Page 57 of Shadow & Stars
“Go!” he ordered his pet.
She took flight in the direction of the cavalry.
“What will you do, witch?” the king asked me, calmer than expected. “Stand by and watch your world fall? Or will you find some dark corner to weep for your?—”
A whooshing sound silenced him, and his pet blew up in a spray of black blood and flesh. It splattered the houses, the cars, flecks of gore raining down on the street.
“Whoa…” I took a defensive step back.
“Darling?” the king said, bemused. “Are you… What happened?”
I looked up at him. “She’s dead.”
He stared at me as if he were incapable of comprehending reality. I knew that look, having been there many times myself.
“She can’t be dead. She doesn’t die. She’s a demon. She’s invincible. There is no such thing as…” Reality crept into his features then, his white eyes wide with satisfying horror. “Demonscandie.”
“There you go.”
His lips curled into a snarl, a long finger pointing at me. “This is because of you.”
“Butterfly,” I corrected him.
“But you are his machine.”
I fell into a fighting stance as boots pounded on the asphalt. ADU agents were charging up the street with their guns.
The king spat in my direction, his phlegm barely clearing the roof. “My darling will not die in vain!”
He jumped off the roof with a maniacal cry. Now, I wasn’t sure what skills he possessed, but they failed him. He landed wrong, breaking a leg with a snap to curdle my insides.
I winced while he screamed.
“You did this!” he wailed. “I will?—”
An ADU agent put a bullet between his eyes.
“As easy as that,” I said.
The witch agent aimed her gun at me, decked out in her red-and-white unform. “I know you, right?”
The rain came down in heavier sheets, the dust seeming to fall thicker.
I pointed at my forehead. “Witch. You don’t have to point that at me.”
“Some witches have decided to be turncoats.”
Three more agents showed up, inspecting the dead demon king. Others swept the area, the street going into lockdown.
“I’m not one of them,” I responded.
She eyed the dagger in my chest. “What happened?”
“Long story.”
“Looking forward to hearing it. Eric?”
A guy joined us with some handcuffs.
