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“Medic!” someone called. The figures rushed through the darkness, reassembling for the next part of the plan. Retreating as far as they dared now that they had the captured people safely away. Gabriel motioned to us, and we all edged back several more feet from where Rose stood, like she’d instructed.
My heart thumped fast in my chest as I watched her pale figure on the road, so slight compared to that hulking monster. This was the hard part. She had to force that thing across the long yard of the Frankfords’ property and into that cave, and the other witches might not be able to help her much at all.
She’d said she was going to ask the other witches to distract it, and they were definitely holding up that end of the deal. Light quavered across the demon’s back and haunches, making it lurch and gnash its teeth. As it swiped toward the edge of the road where the witches were well out of reach, Rose threw a burst of magic at it. The wind whistled, and the creature tumbled across the road and into the yard, heading toward the Frankfords’ house there.
But only part of the way. It leapt up with another of those guttural snarls and sprang back at Rose. With a slash of her arms, she managed to deflect it and shove it back, but it landed a little closer to her and the enforcers again. She heaved, and it skidded another few paces toward the Cliff. It roared and flung its massive body toward her with a crackling of its unearthly energy that rattled the roots of my teeth.
They pushed back and forth like that a few more times, the demon gaining a little ground back and losing it and gaining it again. Even in the dim light, a sheen of sweat glinted on Rose’s face. Her chest heaved with panted breaths. My own lungs constricted.
It was wearing her down. The witches were still tossing their own flashes of magic at the creature, but its attention was solely focused on Rose now, and she couldn’t force it across all that terrain while it was fighting her every step of the way.
The demon tried to dodge to the side, around Rose, and she hurled it back again—but its claws dug into the packed dirt of the road, holding it from sliding farther. Its opaque gaze swiveled toward the witches beyond her.
It’d go to the Cliff, all right, but only if it had bodies it could break over the rocks there, blood it could spill for its own power. Rose was strong… but that thing might be stronger.
My hands itched for something—a pistol, a bazooka, a missile launcher, I’d take whatever—even though I knew with dread curled around my stomach that I couldn’t have helped her no matter what weaponry I had in my hands. Bullets and bombs would bounce right off it.
So that was it? All we could do was stand here and watch as the last hope this world had fell apart? Wait for that thing to spray all our blood across the Cliff?
At the final thought, I found myself glancing down at my hand. At the starburst of a scar where I’d mingled my blood with Rose’s, offering my soul in return for hers. A chill flooded me.
She needed distractions. She needed that monster by the Cliff. And it wanted a victim to slaughter.
I couldn’t fight it like a lion. Did I have it in me to be the lamb?
Nausea pooled in my gut, but at the same time my jaw clenched with cold resolve. Someone had to do something, or we were going to lose everything. And I trusted Rose. I’d trusted her with my heart, with my life, with my soul. Compared to everything we’d already been through, offering myself up like this was barely anything at all. I knew she’d get me through it.
Gabriel must have caught a hint of my intention in my face. “Damon,” he started, frowning.
I met his eyes, and a wild grin twisted my mouth. With a jerk of my hand, I snapped a branch off the sapling. “I’ll be right back,” I said, and bolted for the road.
Someone else called my name, but my pounding feet didn’t falter. I tore across the road and onto the grass of the yard, pushing myself faster with every stride.
When I passed the house, I figured I had enough of a head start to make it to my goal. I let out a whoop in case the demon hadn’t noticed me yet and scraped the broken end of the narrow branch across my palm.
Blood welled up along the stinging line. I kept running, tossing the stick aside, holding my hand to the air in the hopes the breeze would carry the scent the creature was craving to it.
My stomach had balled into a knot, but I focused my mind down to two thoughts. The witches had used their blood to hold the demons at bay—the blood I gave freely couldn’t help it. And Rose would come for me, for it, before it had a chance to use a single drop in my body for its own ends.
Another roar sounded behind me, but this one sounded almost eager. So eager my bones shivered at the sound. I threw myself forward even faster, past the scattered line of trees, out to the rocky ground at the edge of the Cliff.
The salty wind smacked my face. I dropped down by the start of the path leading down that stone face, letting myself slump on the ground, pathetic and vulnerable. And with a lurch of the ground, the demon came charging to take me.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Rose
Iheard the shouts and caught a blur of motion down the road from the corner of my eye, but IfeltDamon’s mad dash toward the Cliff down to the pit of my spark. One of my consorts was flinging himself into danger. Laying his life on the line.
The awareness ripped through me—and the demon’s head turned. For the last several minutes, it had been completely focused on getting past me to the witches I was blocking it from snatching up, but Damon had caught its attention. Its opaque eyes narrowed and its crooked nostrils flared. My gut lurched, but at the same time I understood.
This was what Damon had wanted. He was playing bait like we’d meant to have the faction’s witches do. Only there wasn’t any trap here, just the Cliff—the Cliff where the fate of the entire world might rest on my reaching him in time.
The demon pushed away from the road with a roar, hurtling in the direction I’d spent the last several minutes trying to shove it. I couldn’t be completely happy about that now. I threw myself after the fiend.
My feet smacked the matted grass of the yard, my breath raw in my throat. My limbs were already aching from all the magicking I’d thrown at it so far. But I had to dredge up more. Somewhere inside me, I had to find the power to see this last gambit through.
With a flick of my hands, I sent energy to my feet to speed each step along. The demon barreled between two of the trees near the edge of the Cliff, smashing them onto their sides with a shower of bark shards. I raced after it, pulling more and more light and warmth from my spark to the edges of my body. I might only get one chance to do this right.
