Page 69 of Last Gift: Supernatural Battle

I summoned my purification kit and entered the bathroom to turn on the bath taps. I needed sleep. I also didn’t want to toss and turn for the next five hours. If stronger demon magic was drifting through the caves, then we’d all need to counter it with extra measures like this.

If stronger demon magic was drifting through the caves… then it didn’t matter that the demon king might be accelerating his plans.

We had to as well.

18

I winced as a proven slammed Sven against the mats. Ouch. Demon training began this morning, and there was a determination in the battle magus after last night that told me they refused to go down without a fight.

I dragged a hand over my face.

“Get any sleep?” Delta asked, joining me.

“A few hours. You?”

“Slept like a baby. There’s something comforting about fear.”

There was? “Does that mean you usually don’t get a wink of sleep?”

“Yes. I feel like a new person after the last week.”

At least someone was getting shut-eye. “What’s your plan?” I jerked my head at the sparring magus.

“We broke down your fight against the demon, and Huxley has provided us with what attack and defense information he’s been able to gather on them thus far. I’ve worked with Wild’s sentries already to get an idea of how to structure the training, and now I’ll run the battle magus through it. We’ll have more strategies coming in from Sage, and Wild and I will train the sentries in them first, then the others here.”

The battle magus were in pairs, taking turns to rush the others at full speed. The other had to defend or evade. I recalled the leader of the demon army rushing me in such a way. “Good. I’ll join in where and when I can.”

Delta barked feedback at a pair across the center, then folded her arms. “I’m not worried. You have great instincts in battle. Not many of us would’ve made it through that fight. What made you realize that using your blood would help to penetrate the demon’s scales?”

I tried not to stiffen. I’d quickly realized that the demon’s own blood could penetrate her skin. Later, I’d realized that my blood worked in the same manner—and more effectively because I was stronger than her. “Just chance. Some landed on her. I rolled with it.”

“I suppose demon and magus are poisonous to one another. If we are hurt by darkness, then they will be hurt by light.”

I hadn’t considered that could be the case. I also didn’t feel that was what really happened. More like my demon daddy’s blood packed a serious punch. Delta’s musings did give me another idea. “We are opposite, aren’t we.”

“Idea?”

“Maybe.”

Leaving Delta, I followed my bond to Rooke in the apothecary learning center. She was inside the Greenhouse of Fun and alone. I eyed the bench surfaces within, opting not to touch them. There was room enough for a few books to sprawl out between the array of poisonous species and for an array of vials and tubes to be displayed, but very few places for a naked ass. I wouldn’t touch anything, just in case. “Anything new?” I asked.

“Not since we went to the gates after breakfast,” she murmured.

At breakfast, she’d told me demons were definitely sending something poisonous through the entrances. We’d gone up to the ravines after to test whether my four-affinity barrier slowed the poison down.

The rate did slow. Some.

We’d moved our sentries farther away to account for the torrent of poison still getting through, and per Ruby’s suggestion last night, our magus could practice the effectiveness of their four-affinity barriers on the open gates.

We had to figure out how to combat the poison. “I had an idea.”

“Hmm?”

“If demons are sending through decaying magic, perhaps we should counter with the opposite.”

My cousin nodded. “Yes. An antidote.” She squeezed a dropper of amber liquid into a glass test tube filled with black fluid. The concoction hissed, then faded from black to gray. “Higher dose.”

My brows rose. “I see that you’re on the job.”

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