Page 114 of Devoted

A crash. Something heavy toppling, the floor shaking violently beneath me. Through the slits of my half-opened lids, Gabriel fell to his knees beneath the other Drax, his knife hand speared through by the sharpened tip of one stabbing leg.

Oh gods, no. Please.

Spare him.

Those blue eyes found mine across three meters of scattered papers and broken glass, across the fire and shadows and screams.

His gaze burned with pure fury.

The incandescent rage of not being able to stop the inevitable.

I opened my mouth to tell him everything would be okay, but nothing came out.

The cold deepened.

Entombed me.

The room turned gray, color leaching out of everything, like the warmth fading from my dying body.

42

NICO

Ihad three seconds to stop this.

The Drax pinned Emberline down before I’d fully registered what was happening, my reaction time dulled by too much wine and my own fucking stupidity.

Dante roared out a challenge, flames bursting to life. But fire didn’t work against these monsters, and if he released the ifrit out in this space, he’d kill us all—but not the Drax.

“Dante, stop…”

Baring his teeth at the Drax, he snarled, “Get it the fuck off her…” Fire and embers crawled through the air, curling over the creature’s hardened shell, catching the rug on fire.

“You’ll hurt her… get back… let me…” I spooled up my shadows, but they were erratic, my control shredding between my own panic at Emberline’s already-gray face, the light draining out of her eyes.

The fucking thing was killing her, and I was letting it happen.

Her skin had lost the pink flush of health, fingers feebly clawing at the floor as if she could drag herself out from underneath that fucking nightmare. But the creature’s sharpened leg impaled her shoulder, one hand was nearly severed, blood pumping out from her veins frighteningly fast.

I had to do something.

The problem was the room. My friends.

The Emissary form was not a scalpel. From my limited experience, the asshole was a hammer, and if I shifted inside the villa, I’d bring this entire building down on our heads.

Valeria’s soldiers raced into the room, took one look at the ongoing carnage, and stopped. They couldn’t help. They were just more potential victims.

“Stay the fuck out of my way so I can kill it,” I shouted to Dante, and for once, the words registered. He moved, enough for me to get a clean shot.

I yanked up my shadows. Panting, I focused the unstable cloud into a single, black thread, the tip sharper than a needle.

The Drax turned my way and hissed.

Ever since I was a child, they had responded to my magic. Recognized the darkness, because—I feared—we were birthed from the same place. That eyeless head swung toward me, mandibles clicking, warning me away from its prey.

“That’s it, look at me, you fucker.” I stepped closer, searching for a better angle. “She’s not yours. Not today.”

With a screech, the Drax opened its tooth-filled maw, and I shoved the point straight into that gaping hole, through whatever the fuck made the thing live, and let my shadows expand.