“Hurry,” Chance urged.
Greydusk opened his black eyes and flashed a look that said he wasn’t helping, but he set off nonetheless. Behind us, the shield I’d set flickered and went down. It didn’t have the power or lasting potential of a permanent ward. I could throw blocks in their way—that was all.
Hope it slows them down long enough.
The Hazo couldn’t know the castle as well as Greydusk did. Hopefully that would work to our advantage. Shouts echoed through the corridors, most useless and faraway. The next one made me think the warrior caste had closed enough that they might have gotten behind us again. I had to keep them there.
“I’ll catch up,” I called.
I didn’t know if they heard me. Doesn’t matter. While the others kept moving, I stopped to drop another block. Another slash to my fingertips for extra power; the other cuts had coagulated, and they burned like hell when I sliced them open again. These scars weren’t like the ones I gained handling charged objects.
Set, shape, strength. I worked as fast as I could, my heart hammering in my ears, and then I saw ten Hazo thundering down the hall at me. The wall went up just as they charged it. One popped through, a second split in half in a grotesque explosion of guts, neatly sheared by my magical barrier. Demon innards splattered all over me, and I almost puked, except I had bigger problems.
Namely this giant, enraged demon whose pal I just tore in two.
Its ursine features twisted with rage, the tusks rising and falling with each breath as if anticipating how good I’d taste. “You killed Caim.”
No disputing that.
“He accepted my judgment,” I said quietly. “You dishonor his bravery with such betrayal.”
“Do not speak to me of honor, half-breed filth. You are no true queen, and we will cleanse your stain from this land.”
While he spoke, I shook with exhaustion and backed up. This confrontation flashed me back to Peru and how helpless I had felt with Caim. Only this demon didn’t have a harness for me to read. And I certainly couldn’t beat the Hazo in hand to hand.
Its great size telegraphed its attack. I stumbled back another step, intending to run, but my feet slipped in the demon guts, and that mishap saved me. The brute aimed a vicious blow at my head; since I was already falling, I took only part of the hit to my face, hard enough to slam me back five feet into the opposite wall, where the hall bent left. Blood spurted from my nose. If I’d taken the whole force, it would’ve snapped my neck.
As it was, I landed hard, ears ringing. The Hazo charged. Instead of beating me to death, as I expected, it lifted me by the throat. Its giant fist tightened, cutting off my oxygen. Fruitlessly, I kicked, but I couldn’t connect. My motions grew jerky, spasmodic, like death throes I had seen in so many other creatures.
So sorry, I thought. About everything.
My vision went black-speckled, and the pain seared me from the inside out. I lost consciousness for a few seconds and woke when the pressure eased off my neck. I fell then, and the Hazo roared—because it had a sword sticking out of its thigh. Shannon removed it with a jerk and used the wall to propel herself out of range.
I lay dazed, unable to process anything for precious seconds. The gulps of air I drew into my tortured lungs felt like the whole world. Beside me, Chance came in low and hard, his strikes lightning fast, a maddening flurry of fire. With each blow, the Hazo moaned its anguish as the flames licked over its hide. The stink of live, burning meat filled my nostrils, and then Shannon sliced it from behind.
A clever stroke. With its spinal column severed, the Hazo fell. Not dead but dying, and in absolute agony. These weren’t invulnerable like the summoned knight had been. We were on its home ground and it lacked the magickal protection Caim had owned in Peru.
But there were so many more hunting us. It had taken two on one to bring this Hazo down. Too many more fights like this one, and— No. Best not to consider the worst, even in my head.
My arms felt like cooked noodles. I tried to push away from the wall, but I couldn’t get up. No strength. Chance lifted me, wanting to shake me, no doubt, but my cheek was so swollen I couldn’t see out of that eye; I looked too pathetic for his wrath. Instead he cradled me against his chest and beckoned to Shannon.
As he ran, he demanded, “What the hell did you think you were doing?”
My bruised throat felt as though speaking would kill me. I forced the words out anyway in a hoarse rasp. “Slowing them down. Watching our backs.”
“Yeah? And who had yours?”
“You and Shan,” I whispered. “Like always.”
He held any further castigation because Greydusk met us halfway. His sharkish features drew tight with worry. “How badly are you hurt, my queen?”
“Please don’t call me that. It’s Corine.” Such an effort to push the sounds out. “You should go. Save yourself.”
The demon shook his head. “You may not be their queen, but you are mine. I will never forsake you.”
“Tell me it’s not far,” Shannon said. “This is fun and all, but I’d like to make our big exit now.”
“One more room, I think. Possibly two.” Grey sounded unsure—just what we needed to bolster morale.
I touched Chance on the shoulder. “I can walk now. My legs are fine.”
Overstatement. The bite where the Gorder sank its teeth in to save me from falling throbbed like fire. Might be infected, but it wouldn’t help to whine. My face and throat were f**ked up beyond all recognition; I turned my head in order to see the left side of the hallway.
“Are you positive?” Chance asked.
“Yep.”
As he set me on my feet, the rest of the Hazo troop found us. Nine of them. Four of us—and a terrified dog. I’d faced some shitty odds in my life, but this—this was something else entirely.
What spells do I remember? I had a big blank spot in my head. I didn’t remember my mother’s magick. I had relied on Ninlil for so much, gotten comfortable with her natural knowledge, and now I was f**king helpless. Dead weight.
“Shannon, stay back,” I begged.
She gave a nervous laugh, holding her sword in a defensive stance. “I’m not charging them. I’m not crazy.”
“Stall them,” Greydusk said.
Chance moved in front of us protectively while I cast another ward. My last. This I remembered because I had been drawing runes all the way through our retreat, but I couldn’t recall any other wards to save my life. Maybe this one would.
The demon’s skin rippled as he shifted; he had fought the shades in Swordwraith form. Hopefully it would prove effective against the Hazo too, who threw themselves repeatedly at the shield, trying to break it down with brute force. They couldn’t circle around; this was the rear part of the palace and there were no other paths. We would pass here, or we would die.
“Retreat around that corner,” Chance ordered. “It’ll help me focus if you’re not in danger.”
I glanced at Shannon, who nodded. Out of sight, we huddled together. She put an arm around me and I leaned in, shaking. Her heart beat too fast as the shield fell. I could tell it had by the combat noises. Screams, blows, madness. I willed it to be over, for Greydusk and Chance to prevail. I had no magick left, or I would have fought beside them.
At last Chance called, “Corine!”
I limped back the way we’d come. Found nine Hazo corpses in a gruesome pile. To my horror, Greydusk lay on his side, blood leaking out of a terrible wound. Shannon sucked in a sharp breath.
Ignoring my own pain, I knelt beside him. “Let’s get you up.”
“The portal room lies just beyond those doors.…” He gasped, one long fingered-hand flexing with the pain. “I…fear I will not be able to finish this task.”
“Bullshit.” Tears prickled in my eyes, and I dashed them away. “Oh, God, Grey, don’t. You said demons don’t have an afterlife. I can’t—”
“You treated me as a man of honor from the beginning. With you, my queen, I was free. That is worth dying for.”
And then there were three.
My Sweetest Downfall
For long moments, I knelt in guilty silence.
“There were too many. They’re so f**king big. Strong. I’m fast, but with five Hazo trying to eviscerate me, I just couldn’t dodge them all. I got tired. And he threw himself in front of me.”
He didn’t need to tell me why. I knew. Because you’re the queen’s consort.
“He died for you—to please me?” Raw anguish scalded my spirit.
“To save you from pain.”
“I should have told him he wasn’t just my minion or whatever. That he was a friend too.”
Shannon put a hand on my shoulder, and for the first time I noticed that our gifts didn’t spark off each other anymore. We hadn’t touched much since the Hazo gave her back to me, and I couldn’t recall when it started. The sinking in my stomach told me I wasn’t human anymore, but despair had to get in line behind my grief.
“He knew,” she said softly. “Why do you think he stayed with you, fought so hard? Demons aren’t known for their altruism.”
No, they weren’t, and the fact that we’d found such a good soul here, of all places, made me wonder about the stories I’d been told. I didn’t know what was true anymore. I wanted to cry but there was no time.
It didn’t seem right to leave him, but Chance was correct when he said, “I need both hands free to fight.”
“Give me another minute.” Laying my hands on Greydusk’s brow, I whispered to him in thanks and affection. Maybe the Imaron had been right; there was nothing left of demons after they died, but I spoke the words for myself.
Then, with great regret, I picked up my purse—which Greydusk had gone to so much trouble to save for me and checked on Butch; he was terrified but whole—and then slung it over my shoulder. My heart ached as I limped away from Greydusk’s body. His loyalty shouldn’t have meant giving up everything for me, but he wouldn’t want us to die either. I squared my shoulders, pressed the fear down, and led Shannon and Chance toward the final door. Tears stung my eyes; I stepped through, partly blinded by them.