Page 109 of MidKnight
Good. The sarding demon deserved it. He’d tricked me. He’d made me pity him. See a boy who wasn’t there. A vision. Like—I pushed away any thought of Quinn. I twisted the hairpin.
“Wait,” his voice came out a gnarled scratch. “Bloss.”
I stabbed a second time and then scrambled backward before he fell onto me. I had no delusions. Abbas would kill me. But then I’d join my knights.
I just needed him to hasten my death. I needed him angry.
“I’ve killed every one of your brothers,” I lied. “I have soldiers marching right now to Cheryn. Your entire family will be dead in an hour.”
Abbas just clutched at his stomach, still crouched. Playing the victim. Trying to catch me off guard. I’d already fallen for that once.
“Bloss, I just want—I’m Blue. Can’t you tell? I’m Blue!” Blood bubbled on his lips.
Fury shot like lava through me. I stood and screamed. “Liar!”
“I just … wanted to give you a wish.”
The cruelty of it. The irony. He was toying with me. He’d heard me with Malia. Now he was giving me hope just so he could snatch it away.
My lips couldn’t resist the temptation—even though my head screamed that a djinni couldn’t give me back what I’d already had. “A wish! A wish! I wish my knights were alive and well, you sarding shite!”
I ran at him and tackled him to the ground, landing on top of him.
I expected him to grab me, choke me, bite me. But he didn’t as I scrambled backward.
Abbas’ breath grew jagged, ragged, he spit blood.
Abbas gasped out, “Granted.”
I waited for him to transform himself back into black smoke. Waited for him to transform into a snake or a monster and attack me. End me. I waited for him to show he was toying with me yet again.
But his eyelids only fluttered.
And then a golden haze surrounded us.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
The entire cavern lit up with a cloud of sparkling golden light.
The cloud moved past us, obscuring my view of the rest of the cavern with its bright glow.
Then, a guttural cough disrupted my train of thought. Abbas was still gasping for breath. I slid closer, careful to stay out of reach, looking down at him.
But the sound wasn’t coming from him. He was still, lying on his stomach, one cheek on the stone floor; just a slight twitch came from his limbs as blood dripped from his lips.
I turned and scanned the cavern, clutching my hairpin.
The shimmering golden cloud settled over Declan’s body.
I heard the cough again and then a low, familiar groan.
My heart stopped. No. It couldn’t be—
I ran through the golden light, to Declan, and dropped to my knees. My hand sought out his. When I squeezed … he squeezed back.
My head exploded. Stars. Colors. Confusion. Hope. Delight. Awe.
“Dec! Declan?” I dropped his hand and shook him, until I saw his eyelids flutter.
