Page 133 of Demon Touched

I’ve heard that in moments like these, time is supposed to stop. That when you’re about to watch your world shatter before your eyes, the powers that be give you a second to really take it in before it’s ripped away.

Whoever says that is a damned liar. I barely have the chance to comprehend what I’m seeing before she’s disappearing into the thick, gray clouds far above us. Unreachable. Unsavable.

I blink once, and the clouds collapse inward, something huge dragging them into a swirling vortex. I blink twice, and a deep, resonant boom rolls through the sky, hitting my ears like a physical blow.

Then a small, dark speck drops from the clouds.

Not a speck—a person. Wings back, head pointed downward, straight as an arrow. Leah.

She’s alive and racing toward the earth like⁠—

Like she’s being chased.

From the swirl of gray cloud matter comes a wave of darkness unlike any shadow I’ve ever seen. It burns. Tendrils of darkness snaking out, engulfed in blue flame, licking its way across the shadows like it’s fueled by them. And it’s biting at Leah’s heels.

I’m already moving, shooting across the battle as fast as my wings will carry me. I start conjuring shadows in my hands, though I’m unsure if they’ll do anything to protect her. I rush to meet her anyway. If I can’t do anything to stop the darkness, at least I might be able to reach her in time to hold her as we both perish in whatever evil force has been unleashed. There are worse fates.

She has shadows in her hands, stretching them between her palms and⁠—

Wait. Those aren’t just shadows. Flashes of white light are dancing across there too, forming a kind of web, with the darkness filling the gaps between the light.

It shouldn’t be possible. One kind of magic should cancel out the other. And yet Leah weaves lightning and shadow together, then hurls the resulting concoction in the face of the oncoming storm. The resulting blanket of magic is huge—perhaps half a mile across—a shield of ephilium and demon power designed to protect not just her, but all of us.

And the armies of Aradis and Infernum see it too. Soldiers’ heads jerked upward across the plains at the sound of the explosion, but now the shout of urgent orders rises above the noise of battle, and the ephilium and demon forces are splitting apart, trying to put distance between themselves and the wave of strange power bearing down on us.

The weapon’s magic hits Leah’s shield like a blacksmith’s iron thrust into water, sending up a spray of blue sparks and hazy mist with a resounding hiss.

She drops a few feet, struggling to stay aloft and hold the shield steady, hands shaking under the pressure. I’m yards from her now, able to feel the heat of the magic searing above her even through the shield. It bakes the skin on my face as I fly up from below and brace against her back.

“I’m here,” I promise. “I’ve got you.”

“My magic…it’s not…enough…” she grunts through gritted teeth. As we both watch, horrified, some of the burning hot magic pours off the sides of her shield. Sheets of it rain down onto the battle below.

The fighters it hits probably don’t even see it coming, instantly evaporating in a blast of blue flame, but the screams that rise up around them echo across the plains.

The black magic pummels Leah’s shield, and my arms and wings burn with the effort of holding her steady against the onslaught. She shakes in my arms, feathers quivering against my cheek. It seems like an age until the pressure on both of us diminishes a touch.

I tear my focus away from her and glance down to see multiple rifts open across the plains. The ephilium and demon armies are retreating back to their realms, fleeing this strange magic and leaving Leah to face it alone. By now, however, the wave of power is mostly spent—having either burned through its victims or dissipated in a fog of blue mist.

Slowly, I start to lower us down toward the earth, cradling Leah as we descend. Her shield retreats across the sky as we go, shrinking down until it’s just a set of sparks and wisps of shadows between her fingers again. When my feet touch the earth, the last remnants of the shield vanish, and she drops her arms, slumping against me.

My hand automatically goes to her back, fingers rubbing between her shoulder blades as I try to process what just happened.

“How did you do that?”

She sighs into my shoulder. “I realized I could conjure both at the same time this morning. I’ve not managed to do it before. And then when that thing exploded…”

I wait, my hand stilling against her back.

“…I don’t know. Something just told me what to do. Instinct, or foresight, or whatever you want to call it. I just sort of…went with it.”

I hold Leah close, wondering if this woman will ever truly be knowable to me. It seems there are always facets of her that elude me—the distance between us too great to cross, and me shut out from her no matter how hard I try to get closer.

It fills my chest with a tightness: the pain of separation, yes, but the panic of it too. That was not the first time I thought I was being forced to stand by and watch as Leah died. How many more times will I have to endure it until we reach the end of the road? Until perhaps the prophecy decides a path for us—one that’s surely already been set in motion, given what Leah just achieved?

I don’t say any of this, however, as we slowly fly back toward the city walls. Leah’s made it clear she holds no water with the prophecy, and neither of us is in a state to debate it right now. Instead, I focus on the most immediate danger.

“Did you sense anything about the weapon’s magic when it exploded? Maybe something that points to its origin?” I ask.