A dart skimmed past her face to imbed in the wall. She jumped back and Quution slid in front of her. He didn’t look to see who it was before he whipped out a coil of energy that followed the path of the dart.
A yelp and a snarl gave him a grim smile. He’d hit his target. Since that dart belonged to a being who most certainly wanted to hurt them, he flung out shot after shot of energy. The snarls turned to cries, then to screams.
Xan sidled around him, skimming the edges of the corridor to keep from getting hit, and turned the corner. Her nose wrinkled.
“That answers the question of whether venom is flammable or not.” Her eyes flew wide and she flung her hand out. “Stop! It’s one of the Circle full-bloods.”
He withdrew the final bolt of energy he’d intended to throw and jogged to her side. A heap of charred full-breed was on the ground. Quution had almost ruined everything.
“Is he dead?” Xan slipped closer.
He tested the waves coming off the demon. “No, but close. He’s healing as we speak.” That had been close. But if he could do the same thing to Spaeth without killing him, they’d be home-free. “But he should stay down long enough for us to get done what we need to get done.”
He sensed the readings in their surroundings and steered Xan around the other way.
“The full-breed was a decoy, but Spaeth must have more working with him.” He tensed as new vibrations trickled over him. “Including the two half-breeds approaching.”
Quution handed his box to Xan and balled up energy in his hand, muting the light coming off it to keep them concealed.
A male’s voice sounded from around the corner. “I can’t wait until that stupid host heals. I want to throw her against the door again. The sound was delightful.”
Xan’s lip curled, her fangs shiny in the torchlight. “He’s the one who went after Brooklyn.”
Quution split his orb into two, one for each hand. When the couple turned the corner, he aimed and launched each one.
The female dodged hers, swiveling to the side. A strangled cry ripped out of the male as the bolt cleaved his chest. Quution fired a second shot, hitting the male’s neck and finishing him off. The stench of burnt skin filled the air.
It would be the smell of the night.
Snarls mingled with death throes. The female charged them. She bobbed and wove, effectively keeping him from targeting her like he had her partner.
Xan didn’t stand around and wait. She sprinted, bounded off the wall, and twisted in midair to catch the female around the neck. Her momentum carried the female with her, but not fast enough for her body to keep up with the rotation. A crack rent the air.
Xan released her opponent and landed on her feet. “Mind doing the honors? I don’t have a blade and I don’t think a simple broken neck will stop this one.”
A trickle down Xan’s side caught his attention. “You’re bleeding. Wait—are you really bleeding?” He had to make sure he wasn’t hallucinating.
She touched her side. “Yes. The bitch’s horn cut me.”
Alarm punched him in the gut, and he knelt by the female. “Do her horns have toxins?”
“Probably. But we gotta keep going.”
He glanced up into her dark eyes. What if she’d been poisoned? Some venom was medicinal, some hallucinogenic, others, like Melody’s, affected the body in a specific way. But some were just lethal. What if the substance in Xan was deadly?
“Quution.”
She was fine. For now. But she couldn’t hide the worry in her eyes from him.
“I’m not irrationally scared at the moment. You?” Xan kept wanting to look over her shoulder. They had to be close to Spaeth’s lair. Black markings on the walls looked just like the kind he left behind whenever he loosed his radiation on some poor bastard.
She was about to be the poor bastard.
“No. I’m strangely centered,” Quution answered. “Perhaps Xera is busy with Stryke and Melody.”
She heard the uneasiness in his voice. He’d never forgive himself if tragedy struck his brother or the female. And Xan was experiencing her own odd anxiety over it. She wasn’t besties with either one, but they were decent halflings and she’d hate to see them gone.
Her stomach roiled and it wasn’t due to her nerves. A heaviness had settled into her muscles and she fought the urge to yawn. She didn’t know the demon she’d taken down, but the female had managed to inject her with something.
Dammit. Quution didn’t need a hindrance, and if she crawled into a corner to take a nap, she’d get them both killed.
“Xan.” Quution’s hand was on her arm as he peered at her. She knew that look. He was reading her energy.
“I think her poison was a sedative.” How wickedly convenient for a demon. Put their prey to sleep, then kill, accost, or eat. “I didn’t get a huge dose.” She tried for a light note. “But I might need a snooze after this is all said and done.”
He peered even closer until she could drown in the pools of his light eyes. His hand tightened on her. “Fact. Damn, I was hoping it was your sister messing with me.”
“Not this time,” she said sadly.
A female’s cry made them both spin their heads toward one direction.
“Melody.”
She and Quution took off at a sprint. Thankfully, he hadn’t let her go, and she used his hold on her to propel her forward. Her feet were like stone bricks and she lost the battle to yawn.
Another shriek of outrage greeted them as they rounded the corner toward Spaeth’s lair. Only he wasn’t in his chamber. He was down the hall in the opening to an uninhabited cavern.
Melody’s vines were smoking as Spaeth appeared and disappeared around her. Stryke was grappling with Xera. Her sister moved too fast to get tangled in Stryke’s energy webs or hit by an orb, and she landed a punch, then a claw on the male.
“Melody, leave the realm!” Quution shouted.
The female would be nuked alive if she lingered much longer. Her movements were erratic and her expression pinched. The burns were getting through her viney armor.
“Melody, trust us,” Stryke said between clenched teeth. “Go.”
Xan’s breath hitched, but that might just be the start of another yawn. Melody’s eyes finally filled with resolve. She’d realized she was a liability. Spaeth didn’t need Xera to make them lose their shit over the girl’s death.
Melody vanished, striking out one last time with a barbed twine before she left. It nailed Spaeth in the eye. He hollered, momentarily staying in one spot longer than Xan had ever seen. He wasn’t as tall as the brothers, but he was wider and his skin undulated with heat.
Quution didn’t hesitate. He flung a blazing orb. The ball hit Spaeth in the shoulder, and he staggered to the side. But it was nothing more than a distraction. The demon absorbed the hit into itself. Energy unto energy.
Xan pressed her back against the wall across from Spaeth and concentrated. Fatigue was claiming her too fast to physically attack Spaeth, but her powers were still effective.
Until he noticed what she was doing and disappeared.
The four of them paused, but only for a heartbeat. Quution was prepared. He tossed up an energy field to block his part of the corridor. Stryke did the same with his. The five of them were trapped together.
Xera stopped her assault on Stryke to look around, like she was seeking guidance about what to do next. She glanced at Xan, a hateful expression rippling over her face.
Quution was leaving her. He was gone. She was alone again. No one loved her.
The rapid bombardment of negative thoughts clashed in Xan’s skull. She hissed and pressed her palms against her eyes.
“It’s not real,” Quution said.
Spaeth appeared in the doorway, the flash of his heat blasting Xan across the face. He grabbed Xera by the neck and yanked her to him.
Xera shrieked. Her color dulled to an ashen purple, her fingers digging into his and releasing against the agony.
Spaeth
pierced her with his retina-searing gaze. “Tell him to lower the fields.”
“No,” Xan croaked. She threw an is this real? look at Quution. At his slow nod, she almost squeezed her eyes shut.
Xera’s mouth gaped, but only strangled gurgles came out, her eyes pleading. No matter what her sister had done, Xan couldn’t watch her die without doing something.
She pushed off the wall, managing not to sway.
“Don’t come closer.” The muscles flexed in Spaeth’s arm as he tightened his grip and lifted until Xera’s toes swept the floor. “Tell. Him.”
No noise was coming from Xera. Her eyes were rolled back in her head.
Xan had to make a decision. And it was a brutal one.
Spaeth was going to kill Xera no matter what Quution did. Her sister was of no use to him as he fled like the coward he was.
Spaeth must’ve read the resolve in her eyes. He stepped back farther and blazed like a mini nova. Xan threw her arm over her eyes and dove for Spaeth, claws outstretched. She reached beyond her sister and scored Spaeth’s side at the same time the bones in Xera’s neck were ground to bits, her body folding to the ground. Spaeth didn’t bother to toss the lifeless head, just let it fall as he vanished. An enraged bellow followed on the air currents he left behind.
Quution dropped the field. Stryke followed suit, both confident that Xan had gotten what they needed.
Xan hit the ground. She rolled up to her knees but immediately fell on her side. Her energy was gone. She was so tired. Her skin was tight, like she’d lain in full summer sun for days. Her fingers throbbed and blisters formed before her eyes. She cradled her hand like it was fragile crystal. And her sister was gone.
Peeling her eyes open, she searched for Quution. He and Stryke were squatting around her.
“Spaeth’s gone,” Quution said. “And Xera is…”
“She was already gone to me. Hurry,” Xan murmured, her eyelids falling shut. She summoned enough from her reserves to hold her hand out to him. Please let there be blood or skin under my claw.
Her breathing slowed. Quution would ward the underworld and be in a different realm when she woke, and she didn’t have the energy to say goodbye. But there would be plenty of time to mourn him.
If Spaeth didn’t find her first and kill her before she woke.
Chapter 24
Xan’s hand went limp in his grip. She was asleep. His arms itched to sweep her up and cradle her until she came to.
Stryke grabbed the shoebox from him and started withdrawing supplies. “Quution. You need to do this.”
While Quution could do nothing more than sweep his gaze over the slumbering form of the demon who meant so much to him, Stryke lifted Xan’s hand from him. He scraped under the nails, collecting debris like he was a forensic tech.
“We need to get her somewhere safe. Once I leave the realm…” Quution’s throat thickened, and he couldn’t finish his sentence.
He wasn’t ready.
Stryke’s mouth tightened. His gaze went from the shoebox to Xan. “You do your thing. I’ll secure this room. She’ll be safe until she wakes up. You said she can get through our security.”
But Spaeth might be waiting for her. Or the rest of the underworld, heavy with a grudge and demanding her death.
“Quution.” Stryke sprinted to the door. He peeked out and jerked back, tossing a rippling curtain of energy over the door. “It’s not Spaeth, but his servants are coming.”
Right. Spaeth would have more than the two servants they’d downed in the corridors.
He gave Xan one last lingering look. Stryke’s defenses would hold, but for how long?
“Quution!” Stryke barked. But his eyes were soft with sympathy. “Either you ward this realm, or we fight our way out of here.”
Shouts echoed from down the passageways. A horde was coming for them.
He risked both Stryke and Xan with his delay. Quickly laying out all thirteen pieces from the Circle members in a 13-sided star pattern, with his own strand of hair at the top, he started the incantation. Weaving his fingers over the items, he layered spell over spell, binding the realm’s energy to itself and using his own for the glue.
Stryke needed to leave, but Quution couldn’t bring himself to tell his brother to go. Because Quution would be next and then Xan would be alone. For now, she had both of them defending her.
Chanting, he worked through the spells. So many spells. Stryke blocked the entrance, randomly firing energy balls to keep the demons from seeing what Quution was up to.
The walls of the chamber shook as demons sought to get to them any other way possible.
Quution quieted. Each item disappeared, functioning as approval, as if each member of the Circle were here helping to seal the wards in place. Just one tiny opening remained, and it would be sealed as he and Stryke left, tying the wards shut like a giant, ethereal drawstring bag. Quution only had to bind his energy to the planes of the human realm. All the words were there, he just had to say them. Crouching by Xan, he grasped her hand.
“I can’t leave her, Stryke.” She’d be vulnerable. She could be killed before she even awoke. But worse, she would be trapped away from him forever.
Stryke spun from the door and pushed a hand through his hair and over his horns. “I’m sorry, but there’s no one else who can monitor the wards for eternity. You’re the only one strong enough.”
“You.”
Stryke shook his head. “No. You’re more closely tied to this realm, you understand its energy better.” He stared at him. “You’re stronger.”
“Perhaps not. Perhaps…” Quution skimmed a finger down Xan’s face. “Perhaps I just wanted an excuse to get myself permanently out of this realm. You have the power. You’re from here and you’re older than me. You can do it.”
Stryke swallowed. “And you?”
“I’ll be here. With her.”
Stryke’s jaw clenched hard. “She’s the one.”
“Yes.” Quution rose slowly. This was goodbye. He wasn’t prepared, hadn’t expected to have anyone to say goodbye to. But between his brother in the human realm and Xan down here, the choice was clear. Stryke had his mate. Quution had Xan.
Quution swallowed hard and stuck out his hand. “It’s been an honor to know you. Be well, Brother.”
Stryke grabbed his hand and pulled him in for a hug. Brother to brother.
“Take care of yourself,” Stryke said gruffly.
“I shall miss you.”
Releasing him, Stryke stepped away. Orbs of energy were balanced in each hand. “I’m leaving this realm in a blaze. Seal the wards and get the fuck out of this chamber.”
His brother crossed the curtain of energy and sent blooms of searing energy down each side of the corridor. Shouts of rage and pain filled the hall just before Stryke disappeared.
Quution concentrated on Stryke’s energy signature. When it had left the realm, he uttered the final words.
Demons flooded the entrance, but Stryke’s force field held.
Quution gathered a warm and sleepy Xan in his arms. She murmured unintelligible words and curled into him.
His body vibrated with the loose energy he’d reserved for binding himself to the human realm. His determined gaze landed on the exit and he faced it squarely, his precious bundle secured in his arms.
He had no chambers to go to and hers were no longer safe. He’d scour the underworld for a place for them. As long as they were together, it didn’t matter where.
Chapter 25
Quution stared out the fake window where the pretend lake glittered in the distance. “They’ve attacked the wards again.”
“When did demons get such long memories? They should’ve moved on and formed new resentments by now,” Xan muttered. “I can’t believe they’re still after you when there’s an all-out war between full-bloods and half-breeds.”
Between the both of them, they’d seeded the information about the infant sacrifices far and wide until the half-breeds had real
ized they’d never be able to coexist with full-breeds. Instead, they’d declared their right to rule the realm. And they were winning. Another reason he was glad he’d stayed. Demons were a bad bunch, but perhaps with more opportunity to be good…
Unfortunately, both parties hated him for sealing them down here. Full-bloods because he’d cut them off from their power base—controlling access to human hosts—and of course, for ruining their plans for worlds domination. And half-breeds…well, for essentially the same reasons. It didn’t matter if halflings agreed that possession was wrong; it just was, and humans had to deal with it.
So as they fought themselves, they also hunted him and Xan.
She was distant. She’d been aloof for the last couple of days. He tried not to let it bother him, but life had been far less than idyllic during the month they’d spent in their new home.
He never thought he’d spend his final years in the same place he’d clawed his way out of and sworn never to return to. But no one had found him when he was growing up and it had seemed like the best place to set up their fortress.
The difference was, when he was a kid, no one had been looking for him. After word spread about what Quution had done—with Xan’s assistance—they’d both become the underworld’s most wanted. Apparently sacrificing babies was less atrocious than shutting off access to the human realm.
He had no idea how long they could stay here. Xan’s shared hallucination was waning. Already, the illusion of the countryside looked more like a watercolor painting. She needed her power to lead the demon hunters astray and he was happier to be with her than to have a cabin by the lake. It was no longer his weakness to want to live in the human realm, and not just because it was impossible. Spending day and night with nothing to do but Xan was a perfect day, wherever they spent it, marred only by the fear for their safety.
Giving up at the window, he went to the rock situated next to hers, where they dined on candy beetles together. The bugs were growing on him, though he’d probably grow tired of them after an eternity. If they made it that long.
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