Page 114 of The Devil and His Sparrow

She scoffed and rolled her eyes. “Love doesn’t exist.” She shrugged and turned to saunter back toward her desk. “But if you want to delude yourself into thinking that love can exist between you and a demon, who am I to argue? You’ll be dead soon enough, anyway.”

I ignored her taunt and said with a clenched jaw, “Still waiting on that game.”

“Eager for Hell, I see. Alright.” She snickered and tilted her chin up. “Since I can’t keep Zagan on a leash to service me the way I want right now, he’s downstairs, working in my club. You know. Tending to guests. You have one hour to find him. If you don’t … well, you already know the consequences.”

All I had to do was find Zagan? I’d been to Hell’s Gate multiple times, and it wasn’t so big that I couldn’t search for and find someone. Still, I paused, because that sounded too easy. I waited for her to throw some curveball at me, but no twist came.

She held up a finger and repeated with a smile, “One hour. Find him or you’re both mine.”

She snapped her fingers, and the world spiraled and whirled around me like before. I landed on my feet with a jolt in a sea of gyrating bodies. Pounding electro music, flashing red lights, and strong perfumes overloaded my senses. It took a second of me assessing myself and my surroundings to realize I was in the middle of Hell’s Gate’s dance floor.

I didn’t waste any time once I had my bearings. My heart raced with nervous determination as I scanned the dancing crowd and shoved through packed bodies of demons. I couldn’t seem to take in the faces fast enough, searching for even a glimpse of tousled raven hair or a flash of black-and-red eyes or light reflecting off silver piercings.

I shoved through more bodies, and that was when the first sharp slice of pain slashed across my shoulder blade. I cried out at the blinding cut and fell to my knees, reaching back to feel for what caused it. My fingers fumbled over where I’d been hit, and a fierce sting shot through my body at my careful touch, making me jump. When I pulled my hand back around, blood coated my fingers.

“What the hell?” I whimpered.

I looked around me, and while demons laughed at my distress or shot me puzzled glances, I saw no sign of who or what could’ve sliced open the skin on my shoulder.

With shaking legs, I got back to my feet and shuffled across the rest of the dance floor until I was able to grab onto a standing table. Just as I reached it, another searing cut slit me open near the previous one. I gritted my teeth and held onto the table as tears clouded my vision. I blinked the fat droplets away and looked around the bustling room for a sign of what was happening to me.

My frantic gaze spotted a span of windows near the top of the building that looked like an office overseeing the club below. Babette stood at the window and watched me with a smirk firmly in place. She held up her finger and moved it back and forth, and her mouth moved in the unmistakable words of, ‘tick-tock, tick-tock.’

Ice filled my veins.

The slashes were my timer.

For every minute that passed, a new slice would form on my back as a painful reminder that time was running out. Fifty-eight minutes left now. Fifty-eight minutes until the fate of my future was sealed. Fifty-eight minutes left to determine Zagan’s life.

I cast one final glare at Babette then pushed away from the table to search for my demon.

Chapter 36

Iyla

MY SEARCH WAS DESPERATE, AND I yelled Zagan’s name as I wove through tables, the bar area, the restrooms, and back through the dance floor again. I braced myself for each cut to my skin, now knowing they were coming, but that didn’t help the searing burn.

A hot, sharp invisible blade constantly cut deep into my back, and no matter how hard I fought to ignore it, the pain was greater than anything I’d ever felt. I was slowly being shredded while running through the club, and I was quickly losing my already feeble grip on the situation.

Ten hits in, and tears kept my vision too blurry to see through while my breathing got erratic enough to make my head swim.

Twenty agonizing slits in, and I stumbled around like a girl who had far exceeded her drinking limit.

Thirty cuts in, and I fell against a railing near the dance floor. Warm, sticky blood coated my back, and the pain no longer subsided between each minute. The burn was always there now, continuously draining the energy from me. I breathed hard as I tried to stand up straight, but my legs gave out before I made it to my feet. A wave of nausea hit me at the same time, and I slumped against the bars of the railing. I had to fight hard against the urge to spill the contents of my stomach all over the floor.

“Iyla?”

Hope roared to life inside me at the familiar sound of Eden’s voice. I looked up just as the golden-eyed demon got to me.

“Holy Hell!” she cried when she saw the state I was in. Worry parted her lips as she grabbed my arms and helped me to my feet. “What happened? Why—”

“Have you seen Zagan?” I interrupted her.

“Zagan? No. Why? What is happening? How—”

“I’ll explain later,” I said just as another minute lost split my back open.

Eden’s face fell in horror as she held onto me, watching helplessly until my cry of pain faded into a mere whimper.

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