Page 38 of Shadow & Stars
“It cannot be destroyed, Your Majesty,” Butterfly responded. “And I will not risk opening the jar in case Roman is given a chance to use it.”
“He still lives,” Ismael said. “Stab him again.”
“No. It is too much of a risk,” Butterfly warned. “I believe his power is now muted. Doing anything else to him may undo that. Keep him alive for now.”
Ismael didn’t look happy. He gave the order to have my throat cut.
A demon obliged as Butterfly protested. The prick dragged a jagged blade across my flesh. I waited for the pain, to feel my skin slice open, for the blood to gush like a morbid spring. But nothing happened.
The demon grunted and tried again, getting nowhere.
What the hell?
“Kill him!” Ismael roared.
“I’m trying!”
Ismael charged forward, snatching the deadly sharp blade from his minion’s hand. He stabbed at my neck, not even making a tiny scratch. Went for my eyes, my belly, everywhere. Nothing landed, didn’t even bounce off me. It was like he attacked air.
“Why won’t you die?” the king screamed in my face, attempting to gouge my eyes out again.
I winced with each strike, bladder ready to give up. The blows might not be making contact, but that didn’t stop them being terrifying. I waited for the moment I turned into a pincushion.
The device fizzed, releasing a series of painful tremors into my bones.
Fuck this. I tried getting to my feet, my limbs having none of it. All I could manage was sitting up, fighting the spiral into all-consuming grief.
Xavier and Darcy were dead. By my hand. Why did I have to be alive? Why couldn’t that blade hit an artery? Let me bleed out, suffer the pain, then lights out. No more of this.
I’m done…
“Die! Die! Die! Die!” Ismael’s calm aura had completely faltered. His pale complexion flushed with crimson rage, his eyes deadly white flames. He spat in my face, tried slapping me.
No contact. Nothing. Somehow, the device worked to keep me invincible. And Butterfly had triggered it. Intentional on his part? Or was he just as pissed off? I couldn’t tell. He watched on without a hint of emotion on his face.
“Allow me to try something.”
I gasped at the sound of Xavier’s voice. For a moment, hope returned, only to die when the shirtless spider demon appeared.Without my Xavier’s scar on his chest, without the love in his eyes.
“You’re alive?” I managed to ask. “But?—”
Ismael grinned, stepping aside. “Surprised?”
“The rules are not as we believe them to be,” Butterfly said.
Past Xavier cracked his knuckles. “May I, My King?”
Shit. What now?
“Of course, My Love.”
“Do not take any risks,” Butterfly protested.
Ismael dismissed him with a wave of his hand.
Mean Xavier grabbed the handle of the dagger in my chest.
“No!” Butterfly surged forward, only to be blocked by two burly demon kings. “Do not touch the?—”
