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I felt a little bad, though. If they really weren't loyal to Eidolon, they'd been exploded for no reason.
"This is tedious," the bastard sighed, looking beyond me at what was probably a pool of blood and exploded skin.
Panic tightened my chest, slicing my breathing into wisps, but I latched onto the last command he'd given his army. He wanted my armour removed because he wanted to carve out whatever inner thing kept my magic from him. He hadn't stolen it.Couldn'tsteal it. Which meant it was still here, locked inside me.
Clawed, green hands seized my shoulders, a muscle ticking in his scaly jaw as he grabbed the seams of my leather jacket and yanked hard. As if something my mates gave me would be cheap enough to rip on the first try.
I had to reach my magic before he did. While he tore at my jacket and X kept splattering the soldiers with gushing, bloody noises, I sank deep inside myself.
The field fell away, leaving me alone with my power—and my thoughts.
My magic had always been weak on Earth, a sad wisp of smoke compared to the wildfire I had in Hell. Because I wasn't really a demon? Because I was a human?
A rip sounded, and I flinched inside as leather tore apart. He was going to find whatever kept him from my power and cut it out of me like he'd cut X apart. I brushed the core of magic that lived inside me, but it was still pathetically low. Wherever my magic was, it was kept from me, too.
Panic drummed my heart against my chest and—wait, I was human right now. Taj had freed himself from this paralysis bygoing big. I had my own demon form.
I didn't think twice. I grabbed the demon part of me in a chokehold and ripped my tall, clawed, winged form out of myself. The first sound from my many-toothed mouth was a roar of pain. The stab wound on my stomach blazed, throbbing deep and—Eidolon blinked in surprise at my transformation. And my sudden motor function.
Fuck the pain.I pressed my advantage and slashed my claws across his green, scaly throat. Skin parted, blood pouring over my knuckles, but his smile was unhinged and unworried.
With my legs able to move again, I stumbled back, fighting to keep my balance as my boots slipped on the gore-strewn grass.
"The power ismine,"I rasped, sinking back inside myself and searching for that power. It was still muffled, distant, but there was something else that lived here, and I grabbed hold of the sliver of Dev's soul and yanked hard.
Help,I cried.Please!
Power didn't dump into my body, which would have been helpful, but fierce reassurance and love rushed down the mate bond, and it gave me enough strength to break Eidolon's nose when he came at me again.
He was intent on carving out the block—Dev's soul, keeping me safe, keeping me powerful.3
I hammered my bastard abuser with another punch, ignoring my claws as they bit into my own palms, pummelling his face until blood gushed. It was cathartic as fuck. I could breathe easier with every punch and—Eidolon was laughing.
Why was he laughing?
"All this time, Avie," he chuckled, and spat blood on the grass, his face a mess of blood and broken scales, "and you're still trying to prove your strength to me."
"I’m trying to break your face, actually," I quipped, throwing a subtle glance at X. He was still frozen. Shit. "And we already did the monologue section of our endgame battle, so you can skip this part."
I brought my leg around and kicked him in the knee, making his stance weaken—andstillhe laughed.
Unease made my conviction waver.
"You're stalling for time," he said, giving me a pitying look even as I slammed my knuckles into his ribs. "You think they're coming to save you, but they can't get through the barrier."
Another pulse of X's magic charged through the air, making my hair whip around my face and my eyes sting. This time Eidolon inhaled a sharp breath and turned away from me.4"Theycan't," a rough female voice spat, making my head snap up. "ButIcan."
I tore my claws from Eidolon's back and stared in shock as Jezebel stalked through a rip in the barrier. She looked to have hacked it open with a knife—or mangled it with the sharp, oversized fangs that filled her mouth. Was I going crazy, or was her body shimmering with a pale opalescence? She looked like she rolled around in glitter.5
For a moment, I was too stunned to notice who Bel dragged through the barrier with her, their red hair fisted in her white-knuckled hand. She threw the person into the grass at Eidolon's feet, carelessly rough.
Wait, it wasShira,her red face messy and tear-stained and her eyes wild with terror. Her clothes were dirty, like this wasn't the first time she'd been tossed to the ground.
The confusion and sympathy I began to feel for her vanished when she looked at Eidolon in recognition. And her shoulders slumped with relief.
Bel bared her vicious fangs at my bastard abuser. "I think thisss belongss to you."
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