Page 102 of Princess Avenged

His head jerks, his expression changes, and he looks into my eyes with alarm. “Don’t listen to the demon!” Phil pleads. “Killing the demon will kill me too. Please, Ana. Don’t do it. I love you.”

The contradictory pleas come back-to-back, and both seem to have come from Phil, versus the demon. Both pleas tear at my heart. I’m so confused.

Crusher steps up beside me. “Ana, we can’t trust anything he says. Focus on the plan. I know it’s hard, but you need to do this.”

“Hurry,” Rosomon shouts. Rushing past me, she climbs the dragon’s leg, jumps onto his wing, and then his back, and then I hear her moan as she settles onto the saddle.

The dragon’s head rises, as if he just woke, and his eyes again turn into diamonds. She leans forward, stroking his neck for a moment, and when her gaze returns to mine, it’s glassy, her pupil’s widened, adding to my suspicion that part of this beast is inside her.

“There’s no time to waste. She points toward the black wall. “They are coming.”

“Don’t you dare kill me, little girl,” Phil growls, drawing back my attention. His eyes have turned black. Terrifying pits of darkness. “Kill me and a million more of my kind will descend upon you seeking vengeance. You think you’ve felt pain, little girl? You think the things I did to you in your world made you suffer? You have no idea what a legion of my kind can do to you.” A horrific grin spreads on his face, and he licks his lips.

“Phil.” Crouching, I cup his face, desperate to truly see him, to talk to the man I love one last time.

“I can’t wait to watch, as they tear you apart,” he says cruelly. “Payback for the torture I went through having to fuck you.”

I gasp.

“You think I took any pleasure in your cunt, little girl?” He snarls at me. “Fucking you was like fucking a toy. You gave me no pleasure. You mean nothing to me. Nothing. I only needed you because that lecherous fool Rasputin chose you to mark. I hated being around you. But now I am home, my torture will end.”

“That’s the demon talking.” Crusher lifts me to my feet. “Phil loved you. But to save our world, to save him too, you must kill him.” Crusher turns to the side. “Kill him now!”

I turn to where he’s looking.

A sliver has opened in the black wall, and red light pours out—a light that’s thick, as if the air behind the wall has texture. And then something even more terrifying appears in the slice of red light. A stream of black dots swarms through the slit, the individual dots growing in size and number as they streak toward us, like angry wasps.

“Now,” Rosomon shouts. The dragon’s talons shift, scraping the stone as if preparing to take flight. “Kill him now, or Zogar’s talons will tear off your love’s head.”

Chapter

Forty-Two

Crusher

My focus switches from the oncoming hoard of—of whatever they are—onto Ana, who seems too terrified to act. If she doesn’t act soon, I’ll grab the sword myself, and spare Phil’s body the humiliation of being ripped apart by that dragon—or whatever’s coming.

But Ana is brave. And she knows how important this is to our world, and if I kill the demon, Phil has no chance.

Part of me refuses to believe what Ember told me. I’m still holding on to the small hope Phil might survive. From the moment we arrived in this realm, I could have overpowered Ana and forced her straight back through the portal. It would have been easy once the dragon trapped Phil.

But I believe in Ana.

“You can do this,” I tell her. “You’re a warrior, Ana. My brave warrior.”

Ana’s chest expands as she raises the sword, aiming its tip over Phil’s liver. He thrashes, fighting under the dragon’s hold, and so I hold his legs to help her aim.

The anguish in Ana’s eyes breaks my heart, but determination comes over her, and then she looks into Phil’s eyes as she drops her weight onto the sword to impale him.

“No!” Leaving the sword stuck through his liver, she backs away from Phil’s body.

“Well done,” shouts the rider. “Now, leave the way you came! No one with a pure heart can survive in this place.”

With a rush of warm air, the dragon rises, somehow avoiding knocking us off the plateau, and Rosomon and Zogar fly toward the barrier they came through.

Ana falls to her knees next to Phil, cradling his head in her hands. “What have I done?”

Phil shows no signs of life.

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