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Even now, the details of Cara’s death were difficult to comprehend, and a part of her wished that Azaiel hadn’t shared everything with her.
Mallick’s grin widened, his serrated teeth glinting in the shadows cast by the fires that burned around them. “You think I would kill and torture someone loved by you and”—he arched a brow—“not make you watch?”
Rowan’s face whitened, and she took a step forward, hands raised.
Mallick paused, nostrils flared, and his eyes widened in anger. The earth trembled beneath her feet, and she nearly fell as she struggled to keep her balance.
“You’ve given yourself to another.” Bloodred eyes stared at her, his fury impressive as he bared serrated teeth at her. “You will pay for that. You belong to me.” Mallick snarled and glanced around once more. “You all belong to me.”
“No.”
Mallick cocked his head and seemed surprised that she’d spoken. “That will cost you, little witch.”
“No,” she said again as the coven closed ranks, and their chanting increased. Their power floated in the air and slid over her skin with ease. Rowan caught sight of her mother . . . of her Nana and her cousins. Hannah’s eyes were riveted to Mallick as she chanted along with the others. Their strength, their bond was inside her now. She felt it coil around her heart and soul.
A face appeared from the mist, an old, worn, tragic face. She knew it was Agatha, the one who’d called Mallick forth so long ago. Agatha nodded and screamed.
Mallick roared in anger and summoned his own army. They attacked, and Rowan knew she needed to act quickly. Her hunters could only hold them off for so long, even with the added strength of the fae, whom she felt along the fringes of the circle.
She began to recite the binding spell and sidestepped agilely as Mallick lunged toward her. The coven’s power sizzled in the air, a beautiful luminescent conduit that fed directly into Rowan. She used it, smiling wickedly as Mallick struggled to get closer to her—to break through the energy that protected her.
She closed her eyes, trusting her sisters completely, and the words fell from her lips, the ones that would bind him and keep him subdued while she excised his essence from his physical body.
When the binding spell was complete, Rowan’s eyes flew open, her chest rising and falling rapidly, her voice hoarse.
Mallick was livid. He glared at her with such hatred that for a moment fear sliced through her, and she thought she might be sick.
I will enjoy making you pay for this over and over, you dumb bitch.
The wind whipped at her furiously, and she struggled to keep herself upright, to keep his voice out of her head as she turned to Hannah. Her cousin tossed a large jar toward her, and Rowan caught it handily, setting it on the ground between them as she held out her hand and called forth the sword of Gideon.
Mallick’s mouth frothed when he caught sight of it, and he bellowed loudly, his voice screeching as he called for his forces to annihilate the coven. Screams echoed on the wind, but Rowan dared not take her eyes from the demon in front of her.
She opened her mouth and stared directly into death’s gaze as she began to call forth the charm that would pul
l his essence from his body. Mallick’s facade wavered, and his true form shone through. It was pure darkness and evil. She closed her eyes, her stomach rolling as the horror she’d seen floated in her mind.
A scream shattered through her brain, and Rowan stumbled to the ground, rolling to the side as the circle broke. “No!” she screamed, the spell interrupted. Abigail lay on the ground, a limp, rag doll with lifeless eyes and a deep wound to the neck. All around them chaos reigned.
She felt Mallick behind her a half a second before pain erupted along her scalp. He picked her up as if she weighed nothing, and when she twisted his fist knocked the sword flying before slamming into the side of her head. Stars flickered in front of her, and the breath was knocked from her body as Mallick threw her to the ground with enough force to shake the earth.
Blood spurted inside her mouth, and for a second Rowan was confused. Everything was too loud. Too chaotic. But then she saw him. Azaiel.
He was shouting at her, trying to fight his way past several blood demons, and though she couldn’t hear him, the look in his eyes was enough to clear her head. She rolled to the side, her father’s dagger in her hand as she jackknifed to her feet and faced Mallick once more.
“You stupid woman.” Spittle leaked from the corner of his mouth, and he bared his teeth once more. “I will kill you slowly, eat from you daily until you shrivel into nothing more than a husk of flesh. Then I will feed you to my dogs.”
Rowan knew she had but one chance. “You forget, asshole.” The world fell away as she lunged toward him. “I’m not a woman.” She plunged the dagger into his neck and took him down, rolling with him on the ground as he sputtered in rage. He stilled beneath her hands, his veins bulging like black, spidery tattoos as she leaned toward him. “I’m the fucking witch who is going to end you.”
She dug the dagger in as far as she could, watching as the fae poison spread throughout his body. Mallick’s eyes bulged, and froth leaked from the corners of his mouth as he struggled to breathe.
She pushed away and began to recite once more, trusting her coven, her hunters . . . her lover to keep her safe as she completed the ritual.
She was light-headed, her voice hoarse by the time Mallick’s mouth opened and his darkness erupted from every orifice, swirling in a tornado of dank, evil mist. Carefully, Rowan directed it into the large jar, and once it was captured, secured within the charmed glass, she glanced around wildly, her eyes searching for the sword of Gideon.
Her eyes burned at the sight before her. The circle was surrounded, part of it breached. On the perimeter Mallick’s dark soldiers attacked with a frenzy, and she knew her forces couldn’t hold much longer.
She crawled forward and spied Cedric. The old man stood beside Abigail’s prone body, and in his hands was the sword. He glanced up, eyes wet with tears, and she screamed at him to no avail. There, inches away stood a massive demon, its human form long gone and in its place, a seven-foot-tall wall of scales, muscle, and evil.
