Page 41 of Hellish Witch (Playing with Demons #3)
Chapter 40
T he blinding light cleared, leaving my retinas burning from the overexposure.
The sight that hit me was horrifying.
Killian staggered a single step towards me and crashed to his knees. A ragged crater was all that remained of his chest, oozing black blood and clear fluid. I couldn’t make out anything beating within. Just a gaping mess of flesh where his heart should have been.
“Killian!” I scrambled to catch him right as he collapsed.
My entire body shook as I eased his weight back onto his slackened wings.
The incubus blinked up at me, stormy ocean eyes glassy.
Glowing light built in my periphery. “One demon down,” Alvie rasped, staggering to remain upright. “One worthless half-breed to go.”
I struggled to tear my eyes off Killian, but a rage so hot it burned away the panic let me face the traitor.
With a snarl, I threw my vicious darkness at him. His flesh tore until every wound he’d ever had ripped through his mortal body. Bloody mouths shrieked across every visible inch of skin. His collarbone snapped, dropping his shoulder. Blood gushed from his crooked nose.
He spluttered as crimson rushed between his parted lips.
The glow brightened between his palms, his eyes stark with panic as he strained to pull enough magic to throw another ball of death.
But I wasn’t just a mage.
With a snarl, I launched myself at him, crossing the distance between us at breakneck speed. My claws rent through his arm as he tried to block the death blow. I hissed, baring my fangs. With a rough yank on his glowing wrist, I tugged him sharply towards me. My short horn slammed into his eye with a wet pop.
He screeched, the sound like a dying phoenix.
My claws ripped through the delicate skin of his throat, tearing at everything vital.
And the noise died.
I let his body drop, ignoring the moist gurgling of blood bubbling from his throat wound as he rattled out his final breath.
I darted back to Killian, my heart hammering at the sight of him so still.
Impossibly, his battered chest twitched, so faint I almost missed it.
“Fires, Kill,” I whined, blinking free the tears that filled my vision.
He peeled his eyes open, so painfully slow that my heart seized.
“Eve.” His lips barely moved.
“It’s going to be okay.” My voice shook as hard as my hands, but I pressed them on either side of the cauterised wound hollowing his chest. “I can fix you. A-And w-we’ll go back home. Together.”
He was right. About all of it.
I summoned every scrap of energy I had left, and I poured it all into him.
He coughed, blood leaking from his pouty lips. “It’s okay,” he slurred. “As long as you live. You’re all that’s ever mattered.”
“No!” I hissed, desperation shackling my tone. The energy drain was making me woozy, as was the sight of Killian’s gleaming rib cage and burned flesh blurred between the flickering glow of my hands.
I pushed harder, forcing more and more of myself into my magic. Into Killian.
The normal warming smoothness of my healing magic sharpened, scraping at my insides with an awful, jagged sensation.
I whimpered, panic clawing at my middle. “Why would you do something so stupid?”
His inky lashes fluttered as he fought to keep his eyes open. “Because, sweetness… I love you.”
The words knifed into me, cleaving my heart in two. His eyes didn’t reopen.
I felt myself race towards a cliff. My metaphysical self teetered on a rocky ledge, hovering over a depthless ocean of black. I was at the point my father feared.
The point of no return.
Every shred of my being rebelled on instinct, fighting the overexertion.
But this was Killian .
How could my magic be worth more than him?
He was everything to me.
Whether I was valuable afterwards or not, it would be worth it, just to see his eyes silver with mischief one more time.
“I’ve always loved you,” I whispered and leaned down, pressing my lips to his in a feather-light kiss.
I gave myself to him.
My essence slipped away. The very core of my being. The final light of magic drained into him and flickered out.
Bloodied skin knitted back together under my palms. It vibrated with a sluggish thump I was desperate to feel.
“Sweetness,” Killian murmured against my lips.
Cool hands cupped my face, and I stared into a beautiful storm.
And then everything went black.