Page 40

Nika

T he topography of Rilas’s face twisted in on itself as Ryker stole the necklace.

The chain broke with a hard tug, and the blonde didn’t waste time tossing it across the table.

The dark-haired giant who towered over everyone had already caught it and crushed the glowing gem under his boot before the demon had a chance to react.

The hold on my body fell away, and I called on the power inside of me. Pink magic swirled and rushed out, hitting the demon straight in the chest. Rilas was thrown into the wall, but he was quick to recover.

“That’s a new bloody trick you have there, love.” Black smoke twisted around his body, his vibrant red eyes on me from across the room.

Tometi glanced at me, no longer visible.

I slid across the table, avoiding a jet of black power that sprung out, and the giant caught me and spun.

His foot landed on the demon with powerful force, knocking him nearly through the wall.

It wasn’t a hit most could recover from, but Rilas was already on his feet.

The demon went for his weapons and enchanted items, but found them gone. Ryker showed off his now phantom daggers and pouch of trinkets with a happy laugh. I didn’t think they’d become a part of him like his clothes if he grabbed them in the other form.

Rilas was right.

Neat fucking trick.

I was out of Tometi’s arms with a jump and the towering giant disappeared from Rilas’s view.

Magic swirled around my arms and left me again in a stream, latching onto the demon’s limbs and tethering him to the corners nearest him.

It only slackened when Ryker grabbed my hand and then Rilas by a handful of his hair.

He shoved Rilas forward with a devilish grin on his face, dug his boot into the demon’s back, and secured the cuffs around Rilas’s wrists with one hand. I pushed more magic out, and it wrapped around the demon’s body like a snake about to devour its prey whole.

The dance we did was somehow in perfect sync, as if we’d been fighting together all this time. I took the hand of one, then the other, sharing my power with them so they could take their physical forms in staggering attacks.

Tometi landed several blows on Rilas’s head, knocking the demon down into himself, and Ryker followed Tometi’s assault with his own.

He stabbed the demon in several places, aiming for the most damaging spots on Rilas’s body.

Blood saturated the demon’s skin and clothes by the time Ryker was done with him.

My magic wrapped around Rilas tighter, keeping him immobile.

I didn’t want to risk the other two being hurt.

I wasn’t sure if you could kill someone who was technically already dead and a ghost, but I wasn’t about to take any chances.

After minutes of nonstop assaults, Rilas’s head dropped down to his chest. His body was pitched forward and lax, only held upright by the magic binding him.

It was the first real look I was given at what had quickly become my prison.

The building was as decrepit as I first believed.

The floor was covered in rubble and trash, the tile absent in several spots.

The table I’d been laying on was marked by a pentagram the same way it had been when we found Reaper’s mother.

I’d called it right—he intended to use blood magic.

I crouched in front of the demon and immediately felt Tometi’s worried hand on my shoulder. Throwing the tall man a smile, I patted him in reassurance and turned back to the unconscious demon.

With all his injuries, Rilas still breathed. It was exactly how I worried it’d be; he couldn’t be killed in the traditional way. At least he could still become unconscious. That was certainly a stroke of luck.

Hoping she’d hear me, I talked directly to my grandmother. “I’m going to get you back. I know what I have to do now. You just sit tight.”

Hand shaking, I stood and snatched the phone he’d put down on a nearby table.

I dialed the last number Silas used and put the receiver to my ear.

I hoped to Lilith that Silas had taken the same phone.

I didn’t have a communication stone, and the infamous assassin ditched every phone he used.

You know, assuming he’d remembered to bring one in all the chaos.

The other two kept a tight hold on my shoulders so they could go through Rilas’s clothes and remove anything he might find use for, or better yet, that we might. They came up with a few things Ryker missed, but without knowing what they were, we couldn’t exactly use them.

I pocketed the spoils. Enchanted items were dangerous when you didn’t use them right. We didn’t want to get accidentally trapped by one.

The phone rang and rang. My breathing was sharp as I waited for nearly a minute before giving up. He wouldn’t let it ring that long, that much I was certain. Either he didn’t bring it, or he’d ditched the last one he’d been using.

“Shit,” I mumbled. “We can’t leave this asshole like this. It’s too risky. I’ll have to be here to reinforce the binding magic if he wakes up. One of you needs to go find the others.”

Tometi and Ryker gave me the same look; they wouldn’t leave me for any reason.

Neither one wanted me to face this terrifying monster without them.

My heart squeezed knowing that only a year ago, Lev was the only person I could count on aside from my father and Dugan.

My life might’ve been upended by bullshit, but I’d gained so much in the aftermath.

“If they don’t find us, I can’t send him back,” I argued.

My throat seized up, and it was hard to get the last few words out because I hadn’t found another way to corrupt my gem to summon the old magic. I’d have to do something that would tear me apart inside.

I swallowed and pleaded with them, begging with a pointed glance at both. We didn’t have time to argue about it. I wasn’t sure what sort of healing abilities the demon had, and we couldn’t count on him being unconscious for long.

My eyes strayed to Rilas slouched against the wall, wrapped in my pink magic with his hands cuffed behind his back. Like this he looked like anyone else. Worse, he had the face of the man I loved. It was uncomfortable to see someone who looked like Silas in this terrible state.

“I’ll go,” I heard the wolf finally say. “I’m faster.”

Ryker smiled, then he came over and wrapped his arms around me. The way he hugged me was so warm and full of feeling that I nearly shed another tear. I didn’t hesitate to hug him back. If not for him, I’d still be on that table and at Rilas’s mercy.

Pressing a quick kiss to my cheek, the blonde withdrew with a cute wink. “For my troubles.”

I heard a bunch of shit drop at my feet and looked down to find a pouch and several weapons he’d stolen.

He evaded Tometi’s punishing reach with a grace that didn’t fit his muscly frame, tipping an imaginary hat with a mock bow. “Best be off!”

Then it was just the three of us.

After checking on Rilas again to ensure he was still unconscious, I gathered the items off the floor.

Tometi followed every move I made with his all-seeing eyes, but he never let the demon out of his periphery.

Pivoting, I grabbed the giant’s hand without a word.

His curious gaze dropped to our joined hands before I beckoned his other, offering him a couple daggers and the pouch.

“Take it,” I told him, and he did.

I only kept a single dagger for myself. I didn’t need much, not with Tometi by my side. Letting go of the massive man, he stared down at the now ghostly weapons and pouch in open befuddlement.

“The less he has available to him, the better. You saw what Ryker did. This is the best way to keep his things away from him if he wakes up, but don’t ever underestimate what he can do,” I explained. “Demons are crafty and bring powers from the After most of us can’t fathom.”

Tometi nodded and pocketed the pouch. He clipped one dagger to his hip, but the other he kept a tight hold on. “The demon bleeds, but he does not die.”

The subtle rise and fall of Rilas’s chest caught my eye. “Guess that’s what makes his kind so dangerous. He can’t be killed without…”

“Taking a soul.”

My stomach hurt. “Yeah.”

“Will you do it?” he asked, no judgment or persuasion in his tone.

I gripped the weapon I held tighter, glaring at the demon. The flutter of my dormant power was the only way I knew I still had it. “I don’t have a choice.”

Tometi stared at me, humming. “You do, but Salvator is right. He’s the one you should choose. Like you’ve accepted your destiny, so has he. You’ve given him a chance at redemption, Nika. It’s a great gift for someone whose soul has been darkened by evil.”

I turned my head, but in an instant, a loud crackling erupted out of nowhere. My magic had been broken. I sensed the snap. The bindings around Rilas dissolved to nothing, and the demon was already in front of me, red eyes ablaze. Black smoke wove around his body.

“I was arrogant to underestimate you, Fated One.”

Tometi had already touched me so he could stab the demon in the throat, but fire exploded in my stomach so fierce I staggered back. The unmistakable burn of a blade penetrating my body caused me to suck in a surprised gasp.

It’d been so long since I’d been impaled like this, I nearly didn’t recognize the feeling.

I wasn’t sure where the sword had come from, but as quickly as it struck, it was twisted and yanked out.

Trouble was, Rilas still had his hands cuffed behind his back.

He’d used his magic to stab me, an ability I wasn’t aware he had.

I pressed a hand over my stomach, stumbling back, every step agony. Blood poured past my fingers and down my front. Nothing I did stopped it. I would’ve fallen if not for the man keeping a tight hold on my hand.