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Ooh, what was Breakwater? Whatever it was, it made Eidolon suck in a breath. His voice was cool and composed when he replied, but I heard the sharp inhale—and Bel had too if her low chuckle was anything to go by.
"You're a child," he patronised, his go-to put-down. "If you think you can threaten me—"
"I can," she replied, colder than Arkan had ever sounded.
She was terrifying. Actual, blood-chilling, give-you-nightmares terrifying. The hairs rose along my arms as I crept closer, a knife in each hand.
My heart pounded so hard I felt it in my throat, but my hands were steady on the knives and my knees didn't buckle. Pain fractured my middle with every step, but pain was an old friend and this was a mere catch-up after a few days apart.
Eidolon laughed patronisingly. My body twitched, bracing for pain instinctively. My wings twitched too, the leather of them grazing my thighs. I'd gotten so used to their weight that I forgot they were more than something I was just dragging around—they were something I coulduse.
A grin split my face, and for a moment I was that single-minded, bloodthirsty psychopath who slaughtered an entire wedding party.Never again,I'd sworn, and immediately shipped myself off to the country. To this town that was supposed to be a reset, a second chance. Too much had happened fornever againto be a reality.
I didn’t have Dev's soul when I killed those people, didn’t have a blaze of magic living inside me. I'd only had steel and an endless, burning rage. For a moment I let myself remember what Eidolon had done to trigger my rampage—the room covered in gore, the bloody spine dangling from my only lover's dismembered head. I imagined the head being Ark's. Joseph's. Taj's. X's. Dev's.
Fury blasted through me hotter than a collapsing sun. I was a supernova, a neutron star forged from the ruins and wreckage.
My heart beat so fast it was unnatural, and when Bel lunged at Eidolon again, I slammed my wings through the air and kicked off the ground.
I wasn't human. I might have started out that way once, sweet and innocent and unmarred. But I was a demon, through and through—brutal and merciless and driven by violence.
It was time to teach the monster who made me what I was truly capable of.
43
Bel went for Eidolon’s throat and I sank steel into his back, tearing the vicious edges up from the base of his spine. I would cut out his spine, too, and teach him the same pain he'd dealt the night he broke me. The night I killed him. I should have followed his soul to Hell and crushed it out of existence. I wouldn't make that mistake again.
"Really, Aveline?" he sighed—and gasped when Jezebel snapped her fangs around his throat. Ha! Hewasscared of her.
I twisted my knives in his back, carving him open, refusing to admit that this wouldn't work. I'd stabbed him, cut him, and bitten him already to no effect. I neededmagic,and that was the one thing I didn't have. But I had wings—there was always a silver lining, right?1
"Get out of here," Bel hissed, her fangs around Eidolon's green, scaly throat and her voice muffled."Go,Avie! I'll kill him."
I tore my knives from his back, avoiding the spray of blood and venom. But we'd been betrayed once; who was to say Bel wasn't a traitor in disguise and this wasn't all an elaborate plot? Half turned away, I tried to pivot back, but no one ever warned you how awkward and unwieldy wings were—and how hard they were to control.
I lost my balance and slammed into Eidolon's back, his blood plastering to my front and luckily only meeting armour. The last thing I needed was to be hit with his venom again.
My wings pumped frantically as I tried to regain my balance. I pulled on muscles at random, flapping my arms as if that would help.2
"Sssshit," Bel snapped. "I told you to releassse your army, not ressurect them."
I jerked my head up, finally regaining control of my wings enough to set myself on the ground. Oh, perfect. Puddles of gore and blood were rising off the ground where they'd lain since X exploded them apart.
"I'm afraid, Ghost Viper, as the devil, I don't recognise your authority," Eidolon sneered.
I backed up, my eyes wide on the bloody puddles.
Bel was a slippery fucker; when Eidolon shot his clawed hand forward to grab her, she dropped to the ground and slithered a safe distance away.
I, the Ultimate Dumbass™, didnotdo that. I was still distracted by the blood rising into demon-shaped people all around us, hundreds uponhundredsof them. How did you kill blood? You didn't. Shame one of my mates wasn't a vampire; that would have come in real handy right now.
I didn't see the arm swinging at me until it hit my ribs and sent me flying. Pain blurted through my wound. My wings magically activated and snapped out, catching air to slow my fall, and I scrambled to stay on my feet.
Blood pumping fast, breathing roughly, I glared at the bastard who stole me, broke me, and trained me into a ruthless killer.
"Bigmistake," I seethed, my pulse slamming in my throat.
He shook his green head, trying for sadness. Bastard. "With no magic, Avie? You couldn't threaten a cat."
