The hound’s jaw slackened.
Pithius thanksss, a guttural voice seeped through the darkness crowding her mind. Spell broke… It gently batted her cheek with its furry face and sulfuric breath. A hot, wet tongue licked her wound. More pain burrowed through her. Shadow forced her eyelids open, connecting with fiery coal eyes.
Help me, Pithius…kill him…
Through her dimming sight, the hellhound turned and seemed to grow even larger. Taller. The row of spikes around its neck rising. With a menacing snarl, it leaped in a black blur, snatching Mammon’s arm in its deadly maw. It tossed back its enormous head in a dizzying shake. The demon’s snarl reverberated in the empty tunnels as his body fell in a thud to the asphalt. His arm in the hound’s mouth.
The dank air agitated as familiar figures—the Guardians—took form. Power rushed through the place, and it hurt her like knives flaying her skin.
“We have you…” a familiar male voice said. Aethan. Then warmth coasted through her injured shoulder.
“Urias! I’m so sorry—” Ely clutched her hand. “I was only gone for a few minutes—I shouldn’t have left—”
“Dammit,” Aethan snapped. “My abilities aren’t gonna heal this. Someone get the Oracle, I’m taking her to the castle!”
“No…” she whispered, lifting a limp hand to stop him, but it fell halfway. “Have to…see him…destroyed.”
Aethan cursed.
Her blurred sight remained fixed on the hound and demon. Mammon’s form morphed between his humanoid and demonic one, the latter barrel-shaped, scaly skin, and horned. His arm restored.
The warriors spread out, watching the demon and hellhound fight, their weapons braced.
With a menacing snarl, Mammon somehow broke free of the hellhound’s fangs and flashed up, hovering above the battleground. A wave of black power flew out of him toward her. The Guardians dashed in front of her, shielding her just as a terrifying growl erupted. Pithius leaped up in a dizzying flash, taking the hit. A snarl ricocheted like thunder crashing, and the hound collided into the granite wall, letting out a whimper.
Mammon laughed, bracing the killing sword, watching the Guardians who circled him.
Nooo! The cry jammed in her throat.
Adrenaline bursting free, Shadow shot up from her earthly body in a wraithlike slingshot, her otherworldly form slamming straight into Mammon’s hovering humanoid body and coming out the other side with his bloody, flesh-pumping organ in her ghostly hand.
Shocked curses rang out.
Pithius leaped at the screeching demon, taking him down. Its giant maw snapped over Mammon’s head, deadly fangs sinking deep into flesh. Blood spurted like a burst geyser. Shadow squeezed the beating heart, the thing turning to ash and spilling free from her fingers. Dust scattered. The hound shook the Mammon’s body at breakneck speed, and his head separated from his neck. A dark swirling energy slid out of the slain body.
The head fell from the hound’s mouth. Pithius leaped forward, caught, and devoured the demon’s vile soul.
One of the warriors flashed over and picked up the deadly sword from the ground.
Shadow let the tug on her psyche pull her back, and her ethereal self settled back into her broken body on the ground, agony swamping her once more.
I’ve avenged you, my love. Now, I’ll find you.
With a rasping breath, she shut her eyes and finally let oblivion claim her…
Chapter 32
Agony rushed through Shadow, ensnaring her in its claws, trapping her in darkness…
Blood, so much blood covered her hands, her clothes—
Nik! she screamed, but she couldn’t move, couldn’t get to where he lay bleeding from his mortal wound.
Something held her body down like thick, invisible ropes.
“I love you, i kardiá mou,” his voice seeped into her mind, and she tried to hold on to him.
A white light flashed, blinding her, and Nik vanished.
Nooo! “Don’t leave me behind…”
“Shh…” Warm fingers held hers. “Jaden’s gonna get you better, Shadow.”
No, not them! She didn’t want them. Only Nik.
With her burning eyes glued together like an envelope bearing a seal of wax, her mind remained adrift in grief.
“Will she come out of it?” the same voice as before asked quietly.
“The fight in her is gone,” another woman answered. “I’ll do what I can to aid her back to the living. Whether it will work, I don’t know. This was a soul-bond broken, one her mate severed. It is hard to ever come back from that…”
A soft, melodious chant started, sweeping through Shadow’s anguished mind. The pull of the strange words was strong enough to bring her back from the pain in her soul, and into the beckoning darkness promising eternal relief from her grief. The song in that beautiful voice slowly lulled her into a deep sleep…
An incessant rustling against the window finally dragged Shadow from the void that submerged her into nothingness. She opened her burning eyes to stare blankly at the dismal weather as rain continued to beat against the panes.
“Hey…” Kira said softly, getting up from the chair opposite the bed. She set the book she’d been reading on the seat and hurried over.
“Wh-what happened?” she rasped. Her throat hurt, and her voice felt as if she hadn’t used it in months. Vague memories of lapsing in and out of consciousness stirred.
“You don’t remember?” Kira lowered to the side of the bed, hazel eyes dark with worry.
Shadow frowned, trying to claw through the fog in her mind. Gingerly, she lifted her shoulders to shrug—
And it all came crashing back. The demon swinging the sword at her mate. Nik’s last moments as his eyes shut forever—
“Nik…” Her sob broke free, agony consuming her like the sharp edges of a blade slicing through her sternum. Tears fell.
Her stomach churned. Bile hurtled up her throat. Shadow shoved the bedcovers aside and stumbled across the floor, through the dressing room, and into the bathroom. She fell to her knees at the toilet and vomited. Despite her violent retching, nothing came out.
She moaned, shutting her swollen eyes. A damp towel wiped her clammy face. Then an arm slipped around her, a glass pressing to her mouth. “Drink this.”
Shadow sipped some of the cool water, then pushed the tumbler away.
“Liam visits you often, spends most of his time here actually,” Kira said as she helped her up and back to bed. “He’ll be relieved to know you’re up.”
Even hearing about her beloved brother didn’t stir her to speak again. Shadow curled into herself, anguished tears slipping free, soaking her pillow.
The mattress dipped. Kira lay down behind her and held her in a warm embrace. She didn’t say anything, just held her. For how long? Shadow had no idea as sleep finally claimed her…
The soft flame of a candle flickered in the corner of the gloomy room as Shadow stirred awake from eternal blackness to mind-numbing anguish once more. Even breathing hurt at the harsh reality of another day to endure without him. Her heart continued to beat in her hollow chest, each thud an agonizing reverberation of pain fragmenting her entire being over and over.