Page 216 of Jagged Souls

She steps closer to me on bare feet, the world rippling out from her like she’s walking across a lake. Every ripple turns a bit more of this world into hers, changing nothing other than the fact that she can rip my soul from my body.

She smiles, a wide spread of small, sharp teeth, all points of pain and pleasure.

“Not long now, dearie,” she coos as she reaches a hand towards me.

Her eyes bug wide as a child appears on the other side of me. A demon of some sort with red skin and little horns on her head above a smile so crazy, it matches the madness of her eyes. She jumps over me, a set of wings spreading out, and her barbed tail whips out, wrapping around the keres’ scythe. She yanks it out of the reaper’s hand. Tosses it into the air.

Then grabs it and slices it across the keres’ neck, cutting off her head.

My mouth falls open, blood trickling out of it. I have no idea what this creature is. A drazic perhaps, but they don’t have wings. So maybe she’s just a keres hunter… There is so much unknown about the planes of Purgatory.

“Micha!”

My head tries to turn at the sound of Maddox’s voice, but there’s no more energy left inside of me. The demon child thing turns back to me. She shakes her head on the vertical axis as she smiles wide. Her pigtails swish. A forked tongue flicks out to lick the lowered scythe.

“Pah.” She spits to the side. “Tastes like chocolate.”

She drops the weapon, her little button nose wrinkling in disgust. Then she dances towards me like a ballerina, the tutu she’s wearing finally making “sense” – the only sense I can catch at the moment. Her shirt is way too big for her though, and it billows as she moves. The words:Wanna be my bitch?is scrawled across it, above two dog collars: one black, one pink and spikey.

She stops beside me. Bends down with her hands on her hips. “Helicopters go nom nom nom. Goats go vroom vroom vroom.”

She vanishes, as does the plane of Purgatory, and I find a bottle of healing potion being pressed to my lips.

Maddox is talking to me, telling me to stay with him as he squats down beside me, naked and covered in blood. He points a wand between my legs, then up to my stomach.

I stare at him, so fucking happy he’s still alive.

I’ve known he’s been inside Varius’ brain for the last two months – that he went in as the egg of a tapeworm. Khalid contacted me through my soul doll not long after Varius stepped through the teleportation circle. He gambled with his brother’s life, not knowing what I’d do.

But I’ve wanted to kill Antonio since he took my baby from me. I lost my way a little, fell a bit too deep into the person I was pretending to be, almost died under the need for V – but I struggled forward every fucking step.

So Khalid told me it’d take two months for Maddox to mature enough to be able to use his magic again. Meaning, I had two months to get Antonio to lower his guard so we could attack.

But now that’s failing.

And he’s killing my husband.

My eyes fly over Maddox’s shoulder as I gulp down the liquid. A scream builds in my throat as I watch the two of them fight. Varius is completely consumed by the Craving, so he’s moving purely on instinct. He’s not thinking. He’s notplanning. He has the power and speed to almost match Antonio now, and his wounds are bleeding less, but he can’t get the upper hand. He’s being torn apart piece by piece – a slash here, a bite there. Slowly but surely, he’s going to die.

“Help him,” I beg, knowing I need more than one potion and a few flicks of a wand to get back into the fight.

“You’re the prio–”

I scream as Antonio punches my husband in the chest. Safeguard spell or not, he won’t survive having his heart ripped out. I try to push to my feet, but my legs won’t move. Maddox curses as he abandons me to pull on his shadows. Priority doesn’t mean shit if we’re all going to die.

He has Aleric inside his cage in the Shadow Domain, and he knows our only hope is if he gets him out.Now.

Varius roars as he headbutts Antonio in the face. The wolf staggers back, and his arm jerks free, but instead of blood and bits falling out, nothing does. Black smoke-like magic swirls in the hole, then solidifies, and flesh is there once more.

My mouth drops open, but I push my questions aside. There’s no time to wonder about whatever new magic he has. I struggle to my feet, ignoring the pain of my injuries, but I’m not leaving my husband to die after he walked into hel to save me.

Not leaving him to kill Antonio when that right ismine.

As Maddox starts to pull the cage out of his shadows, I rush forward. Bending low, I scoop up the knife I used to torture Varius. If I can heat it up until it’s molten and leave a chunk inside Antonio, he won’t be able to heal it until it’s out.

I’ve already taken his eye and damaged a good part of his chest. He can’t keep this up forever.

The damage I’ve already taken says neither can we.