Page 56 of Demon Heart: The Complete Series

XAVIER

I slammed myself into the butterflies. They were a steel ring, not a single one of those small bodies breaking apart against my onslaught.

“Roman!”

Fear fueled my rage. I part-shifted, tearing parts of my jumper, and launched silk into the swarm, picking up pieces of furniture to smash into the insects.

Nothing worked. They were protected by their master, solid as rock.

“It’s useless!” Past Xavier yelled around my roars. “You must know this!”

I stopped after a series of ten punches, hunching, loathing such defeat. Butterfly was dangerous. He couldn’t have Roman. I wouldn’t allow him to.

Ismael appeared at my side, touching my arm.

I flinched, shrugging him off. “I’m not leaving him in there.”

“You have no choice,” my lost love responded softly. “This is not the way to help him.”

My head snapped around to face him. “Then how else do I help him?”

Butterfly might be a solitary demon who rarely ventured from his lair, but when he did, he meant to make his plans count. He had been the most formidable demon to ever exist. Dead in the present, killed by a warlock the night before Arcana fell.

Did he mean to rectify that by changing the past? His death was eleven years away, so why bring Roman and me to this period of his life? And how was he able to manipulate time?

I drove a fist into the butterflies. “What do you want?”

It wasn’t long before the butterflies began to pop out of the cottage in a burst of glittery dust. Second by second, they vanished, leaving nothing behind but the cottage kitchen.

The chilly air dropped in temperature, frosty fingers tracing my skin.

“Roman…”

The location of Butterfly’s lair remained a secret to this day. Hidden somewhere within the thousand levels of the demon realm.

Roman could be anywhere.

I fell to my knees, exhaustion taking hold. “Roman…” My eyes grew hot, a familiar anguish tearing at my hearts.

I couldn’t lose him.

I wouldn’t lose him.

But where did I even begin in my search for him?