Page 24 of Payne's Envy

Two demons broke off, flanking my left. One spun its body in a circle, drifting right, but it veered toward the solo, heading toward me. They were sticking close to each other. My heart hammered and roared in my ears. All I could smell was the rusty tinge from the blood coating my body. I waited for the bloodlust, but the echo of Derrick’s words pierced deep.Hot-cold?I was too aware of the changes inside me for the anger to grip me. When I needed to be plunged into adrenaline the most, my limbs shook instead. Stumbling a step backward, the demons squawked and circled me.

There was more to that yearning than what Melinda said. I was getting traits during the heat inside me that were so unlike me. It was jarring.

Focus!

I shielded my face with my blade, blocking the bird’s talons. Gritting my teeth, I thrust my weight into where the demon tried to claw at my eyes, pushing him back slightly. But only long enough to dematerialize my blade and rematerialize it in my other hand to block another attack on my left.

I didn’t lower myself quick enough. One of them yanked me backward by my long ponytail. Sharp pain sliced up my scalp. I hissed, sending out waves of my power beneath me so that I didn’t fall, and the demon couldn’t take flight with me like he tried to do. With a battle cry, I cut through a demon clawing at my chest while the other dragged me. He squawked and drifted back.

Materializing a sickle, I aimed for the bird’s chest, but the weapon wobbled in my hold as it dragged me, and I tore into his shoulder instead. He released my hair. I should have been fine there, but I wasn’t. My blades dematerialized of their own will—I never sent them away!

My power vanished.

My back hit the ground. The impact jarred my teeth and bones, rattling my body. One of them jumped onto me. Talons slashed at my cloak. I held out my hands, calling forth my power.

Nothing.

Each nick of the demon’s claws burned my chest. The slashing stopped when the ugly creature leaned down. He cocked his head. He inhaled sharply and asked, “What’s this?”

Another one chirped and said, “I smell it, too,”

“Not immortal.”

“Not human either.”

I couldn’t have heard them right.

“Come again?” Derrick asked, somewhere behind me.

Fear choked me from the inside out as I pushed and pushed and pushed. Nothing happened. It was like my power gave up on me. My weapons… Mycurse…It was all gone.

“Help me!” I shouted.

Why wasn’t the proxy interfering?

The demon above me rose, smashing his heel against my shoulder until I whimpered. I expected to feel the pain, but my wounds weren't healing. Every cut on my chest still stung.

I screamed when the sharp end of the bird’s talons dug into my collarbone. The agony vanished when the vision came.

Flames as high as the Earth’s sky burned through the city—almost like it tried to reach their moon that night. Smoke shrouded the buildings in a greyish nightmare. Hundreds of humans were screaming. In the middle of that wreckage was the monster. It had huge horns and eerie blackness for eyes. The ginormous pit concealed half of its body in the Earth it crawled from.

The burning buildings faded into Derrick, shaking me. I shoved him away and stood. Touching my shoulder, I sensed my powers healing the wounds. They returned. How?

“So, that was weird,” Derrick murmured as he stood. “Your body wasn’t healing there for a while. Then your eyes turned black when the demon stood over you.”

“The human world.” The vision, my powers… I didn’t know, which terrified me more. Covering my shaky hands because I refused to show the proxy how shook up I was from that encounter, I said, “A creature is attacking. We must go.”

“Wait!” Derrick grabbed my arm. “Has this happened before? You lost your weapons… your power.”

I shrugged out of his grip. “What does it matter?”

It happened before. Recalling the absent feeling inside me the night Mom and Maureen were in my old bedroom with me made my stomach knot.

Oh, Hades.

_______

I had a hunch it wasn’t just me affected by the loss of my power. Prudence confirmed it when I arrived at The Louvre in the human world. The historic citadel was ablaze. And the creature standing before it was the one from my vision. Each time it swung its arms, more of the monument crumbled.

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