Page 42 of Devil's Doom

I always laugh when I’m about to die.

“Who’s next?” My voice rings out in the deadly silence.

A kobold, furry and almost as big as a bear, drops down to all fours and charges me. I bring my hand down with my fingers splayed, thinking,cut.

He bellows in pain and rage, stumbling. Four deep wounds on his side ooze dark blood. I laugh under my breath, drunk on my power that I finally get to use. I have so much more to spend.

“Surround her,” a blonde upir woman grunts, crouching to reach into her boot. She produces a short, vicious looking knife.

“How about no.”

I fall to my knees, laying both palms flat on the floor. I only have one shot at this, and then I’ll have to run. The rebels charge at me, and I send a powerful wave through the cave floor.Fall,I command.

Some stumble, some trip, but some stay standing. They come closer and closer, carefully, as if I’m a wild animal they want to corner. I grit my teeth against the stretch in my chest and change my tactic.

Chains.

Metal clinks as half-illusory, half-real chains spring from the floor, wrapping around legs and torsos. My magic pours out in a torrent, and I scream, the pain too much. I cut off the spell and lurch into a stumbling trot. At least the way to the door is clear. Maybe I have just enough magic in me to seal it after I leave so they can’t follow.

“Stop.”

I whine at the sound of his voice. It’s a command infused with the familiar, powerful magic that tastes like blood and lies. I know I’m doomed, I know it’s over, but I don’t obey. I take another unsteady step toward the door. It’s so close.

“Jaga. Stop.”

And then, it isn’t. A wall of shadows grows in front of me, blocking my way. I moan in fear when they reach for me, my body wracked by silent sobs I cannot stop. Soon, he’ll wrap those shadows around me, bury me in the mass of them, and I’ll never leave. I’ll be trapped forever.

But a strange thing happens. His shadows slide down my skin, not touching. It’s like I’m covered by an invisible barrier they cannot penetrate, and I realize with a jolt what it is.

The pendant on my neck, the vial of his blood that I used to hide from him, also contains a spell that stops his shadows from touching me. My relief is short lived. He’ll take the pendant away, I realize.

And I’ll never be able to run from him again.

With my last drop of magic, I press my palm to the pendant. Behind me, his hooves thud with steady steps, closer and closer. I have seconds left.

Mine,I think desperately.No one can take it. Only mine. Mine, mine, mine. Forever.

I cry out with pain when my collarbones move and grind inside me, sliding to the sides. My sternum pushes lower, sending shocks of agony through my entire ribcage. The well in my chest burns with icy emptiness, magic that I can’t afford to spend pulsing out in a wave that remakes my flesh and bones.

My skin melts, and I just sense through the pain how the pendant, burning hot under my sweaty palm, slidesunderneathmy skin.

The agony isn’t over. It moves deeper, burrowing under my flesh, and my bones move out of the way until it feels like I’m falling apart.

Then it ends. My collarbones and sternum slide back. I gulp a deep breath, down on my knees, though I don’t remember falling. Something tinkles. The chain I wore the pendant on falls to the stone floor.

A pair of strong, claw-tipped hands lifts me from the ground. He doesn’t even give me a chance to look at him, just throws me over his shoulder and walks away. I try to do the same thing I did to Lech, thinkingspikes,but my magic won’t answer. I’ve spent it all.

“Nobody touches those who brought her,” he says, his deep, beastly voice sending prickles down my back. “I’ll deal with them.”

“No,” I sob. “No, you can’t. Please.”

He doesn’t answer, and I sob harder. “Please. Woland, I beg you.”

Someone gasps, someone else curses, and someone exclaims in a harsh whisper, “She said his name!”

The devil ignores them all. His hooves thud at a steady pace. He takes me down a corridor, through a door, down another corridor, down a winding staircase. I blink and blink, but my vision swims. I just see the coil of his tail swinging in my periphery, and then I drift away, magical depletion taking me under.

I startle awake when a door clangs shut. My heart goes from a sleepy rhythm into a frantic flutter, and I gasp in terror. Woland stops, his chest moving under me as he takes a deep breath.

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