Page 46 of Demon Sworn
No.
No.
I stare at the paper for so long, I’m afraid my eyes start to cross. My heart skitters, the sloshing of blood in my head so deafening that I can barely hear Raz’s next words.
“He’s gone!”
Who’s gone?
The man who attacked us?
She’ll hate you.
She’ll leave you.
The ominous words are like a garrote around my neck, digging into my skin until blood is drawn. Until I’m choking on air. Until I’m dying, dying, dying.
Dead.
Dead.
Dead.
Not Katrina. Not my cherry.
She’s the only thing I have, the only thing I want.
“Akor.” Raz doesn’t yell—he can see how close I am to the edge. I detect a note of caution in that one word, my name, as if he isn’t sure how I’m going to respond to it.
Somefuckerkilled my uncle and his Center. Left this note.
I squeeze my eyelids shut, but even then, I swear I can still hear the dying screams of my family.
I’ll never be free of them.
And once Katrina learns the truth, she’ll leave me.
She’ll hate you.
She’ll leave you.
Ignoring Raz’s bellow, I storm out of the room before unfurling my wings and taking off into the sky. I’m dimly aware of Raz screaming my name, his strident voice telling me we need to look for the escaped demon to figure out why he attacked us, but I’m already…lost.
She can’t hate me.
She can’t leave me.
Or else I’ll destroy this entire fucking world.
19
Katrina
Kastros givesin to my ditch wish after the whole Mary Poppins floating moment in the hallway. Thank fuck because neither of us have any idea what caused that or how to control it. He tries to get me to replicate it for Van and Zolroth when we get home, but I can’t.
I stand in the kitchen with all three of them staring at me as I squint in concentration like a fool. I can hear Adam giggling somewhere off in the house, and I’m glad he’s not here to witness me shake as I clench my fists and grit my teeth and basically look like a doofus.
“You feeling tingly, love?” Zolroth asks.
