Page 129 of Soulbound
Sebastian looked at Gray sharply.
"I don't know what he did to her, but she's not your wife anymore," the incubus rasped. "She wanted... to drink my blood. Whatever is in there right now... don't trust it."
Slowly he turned toward the demon, and it all became horribly clear. The demon had said he could have Cleo back in exchange for the Relics, but what if she refused? "What did you do to her?"
"All I did was unchain the girl's true self. She is more precious to me than you could ever know."
A demon sired me....
This demon?
A figure in black moved just behind Drake's shoulder. Bishop. Sebastian let his face blank of emotion. They had one chance left. He drew in enough power to prove a threat and keep its attention. Watch me, you bastard.
"Don't be foolish," the demon chided. "Don't do this, Sebastian. You're no match for me."
"I'm not leaving until I have what I came for."
The demon's eyes narrowed. "You're bluffing."
"No, he's not," Lucien called, drawing its attention. "We came for Cleo."
It looked between them, and sweat sprang down Sebastian's spine. He didn't dare look behind it, but out of the corner of his eyes he could see the demon's wards shimmering at the bottom, as Bishop set to work in sliding through them.
"I'm watching the wrong brothers," it whispered, as if it picked up on their intent somehow.
Blazing with sudden power, the demon spun toward the threat at its back, throwing a wave of force out.
Bishop's legs went out from under him, and he landed heavily in the snow with a grunt.
"Adrian!" Verity screamed.
"Move!" Lucien bellowed toward Ianthe and the others.
Everything happened so quickly. Sebastian stepped back toward the point where the Blade rested, swiftly unbuttoning his cufflinks. Drawing a small knife from his pocket, he sliced it across his finger, squeezing blood to the surface. It dripped onto the snow at his feet, some of it spattering on the Blade.
Sorcery whispered through his veins as the Blade of Altarrh woke. He could feel it hungering now for more blood, his mind connected to it, but they weren't quite ready.
"Bishop!" Get up.
"Do you truly think you could do it?" the demon taunted his fallen brother. "Kill your own father?"
Bishop staggered to his feet, forging a knife of raw matter in his hand, slicing his own finger and letting his blood drip into the Chalice. "Whatever it takes. Drake didn't want this."
"So be it." The demon hissed. "Alshandra di lemos an scythios!"
The star lit up. An enormous blaze of energy soared up through the earth, as if the leyline were suddenly unlocked. Heat and light soared toward the murky skies overhead, blinding Sebastian in the crossbeam. Morgana's startled scream echoed as the demon made a jerking motion, and yanked her through the air toward him.
"One more sacrifice," the demon promised, grabbing Morgana by the throat and slamming her back against the cross. It had a knife in its hand, though it paused to look in Sebastian's direction. "Remember this."
And it drove the knife through Morgana's throat, pinning her to the timber.
Energy had gushed into the sky as the star lit up, but now it came crashing back down, turning the lines of the hexagram molten. Little gold lines of spell work lit up all across the snow like a grid, as if Morgana's blood somehow activated the next phase of the spell.
Malachi Gray screamed, and the other woman on the cross—Odette?—threw her head back as if she were racked with new pain. All Sebastian could do was gape as Morgana's wide green eyes met his, choking, gurgling sounds coming from her throat. This wasn't meant to happen this way. And then her face softened, her body slumping forward, and the cross she was pinned to suddenly went up in white flames, as if her death powered some new aspect of the spell.
Dead. It felt like hollow drumbeat in his chest, but he didn't have time to think his way through the shock of it.
The demon moved with vicious intensity. It cut the blind Odette's throat, making her body jerk. A flash fire of white exploded up around her body, consuming her. A second hexagram began to glow inside the first.
