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His smile slowly melted away, and shadows swirled in his contrasting irises. “I don’t know what would stop this thing between us. Maybe nothing,” he muttered that last part almost too low for me to hear.
“Were you in Wrath & Ruin when Venna showed up?”I didn’t see or feel his presence, so I assumed the talisman had blocked him.
A vein in his forehead throbbed. “No, I wasn’t, but Logan told me all about it. The fucker shouldn’t have—”
The lab walls suddenly shook, rattling the instruments and candles on the counters.
“What the hell was that?” I muttered as Ruin, Nadia, and the alchemists paused their conversation.
Fane tensed behind me, his nostrils flaring. “Get up, Teague.Now.”
A crash reverberated upstairs, footsteps sounded, and over a dozen dux demons poured into the lab.
ChapterEleven
As dux demonsflooded the lab from the stairs, air expelled out of my lungs, and frost converged over my muscles. Growls reverberated while the shriek of talons tearing into metal echoed and glass shattered.
How did they get in? Where was the high lord’s security team?
Ruin slammed a demon into a wall, and Denton snatched a scalpel from the counter, jabbing another one in her throat. Blood thundered through my veins, but my limbs remained unresponsive, and my body felt like it weighed a thousand pounds.
“Teague, get up!” Fane urged, leaning over me as if he could protect me from the demons.
I tried to lift myself from the table, cursing as I struggled. “That spell wore me out.” I was out of breath by the time I sat up.
Ruin grabbed a demon by the throat as he rushed in my direction. “Nadia!” he called out. “Throw a protection ward around Tate.”
The witch’s eyes glowed violet as she flicked her hand toward me. A shimmering bubble appeared around the table just as two demons slipped by and slammed into it.
Fane gripped my shoulder. “That’s not going to hold them for long.”
“Are these Venna’s demons? Did she send them to capture me?” I asked, trying to find my way out of this sluggish state.
“I don’t know.” Fane’s fingers dug into my flesh. “But you have to move.”
I gnashed my teeth. “I’m trying, asshole.”
Another demon beat his fist against the protective bubble to shatter it, his lips curling back to reveal jagged teeth. “This little spell is weakening by the minute.” He gave an ominous chuckle and rammed his horns into the shield.
I cursed as sparks flew and fissures tunneled into the blockade.
“Ruin!” Fane yelled, but the demon lord couldn’t hear him. Plus, he was busy taking on three opponents.
Estella tackled a female to the ground, viciously clawing at her back. Denton’s assistant wasn’t as prim and proper as she pretended. Maybe threatening her demon lord brought out her naughty side.
Fane clutched my arm, returning my attention to him. “You need to tap into that power again. Use whatever you can to fight back.”
My mouth hung open.“After the spell Nadia did, if I reach for any kind of power, the Infernal Sol will be the only thing that answers. And it will have complete control. I know it.”
The demon shifter jammed his hands into his hair, the veins and tendons in his neck straining as he contemplated my choices. “Try thinking of me shifting that night during your first full moon.” When I opened my mouth to protest, he growled. “Just try it.”
I closed my lids and searched for the shifter within while picturing Fane changing that night in the forest. Another full moon had come and gone, and I had yet to feel any signs of a full transformation during that time.
A wave of energy poured into me that felt completely different from the demon amulet's dark, dangerous power. But I couldn’t sense a connection to my shifter form, either.
The lab rattled, and my lids snapped open just as the demon broke through the magical barrier.
“Tate!” Fane roared, releasing his grip on me.
