Page 84 of Quiet Burn

“Imagine needing seven friends to face one little freshman demon,” Anton says as he quirks a brow. “How sad for you all when this gets out.”

Oriel flexes his wings, spreading them like the fucking Crow from the movie and my heart skips a beat in my chest. He’s a palette of dark, Gothic beauty in the half demon form and it makes it even harder to focus on the task at hand. The two of them are the perfect complement of light and dark like something outofGood Omens. I lick my lips, trying not to let my shock and appreciation show on my face. Fuck knows I don’t need these idiots knowing how much they affect me.

“Very true, Annie.” O looks at me, his eyes glittering with intelligence as he studies me, then notices what I’m standing in front of. “Oh, shit, they got X! No wonder we didn’t see him anywhere.”

That’s when the glow around the shining peacock shifter increases and Anton lets out a screech of anger. “Howdare you? How fuckingdareyou?!”

I arch a brow, looking at Oriel, who gives me an evil grin before saying, “Annie’s biggest ‘no-no’ square is doing anythingto upset Xerxes. He’s taken assholes out for much less than wounding them.”

My reply is cut off by Anton raising his hands and unleashing a blast of colorful magic big enough to level every single one of our attackers. They hit the ground like sacks of potatoes and my jaw drops. I wouldneverhave expected such a huge amount of power to come from the restrained, fussy demon hybrid, but he’s making a weird, angry bird sound as he stomps across the field to hover over the fallen dickheads.

All he’d need is a flaming sword and he wouldn’t look like a demon at all but for the delicate, filigreed horns that adorn his head—he’d look like a painting of Michael.

“Whoa,” I mutter as I back up carefully.

Oriel laughs softly, then grabs my arm to lead me over to X. “We should let him do his thing, Kit Kat. It’ll be pretty, but also kind of gross. You might not be ready for it.”

I expect the darkness in me to lash out at the crow, but instead I feel a vibration almost like a cat’s purr inside and the overwhelming urge to get closer to the avian demon. Having zero clue what to feel about that shit, I swallow hard again and look down at Xerxes to distract myself. They’re bleeding a ridiculously attractive silver substance from the wound and I sheath one of my weapons so I can scrub my hand over my face. “Is therenothingyou two do that isn’t visually stunning? I mean, I look like someone regurgitated me, man. It’s not fair.”

X gives me a pained smile, and even that is picture perfect. I throw up my hands, grunting in irritation as Oriel bends to examine their torso. Oriel sighs, his wings folding against his back as he pulls their shirt until it rips to see better.

“Man, what did you do? No one should have been able to get this close. You’re way too good.”

Xerxes’ lips twitch as they look at me. “Well… I sort of dived into the fray to save KK here before he went absolutelybonkers.I might have stayed unharmed if I knew what was going to unleash.”

“I didn’t do that! It wasn’t me making everyone lose their shit, and I definitely didn’t make this weird mist!” I give O a panicked look then hold my hands up. “Don’t blame me for whatever Anton’s magic did.”

The crow shifter snorts as he pulls the shirt pieces aside to get a better look at X’s wound. “Uh, in case you didn’t notice, Annie’s magic is like a Rainbow Brite cartoon. This red shit isnothim, nor is the rage-out going on with every demon in this fucking arena. You can’t see it in here, but Prince Prickface is full-on dragon balls right now.”

Covering my mouth at his innuendo, I choke back a laugh. I’m not sure if it’s in humor or fear, but my entire body hums at the thought of seeing that. “Oh, no. He’s going to be so pissed.”

“Uh, if he’s the scaly serpent, that ship has sailed, Kit Kat.” X gives me a commiserating expression as they wince when Oriel touches the blade lodged in their stomach. “He’s going to be damn near impossible to get back to equilibrium for a couple days.”

“Who’s dealing with him?” I ask as worry fights with the darkness for control. “We have enough trouble without him getting sent away or whatever.”

“Truth,” Oriel says as he sits back on his heels. “X, we can have Dank remove this. I don’t want to cause more damage doing it as battlefield triage. It might scar, and you’ll come for me.”

The cobra shifter hisses low, and I take it to mean they agree with the sentiment. “Leave it be.”

“What do we do now? And someone answer me about Jasper, for fuck’s sake.” I elbow Oriel hard, my brow furrowing. “We need to get Xerxes out and check on everyone else.”

“They’re fine.” The voice is flinty and when I look up, I see Anton. He’s no longer covered in the sludge from before and he looks as regal as ever. In fact, at the moment, he looks better than any of us and I'm a little jealous again.

But I don’t look to see what he did; Oriel said not to and I’ve had a lot of surprises today.

“How do you know?” I say softly. “I mean, we’re in here and no one knows how to make it stop and?—”

The peacock demon rolls his eyes, but his expression is fond. “Kit Kat, you’re doing this. You can stop it. Whatever you did when my magic didn’t help you…undo it. Focus your mind and remember when everything changed, then reverse it.”

I blink, dipping my chin as I realize the darkness I allowed to escape isn’t just pent-up fury from years of being neglected and abused. No, this part of me is the demon side, and it’s been dormant until it was time. Like Dank said, the veil is lifting inside of me and I’m coming into the powers the guys have consistently told me I have. I didn’t believe them—not entirely, anyway—but now I know they’re right.

Which means the big pause in the cafeteria and the fire in the study room might have been me, too.

That rocks my world for a moment and I have to breathe very slowly to keep the panic from creeping in again. I don’t think the darknessandmy PTSD need to make friends, especially not right now. So I close my eyes and dig deep into my mind, visualizing my body. I see the bright blue of my panic and the deep onyx of the darkness filling my frame. Very carefully, I coax the colors to recede. I don’t know if this soft begging will work, but if they’re right and I’m making this misty fury fest, I have to try.

Please,I murmur internally.I’m safe now. You can rest until it’s time.

Rocking a little, I keep talking to the parts of me, hoping like hell it works. Xerxes needs the doctor, and we have to find the rest of our caliphate.

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