Chapter 22 Traitor #2
Directly into the antler bone protruding from Ozirax’s hip.
He cried in pain, leg giving out as he stumbled, but before he could use the last of his focus to gouge a line through the rune, a kick at his back had him rolling away.
“Oz!”
He barely heard Kaly’s scream over the ringing in his head, sprawled just on the edge of the forest. The eternal mist was soft here, just barely creeping toward the grass of the Veilwood border like it was afraid of the runes that kept it contained.
It crawled over his fingers, numb to his skin when all he knew was pain.
The mist cleared just enough for him to see the glint of silver out of reach.
His sickle.
And beyond, a blurry figure sprinting for him. All powerful muscle and rage. Bloodied and bruised, with a fire in her eyes.
He knew he should crawl for his weapon. Knew there was a demon at his back prepared to kill him. Despite the flare of his spikes in defense, there was no energy left to even swing his tail back. He barely pushed up to his hands and knees, pain draining him.
He had nothing.
Spicy was screaming something, her eyes locked on him and full of so much anguish.
Ozirax blew out a breath, memorizing that look. The one that made him feel… less alone.
He couldn’t leave. Not yet. Not before she knew.
His hand slid down his side, fingers trembling as he grazed over the antler. He focused his senses until the presence at his back was close enough and Spicy’s screams haunted his bones.
With a cry, he yanked the tine free and slammed it behind him.
His fist met the meat of Dolgeraus’s thigh, jamming the antler deep into where he was already injured, but as the demon screamed, his tail came swinging.
It knocked Oz back to the ground.
And wasn’t that just perfect.
With chaos around him, Ozirax dragged his hand through the outline of the rune.
“No!” Dolgeraus screamed, and before Oz could ruin it further, he was being dragged up with a blade pressed to his throat.
He scrambled, only one leg working as he was bound to Dolgeraus’s chest by the male’s arms and tail. Pain screamed through Oz’s body, head fit to burst with the ringing.
No.
That was a real scream.
Ozirax blinked, head pointed toward where the fuzzy lines of the massive portal…
They were shrinking.
His disruption had worked.
Monsters still darkened the entrance of the void, three demons holding the line as the portal slowly closed. But the human…
Kaly was the source of the scream. She was standing at the edge of the Dreadmoor, fist slamming into nothing as she raged against solid air. Her blades glanced off an invisible barrier between two trees, face bright red as she screamed and screamed—
And then Ozirax understood.
There was a flash of silver through the blood staining her arm.
The rune cuff. The one that kept her in Heck’s border lest she try to run. The one that needed to be adjusted at specific intervals to allow her on scouts.
The nearest rune to allow her passage was half a mile away.
“I’m going to fucking kill you!” she snarled at Dolgeraus, blades still slamming into the barrier. “Oz! Fight back! Fight, gods damnit!”
If only it were that easy. He was no longer feeling pain in his hip. It was completely numb, limp underneath him as blood poured from his open wound. But the blade at his throat was more of a threat as Dolgeraus used him as a shield.
Ozirax might have been unafraid of death, but he would not let his headless form be the last thing Kaly saw of him.
Dolgeraus jerked him in his grip, readjusting with the weight and his own injuries. Oz dipped his gaze to the arm at his chest, to the flash of the blue demon’s wrist in the scant light. The open expanse of skin he held onto.
The idea formed.
Fuck, this was going to hurt.
Maybe not as bad as what he was about to do.
“Spicy,” he grunted over her curses. Her gaze snapped to his, though her fight never drained. “I’m not worth it.”
Her eyes widened, dirt and blood smearing as sweat and tears dripped down her cheeks. “Fight, you bastard.”
Somehow, he managed to shake his head as Dolgeraus began to drag him backward. Fleeing. “Go talk to your sister, okay? I know you think you aren’t ready, but… you can do it.”
Kalypso’s body shuddered with her next hit against the barrier.
He didn’t bother telling her to just throw the damned thing—that her contact on the blade prevented it from breaking the invisible wall.
But he wouldn’t do that to her either. Wouldn’t make her kill him like this. Not with her own beautiful weapon.
“You made me a better demon, Spicy. You saw me.”
“Stop, Oz.” Her voice broke, barrage against the barrier weaker with each hit.
“Shut up!” Dolgeraus screamed, panic dripping from his voice. “You send anyone after me, and I’ll kill him!”
Ozirax swallowed, putting on the best smile he could manage even as Dolgeraus limped them deeper into the Dreadmoor. “Just… do me one favor, okay?”
Tears welled in her eyes, her attack forgotten as she pressed her fists to the solid air. “What?”
“Stay. In Heck. You belong.”
She blew out a broken breath, pressing her forehead into the barrier. But her eyes never left his. “You promised.”
Never to leave.
“I know.”
Ozirax flicked out his claws, his spikes useless against the strength of Dolgeraus holding him tight.
Without breaking Kaly’s stare, he visualized what he needed.
Breathed deeply and adjusted. Took note of the emotion roiling in his gut and adjusted again.
Then flashed his eyes to the sky just to confirm.
“One more thing,” he called.
Only a broken sob escaped her throat.
With a final exhale, Ozirax dug his thumb into Dolgeraus’s wrist, moving quickly, dangerously, as the demon thrashed in his grip. He swiped up and down, around and deep, holding tight despite the demon now cursing and trying to throw him off.
Ozirax felt the rune the moment it finished, heard the spitting sparks at his back, and saw them illuminate the trees in his periphery.
But his eyes were only on Kalypso.
On the vicious human who had owned his mind, body, and soul from the moment he met her. His soulbonded—no doubt.
Her mismatched eyes were wide, arms lax at her sides and swords dangling. Tendrils of sweaty hair framed her face, her braid just a mess of wild strands hanging down her back. She wore the blood and gore like a badge of honor.
A true warrior.
Ozirax gripped Dolgeraus tighter, planting his good leg, then gave Kalypso a fang-tipped smile.
“I love you, Spicy.”
He thrust his weight backward, catching Dolgeraus on his wounded leg with an elbow to his gut. They stumbled, and then there was a bright light filling his vision as the portal he’d created surrounded them.
Separating Dolgeraus from his rune. Severing the final connection to the portal to the hells.
And the last thing Ozirax saw as his rune-created void swallowed them was the look on Kalypso’s face.
Not one of devastation or heartbreak or even anguish.
It was one of pure.
Fucking.
Rage.