Page 115 of Demon's Bane

It’s the last thing I know before everything goes dark.

36

Rhett

Gorver falls first.

The big, ugly brute doesn’t even have the good sense to raise his club before he charges me.

He goes down with a satisfying crunch of bone and sinew as my fist connects with his face. Lunging for his discarded weapon, I barely have time to turn back around and dodge the ax coming my way as Vira advances.

It misses, clanging off the stone wall. The impact knocks her off-balance and gives me enough time to get behind her and land a kick to the center of her back. She goes down, too, a vicious growl of frustration breaking from her chest as her knees hit the floor.

Advancing again, I bring a foot down on her wrist, pressing until her bones creak and her fingers go lax, releasing her ax. Grabbing it, I toss it to the other side of the room.

“Stay down,” I snarl at her. “Unless you’d like me to use this club on that thick skull of yours.”

Keeping her in my periphery, I turn my eyes to Cerwin.

Pale, frozen, hesitation written all over his coward’s face, Cerwin drops his ax.

“It wasn’t supposed to be like this,” he implores, raising his hands in a pathetic attempt at surrender. “We weren’t going to hurt anyone. We were only going to… to…”

I don’t care what the fuck they meant to do. Not when Halla’s still out cold and my mate is in danger.

Taking a few stalking steps forward, I watch as a tremor of fear runs through his craven frame and his hands raise even higher.

“Please,” he says. “I didn’t mean to—”

“What’s going on down here?”

We both freeze at the shouted question, turning toward the cave entrance.

The commotion caused by the fight has apparently been enough to draw attention all the way down the labyrinth of tunnels leading back to the main cavern. I look up to find a handful of demons—dusty and slack-jawed—staring at the aftermath.

They look at me, panting and murderous, and the fallen forms of Vira and Gorver. Their wide eyes land on Halla where she’s still slumped against the far wall.

“Get a healer,” one of them barks, and things start moving again.

It’s still a blur—this time of hurried chaos and calls for help. After crouching down once more next to Halla to make sure she’s still alive, I round on the big, ugly heap collapsed in a groaning pile in the center of the room.

“Where is my mate?” I’m breathing hard, holding on to Gorver’s throat nearly too tight to allow him to speak, but the fucking coward manages to choke out a breathless reply.

“Veil. They were going to take her… to the Veil. After they were done with you.”

Shoving him back to the ground and trusting someone else will take care of the bastard, I stand and take in the chaos.

Someone is already helping Halla, wiping the blood from her and tending to her wound. Cerwin and Vira are backed up against a wall being questioned, and two of the king’s soldiers are hauling Gorver to his feet.

And I’ve already lingered here too long.

Taking off at a sprint back through the caves, I’ve just made it outside when another of the king’s soldiers—one I recognize as their commander—calls out to me, asks me what’s going on.

“We have to go,now,” I yell back to him, already sinking into the portal I’ve opened to take me to my mate. “To the Veil.”

I don’t bother waiting to see if he or anyone else is coming. I don’t spend one more second of wasted time before slipping into the portal and out the other side.

The first thing I see is the flash of a silver knife sailing through the air.