Page 41 of House of Demons and Bones

Kill the motherfucker!Sy echoed, then blinked as if she was hit by a truth.Technically, he fucked our mother, and we were the result.

Nephthys took advantage of Ruin’s momentary surprise and plunged his flaming sword into Ruin’s chest. My father hissed, banging his head into the sky god’s face as the blade drove home, fire sizzling against his flesh.

Quick as dark lightning, Ruin grabbed the hilt and yanked out the burning steel. His eyes screamed escape.

Shit.He was about to bolt. I wouldn’t fucking allow it.

Since landing in this time-slice, I’d been itching to blast him past Hell. Maybe this was why I’d been dragged here—to end him.

I dropped into a fighting stance, waiting for my shot. My shoulders tensed like whips, an adrenaline rush riding through my veins.

My hand stretched out to call Deathsong.

Wait!Sy shouted.Stop!

I jerked back my hand as if burned. Our thoughts clicked. We didn’t know if Deathsong would even come across time, and my father already wielded the longsword in this timeline. It was his creation, after all. What if it turned on me?

One moment of hesitation, and I’d missed the chance.

Shadows wove around Ruin, sealing his wounds. A dark truth hit me—Earth-forged blades couldn’t kill him. My father’s warnings about celestial beings rang true as I remembered how the Seed of Heaven had nearly ended me. I’d need weapons forged in both Heaven and Hell to take him down. But could my darkest flame burn him to ash?

Strategies and scenarios ran wild in my mind as Ruin untangled himself from the thorny vines, Earth’s poison sliding off him.

Thunder cracked the desert horizon.

The sky god’s eyes blazed orange-gold as galaxy fire danced in his palms. He hurled the inferno at Ruin’s head, lightning striking for my father’s chest.

Isis’s light followed and pierced Ruin’s back, trying to tear him apart from within.

Ruin shifted, turning incorporeal, dark tendrils latching onto his opponents’ elemental magic. I watched his shadow grow fangs, devouring flame, lightning, and light. Chills raced through me. He’d been an eater since the beginning.

“I warned you he’s a thief,” Isis cried out in dismay. “All he does is cheat and steal!”

“Leech!” Nephthys snarled.

I snarled too.

Ruin’s head snapped to me. Confusion flickered across his face before surprise and recognition sparked in his raven-black eyes.

Shit. Even across time, he knew his own blood.

“Hello, daughter.” His dark, musical voice slithered down my spine like a cold flame, chilling me to the bone marrow.

My palms turned slick with icy sweat. Same old song and dance—his presence always triggered this primal cocktail of terror, then fury, until it saturated my every cell. This monster had put me and Sy through hell, and here he was, still hunting us like we were his all-you-can-eat buffet.

I matched Ruin’s stare, pure hate ablaze in my eyes, refusing to cower.

Let’s kill him right here!Sy pulled her lips back and snarled.

Love to, Sy.I wavered.But?—

I could unleash my darkest flame, right here, right now. Maybe that was why these two beings had brought me back—to end my father. But offing him back in time meant erasing myself. Killian would never know me, and he’d wind up with that demon queen instead. My heart twisted in pain at the alternate future for him.

And I wouldn’t be the only one getting wiped out. Sy would vanish too.

I couldn’t do that to her.

No buts,she cut in.

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