Page 174 of Last Gift: Supernatural Battle

I’d noticed some time ago that the demon king had disappeared along with a sizeable chunk of red-scaled demons. I’d pried one of his scales off and plunged a dagger into his neck. I didn’t get time to cut his head from his body, but I had embedded a poisonous blade into the king’s side and tied it to the iron casing around his heart.

He couldn’t remove that dagger without killing himself, and if he didn’t, then the dagger would keep him weak. “Hr esnt ef bahd ef lyv,” I told her.

He is as good as dead.

Her lips curved, and as the demon beside her dropped down dead, I plunged a hand into the chest of the last living demon.

The last of Varden’s protection sizzled away, and I felt her blood burning me.

I ripped out the iron casing of her heart, only possible with her so extremely weak. She dropped to her knees and looked up at me, seeing her end in my hands.

Magic didn’t work so well on iron. Strength did.

I cracked the casing around her heart as I would a coconut. Prying open the edges, I frowned at the pulsing gold heart within.

I’d expected black, and the color threw me.

But the very smell of blood soaking the grass filled my nostrils. I could hear the pain and feel the shock and loss of the other supernaturals here.

Reaching in, I pulled out her gold heart. Then, looking the red demon in the eyes, I squeezed the life from the beating organ and watched it die from her eyes in tandem.

She listed to the ground dead, and I dropped her heart and the iron casing.

Bodies sprawled in every direction around me. They hadn’t died peacefully. They’d died writhing in agony.

I glanced down at my hand and saw it was coated in blood. The rest of me was, too, I knew. I was tinged red, and my black scales were out. I’d expended so much magic, black smoke no longer needed to seep from my pores.

I was dripping in battle.

Turning to face those who still stood in near silence but for the wheezes and whimpers of the injured, I regarded their expressions. There was a curious lack of horror. I saw shock and numbness. I saw a distance in some gazes that made me wonder if some had shut down to make it through the last several hours. Or however long had passed.

“The fight is over,” I said hoarsely. “Tend to the wounded.”

That unfroze enough of them that eventually the others started to wake up too. The Vissimo were far less bothered than anyone, and I assumed the sight of blood was no big deal to them. Maybe the sight was even a comfort.

I gripped the advisor pendant, which warmed to my touch. “Barrow, Ruby, and Opal, form a team to make sure all magus in our coven are accounted for. Help our allies do the same.” We had to figure out who hadn’t made it. We’d lost loved ones today. There was no way we’d all survived that.

I gripped the pendant again. “Winona, Huxley, and V—” I broke off. Varden. There was no more Varden. “Winona and Huxley, please form a second team to clear the eating chamber. We’ll tend to wounded there.”

Their acknowledgment came through one by one, and I released a breath after. I’d just assumed they’d all survived when making the order.

“Opal is injured, but Barrow and I have it covered,” Ruby’s voice chimed through the pendant.

I turned back toward the sprawling mess of demon bodies to peer across the knolls and meadow and up into the alpine forest.

“He escaped.”

I looked up at the Vissimo prince. Vissimo king. “I believe so. He called his demons to the surface when he sensed his death. I embedded a dagger in him that is poison. I tied that to his heart casing. He is as good as dead.”

“Is he dead?” Kyros growled.

“He’ll exist in a weakness so severe that he will never again be a threat. Or he’ll kill himself to be free of the dagger.”

The Vissimo didn’t answer.

“King Julius saved all of us,” I said softly.

I couldn’t have beaten the demon king if he hadn’t been severely weakened already.

---