward me even as the darkness drags him down.
I grit my teeth and unleash another wave of fire, getting to my feet as I drive the demon back another step.
It’s working.
At least a little. More than it did for Becks.
That’s when the demon smiles, grotesque and knowing.
It angles its arms forward and a stream of black smoke shoots from the ends of its pointed fingers. The smoke wraps around my flames, smothering them as it heads for me.
Panicked, I send even more magic at it, pulling from wells inside of me I didn’t even know existed. Something rattles inside me, demanding to be freed, but it’s too late, because the darkness reaches my hands and wraps around them, completely cutting off my magic.
And it doesn’t stop there.
Before I have a chance to run, the darkness winds up my arms, covering them, then down my torso and legs until I’m completely wrapped in darkness, bound as tightly as Becks.
As the demon’s magic lifts me into the air, I realize with sudden, horrifying clarity that it was just playing with me, like a cat playing with a mouse before it eats it.
I never stood a chance, and it always knew it.
Even so, I scream, struggling against my binds that only squeeze tighter with every movement.
This can’t be it. It can’t be over. I have too much to live for.
The demon draws me closer until I’m hovering in the air in front of it, with Becks at my back. I can’t see Becks, but I can feel his fury, his desperation in his roars. He’s fighting with everything in him to get to me, but it’s not enough. The demon is simply too powerful for us.
Getting in my face, the demon lifts one hand and runs the tip of its finger lightly down the side of my face. The end is so sharp it splits my cheek, and blood flows freely, dripping off my chin.
“This moment is even sweeter than I imagined,” it hisses.
Its form goes semi-translucent before solidifying again. It tilts its head skyward. “Such a lovely color,” it says of the blood moon, still beaming down on us. “After tonight, I’ll paint the worlds in it.”
I lose the fight with myself, and all the fear and panic I held at bay fills me to the brim, consuming me.
The demon glances around me to Becks. “Should I kill him now, or after?” it taunts. It tilts his head in a distinctly human move, like it’s truly thinking over the options. “I think I’ll let him live so he can watch. His despair and grief will make him taste that much sweeter.”
No. No!
Tears slip from my eyes, mixing with my own blood as it flows down my cheeks.
Drool drips from the demon’s jowls, as if it’s an animal anticipating a meal. I don’t think it’s going to eat me physically, but maybe that’s part of the process. Terror tightens its grip on me.
“Any last words?” it asks, shifting close enough that I can smell its hot putrid breath.
I gag. It waits for my answer, but I keep my mouth shut.
I’d plead with the monster, but it wouldn’t do any good.
Behind me, Becks is going crazy. Absolutely feral.
If only I could have another moment with him. Another moment to be held in his arms. Another moment to feel the press of his lips against mine and to tell him how I truly feel about him. How in this short time he’s become everything to me.
And that I love him too.
The demon makes a motion with his hand, and I turn in the air until I’m facing Becks. In these final seconds, I’m desperate for the sight of him, even as it shreds my heart.
Becks is covered in a web of dark cords that is pressing down on him, forcing him to the ground. Dark tentacles coil around his limbs and throat, holding him nearly immobile.
Even so, he thrashes with what little movement he has, snapping at the cords with his teeth.
Every time one dissipates, another replaces it, and in the process he only injures himself further.
Scales are missing where he tried to tear himself free, exposing raw flesh beneath.
Both his wings are bent at unnatural angles, and blood pours from the slash the demon carved across his chest.
Despite all of that, he never stops trying to reach me.
A sob rips from my throat.
For him.
For me.
For the life we might have had that is about to disappear.
The demon’s hot breath brushes against the side of my face, and then something slimy travels from my neck to my cheek. I gag again when I realize it just licked me, lapping up my blood like it’s a delicious treat.
“I’m looking forward to an eternity torturing you,” it growls in my ear.
I shake, unable to keep it together anymore. Death is one thing, but what’s coming for me is so much worse than that.
Tipping his face skyward, Becks releases a bellow loud enough that the trees around us tremble, dropping snow from their branches.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see the demon’s cavernous mouth open. Without warning, thick tendrils surge from its depths and latch on to my torso, arms, and legs.
The first tug comes, the same sensation I felt in the sewers. I go rigid, knowing what’s next. Dreading it.
“I love you,” I say to Becks, but he’s too far gone to hear me as he tries to break free.
I say it again as tears stream down my face and the pressure builds until it becomes painful.
A gasp tears from my chest as the pain intensifies. It’s like I’m being melted from the inside out, every bone breaking and crushing, ground to dust.
The agony is too sharp for me to form words anymore as the demon rips into my very soul, sucking out my lifeforce, my magic, the very fibers of who I am and what makes me me.
My gaze connects with Becks, still fighting against his bindings with everything that he has. I need him right now, more than ever. I need him to do what has to be done.
I need him to save me. It’s too much to ask, but he’s the only one who can.
I plead with him with my eyes to end me, to save me from a fate worse than death.
When he stops struggling and lets out a roar, a mournful bellow of pure grief and sadness, I know he understands.