Page 40 of House of Demons and Bones

One second, I was poking the bear. The next? I was dumped into a battlefield—and not just any war zone. The sky bled red.

My bare feet hit scorching sand.

Superheated air whipped my golden curls against my face, my academy uniform twisting and reforming around me. I clutched the hem to keep it from being blown off. Reddish sandstorms spiraled past, meeting a green ocean at the horizon. Through the crimson sky, galaxies wheeled overhead.

For a hot second, I couldn’t place where the hell I was. Then it hit me—this wasn’t some memory playback or hologram show.

Shit, shit! I’d been dragged across time, and now I was standing on the ancient Earth as three cosmic heavyweights duked it out.

One female and one giant male dashed around a shadow-wreathed figure, their blades splitting air, power lifting their hair like live wires.

My genetic knowledge kicked in like a shot straight to my heart, and instantly, I knew who was in front of me. These weren’t just any beings—they were the original trio of gods. The dark one channeling shadows was Ruin, my father, originally known as Ra. The pale god facing him was Nephthys, the God ofSky. And the radiant dark-skinned goddess was Isis, Goddess of Earth.

All three beings radiated raw power. Nephthys’s eyes glowed golden, Isis’s blazed blue, and Ruin’s emitted pure darkness.

This was my father’s true form—glorious and pitch-black, not the half-shadow wreck stitched to scarred flesh with dark veins snaking across pale skin. A far cry from the starving shade who’d tried to reclaim his power by feeding on his own daughter.

The sky god and earth goddess circled Ruin, caging him in. Crimson sand whirled around them as they clashed faster than light, yet somehow my eyes could track their every movement.

Shadow-forged twin blades danced in Ruin’s long fingers, trails of smoke hissing from their edges. Unlike his opponents’ Earth-forged weapons, the twin blades reeked of something alien—materials from beyond our world.

A dark thought clicked into place—my father wasn’t Earth’s original god. He was alien.

Isis and Nephthys shouted in an ancient tongue, swords slashing at Ruin. He twisted away like a flowing shadow, their strikes hitting empty air. They lunged again. Ruin caught the sky god’s flaming sword with his left blade and the earth goddess’s ice spike with his right. Divine weapons clashed, spitting sparks.

Isis snarled, summoning a dozen ice spikes that screamed through the air. My heart soared—until shadow poured from Ruin, melting them to mist. He ducked the final spike instead of blocking it. The ice buried itself deep in Nephthys’s shoulder, the god too slow to dodge.

Cursing, Nephthys ripped out the spike. Lightning crackled from the wound—power bleeding into the ancient air.

“Watch it, Isis,” Nephthys snapped.

The earth goddess shot Ruin a death glare while muttering an apology to her ally. Ruin laughed.

The sky god didn’t waste time, his flaming blade already carving a path toward Ruin’s neck. I silently prayed it would bite deep. Best to behead that motherfucker. Ruin caught the strike with his shadow-steel, then kicked Isis’s legs as she hurled her newly made ice spike at his ribs.

They blurred into a cyclone of motion, blades flashing white, black, and gold. When they broke apart, all three were bleeding.

Lightning crackled again from Nephthys’s fresh cut. Shadow wove through Ruin’s back wound, sealing it instantly. While his opponents weakened with each drop of fallen blood, his shadows knitted him whole.

Shit, this wasn’t going well for Isis and Nephthys.

Isis stumbled back, clutching the shadow blade buried in her gut. She ripped it out with a snarl, stabbing it into the sand to let the earth swallow it.

“I’m not healing, Nephthys,” she gasped, pain glazing her electric blue eyes. “His blade’s poisoned! Ra fights dirty!”

No shit, lady. Evil was his brand. But at the mention of that blade—I peeked closer.

Holy hell, that was Deathsong, the same one I’d lifted from him. Only mine had shrunk from a longsword to a dagger over the years, getting mouthy in the process. And it only occasionally smoked in my hands.

Blood streamed from Isis’s wound, sizzling on the sand.

“We end this!” Nephthys charged, his blade glowing red-hot, slicing wild arcs.

Still bleeding, Isis attacked from Ruin’s other side. Her wrists snapped, and power rushed to her. The earth rumbled as sand twisted into cyclones. The desert split, jaws gaping, ready to swallow the shadow god.

Ruin levitated, but thorned vines shot up from the ground, spearing his ankles and dragging him down to earth.

Kill that motherfucker!I screamed inside, even knowing history said otherwise.

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