Page 81 of Quiet Burn

Everything snaps into place as he lets out an ear-splitting scream of pain, and misfires his stupid crossbow. Diving to the ground to make sure I don’t get hit, I breathe heavily, my eyes wild as I try to figure out what in Satan’s crispy goat legs just happened. There’s a commotion, something that sounds like Jasper’s barking orders, and other sounds that barely make it past the rushing in my ears, but all I can do is count my breaths. When I finally regain control, I notice that Furon is still fighting with Roquefort across the circle, and there are some weird looking things that might be imps surrounding my former opponent.

A hand grabs mine and I almost bite it in defense until I scent Oriel. His eyes are shining with something that might be pride—I’m not quite sure since I haven’t seen it often—and he hauls me to my feet quickly. Another voice yells his name, so he winks and lets go before darting back to his group. I guess he’s not supposed to do that, and I need to get my shit together again.

Okay, Kat, one down. Just don’t think about it; keep swimming for shore.

My anxiety is often like drowning, and I remind myself that there’s a shore when I need to push it aside. Sometimes, it works, and others, it doesn’t, but the adrenaline pumping through me now is helping. I am a survivor in every sense of the word and this place, these demons—they willnotbeat me. Squaring my shoulders, I look for the two randos I identified earlier. They’re still battling, one having a golden glow to his staff and the other having a red tint to his huge broadsword. I can’t tell which one is powerful, but I think I’d like to go up against the staff guy more since he looks smaller. He moves again and I blink—or maybe not, because that jackass isfast.

“Get that loser out of his group!”

I turn to the sound of Jasper’s voice, noting he’s directing another set of the spooky looking beings to grab a prone body from the group X is in. My chest gets tight until I see the glamorous demon straightening their athletic gear with a quirked eyebrow as the fallen dude is moved out of their area. Xerxes barely looks like they've broken a sweat, and their hair is as perfect as when we walked in.

Fuck that pretty demon must be good; the guys weren’t joking.

The whooshing sound to my left gets my attention and I curse internally when I realize I was so worried about X that I missed the sword guy finally knocking out the staff guy. That means it’stime for me to move my ass or I’m going to be the one on the stretcher. I lick my lips as I consider his bigger build and think about the weight of his weapon. Being smaller and having lighter weapons will help me, but I’m not as fast as the staff guy, so it won’t be enough. I need to be smarterandfaster than him if I want to make it past this dude.

“Scared, small fry? You should be,” he says as he stalks across the area where our group is fighting. “I’m going to crush you like a grape and reap the rewards of my success.”

“Okay,Game of Thronesvillain,” I mumble as I look inward again. The golden glow is still inside of me, but it’s not doing anything, so maybe Anton’s spell is wearing off? Fuck, I wish I knew more about how anything of this shit worked before this crap started. Clearing my throat, I decide to use one of my most accessible weapons to distract the asshole—my mouth. “That threat would be a lot more worrisome if I had any idea who the fuck you are, moron. How scary is random dude number five supposed to be?”

His brows furrow for a moment, then he glares at me when he gets what I meant. That gap in understanding tells me he’s not too bright and I can use that. Making him do brain work will give me time to react to whatever he’s going to throw at me. “Everyone knows who Budet of Gluttony is! I’m a battling champion, as are my father and brothers.”

Shrugging, I load my fingers with the throwing star thingies. “Sorry, Bidet. No one’s ever mentioned you. I’d hire a new PR firm—and maybe consider not using an ass-cleaner as your fighting name? That’s just me, though.”

His roar cuts through the air, but it’s not as loud as the asshat Prince’s, so it doesn’t make me flinch. I just grin, muttering thewords Anton gave me over and over, hoping it will kickstart whatever I need to fight off that big ass magical sword as the dude gets closer. “I will feed your bones to the creatures in the Wastes!”

For real, is this corny line shittaughtdemons or do they just naturally say dumb shit?

My eyes track him as the bolt in my back continues to burn. It doesn’t hurt as much as before, but I don’t have time to deal with it. Pushing it to the place in my mind I’ve pushed injuries in the past, I narrow my gaze. I know I can do this, even if I don’t know if I’ll be able to beat Furon or Roquefort afterward. When toilet demon gets close enough that I have to dodge his blade, I move, pleading with whatever magic I should be using to fuckingdosomething before I get skewered.

“Come on, come on…. Annie gave me your help…” I murmur as my opponent parries and attacks, forcing me to continue dancing away as I pray for help. “I just have to injure him enough to make sword fighting hard. It’s not asking for a lot.”

That’s when the darkness lodged deep inside of me that I try to ignore lifts its head and smiles.

Oh, shit.

Not Gonna Die

Oriel

One minute, I’m fighting with this idiot drude, and the next, it’s like a shockwave hits our corner of the stadium. The blast of energy is almost visible as I rear back, looking around in shock.

Where thefuckdid that come from?

Spinning on my heel, I find Jasper as he hovers in the air above us in his half-shifted form. He was already on the edge with his damn animal—I could feel it—and a big expulsion of energy like that had to have hit him hard. I’m greeted by an enormous fear demon in dragon form roaring into the stratosphere as it flies over the stadium.

“Son of a bitch,” Salem says as he bounds over, ignoring the crossroads demon trying to follow behind him. “Text Slash. We need him like… yesterday.”

I nod, pulling out my phone as the dark onyx dragon soars overhead looking pissed as hell. It’s hard to type the message while I’m trying to keep an eye out for my other brothersanda fucking hacked off demon dragon with the powers of Hell’sthrone behind him. Suddenly, my eyes widen and I look at the panda shifter in a panic. “Fuck. Where’s Kit Kat?”

He blanches, his skin going even paler and within seconds, he’s shifted to his demon. “I don’t know, but I’m going after him. What the fuckwasthat, anyway?”

“No time,” I say as I shake my head. “Find Kit and keep him safe. I’ll locate the others. Hopefully, Slash gets his ass here quickly. If so, Anton and I might be able to fly him up as long as Jas doesn’t go too high.”

“This is madness,” Salem mutters as he takes off into the messy crowds of demons still fighting.

His statement is accurate, since Jasper’s transformationshouldhave calmed this place down and made everyone duck and cover. They’re not, though. No, every single demon here seems to be fighting harder and more vehemently than before. If we don’t get this under control, this practice exercise might actually lead to deaths. Taking a deep breath, I grasp my blade and head into the crowd Salem came from to find Zav and Anton.

I don’t know what Lucian intended to happen at this damn rehearsal, but I bet it wasn’t this.

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