Page 56 of Red Demon
The demon was a blur of moon-shining steel as she vaulted over a body and away, charging fast down the main street of Nunbiren. The embers of rage ignited in my chest.
Atalia was a proficient warrior, but the Red Demon scythed her down without so much as a parry. She sliced, effortless, killing with a shiver.
With a choked roar, I scrambled after the demon, legs churning, lungs burning. I ran down a smoky dark street as she turned a corner, past the bakery starting to smolder, flames licking the walls. My boots pounded a frantic rhythm over slick cobblestones—blood from the baker in the street. The sounds of screams and conflict through every cracked window. Asher’s blade thrummed in my hand as my people died around me.
Each corner I rounded, each alley I sprinted down, I’d see a flash at most before I lost her somewhere near the center of town. The demon, despite all that agility, must be hiding like a coward. Frustration gnawed frantic at my chest, holding back my despair. But then, as I burst into the market square, I wasn’t alone.
Galen. My taam. He stood hunched over an armored body, his sword, Istaran, slick with crimson in his muscled hand. Relief washed over me in waves. Galen was alive. He’d gotten her.
“Taam!” I bellowed, my voice hoarse with exertion. He turned slowly, his movements stiff and unnatural. And that wasn’t the Red Demon at his feet. It was Tamon, our neighbor who always brought us apples from his trees each fall.
Tears carved glistening tracks through Galen’s once stoic face.
“You?” His voice was a rasp, weak over the roar of flames now licking up the bakery roof.
“Taam,” I said. He was speaking, still with me. That was good. Heart aching, I took a tentative step forward, my hand outstretched. “Taam, I saw the Red Demon. She’s close. You have to help me find her; end this.”
He didn’t respond, his stare smoldering as hot as the smoke in the bakery. He stepped closer. A shiver of unease snaked down my back. His eyes were glazed over—no warmth, none of the familiar twinkle I knew and loved.
“Die, demon!” The words erupted from him, guttural. He attacked, carving a bloody arc through the air as he swung. Silver, only a whisper of blue. Istaran wasn’t glowing for him anymore.
Hot pain lanced through my arm, ripping me from my stupor. I stumbled back. Galen, my taam, was trying to kill me.
“Taam?”
He attacked with a feral intensity, his movements frantic, devoid of his usual controlled precision. I held back, defending. Each clang of our blades shattered my world a little more.
“Taam, it’s me, Jesse!” My throat tore raw in ashen air. “I’m your son. What is wrong with you?”
He lunged again, a snarl twisting his features. I parried the blow, the impact sending tremors through my entire body. I croaked out his name one more useless time. This couldn’t be happening.
With a desperate lunge, I disarmed him. Istaran clattered to the cobblestones.
He froze.
“Taam?” I said.
His fists unclenched, resigned. He looked at me, curious as if just now recognizing me. Just as I lunged forward to embrace him—
The Red Demon. She materialized from between the shadowed market stalls, washed in the silver light of the moon and stars. One of her curved blades sliced through the air, burying itself deep in Galen’s chest. She used her shorter blade to carve him off.
Galen's eyes widened, a flicker of open recognition when he locked eyes with me one last time. At least, that’s what I chose to believe, that I got to say goodbye. His eyes went blank as his spirit left him. My Taam crumpled to the ground at the demon’s feet.
A primal scream tore from my throat, imbued with such unrepentant pain and fury that it seemed to split the night sky. The Red Demon, for the first time, seemed to hesitate. Her yellow-green eyes, chillingly familiar, cocked at mine for a heartbeat before she turned and fled.
“You will face me!” My voice cracked as I charged toward her. She turned the dark corner, and when I followed—nothing, shadows.
I listened for her footsteps: silence.
“Face me, coward!” I screamed, and the words echoed.
“Die Demon!” I called again, then froze, unable to breathe, unable to escape the fact that I’d just repeated the last words my taam ever said to me.
The last words he would ever say.
Chapter 26
Istaran
