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A form crashed into me, knocking the air out of my lungs and pinning me to the ground. Pain rippled over my side as I tried to catch my breath. Another pair of dark eyes gleamed above me, but the almost translucent skin and platinum hair made it clear that this was not a high demon.
He was a royal.
What the hell?
The demon—almost the size of Mykel—snarled in my face so loud my ears popped. His long fingers curled around my wrist and twisted until I screamed and dropped the sword. He placed his knee on the blade and snapped it in half like it was a piece of brittle clay.
My blood iced over. Not many could break that kind of fae weapon.
His lips curled back, unveiling sharpened teeth. “You will stay.”
The hell I will.
When I tried to buck him off, he jumped on my torso, painfully bending my ribs as the high demon held down my legs.
Neither of them appeared capable of coherent thoughts other than draining souls, but they seamlessly worked together to defeat me. Had they planned this attack with the agrigons, or did it simply present them with a chance to ravage souls during the chaos?
Panic and anger mixed through my bloodstream as I thrashed like a wild animal. The royal demon snatched a long piece of my broken blade from the pile of leaves. He gripped my wrist, shoved it to the ground, and then slammed the jagged shard through my palm.
A cry burst out of my mouth, shaking the atmosphere. He’d pinned my hand to the fucking ground!
I tried to force him off, but his long arms reached over, and he used his supernatural strength to grab my other wrist, the second broken bit of my sword gleaming in his grip. Bile coated my mouth as he gave a nightmarish smile and slammed the broken metal piece into my palm, pinning both my hands to the forest floor.
My scream tore my throat apart, and blood thundered in my ears. Trees blurred out of focus as the pain in my palms and the rest of my body registered. Sweat streaked my temples as I heaved in ragged gulps of air. I needed to get out of this. I knew exactly what the royal giant and his little high demon friend would do.
My head turned to the side as I searched for help. Dorian’s attention swiveled in my direction, and he clocked the two high-level demons on top of me. For a moment, relief spread through my limbs as he stepped forward.
But then Dorian stopped and surveyed the scene. Two wolves were unconscious, Jake was dead and another might be, and the others were engaged in battle, oblivious to anything outside their personal fights.
My hope shattered as the douchebag beta retreated, vanishing into the woods.
“Coward!”
Hot anger bled through my veins at Dorian’s spinelessness. What kind of alpha would he be if he didn’t even stick around to help his packmates fight. I could understand not wanting to save me, but the other shifters were his responsibility. Did he really kill all those vampires to save those kids, or was that some ruse he constructed to win the beta title?
The giant royal gripped my chin, yanking me back to my doomed situation, the scent of blood mixed with a hint of lavender permeating off him. His jaw spread wide as he lowered over me, his power scraping against my insides in search of my soul.
My back arched off the ground, and my scream broke as white light seeped from my mouth, agony ripping through me. The forest blurred, and that horrible black stare eclipsed everything else while the royal demon sucked out my soul.
This would have been the last thing Jayla saw before she died. Maybe it was fitting that it be mine too.
ChapterThirty-Four
Those chillingblack eyes consumed my vision, filled with hunger and desperation as my soul painfully tore from my body. The royal demon would devour my life and destroy everything inside of me.
Maybe I deserved it. Maybe the universe finally had enough of me.
The pressure on my legs vanished, and the high demon appeared above, grabbing my soul too and splitting the stream curling from my mouth. Another layer of anguish crashed into me, and a hot tear leaked down my cheek.
I couldn’t move, and I could barely breathe. The colossal royal on my chest strained my ribs, and soon they’d crack under his weight.
But Death was coming for me anyway, so what did it matter?
My neck tattoo tingled, and even though I couldn’t see him, I sensed his consciousness close by.
“You have to fight this, Tate,” Fane growled into my ear as his warm breath ghosted over my neck. “You can’t die. Not like this.”
My fingers twitched, but the broken pieces of my sword dug in and spilled more blood.“How the hell am I supposed to get out of this?”
