Page 44 of Seducing Hope (The Hope Legacy)

If you have a plan, Duncan, now is the time to execute it.

I’d pictured my death as an epic battle, one that included my swords—like the ones you face at the end of a level on a video game. Not being flattened like a panini by an overgrown demon with too many arms.

Footsteps pound down the alleyway.Please be Zee and Aaden. Who am I kidding? Lady Luck is on sabbatical.

Four more Renevates spill into the clearing, with one blocking the exit.

Duncan points to my left hand, held fast to my side.

My eyebrows squash together. I’m not good at hand signals. He makes a crude stabbing motion. Ah, that one I think I know.

I close my hand, feeling the hilt of the dagger, and mouth a silentohin realization. I can stab the demon, but I’m going to have to slice through the side of my thigh—it’s that or die.

Flicking the dagger around in my hand so the blade faces backward, I thrust it into the demon and hiss at the sharp stinging along my thigh. Mercifully, the monster releases me.

Whirling around, I ram the blade into its neck.

He holds the gash as his blood spills out of his throat like a waterfall before crumpling to the ground.

Going back-to-back with Duncan in the middle of the clearing, I breathe through the pain, and the adrenaline begins to numb it. Balancing my core, I assume my fighting stance, ready for the next kill.

Chapter Sixteen

Archan

Unknown origin.

“I’d rather watch paint dry,” is the human saying being clearly demonstrated as I listen to the inane argument these pompous men are currently spouting. My phone rings, interrupting the meeting. I look down—it’s Jed. He wouldn’t call unless it was urgent.

“Yes?” I snap.

“She’s being attacked by Renevate demons. What—what do you want to do?” He sounds more than a little panicked.

“Help her, and stay on the phone.” I stride out of the boardroom, offering no apologies, leaving them to argue over inconsequential things. I’d envied Natia when she had left. It’s obvious she belongs in a boardroom about as much as me.

“Get the car,” I snap at Barney.

“It’s ready,” he states. Riding in the elevator, I curse the slowness of the blasted thing. A distinct, feminine voice cries out through the phone, followed by the faint sound of bones breaking. Fuck, I should have followed her when she left.

Trying to keep calm, I ask Jed, “Update?”

“Two down, two to go.”

“Casualties?” I ask, my voice steady in contrast to my twisting insides. If anyone is going to kill her, it will be me. But not before I have quenched this need of her.

Nathan waits in the passenger seat with the engine running. I jump in and start driving just as two doors slam behind me—Zac and Barney.

“The girl is okay. She’s killed three of them, and the man is some kind of warlock,” Jed reports.

Pulling the car into the street, I glance at the location on the GPS Nathan must have entered. I ignore the directions; it would take us through city traffic. Instead, I weave through the back streets and power past the gas company waving us down. Pulling up behind Jed’s car, I jump out and sprint down the alleyway.

Jed and Leo stand in a clearing, surrounded by seven Renevate demons in various states of destruction. Blood coats the ground, entrails lay entangled on the white benches, and the walls are splattered with scarlet, as if a child has been let loose with a tin of paint.

I blink at the sight of Natia straddling the heaving chest of the only living demon, which is twice her size. His four hands have been severed and litter the ground like spare parts. She glances at me and rolls her eyes. Apparently she’s stronger than she looks and is not only familiar with my world, but comfortable in it, too.

“Who sent you?” she interrogates the demon. He simply cackles. She twists a knife lodged in his outer thigh, making me inwardly wince as he shrieks.

“Let’s try this again. Who sent you?” she barks.

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