Page 203 of The Demon's Pet

Who wouldn’t be?

Suddenly, I hated Gabe more than I’d ever hated another person. He was the cause of Sam’s pain.

He was the cause of all of this.

And he was causing more pain now as he continued to torture Sam with details of his brother’s death.

“I hear he screamed and begged for mercy,” Gabe said. “Imagine the pain such a powerful demon could have felt to be losing it like that.”

“You’re lying!” Sam said, hand still shaking, as Gabe’s clone illusions spread out in a semicircle in front of him.

“Don’t you want to know what it was like?” Gabe asked. “Well, it won’t matter if I tell you because I can kill you, even though you can’t kill me. See, you’re half demon, and sending you to hell won’t be a problem now that I have ninth realm power.”

Sam sneered. “I don’t believe anything you say about my brother, you piece of shit. I’m here for Cleo, and I’ll fight until I die to see her safe. For Cayne. For myself. For the whole demon world.” He got into a fighting stance and appraised the illusions. Then he gestured for Gabe to attack.

As the clones moved forward, Sam jumped to slash at one, cutting straight through it so it disappeared in a puff of smoke and then straight through another.

He dodged one’s attack, nearly missing Gabe’s sword, and destroyed another illusion, but another appeared nearby.

I could tell he was getting harried, that hearing about his brother had taken more out of him than he expected.

I could see the weariness and confusion on his face.

He’d fought so much for me. To get me here. To bring me to my purpose.

And what could I do for him?

I tried to push myself up, but my leg, though healing, felt weak, and my body felt drained of energy.

Sam destroyed a few more clones, and they disappeared in puffs of smoke, leaving only Gabe standing across from him. The two men faced each other, swords in hand, breathing heavily in the wreckage.

“You truly don’t care how he died?” Gabe gasped out.

Sam froze. “I know it wasn’t you who killed him. It must have been someone from the ninth realm. No one lower could have bested Cayne.”

“You think a lot of him, for a demon,” Gabe said. “But you’re wrong, and…”

I zoned out to what he was saying because my eyes caught something moving in the air behind Sam. Like the air was shimmering as something was moving closer to him.

I scented the air and quickly realized what was happening. It might have looked like Gabe was facing Sam, but it was only an illusion to disguise what he was really doing.

From his scent, I could track that Gabe was invisible but right behind Sam, sneaking up on him. To kill him.

Heat instantly filled me. The thought of something happening to Sam made energy erupt from my every cell. From the center of my heart, I was burning, hotter than ever before. I got up on both knees, looking straight up at the sky as I felt something hot building in my chest and something hard and solid rising out of me.

Like something was being forged in my heart and now was forcing itself out.

I tried not to gasp, but I had no idea what was happening. As I looked down, I realized there was fire in my chest and a sword was appearing straight out of my body.

I stared at the handle as it floated in front of my face, the rest of the sword still inside.

Take it, my inner demon urged. Take it and finish this. Take it and claim your destiny.

I grabbed the hilt and then drew it out of my chest, marveling at the fact that it didn’t hurt.

The sword was huge, like a longsword, but felt light in my hand. I didn’t even have time to look at it because Gabe and Sam had turned my way.

Desperately praying to hit my target, I raised the sword like a javelin and threw it as hard as I could at the shimmering space behind Sam.

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