Released (The Eternal Balance #3)(50)

The demon fell forward and braced itself against the floor with Jax’s hands. The area around his body seemed to darken, almost as though Jax’s body was on fire and the smoke from that blaze was bleeding into the air around him. A fierce growl filled the cavern, and the smoke grew thicker, enveloping Jax’s entire body for a moment before rising to hover just above his head.

At first it was nothing more than a collection of blackish smoke. An undulating clump of nondescript fog. But as I stared, it began to come into focus. It began to take shape.

The shape of a man.

“This…has never been done,” a voice said from somewhere inside the churning mass. Azi. This was Azi!

I wanted Jax with all my heart and soul, but a part of me felt…something…for Azi. “What will happen to you?”

The smoke convulsed, breaking form for a moment before solidifying slightly. “I suppose I will die after a time. If I conserve my energy, I may linger for a bit.”

Tears gathered in the corners of my eyes and spilled over. Their warmth left twin trails of liquid fire across my skin. I swallowed back a sob, unable to fathom the reality of what was happening. A demon, a boogeyman straight from nightmares, was sacrificing itself to spare two humans pain. It was unfathomable. Beautiful.

It gave me hope… “I—”

A soft noise pulled me from my reverie. I looked down at Jax, at his eyes. They were the gray of violent summer storms.

And they were the most amazing thing I’d ever seen.

Everything else faded away. I threw myself forward and dropped to the ground. “Please,” I whispered, and buried my face in the crook of his neck. I wound my arms around him and held on tighter than I ever had before. “Tell me it isn’t my imagination. Tell me this is real.”

He returned the embrace, just as fiercely, and looked up. The collection of dark smoke was still there, lingering above his head, but had no detail. It had already begun to thin. “The demon is gone, Sammy. It’s just me now. Just us.”

I pulled away and grabbed his face to kiss him, but he shook his head. “The stone.” He nodded to the ground a few feet away where the red rock lay. “You have to destroy it.”

It was my turn to shake my head. “Destroy it how?” I glared at the thing. It looked so harmless, lying there in the sand. “Can’t we just go bury it somewhere?”

“It has to be destroyed. If we leave it floating around out there, then Zenak could find it. It could use the stone to get to you. We have to be sure. And then we have to get the other half. I don’t care if it takes the rest of our lives, Sammy. We have to be sure.”

“That still doesn’t tell me how to destroy it.” I shifted, leaned to the side, and stretched my arm to reach for the stone. The tips of my fingers grazed the edge—but that was as far as I got before something heavy crushed my hand into the sand.

I looked up and saw him. The one person who could still ruin everything. The brother of the man I loved. The host to the demon who had vowed to kill Jax.

Chase.

…

“Thank you.” Chase’s voice echoed through the small space. He put more pressure on my hand and bent to retrieve the stone. “I’ve been looking for this.”

He twisted his foot once more, hard, before letting up. I held my breath, terrified that if I tried to speak, I’d do nothing more than scream. Surely he had to have broken my fingers. The thumb and pointer, if not all of them. The pain brought tears to my eyes, the throbbing radiating down past my knuckles and up my arm in quick, sharp pulses.

Van stood beside him. She was soaked, like the rest of us, and her lip was swollen. She looked terrified, but at least she was in one piece.

I scanned the cave and saw no trace of the black smoke.

Behind me, Jax stumbled to his feet. He wobbled, hands shaking as he teetered back and forth. Whatever it took for Azi to leave, it had left Jax weakened. It had left him vulnerable at the worst possible moment.

Chase laughed and dug into his right front pocket. A moment later, he produced the other half of the stone. “I’ve been waiting a long, long time for this.”

Then, as we all watched in horror, he held both pieces next to each other. For a moment, nothing happened. But the relief I felt was short lived. A smell filled the air—the scent of burning rubber mixed with pungent sulfur. The edges of each piece of the stone started to spark—

In a brilliant flash of light, the two separate pieces were one again, reuniting the ancient rock and spelling trouble for every living being on the planet. I could feel it, the power humming through the thing. And if I could feel it, I didn’t want to even think about the destructive force Chase now held in the palm of his hand.

“Chase.” I took a step toward him. “Please—”

The ground rumbled and shook, and from the dirt beneath our feet, thick vines burst from the earth. They twitched and churned and wrapped themselves around Van and me, acting like ropes and securing us firmly to the spots where we stood.

He laughed, a disturbing cadence of amusement and fury. “How long has it been since I’ve felt such power?” He glanced down at the stone in his hands, then threw it up and caught it. “Of course, it’ll probably pale compared to the juice you have running through your veins, Samantha, but for now…” He turned to Jax. “It’s just what I need.”