Page 11 of Demanding Discord
I yanked it out, and blood poured from his mouth as he roared. Talons extended from his fingertips. He swiped his claws at my throat. I jerked away before he could rip out my windpipe, but the tips of his razor talons nicked my neck, stinging like papercuts.
“Son of a banshee!” Blood rolled into my cleavage.
Tumult cracked his neck, and the edges of his wound stitched themselves back together. I lunged, aiming my dagger at his heart. He knocked me aside like I was nothing more than a pesky fly.
My butt hit the ground, my tailbone screaming at me to stop—for the love of the goddess—landing on my ass.
I scrambled to my feet and feinted with my right hand, drawing his attention to the dagger while jabbing the shard of mirror into his chest. The sharp edge sliced into my palm with the impact, and blood pooled both in my hand and on his shirt.
He flinched, surprise widening his eyes, but my makeshift weapon obviously had not gone in deep enough to obliterate him. I swung the dagger, ready to sink it into his heart, but he recovered, grabbing my wrist and wrenching the blade from my hand.
Tumult clutched my throat and hurled me toward the entrance. My back smacked the stone wall, and my breath whooshed from my lungs. Intense, prickly pain radiated from the small of my back, down both legs, and, my vision swimming, I slid to the floor.
The demon dragged me up by my hair and pressed the dagger to my throat.
Fantastic. I was to be annihilated by my own blade.
I didn’t have the strength left in me to fight, so I turned on my magic full-blast one last time. “You know Discord will be obliterated the second you kill me, right? You’ll never get his skull.”
He sneered. “I’ll be quick.”
I was about to launch into a persuasive speech about how he’d need us both together to be that quick, but my thoughts were interrupted by the most melodic, beautiful, guttural roar I had ever heard.
Discord burst into the room, his nostrils flaring, his eyes wild with malice. Tumult shoved me aside, and as his image began to fade out, his corporeal form slipping back onto whatever plane he had come from, Discord grabbed him by the throat and yanked him out of the room.
I tried to follow, but a wall materialized where the doorway should have been. With an echoing bang, the firelight extinguished, plunging me into darkness, the sigils glowing on the edges of a single mirror providing the only light in the room.
4
DISCORD
“What have you done to her?” I slammed Tumult into the wall and pressed my forearm against his throat, blocking his air supply. He wheezed, so I loosened my hold enough for him to speak.
“Her who? You’ll have to be more specific.” He plunged his talons into my stomach and jerked them upward, searing pain shocking my body and making me freeze.
He pulled them out, and I stumbled back, clutching my abdomen, lest my innards attempted to spill onto the floor. I focused on the jagged tears stretching across my stomach, willing my energy to gather in the wound and speed my healing, but I’d used too much power helping Cinder after our climb.
Then, the temple had blocked my entrance, and I’d used more magic and brute force in my attempt to get inside. I was, as Cinder would say, spent.
Tumult tilted his head, walking a circle around me like a hellcat prowling, toying with its prey. He glanced toward the wall I’d created where the doorway used to be. “I see Lucifer didn’t strip you of all your powers. I am sure that took a toll, though, did it not?”
I pulled my hand away, my palm covered in blood, and I tried to straighten. A flash of sharp, intense pain took my breath, and part of my intestine slipped through the wound, protruding from the gash in my shirt. A grunt was all I could offer my adversary in response as I pushed the offending innards back inside where they belonged.
“Stuck in your human form. Using any type of magic drains your energy. You require sleep.” He chuckled. “Because you believe witches are more important than your duty as a prince, Lucifer decided to let you feel what it’s like to be one.”
“I am no witch.” I squeezed the sides of my wound together, aiding my body’s repair.
He waved a hand, my blood on his talons glinting in the firelight. “You’ve lost Lucifer’s favor. You may as well be human.” His lip curled on the last word.
“Perhaps he stripped my powers because it was the only way you had a chance at beating me.” I straightened, my abdominal muscles finally healing enough to hold my insides in. “If I had my full strength, you would already be dead.”
“You—” He faltered, his brows slamming down over dark crimson eyes.
I used his momentary distraction to my advantage and charged. My body crashed into his, and I pinned his arms to his sides as I tackled him. The back of his head hit the stone floor with a sickening thwack, and his rancid breath left his lungs in a rush.
Rising to my knees, I slammed my fist into his face, bloodying his nose. He rolled, latching his taloned hands onto my arms and throwing me onto my back. I caught his fist before it made contact with the side of my head and wrenched his arm outward, twisting and dislocating his elbow. His joint popped, echoing in the chamber, and I twisted harder…until bone protruded from his skin.
He wailed and stumbled to his feet, pinning me with a fiery glare before his corporeal form blinked out, his essence slipping into the plane between Hell and the ether.
