Magic Trials (Half-Blood Academy #1)(51)

I restrained myself from cheering at his magnificent fighting style. Even the best warrior might lose their footing when distracted.

The gray-horned demon screamed in pain before my knight decapitated him with one clean, swift sweep of his sword. And then without turning, my dream lover drove his blade backward, impaling the green-horned demon as the demon jumped on him, fangs bared and claws out.

I’d never seen anyone fight so superbly. I considered myself a good fighter, if given a weapon, but I was barely in his league.

Now only the demon captain remained.

“Rest, lamb,” my knight said softly. “I’ll join you in no time.”

He didn’t need my help, and I was fatigued and in pain from the new wound below my shoulder where the demon’s nasty chainsaw had cut me.

I held my chin high, signaling that I, Marigold, allowed my knight to battle on my behalf. I jogged toward the red-horned demon’s corpse and yanked the spear from his throat. Then I slouched onto a ruptured boulder, my ankle crossed over my knee, and watched my defender ram his sword into the demon captain’s ax.

The sharp rake of metal on metal echoed along the street as fire sparked off their steel.

The duelers moved in a blur, hacking, chopping, and battering at each other with unforgiving force.

I couldn’t take my eyes off the fight, and my knight seemed to relish the attention. Each flourish of his weapon was as elegant as it was deadly, like a fight choreographed to not just win, but impress me—his rapt audience—and to offer me every satisfaction.

He lunged at the demon like the fastest wind, booting the captain in the gut and sending him to crash against the fa?ade of a store that used to sell cheap perfumes. The impact brought down the rest of the wall and half of the ceiling. Concrete, dirt, and wooden beams rained down on the demon captain.

I loved it! It was like watching an action movie unfolding right in front of me.

My knight wanted to punish this demon captain for me prior to killing him.

Before the captain could get to his feet, my knight grabbed him and flung him across the street. The demon’s horns pierced a brick column, and his fall dented the ground.

“Oops, that hurt,” I shouted.

The demon tossed his ax at my knight before I finished my cheer.

A warning tore from my throat, but my man snatched the hilt of the spinning ax out of the air easily. Menace and fury rolling off him, he stalked toward the demon with predatory purpose, ready to cut down his opponent and wrap up this episode.

Suddenly, the demon captain grinned at me. His intentions clicked, and horror grabbed me.

The demon was going to make an exit.

He believed I was some kind of lost legend—there was no way he’d quit this hunt. If he escaped, he’d come back for me.

Worse, if he reported me to more powerful demons, the horde would join him until they had their claws in me. Though I didn’t think I was their lost princess—I wasn’t any fucking princess—it wouldn’t stop those greedy demon bastards from attempting to drag me to Hell.

“Don’t let him get away!” I shrieked and charged toward the demon captain with the spear thrust in front of me.

My knight moved in a blur at the same time.

Our weapons slammed toward the demon, but he shifted to smoke and vanished.

I stared at the empty space where the demon captain had been as cold dread and dismay filled me.

“Worry no more, lamb,” my knight commanded. “With me guarding you, no one will ever harm a single hair on your head.”

He swept his sapphire eyes to the sky, the roofs, and the rest of our surroundings and, finding no more threats, gazed down at me with all the protectiveness and possessiveness in the world.

My chest warmed. My heart fluttered.

I stepped toward him eagerly. I needed to touch him and feel for myself that he was one hundred percent real and he was here.

His sapphire eyes brightened. At first he opened his arms, ready to pull me into his embrace, but then he stiffened. Staggering away from me, he tucked his obsidian wings in tightly.

“No, lamb,” he whispered, his expression pained. “Don’t touch me.”

I halted, feeling like he’d doused me in icy water. I’d thought he wanted me.

He saw the hurt in my eyes, and agony distorted his gorgeous face.

“You were all over me in the dream,” I accused, lashing out as the hurt of rejection sank even deeper into my bones. “Guess you’re just a phony. I was wrong about you. I shouldn’t have sought you out.”

“You sought me out?”

“I came here for you, didn’t I?” I said bitterly.

He blinked in confusion. “How did you know I was here?”

“I didn’t know you were here,” I said. “But I thought of you before I teleported.”

A swirl of dark stars glimmered in his eyes. “You don’t know who I am, do you?”

Judging by the scorching desire etched into every line in his face, he wanted me. But then why did he want to confuse me?

I braced a hand on my hip. “I met you only once before and that was in a dream. You never told me who you are, though I asked, and then I was yanked right out of the dream.”

“I’m Héctor,” he said in sorrow and defeat. “I’m the death demigod. No one can touch me and live because my skin is lethal to everyone.”