Page 82 of Quiet Burn

“Move out of my way!” I growl into the throng. I don’t normally raise my voice, nor am I typically the aggressor in our caliphate. That alone should be making some of these guys pause, but they just keep going at one another. Something is definitely off, and I’d bet one of my favorite shiny hoard items that the pulse of power fueled this frenzy.

Since no one is listening, I shift into my demon form, using the power of my shadows to slip through the melee more easily. An arctic chill comes over me and I groan to myself when I realizethat Jasper is using his fear powers in the sky. His dragon ispissed as fuckfor him to use both sides simultaneously.

But why? What is making him so damned angry?

“Oriel! Is that you? Come out of the fucking shadows, man.”

Anton’s voice brings me out of my musing and I hurry through the darkness to reappear as close to the sound as I can manage. My usually unruffled brother is dripping with slime from head to toe and dragging Zavida along beside him. The kitsune has some kind of injury on his leg, but together they seem to be making it through. “What the hell happened to you?”

“I donotwant to discuss it. However, I will be dealing with that pit demon as soon as possible when the real trials start.” Anton’s gaze is icy as he mutters, “His ass is mine and I’m going to make him suffer for ruining my fucking shoes.”

Pinching the bridge of my nose, I shake my head to clear it. Zav’s limping along from some injury and Annie’s worried about his fancy ass shoes. It’s not surprising, just… Jasper would be losing his shit if he weren’t already tearing through the sky wreaking havoc in lizard form. “Okay. I sent Salem to the other side to find Kit. I haven’t seen him since that weird fucking energy thing that sent Jas over the edge.”

“Did you guys notice everyone seems to be off the chain?” Zav mumbles as he squints up at me. “Demons are assholes when provoked but this seems?—”

“Out of control?” I retort. “Yeah, we noticed, Zav. Just hang onto Annie. I’m going to pull you through the shadows with me and I need to focus. I don’t want to lose either of you, but we can’t get lost in this mess as we head for KK and Salem.”

His eyes are worried, but he nods, so I put my hand on his shoulder and we meld into the world I slip through to do all my nefarious deeds. The shadows are disturbed by the extra presence, but I do my best to soothe them as we venture through the roiling crowds of snarling demons battling one another. I keep my eyes peeled for the black and white hulking figure of Salem, knowing I’ll likely see that before I do the small stature of Kit.

When I finally catch a glimpse, Salem is lifting a chaos demon over his head like a human wrestler, his face full of fury like I’ve never seen. Kit isn’t anywhere near him and panic flows through my veins. I don’t know where our friend is, and the panda is tearing into someone in his search. Everything about this fucking situation is wrong and we have to get control. Otherwise, it might spread past the walls of the arena into Discordia proper and fuck only knows what will happen then.

“Going visible,” I call to Zav and Anton. Once they acknowledge me, I bring us out of the dark realm into the mess surrounding us. “Salem! Salem! What the fuck is going on?”

He doesn’t turn to look at us, and I let go of Anton to hurry over to the demon panda. Zav and Annie come along, both of them looking puzzled at the behavior of our ursine friend. Salem has a very slow burn temper, and in all the years we’ve known him, he’s never been quite this over the edge. I look up at the sky, noting Jasper’s dragon watching with a narrowed gaze. He’s not intervening, so he must support this violence, but why?

I know his dragon is an aggressive asshole, but it’s not stupid. It knows enough to understand why showing our hand is bad.

“What are we going to do? Where the hell is Slash? And for fuck’s sake,where is Kit?” Zav says, his voice pitching up as his irritation spikes.

I don’t have an answer to any of those questions, so shrug at Zavida. He’s looking more tired by the moment and I’m sure the pain of whatever happened to his leg is starting to get to him. We can’t stop, though, until we get our brothers under control and find the smallest of us. It’s just not an option.

Anton stops in his tracks, smiling evilly. “He’s here.”

I don’t have to ask who he means; that expression tells me that our general, the big man himself, is in the stadium. We don’t need him to save us, but we do need him to help us get our leader back to logic rather than animal rage. He and Jasper have been friends since birth, and when the grouchy dragon won’t even listen to Zav, Slash can usually bring him out of the red mist of his wrath.

The sound of squealing and snarling demons tells me where and I turn to see bodies flying through the air as the shark demon barrels through the crowd like a fucking bulldozer until he finally reaches us. His eyes glitter with the predatory machine that is his animal, and he assesses us before he speaks, “Where is the little demon? Who failed him?”

Okay, not what I expected him to say.

“No one, Slash. We don’t have time to explain, but we gotta get Jas out of the fucking sky before he decides to really push his powers out. Don’t you feel the chill?” I gesture around the arena, noting the fighting demons as well as the ones huddling on the ground in terror. “I guess the onesnotcowering are the mostpowerful? Fuck if I know, but if we don’t get him to calm, this will go beyond the walls.”

His expression seems to war between emotions and I look over my shoulder at Annie and Zav. Slash isneversplit in his focus. He isalwayssingle-minded in his pursuit; he gets it from his shark. But right now? The biggest guy I know is torn, and it’s weird as hell. “Fine. If you and Anton can assist with flight, I will attempt to bring the Prince back. But you will not stop until you find the little demon or you will answer to me. Understood?”

“Crystal clear, big guy,” I reply. “Annie? Do your thing.”

Anton lets go of the kitsune, allowing him to crumple to the ground and bury himself in his tails to form a force field around himself. Once he’s safe, a burst of glittering rainbow and gold announces his transformation into the hybrid demon with golden skin, rainbow tailfeathers, and matching wings big enough to drape over several people.

“Show off.”

I chuckle at Slash’s remark, cocking my head at him. He’s only half-shifted as the shark, no demon present, and though it’s still terrifying, I’m surprised. “Just him?”

“I do not wish to antagonize his demon further. Jasper is accessing both sides of his power. I should remain in control.”

Nodding, I walk closer and grab one of his arms. The dude is heavy as a humanoid, but he’s twice as heavy in shark shift, more in demon, and his fucking full shark is damn near impossible to lift. “Let’s move, Annie.”

The peacock demon unfurls his huge, beautiful wings and I spread out mine, the two of us pushing into the sky as we holdSlash between us. It’s a slight struggle, but we fly up until we’re level with the dragon. He’s swooping around at the back end of the stadium and once we get close enough to elevate above Jasper, I can see why. The dragon seems to have located the area with acloudof negative emotions so thick it’s opaque. I have no idea what the fuck is going on in there, but that’s why our leader can’t seem to fight off his wrath.

“Now!” I yell at Anton, and we let go of our general so he falls on top of the dragon. Jasper rears back, roaring into the sky loud enough to break glass. It doesn’t phase me; we’ve heard him lose his shit before, even if it’s usually not this bad.

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