The Unlikeable Demon Hunter (Nava Katz #1)(78)

In the trauma of losing his arm, the sakacha reverted to his natural wood state. My firebomb had done enough damage that once the demon transformed back, he fell apart like cheap particle board.

Tree Trunk thrust his hand into the spongy mass, grabbed the knot–about the size and shape of a large lima bean–and crushed it under his foot.

All the remained of the demon was a pile of sawdust.

With Drio’s help, Rohan was able to destroy the sakacha who’d injured him. Baruch seemed to be holding his own against the rest.

As I wasn’t needed here, I raced deeper into the creepy building, past water-stained walls with their faint tang of mold, and under graffiti-tagged ceilings, on high alert for Ari.

Having imagined my twin beaten, bloody, and caged, I thought I’d prepared myself for the state in which I’d find him.

Imagining the scene was nothing like seeing it.

Ari was a pulpy mess, his flesh a rainbow of bruising. He sprawled on the filthy floor of a small room so obviously broken that the demons hadn’t even bothered to chain him up.

Tears streamed from my eyes as I ran over to him and hooked my hands under his armpits to help him to his feet. “I’ve got you.” My voice cracked.

My brother couldn’t even support himself. I staggered under his weight until I managed to find my balance for the both of us. “I wondered when you’d get here.” He stared at me blearily, his blinks too slow, his expression too dazed.

My heart stuttered. “Sorry to make you wait.” Sorry about everything I ever did to hurt you, intentionally or not. There’d be plenty of time to apologize once we were away from here.

We shuffled to the doorway.

Ari cradled the arm not slung around my neck against his body, his wrist puffy. Blood-encrusted scars were gashed diagonally along his chest and he sported a hell of a black eye. Walking seemed to be a shambling challenge but he wasn’t limping.

Shafts of weak moonlight lit our way along the quiet hallway. My scalp prickled. Where was everyone, Fallen Angels and demons both? Being allowed to wander around unchecked had to be part of a massive trap.

It took some time to backtrack but we made it to the large room where the sakacha battle had occurred. The floor was strewn with sawdust though the sakacha were all gone.

A horde of short, fuzzy, pink heart-shaped demons with enormous darkly lashed eyes and arms ending in fat white-gloved hands, things I swear I’d had in pillow form as a kid, greeted us. Sure they were cute, but I wasn’t an idiot. They were still demons. If these were the dremla, they were soul leeches.

Careful not to jostle my brother who still clung to me for support, I fired up my left hand–the one farthest from him–with a nice, bright electrical ball.

The demons all burst out into short, nasty quills.

“I’m going to have to let you go now,” I said in a low voice, my focus on the demons.

Ari’s arm that was slung around my neck tightened to asphyxiating proportions. “I don’t think so.”

I feebly slapped at my brother with my right hand.

“Take whatever form you want, demon. I’ll still kill you.”

Huh? Was he talking to me? “Not funny,” I managed to gasp.

Ari flipped his poison ring open and threw the contents at me.

I jerked sideways. My poor hair took the brunt of the maybe half teaspoon, but I still screamed, feeling like my scalp was on fire. A clump of charred hair fell to the ground, and my left ear lobe bubbled. My stomach heaved.

“I may not be Rasha,” Ari hissed, “but I still trained as one. You hurt me, unholy spawn, I’ll hurt you back.”

“Unholy spawn” was not a nickname of mine. Ari didn’t know who I was.

My blood ran cold.

“Ari,” I said in a steady voice, “I’m your sister, Nava. Look at my ring. I’m Rasha.”

He laughed mirthlessly. “Good try, but there’s no such thing as a female Rasha. And I don’t have a sister.”

Asmodeus could make the rest of the world forget about me. But not Ari. The demon didn’t get that win.

I dropped low, ducking under Ari’s arm with a shocked yelp as he kicked me sideways, sending me partway across the room. I smacked the side of a pillar, all air knocked from my lungs. Of course, I had to make sure my darling twin didn’t kill me first.

Ari crouched in fighter stance, fists up and a determined look in his eyes. “Make the dremla stand down or I swear I’ll kill you. I know your weak spot.”

Yeah, idiot. You.

The demons flanked me like an army. My army.

My eyes widened. “Oh no. Not mine.” I fired at a couple of them.

“We are sorry to disappoint, my Queen,” they said in musical voices. Faking, bunny-eyed spawn.

Before I could insist that I had no royalty status among the demonically-inclined, Ari rushed me. I was no match for my brother. The first few hits hurt but it was the punch to my eye that sent me over the top.

I slammed my hand into his chest, spreading my electricity in a fine web around his torso. Ari took deep gasping breaths, his entire body spasming. I kept the voltage low because I had no desire to heart attack him into me being an only child, but I had to make my point. “Who took the blame when you broke the dining room window with your homemade catapult, Ace?”

Still caught in my magic web, Ari raised a shaking hand and shot me the finger.