Page 102 of A Study of Blood and Ichor

“Are you hurt?” he asked her, bringing one hand up to catch her face.

She shook her head. “I’m fine.” Her attention flickered to a spot over our shoulder and her eyes widened. Vain swung his head back to look in the same direction.

Ghen hovered in the air, his form barely more than a dark shape on the terrace. He was somehow much larger than I remembered. The wind whipped his silver hair around him like a storm, and I swore his eyes burned a hot white as his figure floated closer. When he slowly dropped to the terrace, the energy around us went electric. Every footfall the archdemon made in our direction felt as if the ground were shaking, like he was putting every ounce of power that he had into each step.

When the glow of his eyes faded, he was still every bit the unnerving, dark omen that shot a lance of fear straight through my chest. His energy was a palpable, living thing, inescapable and present in every atom in the air that Vain breathed into our lungs.

Vain rose and brought Ava up with us, maneuvering her body behind ours and keeping one hand wrapped back around her waist as he faced Ghen.

From across the room, Alastair and Nesera stood as well, the former extracting long, thick shards of glass from his body, his wounds stitching back together almost immediately, and the latter holding a wide stance as she drew her scimitars, appearing steadier on her feet than she had been a minute before.

The archdemon stalked a slow, wide circle around us with a crooked smile eased across his perfectly sculpted face that felt very much like a threat. His searing gaze never left ours, and Vain stared him down with equal hostility on his part, like they were two predators, each sizing the other up.

“There you are, brother.” The archdemon’s voice, sharp and smooth, rumbled as he crossed the threshold into the penthouse, glass shards crunching underneath his shoes.

Brother?

Vain winced, and in my periphery, I caught the motion of Nesera’s head tilt to the side, one quizzical brow raised which would have matched my exact expression if I were the one in control.

Is he lying? I asked him.

And he actually hesitated before answering, “No.”

I felt Ava stiffen behind us, but she remained decidedly quiet.

There was barely time for the thought—let alone the implication—to register.

Vain tipped his head up and watched as Ghen brushed stray bits of debris from the lapels of his long, elegant coat that appeared to be more of a formal piece of armor than anything. The wide shoulders flared upward, the points tipped in gold accents which matched the markings ingrained into the gray fabric that shimmered with a semi-metallic quality. Whenever the ends of the heavy coat brushed his ankles, it emitted a muted jangling noise with every step.

Vain growled low. “You are not welcome here.”

The archdemon clicked his tongue. “So it would seem,” he mused. “You went to great lengths in an effort to keep me out. One might wonder what you’re so determined to protect up here in your little tower.”

“Just take the grimoire,” Vain said. “Take it and leave.”

“I’ll take back what I’m owed after I’ve run through every last one of your little pets.” The archdemon’s smile grew malicious. “Perhaps I’ll even force you to watch the light leave their eyes, one by one. I think I’ll leave the witch for last too. It would be so fitting, wouldn’t it?”

Vain snarled. “You will not touch them.”

“Hiding under my nose,” Ghen admonished with a shake of his head as he continued circling us. “Did you really think I wouldn’t eventually realize who you were under all those mortal masks you so desperately clung to like they were your armor?” The archdemon appeared to stand almost impossibly taller, leveling us with a look that could have brought cities to their knees. “Do you think you can somehow fix them? Because they cannot redeem you, brother. They will not absolve you of what you are.”

Ghen took another slow step closer and Vain pulled back to maintain the distance between us. Cocking his head to the side, the archdemon peered around our body to where Ava stood.

“There’s the little summoner bitch,” he purred with malintent. “Did you even recognize me when I was not wearing the skin of your sister? Though, I suppose, a witch never truly forgets their first, isn’t that right?”

Ava whimpered behind us, and Vain’s glare turned scorching.

“I’ll admit, it took me longer to recognize you,” Ghen continued as he stared at her, his grin nothing short of predatory. “But it was the scent of your fear that eventually jogged my memory.” His nostrils flared as he breathed in deep. “It seems all that guilt you’ve harbored after all these years has done nothing but fester inside you, leaving a deliciously dark stain on your soul. I’ll even admit, I’m a bit prideful of the fact that I’m the cause of it.”

Vain’s grip tightened on Ava’s waist, and I caught the faintest whisper escaping her lips, the magic in the near-silent words floating past our ears like a soft breath. They did not escape Ghen’s ears though. He paused mid-stride and narrowed his eyes on her.

“Shut up.” The glamour took hold of Ava immediately and silenced her as her posture went rigid.

From the shadows, a long blade glinted behind Ghen. Nesera’s form peeled through the darkened room as she took the opportunity of the archdemon’s distracted attention to leap out and attack. Her scimitars poised above her head, Nesera drove them straight for the archdemon’s exposed neck at a speed I almost couldn’t register. Ghen’s body turned into a blur at the same moment, and the split second before impact, he sidestepped so Nesera’s blades bounced off the armor of his coat.

Every lunge Nesera made after still failed to strike the archdemon. She danced circles around him, her face twisted into a fierce promise of violence, all while her attacks glanced through the air, never quite finding purchase in Ghen’s flesh.

As Ghen whirled to avoid another of her assaults, his foot snared on a ring of golden chains worming up through the floor. Across the room, Alastair’s eyes flared like blazing jewels. With his palm upturned, he commanded the glowing chains which shot out like whips at the archdemon, and they coiled themselves around Ghen’s legs and arms like a leashing of snakes.

---