Page 44 of Fallen Demon

“I don’t want to fight him,” I said.

“Me neither.” She cast a barrier in front of Levi. He slammed into it and fell to the ground.

A scream came from our left and I couldn’t help looking—the others attacked Ylena, but she sent a light bolt to shock them all and flew away.

Levi stood, punching the barrier, which broke and faded in the air. He growled at us. “Stay out of this,” he said, his voice guttural. A monster’s.

He leapt into the air and flew after Ylena.

What the hell had happened?

13

“Come on.”I started walking in the direction they had gone. “We gotta keep moving.”

“Ariella, wait,” Farrah said.

“We can’t wait. If we wait, they might get too far.” With those wings, they just might. I glanced at Zad. “You and I can go after them, get to them faster.”

“But Rage said it’s not a good idea to fly here,” Zad said.

I gestured to the horizon. “It seems to be working fine for them!”

“Ariella,” Rage said, his voice firm, commanding.

“What?” I snapped, though I refused to look at him. At them.

Because I knew what was coming, I knew what they would say, and I hated to admit I understood. I even agreed. But that didn’t make this easy.

They stood there, forming a half circle around me, waiting for me to calm down. Only Barn and Mill weren’t so close, their attention on the surroundings, watching for unexpected enemies.

I let out a long breath and faced them. “I can’t pretend I didn’t see him.”

“No one is asking you to do that,” Farrah said, her tone too calm. “But we’ve been through many difficult situations and you know that sometimes, we need to take a step back and assess the factors.”

I groaned and looked at Lacey. “Don’t you want to go after your brother?”

“You know I do.” She sounded almost hurt. “But I don’t think he was himself. If he was, then he wouldn’t have attacked us. Attacked you.”

“He was a full-fledged demon,” Wyatt said. He had shifted back after Levi and Ylena left, and put on pants.

“It felt like he forgot who he is,” Lacey continued. “When we were researching the underworld, I remember reading about how some areas can mess with someone’s head. Even if you spend a brief time there, it can literally make you insane.”

“I was in a place like that.” Zad nodded. “My friends couldn’t handle it and died. It took everything to stay sane, and honestly, I don’t think I’m the same.” He inhaled. “To this day, I still have nightmares about it.”

He had been betrayed by someone on his squad and they all ended up in the underworld by mistake. But they had been in a prison like this, without any means of leaving, and slowly they went crazy and died.

Zad had said that had been the worst part—holding on to his mind while watching everyone he knew succumb to this place.

“Perhaps this is one of those sites,” Farrah said.

“Which means, we’re going insane too?” Wyatt asked.

“We’ve been here for two days,” Rage said. “Besides, we’re together and we have a purpose. It would take a lot more to make us insane.”

“Unless we get stuck here for twenty years,” Zad said, going for a joke.

I glared at him. Not a suitable time for jokes!

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