Page 110 of Infernal

His brows furrowed with confusion as he tried to put the pieces together, but he would never get the chance.

“I love you, Trace, and I’m so fucking sorry,” I said and then drove the sword into his heart.

38. THE LIVING DEAD

Even as the billowing rush of black smoke swirled in the air around me, I could do nothing more than stare into the lifeless blue eyes of the boy I loved. A chasm of grief opened inside my heart, so deep and wide that I knew it would never again be filled. Everything inside of me withered up and died a thousand times, the pain so excruciating that I contemplated taking the sword out of his heart and plunging it into my own.

You don’t deserve the easy way out, I told myself as tears rained down my cheeks like gushing waterfalls. I did this to him—I killed Trace—and I was going to take my lifelong punishment for it. Even as the black smoke disappeared and the numbness inside me began to creep its way in, I pushed it away, refusing to allow myself even one moment of reprieve from the agony I felt inside.

I may have been alive and breathing, but inside, I was dead.

“Blackburn!” shouted Caleb from somewhere over my shoulder. “Get the doors! They’re getting away!”

But I couldn’t move.

I couldn’t look away from what I had done. What I was forced to do. I had to sear it into my memory, scar it into the deepest part of my heart so that I never forgot the pain of it. I would carry it wherever I went. Carry it all the way to my dying breath. Because that was what I deserved. And only when I took my final breath would I let the pain of it go.

“Blackburn! Get the fuck up and help me!” he shouted again, and this time, the bone-rattling panic in his voice roused me from my slumberous nightmare.

I couldn’t let another one of my friends die.

Not today, and not on my watch.

Squeezing my eyes shut, I pulled the sword from Trace’s chest and spun around, my body still low to the floor and vibrating with vengeance.

There were only two demons left; Malphas and Muscles, who was still holding Ben by the leash. The other demons had already been eviscerated. That, or they’d run off when Lucifer got his comeuppance.

But they weren’t all gone, and someone was going to pay for this.

Kicking off from the ground, I bolted forward like a feral animal, running straight for Muscles and his godforsaken leash. If he hadn’t been holding Ben back, he could’ve gotten to Taylor in time. He could’ve saved her.

Rage prickled my skin as I snatched up every morsel of pain and anger I had, and I funneled it into a crosshair that was consequently aimed right at him.

A flash of fear flickered in his eyes a moment before my foot slammed into his stomach, the impact folding his body in half. A painful gust of air pushed out of his lungs as he stumbled backwards and dropped the leash. I didn’t give him a chance to recover. I kicked my foot out again, and then again, slicing at his chest with my blade before ducking to the ground and spinning, knocking him off his feet and forcing him to crash to the ground like a slaughtered tree.

I jumped on top of him, ready to finish the job, ready to make him pay with blood, but a pair of hands had slinked themselves into my hair, grabbing a fistful of it and then using it to haul my ass backwards. My scalp screamed in protest as I kicked my legs out, frantically looking for something to brace myself against.

I looked up and met Malphas’ black eyes just as Caleb appeared out of nowhere, body checking him as he sent him flying several feet to the left of me. I scrambled back on my feet and moved for Muscles again.

Flipping the blade in my hand, I closed in on him as he smiled back at me—welcoming the fight. I slashed the blade through the air, but he quickly jumped back and then threw his arm out in an effort to knock the blade from my hand.

Good luck with that, I thought. My fingers were wrapped so tightly around the handle that he would’ve needed the Jaws of Life to pry it away from them. Pulling the blade back, I swung my other arm out, slamming the back of my elbow into his throat and stunning him just long enough for me to pounce on him again.

He went down easily, and I took every advantage of that, propping myself over him like a watchful gargoyle. With the blade poised in my hand, I glared down at him and whispered sweetly. “Tell your maker I said hi.” And then I rammed the sword into his chest as easy as slicing through warm butter.

I didn’t bother to stick around for the smoke show either.

One down.One to go.

Climbing off his unresponsive body, I turned around and gauged the room. My nearly broken fist was throbbing, but my adrenaline was pumping too hard to fully grasp the pain. My eyes zeroed in on Malphas, who was busy making mashed potatoes out of Caleb’s face.

The moment our eyes locked, he jumped off Caleb and slowly backed away, palms out, as though he had any chance of making it out of this building alive.

The demon, that is. Not Zane.

“Can you do Ritual?” I asked Caleb as we stalked Malphas’ retreat side by side. Enough people had died tonight. If there was a way to get the demon out of Zane’s body without killing him, I was all for it.

“I think so,” he answered.

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