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Now, the league had decided to take out a feeder community.
Now,someone had decided to act when for years some of us had been imprisoned and forgotten. For decades or longer.
I was almost to the grand hall now. I took off in a sprint, recognizing Mrak’s silence now for what it really was: He’d been warded away. But my magic still worked—hismagic still coursed through me.
Maybe it was really mine now.
Maybe, somehow, Mrak’s magic had begun to turn me into one of them—a monster, too.
Then a monster I’d become.
I turned the last corner on my way to the grand hall and was met with the sights of a raging battle between Cassius, his enforcers, and a half dozen demon hunters. They lunged at each other, meeting guns and swords with magic and fists.
The sight of them disgusted me without care for how innocent the demon hunters might have been. They hadn’t captured and scarred me. But they were still just shy of being worthy of redemption for how many years they’d known about Lazarus and Cassius, still only now deciding to do something about it.
Humans were trapped between the fighting sides. Men and women both, from all different walks of life, huddled in corners and behind furniture, tears streaking down their terrified faces.
I knew that fear all too well.
With a steadying breath that only seemed to grow the heady magic around me—like oxygen adding to a fire—I stepped through the doorway.
Hands grabbed my shoulders and yanked me backward. I teetered in that direction, unsuspecting of an attacker at my back. My head slammed into the brick wall first, then the rest of my body. Air left my lungs in one gasp.
Tendrils of fire and smoke lashed out from my body as if on their own command. My attacker yelped—a man, a familiar one. The fire tendrils hoisted him up in the air before me as I recovered, my head spinning.
I glanced up to meet their gaze, only to find Leif hanging before me. “I thought you were dead.”
Leif’s gaze cut right through me. I tried to swallow down the guilt it summoned. “Nearly so. The League found me. Healed me enough to come here.”
Leif did stand favoring one side. He still wore the same burnt jacket, and he winced every time he moved.
“Surprising they had healers to spare since so many seem to be here.” I squeezed my fist and the fire tendrils around Leif’s body pulled in closer. “How dare you stop me from getting my revenge!”
“I didn’t call them!” Leif shouted. “They found Cassius’s den all on their own. Other victims of Lazarus called the League. They were all being tracked. They didn’t trust the cops.”
My eyes narrowed. “They shouldn’t have trusted the League, either.” I squeezed my fist and the tendrils tightened further around Leif. He cried out. His shouts jarred me, sending me backward a step.
Leif. This was Leif. He was a threat, sure. But he’d only threatened Mrak and me because of his sister. Because of another shadow demon going after her.
I blinked. No, Leif was very much the connecting thread behind two sources of danger to Mrak and me. The Lunar League. The cops.
My pulse quickened.
“You don’t have to do this.” Anguish turned Leif’s voice from pained to pleading. “Let us take care of the den. Walk away from this without more murder on your hands.”
I lifted my chin. “If that’s what you’re worried about, you’re far too late. You can’t save me just to make yourself feel better for failing your sister. Your own flesh and blood.”
Pain turned to hot anger in Leif’s eyes. He moved quickly, reaching as much as he could, tearing at my tendrils to join his hands. One of his tattoos lit up and magic burst from him in a bubble. It shattered my fire tendrils and sent him tumbling to the ground.
Agony burst across my body as if he’d destroyedmeinstead of my magic. In the time it took me to recover, Leif stood and charged me, pinning me to the wall. My flames died out around me, slowly losing heat until the white flames turned orange, and the orange turned to shadow and nothingness.
Nothing.
My magic was gone.
