Becks hits hard, taking the impact on his side. One wing bends at a sickening angle beneath him. I hear the crack, feel it, and his roar of pain shakes the trees. With a strained grunt, he twists to rise, wings scrambling uselessly against the earth, but he can’t lift off again.
His grip tightens for a heartbeat, then loosens. Carefully, he lowers me, taloned hands releasing me as he sets me down. He dips his head just enough for our eyes to meet, his gaze fierce and intent.
“I’m all right.”
He huffs before he presses in close, positioning his massive frame over me.
I glance around. We’re stuck. Trapped.
The forest goes eerily still. The only sound is Becks’ labored pants, creating plumes of fog on every exhale.
The back of my neck prickles with awareness, and with the blood moon hanging in the sky above us, the demon steps from the darkness.
Becks told me the demon was able to take shape now—not fully corporeal but no longer needing a vessel. Even so, no description could have prepared me for the reality of seeing it with my own eyes.
The demon has legs and arms like a human, but that’s where the similarities end. The moonlight feels like it’s being absorbed into its scaly black skin rather than reflecting off of it. Its appendages are longer than they should be, seeming to have an extra joint in the arms that lead down to elongated twig-like fingers. Each end in a lethal point, no doubt sharp enough to pierce through skin and maybe even bone.
Most terrifying of all is its head.
If it has eyes, I can’t find them. Instead, a mouth stretches impossibly wide across its face, as if it were brutally slashed open at the corners and pulled too far. When it opens in a twisted mockery of a smile, it reveals row after row of black, serrated teeth.
A true monster of nightmares, waiting to attack and devour me whole.
It releases a sound that I believe is supposed to be a chuckle but sounds like glass grinding against bone.
Becks shifts before I realize what’s happening, scooping me up and dropping me behind him, positioning himself between me and the demon so I can’t even see it anymore.
“Becks, no,” I snap, trying to get around him, but he shifts so I can’t, going so far as to slap his thick tail in my path so I’m unable to pass.
“That’ll do you no good,” the demon says, its guttural voice echoing in the night and causing my stomach to clench. “I’ll simply shred you to get to her. And enjoy every second of it.”
Fear clamps down on my heart and squeezes.
I can’t let anything happen to Becks. If it were only my life at stake, I’d give myself to the demon without hesitation. But it’s more than that. It’s the fate of the entire world, and an eternity of torture for me.
Letting myself be taken isn’t an option. Neither is living with Becks dying for me.
Becks swishes his tail, nudging me back toward the tree cover. When I don’t move, he swings his head around, green eyes blazing as he gives a quick nod toward the darkness behind us.
He clearly wants me to flee, but I’m not going.
“Do you wonder how I found her?” the demon asks, and Becks jerks his attention back to the monster that I can now see is taking slow, unhurried steps forward.
A low rumble begins in Becks’ chest, a warning growl, one the demon doesn’t heed.
Even though it doesn’t have eyes, I feel the monster’s gaze land on me.
“That taste of you was more than just delicious,” it says, and my stomach roils in revulsion. “Now that I’ve taken in a part of you, I’ll always know where you are. There’s nowhere you could hide that I wouldn’t find you in this world or the other.”
Shock freezes my limbs and causes my heart to stumble.
If what it’s saying is true, if I somehow manage to live through this night, I’ll never be free. This monster will stalk me to the ends of the Earth, and maybe even into the other.
Becks stomps his feet in aggression, his low rumblings turning into a full growl. He rears back, chest expanding, and a blast of fire erupts from his jaws, lighting up the demon and the forest in front of him in searing orange and teal.
I gasp in surprise, stumbling back.
Becks doesn’t wait. He charges straight through the smoke and embers, claws out, teeth bared.
