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As my fingers brushed the cold metal of the iron handle, the hairs on my nape lifted. A shadow spilled into the room, thickening the air with so much tension I choked on it.
Someone found me.
I snatched the iron pole and swung it as I spun.
A large hand ripped the weapon out of my grasp, and before I could even look at my assailant, that same hand wrapped around my throat, lifted me from the ground, and slammed me onto a nearby table.
My bones rattled from the hit, and the wood cracked beneath me. A copper tinge seeped into the back of my mouth as my skull throbbed. Something suspended over me, blocking most of the light.
As my vision cleared, a pair of crimson eyes with diamond slits for pupils gleamed through the shadows, freezing my soul. The darkness above moved with a dry rustle.
Holy hell. The thing blocking the light was a pair of veiny, leathery bat wings.
Invisible bands wrapped around my lungs and obstructed my breathing as Karn bowed over me in all his monstrous glory. Gone was the young, beautiful appearance, and the beast stood in its place.
“You dare sneak into my home, raven, and steal from me?” His voice, like the thunder of boulders falling over a cliff, made me tremble. “Any words of remorse before I rip you to pieces?”
Right down to business. The demon lord wasn’t a cheesy movie villain who wanted to spend an hour discussing his diabolical plan, giving the hero plenty of time to escape. Nope. He’d simply kill me.
“Go fuck yourself.” Not the most eloquent response, but I’d tapped into my inner street kid, and she had a mouth.
When his fingers tightened around my neck, they didn’t evoke the same fiery sensation as Fane’s. “What did you take?”
I struggled in his grip, but the sharp talon on the end of his right wing pressed into my chest, stopping my movements. My frantic heartbeat crashed against my ribs like a wild beast trying to break free of a cage.
How would I get out of this?
Invisible worms slithered across me as his unnerving stare raked over my body, landing on the bulge in my front pocket.
A pit of dread ripped open in my gut.
With a quick swipe, Karn’s sharp talons sliced the material, and the Infernal Sol tumbled out.
A frightening snarl started in the back of his throat and slowly spilled between his razor teeth, finally erupting into the room. The pictures on the walls shook, and one of them fell, glass smashing across the shiny midnight floor.
“You dare steal the Infernal Sol!” His irises became fiery pits hot enough to burn me. “Can you even fathom what power lies within it? No, you can’t. You’re just a piece of filthy human trash the witches decided to bless.”
I punched his cheek and lifted my leg to tear his wing from my chest, but the talon dug deeper, puncturing my skin. If I moved much more, the thing would impale me right through the heart.
Karn’s long fingers gripped the golden chain and slid the amulet across the wood toward him. “You will suffer for this. I will pin your naked body to the wall in my grand room and slowly draw your soul out while my subjects party around you, spitting at your flesh.”
The sadistic glint in his flaming eyes made it clear that he would do just as he promised. And more.
Panic washed over me as he leaned down, one hand still on my neck while the other pried my jaw open. Pain ripped through me as my soul dislodged from its home. Tiny wisps of white light floated out of my mouth and into Karn’s beastly one.
A thunderous crash exploded, and a massive figure emerged out of the shadows, glass from the shattered window he’d jumped through raining around him.
Karn released his grip on my soul but kept me pinned to the table with his hands. “Fane.” The hatred and contempt dripping from the demon shifter’s name became a palpable presence in the room. The demon lord’s monstrous form expanded. “You will never learn your place.”
A terrifying smile pulled Fane’s lips apart, one that would have most wetting their pants. “My current place is in your house, moments from pulling those wings off.” He moved like the wind and slammed into the demon lord.
One moment Karn bowed over me, and the next, he and Fane collided into the wall. The entire room shook, and anything still tacked to the walls dropped as the atmosphere quaked. Fane’s muscles twitched beneath his inked skin as he roared and jammed his fist into Karn’s face. The demon shifter didn’t stop there. More hits pummeled the lord’s abdomen, and then talons sprouted from Fane’s fingers as he dragged them down one of Karn’s leathery wings.
Air rushed from my lungs, and every drop of moisture evaporated from my mouth. Fane Maverick was a fucking beast. He tore into the demon lord with no fear, no hesitation. Even as Karn retaliated, Fane didn’t back down.
Why the hell am I just standing here!
I shook the awe away and scrambled off the table, snatching the Infernal Sol and dashing toward the window. Whoever won this fight would come for me, and I wanted to put as much space between us as possible.
