Page 116 of Sugar Rush

"Only afoolwould allow its magic into them," he replied, and gave me a long, searching look. "Which you did."

"Naturally," I drawled, clenching my fingers around the crown in my hand. "I'm a special kind of stupid. The kind that doesn't learn from her mistakes. Who repeats them over and over."

I gave him a crooked grin and sank into the pain obliterating my insides, letting its power wash through me, encouraging its destructive flow.Look, I told it,there.

"Aveline," Eidolon warned, alarm flashing in his eyes. The veins in them had broken, blood spilling into the whites.

"And over," I finished, my smile growing, twisting, as fire flashed up from my palm and liquefied the metal of the mini crown.

As if it had melted the enchantment keeping it tiny, the orb's power dominating my body and soul3forced the crown back to its full size. It dangled from my fingers, the perfect size to fit my head. This crown was crazy; on Dev it had been huge, on Eidolon smaller but still larger than this, and now it was magically my size.

"Don't you dare," Eidolon warned, his voice guttered and broken. I'd almost killed him up on the rollercoaster. If Dev hadn't intervened, he'd be dead. So would I, but beggars couldn't be choosers.4

"You're holding my mate as leverage," I replied, and my voice was a deep, resonant thing that made my hairs stand on end. "If you think there'sanythingI won't do to save them, you haven't been paying attention."

I was vaguely aware of shadows pooling around us, zombie soldiers marching towards me, burning themselves on my body, but I didn't take my eyes from where Eidolon's hand crushed Ark to him, keeping him captive—how the fuck was he keeping him captive? Why wasn't Ark a shadow?

"Game over, motherfucker," I growled, and lifted the crown to my head.

It settled heavily around my head, and for a moment there was nothing except the pain frying my nerves, nothing except Eidolon's roar of outrage, nothing except Arkan's steady, unwavering stare. He never looked away, not even as fear blew through his soul into our bond like a tornado.

When Eidolon had put the crown on his head in the throne room, I'd been too scared for my mates to notice its effect. How did he even survive? My knees buckled and dropped me to the grass, a scream wrung from deep in my chest as every cell in my body lit on fire, burned to ash, and reformed from the cinders.

I tried to curse when I saw my hands, the crimson skin blackened, oozing blood as if my body was falling apart, the power too much for it to contain. I couldn't move my tongue, couldn't control the howl tearing my throat so viciously that I tasted blood.

Eidolon said something, probably derogatory. His words swam, meaningless. Ark didn't shout, didn't scream at me, didn't move an inch.

Let him go,I tried to growl, but I could only scream as power charged through me like I was a lightning rod. The grass charred beneath my hands, fire licking over my body, singing my skin until it toasted … and fell off.

Ugh, Ineededthat skin.

Breathe,a cool, shadowy voice ordered in my head.

Hurts,I replied in a whimper.

Breathing hurt, blinking hurt, every beat of my heart hurt.

You were never supposed to have this much magic inside you at once. No one can contain it, not even a devil.

I'm sure those words had a lovely meaning, but they were total gibberish to my agonised mind. Pretty ironic, all the things Eidolon had done to me to torture me into the perfect little psycho for him, and this—something I'd done to myself—hurt a billion times worse.

I whimpered, my raw fingers twisting into the dirt, fire flaring across my body, scalding until I screamed louder. The carnival music drilled through my ears into my head, driving me insane.

Get up,that shadowy voice commanded.Get up right now, Avie.

I replied in a moan, my body curled over itself. A blanket of cold, soothing darkness rushed through me, wrapping around my soul as if it could hold all the broken pieces together, and for a moment I forgot everything that had happened these few months. All I knew was that shadow soothed my nightmares, and told me I was safe. He was here. He'd stop the pain.

I can't, babygirl,the shadow said, pain in his voice.You have to let the magic out; you have to use it. I need you to get up now. Can you do that for me?

I shook my head, crying out when pain lanced through my fragile, squishy brain.

The shadows wrapped tighter around me, like a blanket thrown over fire, but it could only soothe part of it. The rest razed through my body, scorching my skin until I was a true monster.

Words and voices swam through my hearing. No,onevoice, raspy and hoarse and furious.

I tipped my head up, blinking through the tears veiling my eyes until I saw the weirdest thing ever. There was a lizard opening and closing its mouth, like it was speaking. It looked as broken and ruined as I was, burns and char marks all across its green scales.

Kill him,the shadow ordered.Get on your feet and kill him before he kills you. We're coming, babygirl, but his army stands between us and—and I don't have my power. All my devil magic is gone. I'm sorry.

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