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I felt panic grip my devil, felt the nausea of this impossible choice move through him.
"You'll share the relics' power with us,'' he grunted, squeezing me tight and ignoring the crispy bit of skin that flaked off. "That's theonlyway I'll let go of you. Give me some of it now."
I recoiled, the thought horrifying me, but the magic hummed and heated inside me, strangely encouraging.Don't make me regret this,I hissed at the ancient power, and reached through the circle bond for my tether with Dev, allowing a trickle of magic down to him.
The magic went wild inside me, zipping around my body, making my leg jerk and my hand twitch.
"My old friend," Dev murmured, making my head spin. Wait, was the magicexcited?
The second Dev's arms unlocked from me, I stumbled to my feet and shot across the grass, jumping clumsily over shattered wood from former booths and twisted metal that had been parts of a ride.
Eidolon swung for Arkan, but I pushed magic through the circle and a chilling grin crossed Ark's face. He grabbed the blade of Dev’s sword in both hands and snapped it in two.
I’ll get you another,I promised my devil.No, two.
I waited for Ark to freeze, for the venom to hit his system, but he only spun the jagged metal in his hand and drove it into Eidolon's heart. If he evenhada heart.
I pushed vicious fire through the circle to X, to Joseph, and when they didn't scream and buckle from the magic, I pushed more, sharing it between us. Maybe it was always supposed to be this way. If no single person could ever contain the relics' magic, maybe the devil was supposed to be a circle.
Arguing, the vision of me lounging on the throne flashed again.
"Yeah, whatever," I gasped, pushing myself to my limit as I ran across the fairground, Dev right at my back.
I sank into the place I'd found when I fought Eidolon in the throne room, when my flames turned hot enough to melt bone and took on a life on their own. Watching me, curious, the relics' power saw me form and shape my own magic, and it thrummed with excitement.
When I sucked in a breath, it wasn't just my pain magic and the flames of my demon side that merged; the hellfire rushed down every seam until it was as strong as platinum and as vicious as a volcano. Fire soared up my throat as I exhaled power, and this was no little wyvern that burst to life.
It crackled as it erupted from my mouth, then grew talons and vicious teeth, and snapped out wings of lava and violent fire.
Holy shit, my fire had never been purple before. It burned hotter than anything I'd produced, soaring high above us, growing larger and more powerful until it was the size of a big wheel.
Even I gulped, and it was my power. Kinda. Mine and the relics’.7
"Holy shit," Taj laughed, the sound threaded with pain, but his awe was dominant. He grinned from the wyvern to Eidolon as my creature tucked in its spiky, flame wings and dove. "You're fucked."
His confidence made my heart soar.
Strike the heart of his power,I ordered the relic's magic since it was piloting the wyvern.Find whatever's holding him together and crush it.
The magic sent me a vision of a guard saluting. This shit was crazy. I was conversing with magic.
"Hit him at once!" I yelled at my circle. Well, croaked. "Now!"
"With pleasure," Joseph replied, his half-skull covering his face and his scythe slashing through the air.
I skidded across the grass behind Eidolon's scaly green body, and used the pain and suffering practically dripping from the air to make a simple dagger, little more than a sharpened stake. I drove it into his back with everything I had right as Joseph slashed his throat with the scythe, Taj drowned him in flames, Ark drove shadows down his throat, and Dev lifted his hands, his claws longer, sharper. I jumped when he plunged them into Eidolon's face, his eyeballs bursting with oozy, gooey grossness.
Wow. That was … wow.
Wrinkling my nose and glad I couldn’t see most of the graphic bits from this angle, I dragged magic from my core and pumped it through the dagger into Eidolon's body. The jerk he made was satisfying. I hoped he choked on the power; he'd schemed my whole life, stealing my magic.
Be careful what you wish for.
I gritted my teeth against a scream, giving everything—blood and pain, fire and flame, plus the inferno of relic magic that still lived in my veins.
"Pour everything into him," Dev ordered. "Avie, careful."
Fuck careful; I wanted this bastard dead at any cost.
