Page 65 of Kiss of Magic

“No, no, no, no…”

Desperately, she shook her hands and tried again. The thing was close now, so close she could see the drool glistening from its jaws. But terror had frozen her ability. She didn’t have the juice to light a candle, let alone an inferno.

The ridge along the demon’s back split open. Four tentacles emerged, waving sinuously. Each had a razor sharp tip. They turned towards Raya.

I’m going to die, she thought distantly.

The thing leapt. She saw its mouth agape, tongue flickering repulsively, black claws gleaming as they sought to gouge her flesh.

And something flew into it and bore it away.

Shade held on grimly as the thing fought and slashed. He was dwarfed by it. Talons ripped through his skin, opening deep wounds on his stomach and chest. His shadow wings dissolved as pain racked his body. But it wasn’t until the thing snapped the tendons in his arm that he finally let go.

He rolled across the street and lay facedown, unmoving. But the demon wasn’t done with him. Not by a long shot.

In a rage it ripped again and again at Shade’s inert body. Its razor-tipped tentacles opened dark crimson gashes on his back and legs. Roaring its victory at the sky, it grabbed Shade’s head intending to twist it from his neck.

A white hot blast of fire hit it square on and knocked it twenty feet up the street. Where it had been struck, its skin was charred. It looked up, confused. Its multiple eyes focused on Raya.

“Get away from my husband, you fucking piece of shit.”

She hit it again. The blast this time was so hot, it wasn’t even white. The flames were translucent. Watching from above, Kam reflected he’d never seen anything like it.

The creature tried to move but its feet were melting. Literally melting. It shrieked with emotions it hadn’t encountered for five thousand years.

Pain. Fear. Panic.

And then Raya simply dialled up her power one more notch and the thing exploded. Kam ducked but there was no need. Every part of the demon was incinerated before it reached the ground.

Raya dropped her hands. For a moment she revelled in what she’d been able to do.

And then she was running to Shade’s inert body, calling his name again and again.

Twenty Nine

Washington D.C.

Immediately the dampener was gone, Dani’s connection to the energy around her was restored. It flooded into her. Potential energy, kinetic energy, light, heat – her cells drank it up as if they were parched.

Her synapses fired and flared, her nervous system rebooted, and strength surged back into her body. The last remnants of pain and weakness were washed away.

She rose to her feet like a vampire from a casket, from prone to upright in one unnatural move as if pulled by strings. Magic crackled around her,throughher, and she exhaled in bliss. Blake thought he’d never seen her eyes so vivid when she glanced down at him coldly.

“Finally. Thanks for taking your time, hunter.”

“I have a feeling I’m going to regret this,” he muttered.

“Oh, there’ll be a lot of regret, I assure you.” She looked at Denara. “That wasn’t very nice.”

“It was a means to an end, my dear,” Denara said soothingly. “It worked, didn’t it? And to show we’re still friends, I’m going to letyoufinish the hunter.”

“That’s too kind.” Dani let energy gather in her hands. Strands of her hair lifted, buffeted by an invisible breeze. Blake heard the unmistakable crackle of power building up around her.

“You don’t have to do this, Blue,” he said urgently. “You’re better than this. You think she’s offering you freedom? It’s just another kind of prison. Think about it for a second…”

“For once in your life, would you shut the fuck up?” She threw him an exasperated look. “Stop mansplaining. It’s annoying.”

“I’m not going to beg, if that’s what you want.”

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