AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I am not dying here!” she screamed, tremors racing through her. “This is not the end for me.”
An apology dangled on the tip of my tongue but never dropped. That would only waste my energy, and my decision had been made the moment they threatened Hawk.
Arisa released a battle cry and sprinted forward, forcing me toward Oliver.
My pulse shot through the roof. As soon as my feet hit the puddle of blood, I slipped. I held onto Arisa, taking her down with me. My head bounced against the hard stone ground, stars popping in my vision.
She crawled on me, shrieking like a banshee as she raised the knife. I blocked her attack with my arm, wincing as the blade slashed another cut into my skin. My fingers curled around her wrist and twisted until the weapon fell from her grip.
Everything happened in slow motion. Her hand, coated with my blood, wrapped around my neck to choke the life from me. But she exposed her own throat, and I struck.
My dagger sliced across her so fast that it took her a moment to comprehend what had happened. Her warm blood splashed over my chest and face before she grabbed her neck to stop the bleeding.
She was too late. There was no stopping her death.
Her raven curls dangled over, and for a moment, Jayla was the one struggling above me, fighting to survive.
I may not have been the monster to tear that little girl’s life away, but her blood and my friends’ stained my hands regardless.
Within seconds, Arisa collapsed on top of me, bathing me in more warm, scarlet liquid.
I gagged at the suffocating metallic tang in the air and shoved her off. The crowd cheered while lifting their drinks at the bloodbath in the center of the room, and Karn’s grin turned my insides into a freezer. He looked like the Devil, proud at the destruction he’d forced on me.
The dagger fell from my hand, and I staggered up, slipping on the gleaming, ruby-red puddle until I regained my balance. “Let him go.” My voice twisted out low, and the beast that had consumed me earlier in the alley stirred. I’d wanted to kill and torture then.
But I’d been forced to do it now.
Even with the shouting crowd, Karn heard me loud and clear. “As you wish.” He lifted his palm to quiet his subjects. “Tatum fought to the death, and she earned her friend's life.”
A wicked glint in his eyes had weakness coiling around my knees. Something wasn’t right. Dread sank through every fiber of my being, and panic sliced gouges in my heart. Would he still kill Hawk?
But the guard lowered the knife from my friend’s neck and shoved him forward. “She saved you. Make all her hard work worthwhile.”
Hawk’s smile became a twisted version of his familiar grin, and the laugh he spewed, cold and cruel, sounded nothing like my friend. The air around him shimmered, and a blue-haired fae suddenly stood in his place. “Some glamours are even strong enough to fool ravens.”
I staggered back as the truth hit me with the force of a wrecking ball. Karn had never captured Hawk. He used a fae to fool me into killing two humans.
They were innocent. And I murdered them in cold blood to save someone who never needed saving.
Laughter filled the room, slamming into my skull like invisible hammers attempting to splatter my brain all over the bloody ground. My heart crashed against my ribs as shadows scuttled along my vision.
Karn tricked me.
Fury as hot as lava rocketed through my bloodstream, and red coated everything. Before I made a conscious decision, my feet moved toward the demon lord so fast no one noticed until it was too late.
My fist rammed into his face, and a crack resonated as black liquid spurted out of his nose. The crowd froze while the demon lord stared in shock.
And when that shock wore off, his appearance transformed into his true demonic visage. He wrapped his hand around my throat, and then I was airborne. The gothic decor zoomed by, and demons scattered as I braced for impact right before my back crashed into a wall on the other side of the room.
Pain erupted along my spine and skull, air fled my lungs, and stars popped in my eyes.
Son of a bitch.
Ringing filled my ears as I slid down the wall and spat a glob of blood on the floor.Fucking hell.Blood covered me—mine, Oliver’s, and Arisa’s. Cuts slashed my arms, and the stab wound in my side throbbed. Even the wound on my thigh from Karn’s knife had ripped open again, staining my jeans.
The demon lord’s shoes—like polished onyx—appeared, and he gripped my arms, dragging me up the wall until my feet skimmed the ground. “The only reason you’re still alive is because you have yet to reveal the location of the Infernal Sol. I’m a patient creature sometimes. I can still have a little fun with you yet.” His wings unleashed, and he curled them forward to pin me against the wall as he ran his fingers down my cheek, spawning a wave of goose bumps over me. “You will be my personal slave, attending toallmy needs.”
Acid settled at the base of my throat as his meaning sank in. He would take me to that torture chamber bedroom and shatter me into a thousand pieces.
