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Harper struggled to her feet and waited, ready to make her move. Her last reserve of the vortex’s energy strained against her skin, wanting freedom, wanting violence. Dark, revolting images flashed in her mind – images of all the things Harper could do to the people around her. Images that both tempted and sickened her.
She shook her head, needing to think clearly. Her heart jumped as Nora lowered the enchanted vines that surrounded the boulders. Yes, that’s it, bitch, send your little helpers this way. As two robed figures raced toward her, Harper called to the —
Pain thundered through her womb, sending her to her knees once more. Motherofgoddamnholyfuck. The incantors reached her, and fingers dug into her arms. “No!”
A blast of energy swept out of her body – a beautiful gold, sheen of light – and knocked every single incantor to the ground. Harper’s mouth fell open, and she got to her feet once more. Oh, little baby, you’re gonna be a handful. Because Harper had not done that.
That familiar dreaded, droning sound filled the air again, making everyone freeze. A portal burst to life… and several figures stepped out of it. The sight of the dark demon leading them, danger in every line of his body, made her knees shake.
“Knox,” Harper breathed in relief. A sob almost choked her. He looked at her, his eyes fevered and glittering with rage. They softened with relief for the briefest moment… then his body jerked as his eyes abruptly bled to black, like the demon had forced its way to the surface. It stared at her, and then she could almost feel its soul-eating rage from there. The incantors must have felt it too, but they didn’t act. They stayed frozen, like prey hoping not to catch a predator’s attention.
A buzz vibrated the air, and her stomach churned. She knew what was coming. It wasn’t like when Harper called to the flames of hell – that “buzz” was the power gathering as it came to her. For Knox, the power lived inside him… the demon was simply letting it free.
A tremor rumbled through the ground, and she planted her feet. The power purred against her bare skin; the force of it burned her eyes, rattled her teeth, tightened her chest, and caused a low ringing sound to blare in her ears.
As the air seemed to pinken, she looked up, unsurprised to find that the moon behind the frothing ugly cloud was now blood-red.
She jumped as flames burst from the ground with a roar. They didn’t devour the incantors. No, the blinding, tri-colored, ten-foot high flames swirled around Knox’s demon, engulfing it. They hissed, crackled, and spat as they danced and swayed – wild and angry, meaning that the demon was wild and angry. Her heart raced as a figure of raging flames stepped out of the fire. No eyes, no facial features, no clothes – just flames.
Knox was gone. The archdemon had come out to play.
Shit.
That was when the incantors seemed to snap out of their shock, hit by their “fight or flight” instinct. And they fled. The ragged line of fire headed straight for the running incantors, leaving a trail of ashes in its wake. Hell, she’d never have thought that Nora could run that fast. The archdemon followed the incantors, its movements almost mechanical.
The sentinels then raced over to her, Tanner in the lead. “Fuck, Harper, you look like shit.” He curled an arm around her, helping to take her weight. It was a good thing, because a contraction hit her so hard, her legs almost gave out. Her moans were barely heard over the screams of pain and terror coming from the incantors.
She gripped Levi’s arm. “I am so fucking glad you’re all here, even if our archdemon has lost its shit.”
She winced at a high-pitched screech – a gold flame had hooked around the neck of a fleeing incantor and tossed him into the fire. At the same time, a black flame circled Whiner, cutting off his retreat and trapping him; he screamed from the searing heat alone, and she could imagine how his skin would be blistering and eating away at itself.
Keenan whistled as a third flame wrapped around Jumpy’s body and slammed him into the ground once, twice, three times. There was a nauseating crack, and the incantor’s cries died abruptly. The archdemon could have killed them all outright, but it was toying with them first.
“Where’s Nora?” But then Harper saw her gripping a boulder, screaming as a red flame repeatedly lashed her. At any other time, Harper would have marched over there and dealt with the bitch herself. Right then, she could barely stand on her own. She groaned through her teeth as another spasm assailed her womb. “I am not having this baby here!”
Keenan scratched his nape. “I don’t think leaving here is going to happen any time soon.”
No, neither did Harper. The archdemon was out of control, drunk on power. She knew exactly how that felt, because her own demon had experienced the same invigorating, intoxicating, high. No demon came down from that easily, especially not one on a warpath. As for an archdemon on a warpath… well, that was a whole other thing, and she wasn’t equipped to talk it down. It had a habit of developing tunnel vision when it thought she needed avenging.
She’d managed to talk it down once in the past, but not before an entire building and a bunch of dark practitioners were destroyed. Hell, it had almost killed Tanner and Larkin that night, too set on getting to Harper and slaughtering those who’d taken her from it to really think. It couldn’t happen again. It —
Harper froze at the familiar droning sound. Fuck. She spun to see that Nora had opened another portal and was reaching out to it with one hand. “Oh God, she’s going to get away.”
“No, she won’t,” Levi growled. He flicked a hand, and Nora’s head suddenly slammed against the boulder. The portal disappeared with a pop.
Harper released a sigh of relief. She’d forgotten the reaper had a telekinetic ability. “Thank you, Le —” She cut off as she spotted the archdemon walking toward Nora. She was the only incantor still alive, Harper then realized.
The flame whipping Nora paused. Like a snake, it slithered up her body and contracted around her. Then it dived down her throat. Eyes bulging, she choked and jerked as more and more of the flame shoved its way inside her – no doubt searing, burning, and consuming everything it touched.
Agony blazed in her amber eyes and her face scrunched up into a silent scream, but Harper had no pity for her. None at all. And when Nora’s body spontaneously combusted, Harper’s demon grinned with pleasure and satisfaction.
She let out a long breath. It was over. They were all dead. The fire hadn’t died, though, she realized with a frown. No, it was still blazing, fierce and furious. It was also spreading along the landscape, consuming the snarled trees and frail shrubs. The mist was gone, and now heat waves shimmered in the air. The archdemon turned away, apparently not done playing.
“Stop!” Harper shouted. “They’re dead. Thank you. They’re gone… I need Knox right now. Let him come to me.”
But it didn’t. The demon walked away. The vortex was feeding its anger and ill-intent, she realized, and that was not at all good. “We need to get Knox away from here. This place…”
“I know, I feel it,” said Levi. “But getting the demon to leave will be a big fucking job, and I don’t think you’re up to it right now.”
He was right, but… “I have to be.” Harper sighed. “I guess I’m gonna have to fight fire with fire.”
Larkin stilled. “What?”
Locking down on all her out-of-control emotions, Harper used the last of the dark energy within her to tap into her link to her wings. As Knox had taught her, she used it as a bridge… and she called to the power waiting on the other end of it. The ground trembled and the air buzzed as, at Harper’s will, flames of hell sprouted out of the ground in front of the archdemon. They acted as a barrier, got its attention. The demon tried to lower them but it couldn’t, because these flames were answering to her, not the entity.
It slowly and stiffly turned to face her. Although there were no eyes, she felt it looking right at her. It knew what she’d done, and it wasn’t happy with her. Then it stalked toward her, and she lowered the flames before her panic could send them out of control.
“Harper, get behind me,” said Tanner.
