Page 21 of Married By Treachery

To Raquel’s amazement and horror, the tree’s lower branches curled around the winged demon now thrashing and shrieking like a fly caught in a web. More and more branches wrapped around the demon, cocooning it completely as it drew the demoninto its trunk. The demon’s shrieks cut short, the branches relaxed, and there was no longer any sign of the demon, but there was a very obvious bulge within the tree’s trunk.

Raquel was so stunned by this carnivorous tree that she did not notice the other two winged demons were coming for her again. She managed to spin away from one, only to find herself face-to-face with the second.

And her world stopped.

Thoseeyes. They were black and soulless and terrifying, set in features so gruesomely overgrown, and yet…

The creature stared at her as she stared at it.

It blinked and tipped its head.

And thenpain.

Fire seared in her gut as the third winged demon—the largest demon of all—withdrew its massive claws from her belly. Its bared black teeth filled her vision as she gasped and dropped to her knees while the enormous winged demon whipped around to strike her again.

But the other demon—the smaller one that had stirred something within Raquel—beat its wings at the larger, knocking it back. The large one snarled, and the two gnashed their teeth, circling each other like predators fighting over a kill.

Raquel tried to stand, tried to use their momentary distraction to slip away, but that fire flared through her limbs, her legs gave, and she collapsed just as the larger demon threw back the smaller with incredible force. The smaller crashed to the ground and did not get up again.

And the large demon approached.

Again, Raquel tried to rise, but her arms would not respond. The fire had faded to bitter cold, her body felt oddly numb, and her consciousness was quickly fading.

The last demon towered over her, all snarls and nightmares and horror.

And Raquel thought that maybe she wasn’t so ready to die after all.

Suddenly, a bolt of light pierced the winged demon’s chest. The demon screamed and dropped as that sword of light reappeared in its master’s uniquely capable hand. Jake whirled once more and sliced the large winged demon clean through. The air reeked of burnt hair as its two halves dropped to the ground like heavy stones, and Raquel’s final view was of Jake. He heaved as he stared down at her, his white tunic drenched in black blood. But then her vision tunneled, and her world faded completely.

8

“How deep is it?” Rian asked as Jake laid an unconscious Raquel down upon his bed.

“I don’t know. Help me with her clothes.”

Rian was there the next instant, and together, they peeled Jake’s glamoured cape from Raquel’s arms.

That damned corset.

Jake forced his gaze upon her torso, where deep red blood stained the fabric that matched her brilliant summer sky eyes.

“Sit her up,” Jake said, and Rian did as commanded while Jake withdrew a dagger and cut the corset’s ties. He tossed the corset aside, Rian laid her back down, and—very carefully—Jake cut her slip from neckline to waist and peeled the fabric back from the wound.

Rian sucked in a breath through his teeth.

Raquel’s cut wasn’t deep, though it was long and bled freely—the red so bright, like everything else about her. But it wasn’t the depth that concerned him. It was the oily black substance mixed with her blood. The poison of the Depraved. One drop was enough to turn a mortal, and this was much more than that.

“Find Sienne,” Jake said.

Rian didn’t hesitate. He stood and left immediately, while Jake stayed with Raquel. He plucked a clean tunic from his drawer, knelt beside the bed, and held it against her wound to staunch the flow.

“What were you thinking, you insolent, foolish,beautifulgirl.”

He had not meant to speak that one word aloud, but he was so struck by the sheervibranceof her. The warm hue of her skin, the natural blush in her cheeks.

Thelife.

Life isn’t a game,Jake, she had said.It is agift,coveted by those who would give anything to still have breath in their lungs—breath you and your kith take for granted. I don’t have timeto take it for granted. Every second counts for me.

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