Chapter 29
Chapter
Twenty-Nine
I cy fear constricted my lungs as realization lit the demon king’s eyes.
I looked to Kaden. All the blood had drained from his face, and I saw the quick calculation flash through his eyes as he took in the chamber and the demon blocking our exit.
I didn’t think. I just ripped the pouch with the apokropos stone from my waist and tossed it to the ground. In the next breath, I’d drawn my witchwood dagger as my full powers came surging back.
Fleshtalker’s eyes widened as I brought the blade down, aiming for the center of his chest. But before I could make contact, the demon vanished in a cloud of smoke.
I cursed and leapt over Kaden’s prone form — lunging for the demon king himself — but a deafening crack sounded from the shadows, and half a dozen demon guards appeared.
I skidded to a halt, not knowing where to aim. There were too many of them to slay, and Kaden was still bound.
“I never thought I’d see the day that my own son betrayed me,” drawled Semphrys.
His tone was quiet, utterly calm, and it sent a chill down my spine.
“Despite what my spies reported, I hoped it wasn’t true.
Imagine my dismay when I heard that my heir had been spotted in the Quarter cavorting with a filthy half-huntress. ”
My stomach clenched as my mind raced. The demon king had spies in the Quarter?
Of course he did. All royals kept spies. But who ? The demons who’d almost killed me in Silas’s basement? Kaden had wiped their memories.
“Spies are only reliable so long as you are the highest-paying client,” Semphrys continued. “Of course, I do not exchange anything as common as currency.”
But who would be working with the Dark King? The Quarter was filled with despicable creatures, but none so foolish as to make a deal with a demon.
Unless . . .
Oh gods.
Unless he’d given his spy something she could get nowhere else — something she could add to her collection.
A sick feeling unfurled in my gut when I realized I’d seen the Death Bringer’s hands before. And they weren’t in Dorthus.
I hadn’t known whom they belonged to at the time, but I could still recall the chill in my blood when I’d beheld a pair of delicate hands resting on a velvet pillow in a dusty display case in Mirabella’s crypt.
Kaden had said the vampire had a penchant for collecting things. Mirabella had had her home built over a doorway to the in-between simply so she could boast to her guests.
Would she be so foolish as to align herself with the demon king if he offered her the hands of Fate ?
In my gut, I already knew the answer to that question.
And we’d walked right into a trap.
Gripping my dagger, I steeled myself for a fight that would most certainly end in death. But before I could choose my first target, the doors to the chamber blew open and crashed against the walls with a mighty thud.
Adriel stood framed in the doorway, wings outstretched like some kind of avenging angel. He held no blades, but his hands were splayed wide.
I had only half a second to wonder how he planned to fight the demons when I felt a tremble of power.
The ground shook, and I watched in amazement as the obsidian floor cracked beneath my boots — the chasm widening before my eyes.
The demon king wobbled on his chair as the floor began to crumble, and the manacles around Kaden's limbs vanished.
Kaden leapt to his feet, and I felt every hair on my body stand on end as he sent out a blast of that dark magic. It struck the demons surrounding us in a wave, sending them crashing against the opposite wall.
The palace trembled, and in the seconds it took the king’s guards to regain their bearings, Adriel and Kaden stood on either side of me, their wings forming a protective shield.
The chamber radiated with that ominous power, and when Kaden threw out his hands again, the air around me seemed to waver.
The impact sent me staggering forward, right into Kaden’s shoulder. My vision blurred as the walls trembled, and a wave of black mist swept over the room.
No. Not mist. Tiny shards of razor-sharp obsidian that Kaden’s magic had cleaved from the walls. They flew like shrapnel, tearing through demon flesh as they rebounded off some invisible barrier that seemed to shield our little trio.
Demons were nearly impossible to kill, but they could feel pain. The splinters of obsidian ripped through wings, took out eyes, and flayed flesh from bone.
Their shrieks of agony filled my ears as Kaden slipped an arm around my waist and guided me out of the chamber. All the while, that shield stayed in place, protecting us from the needle-like shards still whistling through the air.
The howls of fury and pain followed us into the corridor, where we found our path blocked by more demons.
“Shit,” Adriel muttered, though his tone was one of annoyance rather than fear.
Another tremor made me stumble, and the king’s dark soldiers shrieked as the floor beneath their feet crumbled. Those with wings flapped out of the rising cloud of dust and debris, while those without plummeted into the wreckage.
Another blast followed, and the arched ceiling cleaved in two, sending huge slabs of stone crashing to the floor and creating a hole through the center of the palace.
More shrieks echoed from the stories above as the floors beneath them gave way, great spikes of obsidian breaking free from the rubble and spearing themselves at the demons that surrounded us.
Then a black mist unfurled from our dome of safety, washing over those who lay trapped in the wreckage.
A sizzling sound reached my ears, and the stench of scorched flesh clogged my airways. The shrieks of pain echoing through the crumbling palace became more frenzied, and I watched in horror as Kaden’s mist burned the flesh from their bodies.
Kaden’s arm locked around my waist, and I felt him brace for flight an instant before we were airborne. His wings beat furiously as he lifted us out of the wreckage, but then his muscles went rigid, and a horrible choking sound wrenched from his throat.
I twisted in his arms in time to see one of those smoky black tendrils wrap around his neck.
No.
Kaden’s face was a hard mask of fury as he fought to escape the melee. But then two more of those shadowy tendrils shot out to trap his ankles.
His roar was enough to make the palace shudder, and I felt the crackle of power against my skin as he struggled to free himself from his father’s magic.
And then we were falling — crashing to the floor.
Kaden twisted midair to take the brunt of the impact, but I still felt the rattle in my bones as we slammed onto the crumbled obsidian.
Dark nets of power materialized around those gorgeous wings, pinning them to the ground. I scrambled to my feet, searching in vain for a way to free Kaden as he thrashed against his father’s hold.
The sound of unhurried footsteps drew my attention. I whipped toward the doors, blade drawn, to see the demon king striding out of his chambers with his hands clasped neatly in front of him.
“Did you really think you could run?” he drawled, staring down at his son with a mixture of boredom and disgust. “Did you truly think I would allow you to betray me and escape with your whore?”
Kaden glared up at his father, still struggling to break free from his hold. The hilt of my dagger grew hot in my hand, begging to find its home in the demon king’s heart.
After our visit to the Three, I knew the blade wouldn’t be enough to end the most powerful male in the realms. Not when so many souls were bound to his own. But I had to try.
In one quick movement, I lunged — dagger arching toward the king. But then a strong arm clamped around my waist, hauling me against a hard chest and snatching the blade from my grip.
My breath left me in a whoosh as the ground fell away.
“No!” I screamed, grasping for my dagger.
But my cry was swallowed by a deafening boom as the domed ceiling continued to crumble, revealing the rough walls of the volcano that ensconced the palace.
A shimmering black dust filled the air as slabs of obsidian crashed to the ground. I twisted in my captor’s grip and was met with the sharp jawline of the royal guard.
“What are you doing?” I cried.
“Saving you.”
“No!” I screamed. “I have to kill him!”
“You can’t,” he growled, his voice rough, as if it physically pained him to be flying away with me while his best friend lay trapped in the demon king’s clutches.
“ Kaden! ”
Kaden’s gaze met mine, those stormy black eyes swirling with rage.
A strangled sob ripped from my throat, and I thrashed against Adriel’s hold.
It was impossible to break, and even if I could escape, it would only be to plummet to my death.
But I couldn’t help it. Every fiber of my being rebelled against being torn from my mate. Every inch of me screamed that this was wrong — that I could find a way to save him.
But Adriel held me in an iron grip as his wings carried us up through the hole in the wreckage .
Furious shrieks echoed below as the king’s demons took flight, the jagged shapes of their wings illuminated by the glow of lava below.
Adriel flew harder, the added weight of his cargo eliminating any advantage of speed.
They were gaining on us. I could see their wicked, beetle-black eyes — see their taloned hands stretching toward us —
My spine rattled as Adriel hit the rim of the volcano at a run, and the royal guard stumbled under my weight. We pitched forward, and I braced for impact, but it never came.
My insides shuddered as the ground trembled and the earth yawned wide.