Ruined (The Eternal Balance #1)(82)

But he’d disappeared, and Azirak’s demons came for me, intent on keeping their promise. Help came from the most unlikely source. Chase. But even though he’d taken down the group circling, there were more. Many more. And if they couldn’t get to me directly, they knew they could get to me through Chase.

Through the link.

They rushed him, fists flying.

I turned to escape the chaos, but a sharp pain exploded on the right side of my head. Then, another to the gut, followed by air leaving my lungs. I crumbled to my knees as involuntary tears fell, and the world took on a blurry haze. Every blow dealt to Chase landed on me.

Something wet trailed down the upper right side of my face, tickling slightly as it went. When I lifted my hand and pulled it away, it was smeared with blood. Panicking was a bad idea, but I couldn’t help it. I tried to take a deep breath, but it was like someone had wrapped a rubber band around my chest, making it worse. Ribbons of color danced before my eyes as spikes of pain rolled over me. I’d broken several ribs in high school. I knew how it felt.

I tried crawling to the patch of trees at the corner of the fort. There were demons fighting everywhere. I couldn’t prevent the damage that came from Chase, but I could at least get clear of the rest.

But each movement was harder than the last. Whatever was happening to him was bad and it was taking its toll. At one point I had to stop and spit out a mouthful of blood, horrified when something small and white landed on the ground. A tooth. A few paces after that, I bit back a scream as my right elbow gave out with a soft but distinct cracking.

Just when I wasn’t sure I could make it another inch, Heckle was there. “Here,” he whispered as he lifted me from the ground. It hurt. Everything hurt. But I let him drag me to the sideline. “This ends now.”

Another flash, even brighter than the ones before, lit up the sky, but unlike the previous two, this wasn’t lightning. It was something else. When it cleared, I gasped. The battle was gone. The pain, the other demons, the blood and bodies. All of it. Evaporated as though it had never been. The only things left were me and Heckle, and Jax and Chase.

For a moment, I was sure Chase had taken one too many knocks to the head. This was a hallucination. That, or death. “What—”

“This war is between your two demon clans. Using a mortal to gain advantage is unbalanced.”

Chase stalked forward, stopping just shy of grabbing Heckle around the throat. “You have no right to interfere.”

“On the contrary, it is my job to interfere.” He stepped back and gestured to Jax. “This is your game board. You will play your hands out. Alone. Royal blood against royal blood.”

Chase looked as though he might argue, but Jax simply nodded and stepped away. “Take your opportunity, Zenak. Let’s finish this once and for all.”

And with a grin, Chase lunged forward and threw the first punch. In fact, he was throwing the only punches. I backed away as they fought. Chase assaulted Jax with fury, but he refused to strike back. He did his best to dodge the blows, but dealt none of his own. He didn’t want to hurt me.

“How can you let them do this,” I whispered furiously. “You know he won’t fight back. You said they couldn’t use me, yet that’s what Chase is doing.”

“Do you remember what we discussed?” Heckle asked, voice low. “They are brutal and vicious, but I believe Azirak to be the lesser of the two evils.”

I nodded as a chilly breeze whipped the leaves into a frenzy above their heads. The nearly bare branches stretched into the sky like skeletal fingers, reaching for heaven.

In the middle of the fort, Chase stood over Jax with a mix of hate and pity. “What are you going to do? You hurt me and you hurt her. We both know you don’t want that. I don’t either. Just roll over and die. Make this easy on everyone. End your pathetic existence. No more feeding the demon. Isn’t that what you’ve always wanted?”

It was there in Jax’s eyes. He was buying his brother’s bullshit. I had to do something to tip the scales in Jax’s favor. There was one way to get him to fight back.

Heckle was right. It was time for the backup plan.

“You’re sure. You can do what you said?” My insides trembled at the thought of going through with it, but something had to give.

A faint shimmer surrounded Heckle’s left hand. A moment later, he held out a pristine-looking blade. “I can. But as I warned, it will come with a price. You may lose him regardless of this sacrifice. There is no way to predict the outcome. It will all come down to choice.”

If I agreed to follow through, then it would give Jax the freedom to kill Chase. The good part about that was, it would ensure that Zenak would never have his powers restored, and that Jax would live. The bad part was, Azirak’s powers would be restored. It would break the curse that bound the demons and give them the freedom again. Forever. Heckle didn’t know what would happen to human Jax.

It was a gamble. And in the end, that’s all life really was. A series of gambles. “Chase!” I took the knife and positioned the knife above my forearm.

He froze for a second, glancing up from a weary-looking Jax, and laughed. “Come on, Samantha. You’re the biggest chicken when it comes to pain. You freaked out two weeks ago when you got a splinter.”

He was right. I stubbed my toe and screamed about it for an hour. But this was different. This was for Jax. Nothing I could do would kill Chase, but I could take the wind out of his sails.