My brows lift. I knew he wanted the remains I’d stolen for this reason, but I never realized there was so much to it.
What is Catherine’s proper place?
My grave, you idiot, she says sourly at the back of my mind.
Makes sense.
Why were you ever chosen as the token to begin with? Why were your remains brought here, Catherine?
I wait, peering into thin air as if I might spot her.
But, like the cunt that she is, she doesn’t answer.
I shake my head and focus on the shit show at hand.
“I agree,” Hell Lord says slowly, still suspicious of the boy in front of him. He’s right to be hesitant to agree with anything a fae says. Even in this ancient, enchanted tower. “Bring me the token now, and I’ll restore the precious piece and remove the curse on your lands.”
My heartbeat kicks up so loudly that it pounds in my ears.
“I will,” Nathiale says with certainty. “I just have to take care of one thing first.”
I swallow hard. Of all the times I’ve imagined slicing a blade through Nathiale’s heart, I never once pictured him doing the same to me.
Not until now.
“There was some trash I needed to pick up in the human realm, but someone told me it’s recently arrived right here in my own kingdom. Once I take care of that, I’ll have your token.”
That bastard. Trash! My blood is just as pure as his.
Pure blood? Really? He, too, has a demon infecting his bloodstream? Catherine asks dryly.
I roll my eyes at her, and she goes silent, but I feel her humming through my veins. Any time my anxiety climbs, hers also does, times ten. And that is the last thing I want. Especially right now.
I calm my breathing and take a step back.
I need to leave. Before something bad happens.
My foot barely takes a single step when the course of the wind changes. The cool breeze slips into the shadows, and I can’t explain why it feels so ominous.
It pulls at my long silver locks. It twirls and carries my shining hair. I realize a second too late that the magic of the shadows has slipped away from the long strands. The ends blow past the entryway of the door.
It’s only a second. It’s a single second of my hair glinting in the moonlight.
My brother’s gaze cuts away from the hulking figure standing before him.
He can’t see me. He can’t see me. He can’t see me.
I say those words over and over again.
Because he’s staring right at me.
My feet pound over the cold stones fast before my wings rip out from my shoulder blades, and I soar down the dark staircase without looking back to see if he’s following after me.
The hard flapping of my wings is silent, but the slamming of my heartbeat is a telling thing.
He didn’t see me. He didn’t see me. He didn’t see me.
My toes don’t even skim the floor when I collide into Zaviar’s chest. His arms wrap around me, and he feels like a safe haven of warmth, but it doesn’t calm me.
Words never leave my lips through the choking breaths I’m gasping down.
It seems I don’t need to speak.
Because in the next instant, he sweeps us away in foreign but gentle magic. His power around me roars to life. The energy builds into something powerful and pure.
And then we’re gone.
16
A Demonic Angel
Aries
Zaviar drops me with a heaving breath. I land on all fours, my palms sinking into a soft blue mat, but I can’t focus on its color or the cool feel of it beneath my fingers. I can’t pause to wonder how Zaviar used his magic inside the castle when demon magic is forbidden there. I can’t think at all through the clawing feeling of the demon inside me.
Just breathe.
In. Out. In. Out.
My hair trembles around my face as my head shakes violently back and forth.
Calm down. Calm down. Calm down.
“Get on your feet,” a growling voice commands, breaking through my waning mantras and distracting me momentarily from Catherine’s pressure clawing at my chest.
A boot nudges my ribs and I collapse on my side with barely any force from the man standing above me.
It’s Ryke. His watchful green eyes assess me, but he keeps his stern look heavy in his features.
“Fuck off. Shit! She’s fighting that thing inside her.” Zaviar pushes Ryke’s scarred shoulder, but the man’s so large he barely moves from the shove of Zav’s hand.
“Get up, Crow,” Ryke whispers in his gravelly tone that feels more intimate than intimidating. “You really want me to kick your ass lying down? I will. I won’t like it, but I will.”
My head pounds with so much slashing pain, it might split right open, and Catherine will finally be free.
And so will I.
“You gonna let that cunt inside you win, or you gonna to get up and own my ass?” Ryke grabs two wooden swords from a rack and throws one on the ground. It slides fast over the mat and hits my arm hard enough to bruise.
“Ryke. Fuck. Off. Now’s not the time,” Zaviar growls with violence licking his tone. He steps closer to his friend, and even from here, I can see how tightly wired his jaw is as he glares at the demon. Ryke’s frame is larger and stronger but the determined darkness in Zaviar is a terrifying thing.
Before Zaviar can lash out at his friend, Ryke lunges for me. Every muscle in his big arms flexes. The sword in his hand arcs up over his head with slashing intent. His aim is perfect. Whoever taught him would be proud of the blow he’s about to land on my skull. Crushing demonic strength. Perfect angle.
It’s a killing blow.
Even with a wooden sword.
My fingers grab the wooden hilt of the weapon at my side in the blink of an eye. The grain of it digs into my flesh under my hard grip. I fling it above my head with both hands.
His sword slams down on mine, and the mock blade of my weapon splits beneath his weight. It shatters, spitting splinters above me that rain down across my cheeks.
My broken sword holds him off with a thin, jagged end. My weapon’s half the size it used to be, but it holds up against him.
For the moment.
I’m kneeling at his feet, heaving out a breath as he smiles down on me.
“That’s my girl. Show me that fight, baby.” Ryke’s boot meets my bare chest just above my bra. With a small push, he flings me away from him, putting space between us so I have time to recompose myself.
He circles me with lazy confidence and stalking strides.
“That shadow group you were in taught you some good defenses, Crow,” he says with a taunting half smirk as I hobble to my feet.
Shadow group . . .
I’m going to kill Krave. He can’t keep a fucking secret to save his sparkling wings.
But that’s exactly what Ryke is doing right now. He’s trying to get my guard down by shit-talking about things he knows he shouldn’t know about.
He’s conniving.
I like it.
“Thank you,” I say sweetly like he isn’t affecting me at all. As if I’m not imagining how many different ways I could remove Krave’s cock from his body.
I hold my broken blade casually in my lowered hand, watching him watch me with that glinting look in his emerald eyes.