The demon makes a pleased, inhuman sound in the back of its throat. “Ah, yes, there it is. Fear. You’re right to fear me. I’ve been waiting millennia to bend this world to my whims, and an untrained girl who doesn’t even know how to use the power she carries isn’t going to stop me.”
“I won’t beg for my own life,” I say, finding a smidgen of courage.
“It wouldn’t make a difference if you did. But don’t worry. It’s not time for the main course yet. Right now, I just want to take a small taste.”
A taste? Is it going to bite me?
As fast as a striking snake, the demon’s hand shoots out and latches onto my wrist. I twist and kick, fighting it, but its grip is like an iron band. Hard and unbreakable.
“I’d tell you this isn’t going to hurt,” it says, and then that sinister smile splits its face. “But that’s a lie. I’m going to make sure it does.”
It lets go of me, but the next moment it opens its mouth and a wave of black smoke shoots out, splitting into multi-tentacled streams that wrap around me. My body leaves the ground and I scream, kicking out and struggling against the vapor-like substance that has me in its grasp. But how do you fight against something that doesn’t have form?
With magic, I think.
Pushing through the fear and horror, I find my magic and bring it to the surface. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with it, but I’m not going down without a fight.
Blindly, I unleash a stream of fire from my palm toward where I think the demon is. Instead of a cry of pain, laughter echoes off the tunnel walls.
Dread builds in my chest. I’ve made some sort of mistake.
I try cutting off the magic, but I can’t. It’s as if my magic isn’t my own once again, and it keeps flowing from me.
I flail in the air, trying to find purchase on anything.
Something tugs on my magic, and suddenly it’s not just that it’s flowing freely from me but being pulled away, as if my very essence is being sucked out.
I try to stop it, but it’s like trying to stop the flow of a firehose.
And it hurts.
The more it takes, the more the pain builds, until it feels like I’m on fire. Like my muscles are liquifying and my bones breaking.
A scream tears from my throat, my back bowing, tendons straining as the most excruciating pain I’ve ever felt rips through me. It goes on and on until my throat is shredded from my cries and I’m praying for oblivion that refuses to come.
Thirty-One
BECKS
We’ve been searching the tunnels for over an hour, and even though we’ve only scratched the surface, something inside is telling me we’re getting closer.
It might only be wishful thinking, but I’m holding on to the hope that it means something because it’s keeping me together right now.
Ahead of me, Kade gestures that we’re going left, but that doesn’t feel right. I’m about to say something, when Jax speaks up, quietly saying that he smells something in the other direction. As a wolf shifter, he has the most sensitive sense of smell out of all of us, and Kade knows it, so he nods.
We take the turn and move quickly through the passage. We’re almost to the T at the end when a scream pierces the silence, echoing off the walls and hitting me like a dagger to the heart.
Haven.
I take off, not bothering to see if anyone is following. It won’t matter. If that demon is hurting Haven, I won’t need backup. I’ll pulverize it.
The lingering pain from my injuries disappears as I sprint through the tunnels, my heart beating wildly as I follow Haven’s screams through the underground twists and turns.
The cries grow in intensity, letting me know I’m getting closer. Each one is like a fresh wound.
Scales break out on my skin as a war rages within me, my beast wanting free from its reins. But there’s not enough room in the tight space. If I shift, I’ll just collapse the tunnel around me.
I run faster than I ever have, splashing through the thin layer of water. Shouts call from behind me, but I don’t slow. I can’t until I find her. I won’t ever stop until she’s safe in my arms.
