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The demon approached again, raising its claws, aiming for my heart.
Desperate, I shoved my now-bloodied fingers into my corset and withdrew Garrick’s knife. As the creature swiped, I ducked, slamming the blade into its torso with the remaining strength I could muster. I scrambled backward before the demon could strike again, slipping in my own blood and collapsing. My pulse pounded in my temples as I blinked up at the advancing creature, staring at the place where the blade was lodged in its body. There was no blood, no sign of injury or weakness or pain from the monster at all. Only a knife trapped harmlessly in its flesh—if the creature was even made of real flesh.
Foolish human. You can’t kill me, and you can’t injure me with a mere piece of metal either. I am eternal, crafted of darkness to defy death and wreak havoc.
The demon hovered over me, and this time, I could almost imagine a grin stretching across its face—if its skull had anything but an empty maw. A scream clawed up my throat as it attacked. I was going to die. Despite Garrick’s confidence, despite my magic.
I lifted my hand and shoved at its arm as hard as I could, my final feeble attempt to deflect its attack.
And then—the demon jerked away, a strange, agonized cry piercing my thoughts, like it was crying out wordlessly in a way only I could hear. I stared as it squirmed and crumpled to the floor like it was being burned. I glanced from the bloody hand I’d lifted to try to stop it, to the blood on its skeletal arm. My blood.
It’s in your blood,Garrick had said. Of course. My power lived in my veins.
Staggering to my feet, I charged for the flailing demon, slapping my bloody palm onto its chest. It unleashed another horrifying cry in my head, and then went still.
Blackness swooped in from the edges of my vision, and the shaking in my limbs increased, combining with overwhelming exhaustion. I collapsed, and the darkness devoured me.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Shouts. The door slamming and countless footsteps. Jangling chains and muffled curses.
My body ached, but my arm wasn’t as ruined as I’d thought, like the demon had tricked me into experiencing more pain than it had truly inflicted. The scratches along my skin stung and bled, but I wasn’t bleeding out on the floor as I’d imagined, with an arm shredded down to the bone.
As a heavily armed group of fae approached the shackled creature, rough hands seized my arms and heaved me to my feet. I blinked at Preston as he glowered. His gaze flicked to the knife in the paralyzed demon’s body. He snapped his fingers, a silent order that one of the guards obeyed by rushing forward to yank the blade from the demon.
His voice was deadly quiet, indiscernible beneath the roar of our audience. But it was easy enough to read what he said by the way he enunciated the words. “After you, Your Majesty.”
I led the way toward the exit, my steps wooden. I hadn’t thought I could taste fear and misery as intense as what the underworld creature had forced upon me ever again...until this moment. Now I knew I’d been sadly, foolishly wrong.
What it had filled me with hadn’t been real, disintegrating as soon as its power over me slipped. But the emotions choking me now were rooted in a problem that wouldn’t vanish so easily.
Surely Preston had recognized the mark on Garrick’s hunting knife. They knew he’d broken the rule against weapons to aid me.
Outside the door, Nerissa and Isolde already waited with Garrick between them. His expression was blank, but I couldn’t tell if it was from fae control or an effort to appear unperturbed. The guards were nowhere in sight.
My gut twisted.
“How disappointing, my pet,” Nerissa said, her eyes latching onto the incriminating knife the guard held up for her to study. She turned to Garrick, reaching up to run her fingertips over the stubble on his jaw. “You knew better.”
A muscle jumped in Garrick’s cheek, but he didn’t look at Nerissa. He didn’t look at anyone. Even when I tried to meet his gaze, he stared resolutely at the stone floor.
Nerissa pulled back, frowning. “Do you have no excuse for yourself?”
Garrick said nothing. He barely even blinked.
