Page 80 of Savage Hunt

The demon looked over the crowd again. “I want you to make them see their fears.”

“Who? Show me.” I flicked my hand out.

“All of them.”

I couldn’t have heard her correctly. “All of them? As in…?”

“Everyone.”

“W-what,” I sputtered. “I can’t do that many at one time.” In the pit at Heldrok, I’d screwed with plenty of guards, but that was nothing compared to this amount of demons. I wasn’t even sure it was possible.

If it was, the Infernal Sol would need to take control, and the other me would rise again.

I’d love to come out and play.

As her voice glided through my mind, I shuddered at the craving for fear and chaos coiling through my bloodstream.

“I have faith in you, Tatum.” Venna took a glass of wine from the silver tray a demon carried. “You can do it.”

My blood boiled as I turned to her. “Maybe I’ll just bring out your fear and make a run for it. You can’t stop me if you’re imagining your worst nightmares.”

“I have no fears.” She licked the wine from her lips. “And if you so much as direct that menacing look toward me, I’ll dose you with Malefic ash so fast you’ll hit the floor before you can take another breath.”

I ground my teeth and returned to the crowd below, my fingers curling around the cold banister. There were too many demons. “I can’t do it on this massive scale.”

“You better figure it out.” Her mouth moved to my ear. “If you don’t, I’ll kill Fane.”

My heart dropped to the bottom of my feet as her words slithered into my eardrums like poisonous snakes. She would do it. She didn’t need Fane. She only kept him around to torment me.

Fuck.

I peeked at him, still posted against the wall like a sentry, a tiny line forming between his brows as he scrutinized me. Hell, he might even feel the sudden anxiety coursing through my veins. Even though the demon shifter wanted to slaughter me, I wouldn’t let Venna harm him. I’d die to protect him.

But what I had to do might be worse than death. I had to open myself up to the ominous power again. And in doing something this big, I wasn’t sure I could find my way back.

I took a deep breath and stroked the demon amulet buried inside. It answered immediately, stretching and yawning like a beast coaxed from a long slumber.

Time to bring out some fears.

Excitement and anticipation twisted through my bloodstream, and those emotions didn’t only belong to the amulet. They were mine too. I wanted to find their fears and make them scream.

My lids lowered as I gathered the darkness rising like plumes of toxic smoke. Goose bumps puckered my flesh, and my head rolled back as the Infernal Sol lifted to the surface. The swirling tattoo below my ribs hummed to life.

I opened my eyes and zeroed in on a male dux demon below in a black suit. Beyond his glamour, tiny horns protruded from his forehead and down his arms. His black hair turned rust orange, and his complexion became a muted peach color.

He winced as I glided into his mind, locking in on a fear. A witch had captured him once and cut off his horns for potions. She’d kept him prisoner, waiting for them to grow back, only to chop them off again.

The demon had spent years in her captivity in Illyria. He finally escaped while she was gone on a trip to Earth, but he still feared her and his tiny cell in her house. As I made her visage appear in the crowd, he staggered back and screamed, bumping into several other demons.

“No! You can’t be here.” He gripped his friend’s arm. “She found me!”

The female demon he clutched frowned. “Who?”

“Don’t let her take me.” He fell and scrambled away on his hands and knees as the witch with emerald curls and alabaster skin slinked after him.

“You can’t outrun me, Devon.” Her laughter chilled my bones. “I will lock you up and harvest your horns forever.”

His shriek was music to my ears, and my head rolled back as the energy of his fear seeped into my pores, feeding the Infernal Sol.

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