Page 133 of The Demon's Pet

Zadis let out a scream and lunged at Sam, swinging his sword at head level, but Sam ducked back as though Zadis were moving at a snail’s pace, even though it was almost too fast for me to see.

Zadis sent another ball of blue fire at Sam, and this time, Sam caught it and tossed it back. Zadis was consumed in blue fire for a moment before he was frozen instantly.

Sam walked over to him, smirking as the fae stood there, frosted over and only moving his eyes.

Sam smacked the top of Zadis’s head with the hilt of his katana, and the ice broke. Then Sam shoved him back again with a boot in his gut, which made him fall to the floor, still shivering and cold.

“So you’d have to freeze me to beat me?” Sam taunted. “Good to know.”

“This is sick,” Zadis said, shivering and muttering. “My brother—”

“Can’t do anything,” Sam said. “I have an illusion over this whole house. No one will even know I’ve destroyed it until we leave. No one will know until you’re dead.” He swung his sword so that the handle rolled in his hand, and then he caught it again, grinning. “Use a ruby to warm up if you have to. But I don’t recommend using the kind the void walker brought from the hell realm. Not unless you want to—”

“What are you?” Zadis’s voice was raspy and lost, like I’d never heard it before.

And he deserved all of it for trying to lock me and these other creatures up for all eternity.

“What do you mean?” Sam asked, cocking his head with a mocking smile as he advanced on Zadis, who was using a red glow from one of his rings to warm his body. “I’m a celestial from the ninth realm. What you’ve done is forbidden. I’m here to deal punishment.”

“No,” Zadis hissed. “This is a violation of the treaty. No angel would ever do this to me over a demon. Whatareyou?” Zadis’s voice rose, almost hysterical now, as he stood there dripping blood.

“Pick up your sword and fight,” Sam said, running his blades together and getting back in a combat stance. “We finish this, now.”

Zadis was practically shaking as he picked up his sword again. He circled with Sam for a moment, then attacked. This time, unlike the others, he was desperate. Before, he’d almost been testing Sam, as if he hadn’t thought they were truly fighting to the death.

Now he seemed to understand what was happening, and he was doing his best to take out his opponent.

His sword moved wildly, fast and with a bigger reach than Sam’s. Sam was quicker, though, easily spinning out of reach of a strike, only to follow through with both swords, the second one catching Zadis across the shoulder. Zadis seemed energized by his impending doom and slashed forward harder, faster, lunging at Sam as Sam dodged back and then attacked. This time, Zadis dodged him.

They moved almost too fast for me to see what was happening, parrying and dodging back, slamming their swords together and breaking apart again.

Their hard breathing and pants, the scuffle of their boots on the ground, and the clashes of their swords were the only sounds for several minutes.

Finally, it appeared Zadis was tiring, only barely managing to block, while Sam fought him back, hitting against his defense with strike after strike against his sword.

Finally, with one huge slice, Sam cut Zadis’s sword in half, and the top flew to the side and clattered on the dirt floor.

The men stood there, Zadis holding his broken sword, Sam staring at him with two blood-soaked katanas.

Then Sam lunged forward, catching Zadis in the gut with his red sword, and I felt my entire body clench at the horror of it.

Sam dropped his other sword and grabbed Zadis by the shoulder, holding him up as he shoved his katana farther in. It slid into Zadis’s gut like butter, and Zadis let out a choking noise as his hands moved to the sword, touching it blankly as if he could move it.

Then Sam twisted the blade to the side, and Zadis let out an unearthly scream of pain unlike anything I’d ever heard.

Sam slammed him on the ground on his back, and Zadis slowly slid down the sword to rest on the dirt.

He was still alive, still struggling, as Sam picked up his other sword and knelt over Zadis, looking as calm as if he were simply checking on a friend.

“Why are you doing this?” Zadis gurgled.

Sam froze, glaring down at him. “Because you dared invade her skin with forbidden magic. Because you dared to bond these creatures with your blood. But, most of all, because you dared to take what’s fuckingmine.”

Then Sam raised his other sword and shoved it into Zadis’s chest right next to the first blade. Based on the cracking sounds I heard right after, he was using them both to wedge Zadis’s ribcage open. The fae continued to scream, and I wished I could be free to close my ears.

“Only a moment longer, Cleo, and you’ll be free,” Sam said in a raspy but assuring voice.

Then he shoved his hand into Zadis’s chest and pulled out something red and bleeding, and Zadis continued to shriek.

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