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There was a crack as her head hit the wall hard. Motherfucker. Harper slid to the tiled floor with a shaky moan just as the incorporeal swept out its arm, sending a blast of glacial air that froze the humans around them.
Harper’s mind told her to get up. Attack. Fight. But her body helplessly curled into a ball, trembling from the cold. It reminded her of the time she’d fallen into a frozen lake, only this was ten times worse. God, she was so cold her skin burned; it felt like she was being stabbed with needles.
Her demon raged, urging Harper to rise and charge at the little fucker. She wanted to get up. Tried. But she could barely breathe, let alone move. Hell, it was hard to think about anything other than the pain.
Hearing pounding, she realized that Tanner was kicking and punching the door. A door which was covered in the same ice that had crept along the walls. He couldn’t get inside, and there was no way for her to help him. She just couldn’t get up. Every muscle contracted painfully. Each breath she took chilled her throat and lungs, as if she was breathing in ice-cold air. It made her chest hurt like holy hell.
Even as the cold began to fog her brain and cloud her thoughts, she retained enough presence of mind to call out, Knox, need you here. Her telepathic voice was soft and weak, but she knew he’d hear it.
The incorporeal skipped over to her with a giggle. “You don’t look too good. Don’t worry, the pain will be gone soon … because you’ll be gone.” She giggled again.
Harper snarled, but what could she do? Even if she was prepared to hurt a kid on the off-chance that it would also hurt the incorporeal, she couldn’t have moved to do so. Numbness had crept into her fingers and toes, like her hands and feet were submerged in snow. Her demon surfaced with a hiss and said, “You will die for this.”
“That would have sounded scary if you weren’t chattering your teeth.”
The air thundered as fire erupted out of the floor. The incorporeal wasted no time in attacking. The moment Knox stepped out of the dying flames, it sent a blast of glacial energy at him. The blast had no effect. Just skimmed over him, barely even ruffling his hair.
Harper? It was a demand to know if she was all right.
I’m fine, Harper told him. Kill it. Her demon didn’t settle now that he was there. It wanted to fight alongside him. Harper wanted it too, she really did, but she couldn’t stop shaking. Hell, she couldn’t even speak. Every breath hurt. It felt like shards of ice had splintered her throat and lodged in her lungs. The air in the room sliced at her skin like it was a bitterly cold wind; making her nose numb, her ears throb, and her cheeks feel windburned.
Smiling up at Knox, the incorporeal let out a nervous girly giggle. “You wouldn’t hurt a little girl, would you?”
Glaring hard at the incorporeal, Knox flexed his fingers. Fury lived and breathed inside him right then, making his heart pound and his blood sing with the need for vengeance. His demon ached to take charge and annihilate their enemy, but Knox didn’t trust that it wouldn’t annihilate everyone else in the process, considering them collateral damage. The demon only cared for the safety of its mate and son.
“I see you have something in common with your owner,” said Knox. “You hide behind others—or, in your case, within others.”
The incorporeal narrowed its eyes. “I am not owned.”
“Sure you are,” he said, tone derisive. Taunting. Cutting. “He holds your leash and tells you to go fetch. You obey his orders like a good … little … dog.”
She hissed and bared her teeth. “I am no one’s dog.”
“And yet, here you are, doing your master’s bidding at the promise of a treat. You may have escaped your glass case, but you are still very much a captive.”
“Once I am free of this bargain, I will find Dion and make him pay for keeping me in that case,” she snarled.
Well that confirmed that it wasn’t Dion who had helped Alethea free it.
“If you persist in coming at me and mine, the only freedom you will find is in death.” Knox slipped an arm behind him and shot a wave of raw power at the front door. The moment it burst open and Tanner rushed inside, Knox clipped, “Get Harper out of here.”
The hellhound probably would have done exactly that if the incorporeal hadn’t hit him with a wave of glacial energy, encasing him in ice—it happened in a mere millisecond.
The incorporeal giggled and put a hand to its mouth. “Oops. Wasn’t that one of your big, bad sentinels? Frozen is a good look for him.”
Harper shot a hard glare at the incorporeal as she spoke to Knox. Kill it for fuck’s sake.
With a sudden sharp cry, the incorporeal slapped its little hands to its head.
“You feel me inside the child’s mind, don’t you?” taunted Knox. “I see you have a good grip on it. But to make you loosen your hold on her … all I have to do is this.”
Harper winced because whatever ‘this’ was made the incorporeal scream like a banshee. It thrust out both chubby little hands, and a harsh wind whooshed out of its palms and whirled around Knox like a tornado. He stood inside it, looking unimpressed. Even a little bored. Which only pissed the incorporeal off beyond measure.
He was playing with the incorporeal, Harper knew. Letting it see and feel just how outmatched it was. And she suspected his demon was thoroughly enjoying that.
Finally, he stepped out of the mini tornado, nary a hair out of place. “Enough. I think we’ve established that the glacial energy has no effect on me.”
The incorporeal’s mouth sagged open. “Impossible,” it spat. Another gust of wind rushed out of its hands. But Knox slammed up his own palm and sent a blaze of fire streaming at the incorporeal. Wind and fire crashed together like swords, and a backlash of the colliding energies swept across the room in a bright sheen of light that almost blinded Harper.
