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For a few minutes there, I thought I might actually be able to kill him, and get us out of here alive.
My mistake.
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Iwatched hopeless acceptance fill X's eyes, watched him realise the same thing I did. We were trapped. Dead. At Eidolon's mercyagain.
I was supposed to have levelled up, for fuck's sake. I was a badass demon, with a ripped crimson body, plus fire magic and a very sketchy moral compass. Eidolon should be dead, but I was losing, failing. Again. And it was the fear of what he'd do this time that kept me powerless.
This time, would there be any parts left of us to put back together?
"Hold her still," he ordered his undead demon grunts.
Hands tightened on me, even though I was paralysed. But maybe he didn't know that? Maybe he didn't realise his venom had taken hold? I shot X a panicked look.Go! Run!
"Stay where you are," Eidolon ordered, and X froze between one step and the next.
A chill went down my spine, icy and premonitory.
I forgot he could compel demons, and that seemed like a deadly oversight. I locked eyes with my mate, both of us frozen, at the mercy of a merciless lizard.
"Now," Eidolon sighed, as if we were troublesome kids, "let's get started, shall we?"
His narrow eyes flashed as he gave the bastards holding me a stare that chilled my blood. "Don't let her move; I need absolute stillness."
X didn't move a muscle as Eidolon crossed the shitty little field to me. Frozen, I could do nothing but watch and notice details that made this far too real. The wind ruffled X's lilac hair, the cold bit into my fingers, and the hollow carcass of what was once the funfair lurked over the wall in the distance.
It hadn't been taken down yet, the skeletons of rides dark and empty, the fabric stretched over the largest attractions flapping in the wind. It was surreal that it was still here; so much had happened since that first day when I bought bearcakes and won Eileen—and killed Taj's uncle by mistake.1
I stared at that funfair because it was easier than watching Eidolon stalk closer, easier than waiting for whatever nefarious thing he would do to me next. Hadn't he done enough?
"There's an annoying block on your magic," he told me, casually frustrated as if he was complaining I'd used the last of the milk again. "Something is keeping the bulk of your power from me. Here," he muttered, and drove a sharp fingernail into my stomach just beneath my rib cage.
My breathing skipped. If I'd been able to move I would have shuddered.2
Get your slimy hands off me,I wanted to scream as he dug his nail deeper into my body, blocked by my armour—for now. Would he reach into me and carve the block out so he could have all my magic?
Move!I screamed at myself, wrenching on my legs, trying to lift my feet a damn millimetre off the ground.
How were we ever supposed to win when his venom could paralyse, and he had complete compulsion over demons? He'd made all Dev's guards kill each other, for fuck's sake. What chance did we stand?
"Take off her armour," he barked at the dead goons holding me, and my blind terror was splintered by a freakish clarity. It only lasted a second, but it was mind-blowing. He wascompellinghis army. What if the demons didn't want to be here? What if they were loyal tomydevil?
I tried to laugh, but I did little more than choke on a breath.
Magic crackled in the air, and I flinched inside. What was Eidolon going to do to me? He'd done a lot of fucked up stuff over the years, but I didn't fully know his limits. He'd held back in the throne room, but judging by the hardness of his voice, he was no longer giving me special treatment because I was his daughter.
The things I'd seen him do to people…
That would bemyfate, but amplified a billion percent because now he was more than ordinary psychopath Christian Lachesi. Now he had the crown's power and a demon’s form.
I braced for pain beyond anything I'd ever survived, but instead someoneelse'sblood splashed my face and dripped down my back and arms. The undead men holding me … had exploded.
My breath splintered.
I stared past Eidolon at X.
He was immobile, but not powerless? My bottom lip wanted to quiver. Wet, gross sounds of exploding bodies filled the field again, this time with less thuds, as if there wasn't enough left of their bodies to fall to the floor. They'd come back—they couldn't be killed as long as Eidolon wanted them alive—but it would buy us some time.
