Page 76 of Each Their Own Devil

“We ordered most of our remaining soldiers to retreat an hour ago,” Amicia replied, her spine shifting against Aleja’s chest. She felt so fragile. “At this point, we’re just trying to hold the Authorities off long enough to give them time to get back behind the wards.”

“And then what?” Aleja asked sharply.

“Who the fuck knows?” Amicia snapped. “Did you save the world?”

Aleja hesitated. She had saved the world, yes—but she hadn’t savedherworld. And as the Third had accused, she was horribly selfish. “Mostly.”

Amicia hummed. “Then we need to get you back to the line. The more time our soldiers have to prepare, the better they’ll be able to defend the Hiding Place. The Astraelis are with them—we’re all rebels now. The Second will appoint a new Knowing One, when the time comes. And new Dark Saints.”

“What?” Aleja said. “So you’re all just waiting to die?”

“I wouldn’t exactly put it that way. We were holding out foryou.”

Aleja’s breath hitched. She had known the plan hinged on her protecting Val, but she had only been following Nicolas’s orders. If she’d been given any other choice, she would have been out here, while someone more competent and experienced guarded the only ritual that could save them.

The Umbramare stumbled violently, sending both Aleja and Amicia tumbling to the same side. Amicia landed on top of her but was quicker to recover. With a surge of magic that left Aleja wanting to drive her own blade into her eye, two mutineer mages froze in their tracks and turned on each other.

The pain in Aleja’s ribs stabbed through to her heart. Since returning to the surface, she hadn’t had a moment to consider Val’s words—that the Third was still lodged inside her, that he could squeeze her heart shut forever.

In that case, she might as well give this fight all she had.

As the fire engulfed her, it was a deep, dark black that extinguished any color it touched. The flames were icy cold, searing into her bones. Her magic wasn’t at full strength when it reached the Principalities, but they scattered all the same, their screams satisfying. She knew, without needing to wonder, that this wasn’t entirely her magic—it was the Third’s.

“Ami, you have to get up,” Aleja said, noticing that the Dark Saint of Lust was still on her knees and elbows.

“I can’t,” Amicia replied. The words were eerily neutral, as though she’d reached a fork in the road and decided there was only one path left for her to take. “You run. I’ll distract them.”

“Not going to happen,” Aleja snapped, grabbing Amicia under the arms to haul her up. But the touch sent a wave of dark compulsion through her, making her want to drag her own blade across her throat. She jerked her hands back. “Stop doing that. You need to save your strength.”

“I’m helping your stubborn ass escape. Go, Aleja. The Hiding Place will need you when this is all over.”

Arguing was useless. Aleja could tell by the distant yet determined look in Amicia’s eyes.

But Aleja was stubborn too.

The sulfuric stench of the closest Authority filled her nostrils. Aleja raised her hands and sent another wave of black fire hurtling toward it. The magic wrenched something out of her, as if her heart had been torn straight from her chest. She cut off the flames abruptly, stumbling back to Amicia. Only then did she see why her friend wasn’t moving.

A shard of pale bone jutted out of Amicia’s leg, punching through her thick pants just above the shin guards.

“It’ll heal. Lean on me, and we can run,” Aleja barked, though her own breathing was ragged.

“Your magic felt so wrong,” Amicia said distantly, her voice hollow.

There was no time to explain the truth—that the Third was still inside her. Now that she was acutely aware of it, she could almost feel him clawing at her rib cage.

Get the hell out of me, she thought sharply. But in Aleja’s hesitation, the Authorities closed the gap. Clumped together like this, they looked like one massive creature—a dark, undulating mass of wings and eyes—all fixed on her.

Aleja tried her fire again. If she could just force them to veer, even for a moment, she might buy enough time to slip between them. Authorities were always slow to turn in battle.

It should have been impossible for something black to also be brilliant, but the flames burned so intensely that Aleja could only look at them for a moment before her vision blurred. She knew she should stop before the magic drained her life, but the thought vanished into the static in her mind.

There you go, Lady of Wrath. You don’t need to be afraid.

The voice of the Third crawled through her thoughts like frost.

You’ve channeled too much of me into yourself, and now we’re stuck together until your physical body is destroyed. You must die, Wrath. You must free me.

Aleja tried to respond. There came a desperate tug on the marriage bond, but she couldn’t answer that either. There was nothing in her left but cold.

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