“You’re courting madness and death.”
Both blurted as demons of every size and shape popped into existence. They weren’t wrong. She was not ready. Not by any stretch of the imagination. “I’m not going anywhere. You do not have my permission,” she said to Agone, then looked at Seren. “And neither do you.”
Seren hunched over and got in her face. “I don’t need your permission.” He grabbed her arm. Awareness zinged her nipples and darted to her pussy. Eden expected the bottom of her stomach to fall out and the world to swirl away, not her libido kicking into overdrive.
She ignored the lust and waited for the spatial distortion and — Nothing happened. She was still in the middle of the park across from her apartment.
She snatched her arm out of his grasp and smirked. “Didn’t work, huh?”
“It’s the grace mixed with demon ichor. Neither of us can thwart her will. Belial and Iaiél planned well,” Agone ground out.
Thick fog rolled across the grass, snaked between the trees, and then swept over the playground. And inside the fog, demons. A variety heading their way.
Seren and Agone circled her as the demons circled them, two rows deep. She counted twenty demons in all shapes and sizes. So many it boggled and stretched her mind to the limit. Maybe this was a bad idea.
Too late when ten broke away from the pack and charged. They went down quickly, like dominoes beneath Seren and Agone’s blades and fists. It was brutal and beautiful, but they had to leave. “Let’s get out of here.”
Then she saw Mazt in the middle of his pack of freaks. Gloating, he stood there with a sick grin on his monstrous face. He’d killed her. Mazt killed Harry, the most beautiful soul in the entire world. Her best friend who’d been with her through thick and thin.
Eden held out her hand. “I need a weapon.” Too busy slaying the demons charging at them and protecting her ass, Seren and Agone ignored her, probably on purpose.
Fine. It took seconds for a demon to fall at her feet, headless, gushing black blood from the stump where its head used to be. She repurposed the onyx dagger still clutched in its fist. The first touch left her arm trembling. It felt wrong, aberrant. She was about to drop it when power snaked up her arm and pierced her chest. Her entire body flashed cold, then ran hot before settling into a shimmering anger.
Eden hadn’t realized she’d closed her eyes until she peeled them open to face the carnage wrought by battle. A one-sided battle, judging by the number of dead demons. But Mazt, he still lived. At the back of the dwindling pack, he watched with a sick fascination.
He wouldn’t leave here alive. With single-minded purpose, she left the protection of Agone and Seren to march straight into the thick of it.
“What the —”
“Crazy, human, get bac —”
A demon reached for her. Faster than she ever moved in her entire life, she brought the blade up and sliced through the limb. One forearm and hand gone. Leaving one screaming, pissed off demon who lost his head to Seren’s blade.
“Stay behind me!”
She couldn’t do that when an arm snaked around his throat and yanked him off his feet. She buried the blade in the arm and twisted. The demon howled and released Seren, who shoved her back and spun.
“You’re welcome,” she grumbled as Seren killed the demon.
“Don’t move!” he ordered like she was a child and had to obey him. Yeah. No! No one ordered her around. She had a demon to kill, and if she died in the process...
“For Harry, it’s worth it.”
She spotted Mazt surrounded by five demons. Later, she’d recognize how insane she was. How out of her mind cray-cray she had to be for her to race away from Seren and Agone toward danger.
Rage wiped away her common sense. Pure and undiluted, it fed adrenaline into her bloodstream. It made her invincible.
“Come to me. Yes. Come and meet your destiny.” Mazt taunted. Yards away, his words were whispered in her ear.
She clutched the knife and did as he suggested. She ran toward her destiny.
Like a meteor striking the Earth, Agone landed in front of her. Facing away from her, his beautiful back wings extended, and he charged Mazt and his bodyguards.
“No! He’s mine.” Eden raced after Agone. He wouldn’t steal this from her. A demon slammed into her side. She face-planted, hard, and came up with a mouthful of grass and dirt. Flipped on to her back, she came face to face with the writhing mass she saw in the bathroom doorway. It had no discernible feature, just a living spot pinning her to the ground by her wrists and legs. Caught, she couldn’t move, couldn’t do anything as etch-a-sketch eyes and lips formed out of the oily mass.
“I killed the woman. For my master.”
She couldn’t say what shocked her more, the sound of its voice, or the words it uttered. Regardless, her shock quickly gave way to a blazing fury even as she choked on dirt and grass taking root in her mouth. Her hand was empty, the knife somewhere but not where it needed to be, in her fucking hand.