Page 60 of Demon Sworn
My gaze travels over to the basketball hoop on the far side of the gym, and I’m startled when I see my Katrina floating in midair, her curls writhing above her head like fluorescent snakes. Power spirals out from her hands—not just pink sparkles but whirls of light in different colors—red slashes, blue spots, gold lines.
She has the most beautiful expression on her face. It’s dark and dangerous and makes my dick harder than fossilized wood.
She did this.
My Center.
This beautiful girl we’ve been working so hard to protect is more powerful than all of us combined. Love swells up inside me, and as it does, I can see Katrina’s power flicker and then glow brighter.
Shit. Was that a coincidence?
I test it. I fight against the magic that’s pinned me to the wall like a butterfly and hold up my right hand. I stick up my thumb, my index finger, and my pinkie in the sign forI love you.
Katrina’s eyes fall on it, then slide up to my face.
She lifts one hand and makes the sign back to me.I love you.
Tenderness fills me to the brim. Joy bursts out in the form of a smile. And then my human girl makes the demon in me proud as she waves a hand that sends Arariel’s murder swooping into the center of the gym, inside that circle that those sweaty idiots use for basketball.
Katrina clenches her fists and tightens the magic that contains them. Somehow, even though it looks like light, it’s solid. Her magic binds them together just like a rope would.
Arariel screams in fury while Wallim roars. But there’s nothing they can do as Katrina tightens that band until they’re squashed together, then tightens it again until they’re gasping for air, then again. I hear the crack of someone’s wing…or is that their ribs?
“Fuck, yes, Cherry! More, baby!” Akor shouts from his spot on the wall, his eyes glazed with delight as our girl hurts the fuckers who’ve toyed with us.
“So hot,” Van encourages her. He waves a finger and a blast of lust lifts her skirt high enough for me to see the lacy edge of her panties.
Damn.
He’s right—our girl is on fucking fire right now.
“We need to bring them to Lucillania,” Raz says, ruining the moment, as he’s prone to do. He’s all business.
“They killed William,” Katrina’s voice is hard and colder than I’ve ever heard it, immediately changing the atmosphere in the room. “William, and Alanna and David. Wade. Darrel. My parents. They’ve killed soooo many people just to punish you. To get back at you for convincing them to kill their Center, tempting them into sin.” Katrina closes her eyes and shakes her head for a moment, and it’s like I’m watching her physically shake off the pain and don calm.
When she speaks, Katrina’s tone is low and haunting. “You should have known, Arariel. Pride cometh before the fall.”
With a wave of her hand, Katrina moves all of them at once as if they are a single entity—a writhing mass—and slams them into the gym floor. No,throughthe floor. The wood crackles and buckles, and the demons smash through the wood, through the cement foundation, into the dirt…into a hole so deep, I can’t see the end.
There’s a moment of awed silence.
Then the magic pinning us all loosens, and my love looks over at me, and her soft, gentle tone resumes—the voice she uses on Adam. “Kas, are you okay?”
I nod. Because finally, for the first time since we visited Heaven, I am.
A small smile crosses Katrina’s face before she turns to the rest of my murder. “Akor?” she asks sweetly.
“Yes, Cherry?”
“You want some playtime before we bring these fuckers to Lucy?”
Akor smiles at her. “You give the best presents!” With a squeal, he tucks his wings and dives into the hole.
The rest of us remain where we are, hesitant, not wanting to upset our sweet girl. All this time, we’ve been trying to protect her, but it appears she’s the one who can protect us. My heart collapses when I think about how everything I ever learned about Centers was a lie. They aren’t vulnerable or weak.
My Katrina isn’t a fighter, not normally. But with love behind her, look what she’s become.
I watch as my girl slowly, and a little clumsily, lowers herself to the ground. But that’s to be expected, given it’s the first time she’s ever controlled her magic, whatever it is.
