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“If he got into Blackwood, a damn cloaked city, he’ll figure out how to get here.” I search his face, hoping to see that I’mconvincing him. “I’m not safe anywhere, Axe. Not as long as he’s still in power.”
Understanding dawns in Axe’s gaze, and for a moment, he looks broken. For me. Like he feels it. Like he knows, too. “I see.”
And with those two words, I know he truly does, and he sees exactly what I intend to do should the need arise.
One simple nod. “OK. Enzo, are you ready?”
“I’m always ready, boss.”
“Bastian?”
“Yeah, I’m ready. Wishing I was the one who got the true form right about now, but I’m ready.”
“You and me both,” Axe says with gritted teeth. “Alright, here’s the plan. We blink in together and search the campus until we find him. Bastian, you take point; Enzo, in the rear, and Dash and I will be in the middle covering Dove.”
“No need. He’s at the Burrow.”
A slow smile spreads on Axe’s face as he smooths the front of his t-shirt. “Good. Step one’s already done. We blink in, give him the chance to leave unharmed, and if he refuses, we make him wish he hadn’t. Questions?”
“I don’t like this at all. You’re powerful, but she’s still untrained. You barely made a singularity for Karloff the other day,” Dashel says, folding his arms around me and pulling me close once more.
"Yup. That’s why you’re going to be at her side at all times,” Axe orders.
I’m not arguing with that. I can barely light a candle with demon magic. “Hang on. I have to get something,” I say, pushing out of Dashel’s grip to dash off to my room.
Quickly grabbing the loose rings at the bottom of my bag, I jam them on every finger, two on some, and head back out to the heirs. I don’t know if I’ll be able to use them properly. I made a singularity, and I haven’t felt stronger in my life, but I’m notgoing to count on wielding demon magic. At the very least, I know I can throw the rings and make a big explosion.
“OK, now I’m ready.”
Dashel pulls me to his topaz skin once more, and I try to center myself in him. In his scent and the feeling of his arms around me.
You gave him his true form. Do not forget how powerful you are.Chonk’s strange voice rings in my mind.
Thank you, strange little creature.
Magic tingles over my skin, and I instantly recognize it for what it is. A protection ward. Enzo smiles at me. “For extra insurance. Can’t have my demoness getting hurt. Not before I get a cool new body, too.”
I show him my middle finger, and in return, Enzo makes heart-hands at me.
Dashel tightens his grip, that telltale sheet of magic surrounds me, and a moment later that deep, familiar and resonate voice that made me shudder and hide under desks and behind doors for so many years, booms in my ears.
“Celestian Flames, Dove! What have you done to yourself?!” He stares at me, violet gaze full of disdain as he takes in my horns, my hair, and my companions. His gaze lingers longest on Dashel’s arms around me.
I expected that seeing him would make me revert to a former version of myself. The younger, easily cowed Dove. I expected to shake in Dashel’s arms.
But seeing him makes my muscles coil in preparation, my vision gets clearer, more focused on my prey, and it takes a great deal of effort not to hop across the counter and rip Malachi’s head off his shoulders.
Before speaking, I touch a bit of power locked away in a ring. It flows easily, almost as effortlessly as my native power. Magichums along my skin, ready, waiting. “Done to myself? Why, I’ve empowered myself, Father.”
The sickly sweet voice that spills from my throat is a perfect imitation of Olivia’s crippling condescension. I’ll have to thank her for that.
Later, though.
“Empowered.” Malachi’s cheeks burn red with anger as he stands behind the counter, and even in regular human clothes and a branded apron, he still strikes a chord of fear into my heart.
He grips the edge of the counter, shaking his head. “No. You don’t mean that literally. Tell me you don’t mean what I think you mean, Dove.”
I pull away from Dash, standing still and stoic, and just smile at him.
