Taming Demons for Beginners (The Guild Codex: Demonized #1)(71)

He’d thought killing me would stop Zylas. That my death, and the Banishment Clause, would save them from Zylas’s wrath.

“They will not survive my wrath,” Zylas growled quietly.

“I told you to stay out of my head.”

A metallic boom reverberated through the dark space and I looked past him. We were back in the shipping container, the doors closed and glowing with a demonic rune-filled circle. Another powerful blow hit the steel.

“Why did you leave me, payilas?”

My attention snapped back to him, his face hovering above mine. He was braced on his elbows, his weight pressing me down, our noses inches apart. With those crimson eyes locked on mine, I couldn’t hide the truth—not from him or myself.

I didn’t know what to say, how to explain myself. Then again, there was only one explanation.

“Because I’m zh’ūltis,” I muttered resignedly.

A corner of his mouth pulled up. “I have been telling you that.”

“Yes.”

“You keep disagreeing.”

“I did, but you were right all along.”

His gaze slid across my features as though reassessing them, then he pushed himself up, straddling my hips. He found my right wrist and lifted it. My gut clenched at the sight of my fingers. Bent backward. Contorted. Unmoving.

Tightening his grip on my hand, he took hold of my index finger. “Close your teeth, payilas, so you do not bite your tongue.”

I snapped my jaw shut a second before he pulled my finger straight. I screeched through my gritted teeth. Another boom struck the container, shaking the floor, but Zylas ignored it as he straightened my fingers one by one.

Breathing fast, I waited for the pain to subside. He cradled my hand, lightly pressing on the joints to ensure my bones were properly aligned. I peeked at him, my vision blurred with fresh tears. The loudest bang yet shook the entire container. The spell Zylas had cast on the doors shuddered under the impact, and I clamped down on a new surge of fear.

“Now what?” I whispered.

“Hnn. I think you said … kill them all.” He flashed his canines, savage voracity lining his face. “I will do that.”

“But how? There are still so many of them.” Two champions, four contractors, four demons, Karlson, and Travis. Twelve opponents, plus Amalia was in danger and needed help too.

Zylas eyed me sideways, then reached for his hip. With a twist, he freed the infernus’s chain from his belt and dangled the pendant above my face.

“Payilas, can you make the spell of bright light again?”

“I need something to draw with. Something like—” I watched a drop of blood run down the side of his hand. I was lying in a pool of it. “Yes, but if you tell me what you have in mind, I might be able to do better than a light cantrip.”

As he grinned, vicious and eager to deal death, I grasped the hanging infernus. This time, I wouldn’t try to stop him. This time, I would help him protect us both.





Chapter Twenty-Seven





Boom. The shipping container jolted violently as the hammering continued. The doors, held together by Zylas’s glowing spell, caved inward.

In front of the shaking doors, I’d drawn a three-foot-wide rune in my own blood. Yuck. Even knowing Zylas’s super-speed healing magic had repaired my neck and replenished my blood, I was still freaked out that so much of what was supposed to be inside my body was all over the floor. Painful thirst constricted my throat.

I tightened my hands on his shoulders. He was crouched just behind the rune, and I clung to his back with my legs clamped around his waist. Crimson talons extended from his fingers, and he raised one hand toward the door as another powerful blow shook it.

“Are you ready, payilas?” he asked.

“Yes,” I replied tersely. My pulse was racing, my throat was dry, and my limbs shivered with adrenaline. But Zylas knew what he was doing. He didn’t start fights he couldn’t win.

Power lit across his palm and crawled up his arm in twisting veins that glowed through his sleeve and armguard. A circle formed around his fingertips, runes flashing through its center.

“Now,” he said, and a streak of red power leaped from his hand and hit the doors, blasting them open.

“Luce!” I cried, squeezing my eyes shut.

My rune blazed into an incandescent brilliance that shone through my eyelids. As the men outside, blinded by the spell, shouted in pain and alarm, Zylas leaped forward. He could still see; with his infrared vision, he was hindered by neither a lack of light nor an overabundance of it.

We flew out into the cold sea breeze, my arms wrapped desperately around his shoulders. He landed with a crunch on the concrete. I cracked my eyes open as he sprang between two demons, unmoving while their contractors were disoriented. Aiming at his first target, Zylas slashed his talons across the man holding Amalia.

As the rogue fell, I dropped off Zylas’s back. Grabbing Amalia’s arm, I hauled her away from the Red Rum mythics and their demons. They had recovered from the light spell and were turning on Zylas—four demons controlled by four contractors, and two armed champions protecting them.

The wall of lumbering muscles, horns, and spikes closed in on Zylas, the demons spreading out to encircle him.

I raised my arm. My sleeve was pushed up to my elbow, and I’d drawn three bloody cantrips on my skin. The most basic Arcana—draw the rune, speak the single-word incantation, and unleash a simple spell.