Page 108 of Sugar Rush

He roared, reaching up to grasp the handle, but my power was torn away from me and the whole thing collapsed, leaving a nasty hole in his head. Good. I managed a tiny smile before he jammed the button again, and excruciating pain shattered me into pieces.

I screamed so loud my voice broke, my throat tore and bled, and I couldn't think of anything but getting the pain to stop. My wings snapped and twitched, an involuntary movement. They lifted me an inch off the floor—and the torture cut out.

The floor! He'd electrified the fucking floor.

"Oh, game—over—bastard," I panted, rising to my full height and slamming my brutalised, agonised wings down with what little strength I had left.

I lifted an inch off the floor, and another, and a third. I had to flap frantically to hover in place, but with every second, I gained a little more brain function. The pain clinging stubbornly to my insides faded. Or rather, reached a level I was used to functioning at.

Jacko's feet remained on the floor, like he had something to prove.

"It won't work," I panted, dragging a laugh from the depths of my tortured soul. "Doing everything he asks, working yourself to death, breaking yourself all for his approval—it won't work. He'll never give it, because he knows youwantit."

"Shut your fucking mouth," Jacko snarled, a vein throbbing in his neck. That was more like the Jacko I knew and loathed.

"Don't you think I've been there?" I asked, and pretended neither of us noticed when I flapped a little too hard to the left and nearly crashed back to the mirrored floor. "Don't you think I love him, too? He broke me, andkept breaking mebecause it gave him power. I bet he promised you the thing you want most, didn't he? It's what he does; he finds your weakness, whether it's money or power or family or love. He exploits it to givehimpower."

"You think I'm like you?" Jacko demanded, taking a step and growling with pain. He hadn't turned off the electricity yet. Masochist. "You think I'd ever let—"

"Okay, I'm gonna cut you off right there," I huffed, panting with the effort of staying in the air. My shoulders and stomach hurt like a bitch; no one ever told you to work out your core if you wanted to fly. A strange warmth bled into me though, allowing me to stay adrift. "He injected me with blood so I'd be half demon, because he needed a battery to give him power. I'm his experiment—and what areyou? You're magically invincible, impossible to kill now, right? Because he values youso muchhe rewarded you for your service?"

Wait, the warmth was growing inside me. For a moment, I thought it was my old, volatile demon power. The power that had allowed me to kill Taj's uncle, and burn him with my scalding hand. It had been less out of control since I lived in Hell, as if that jumpy, turbulent part of me had found a home.5

I shook my head when his sneer deepened—armour, like my humour.

"He only made you like this because he canuseyou. You know he used to bitch about you when you left the house, right? You losers came around to 'hone your craft' with him, and then when you went home, he'd call you snivelling and brainless.They're not like you, Avie,he'd say.They have the training but none of the instinct; they could never keep up with me like you.He's a two-faced, backstabbing vulture, and he'll pick at your bones until there's nothing left."

The warmth was definitely swelling, filling me with strength—with power. Not from blood and pain, but—shit. The circle bond! My mates were giving me their strength. Making themselves weaker, vulnerable. Okay, shit, fuck, I couldn't let them down.

You got this, Avie! Fighting!

"As if I'd believe you," Jacko laughed, but it was short and sharp. He jammed the button in his hand, finally admitting defeat.Yes! Wings 1, Psycho 0.

"You wanna know my theory?" I asked, flapping to stay in the air, frantically running through potential plans. This had to work; I only had so much power. I wouldn't waste my mates' magic. "Eidolon's got his big, fancy army, and he's stealing all my magicplushe's got the crown's power. If he needed a goon, he could pick one of his demon soldiers, so why did he experiment onyou?"

"Fuck you," Jacko snarled, and launched himself at me.

Oh shit, spin! Spin!I flapped like a maniac, andbarelygot out of the way before he grabbed me. But no way in hell was I risking getting electrocuted again by landing. I slashed with my claws and somehow sank into his shoulder. Result!

"He wanted to make another me," I taunted him, the warmth of my mates' power making it easier to grin. "But he said it himself in the barn; I was the only one who worked. All the others didn't survive. I'm a special case," I told him proudly. "And you? You're going to die like all the others."

"You're the only one who's going to die, bitch," Jacko snarled, a vein looking ready to pop in his forehead.

"Cool, bro," I replied, and dove straight into the warmth of the circle bond, letting power fill every part of me until the pain burned out of my system and my hands throbbed, tingling. Heat scalded through my veins, my horns prickled with heat, and I exhaled air so hot it rippled.

Eidolon made Jacko part demon—and that was a stupid error.

I dove at Jacko, both my hands thrust in front of myself. He laughed, his face twisted into a sneer, and hisinvincible dickattitude was his downfall. He didn't think anything could kill him, but when I thrust my hands at him, one slamming over his face and the other gripping his throat, his scream proved that was bullshit.

"You're a demon now," I laughed, magic and satisfaction filling me up. "Which means I can kill you, you idiot. I killed a prince of hell—you're nothing."

Jacko flinched. Not from the pain, even though garbled moans tore up his throat—from the words. I guess that was what Eidolon promised him. To be something, to prove he wasn't nothing.

Well, tough shit, he shouldn't have sided with a kill-happy madman.

Jacko glared up at me as I poured heat and power into him, flapping my wings hard, using my mates' gifted magic to reach the heart of Jacko and burn that, too.

"You're not nothing," I told him as the light began to fade from his eyes. "Take comfort from knowing I'll always remember you as a piece of shit."

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