“Do you yield, Eldest?”
His single-worded response came as a grated whisper.“No.”
Runeak’s arm tensed to drive the knife into Saer’s throat.The point sank in as he took the precious heartbeat of time to lift the heel of his hand and slam it into Runeak’s nose, stunning her enough to fall back.Her grip loosed on her knife and, with a gargled cough, Saer wrested the weapon and threw it aside.
Scarlet liquid pooled in his throat.Saer focused more of his precious heat into the wound at his neck to cauterize and close it.The process weakened him, but blood loss would have been worse.
Saer fought to regain his footing.Blood dripped from Runeak’s broken nose.Rather than exhausted or afflicted, Wrath appeared...exhilarated.
How?
Runeak’s stance shifted, shoulders hunching as she stalked.“Embrace the pain, Saer.”Her pleased voice would have been sultry if it weren’t for the murderous intent dripping from it.
Saer spat on the ground and wiped at his ruby-stained lower lip, never taking his eyes off her.“Why would you want me to be a better fighter?”
“I want to beat you at your best.”
Runeak closed the distance between them, forcing Saer back as she assaulted him with a barrage of punches and kicks, not allowing a single opening to strike back.The demoness’s knuckles slammed into his chin, a glancing blow while her heel collided with his shin an instant later.Saer snarled and stumbled, eyes blazing as he knelt.She could have finished the attack and brought him to the ground, yet she pulled back.
“Embrace the pain, Saer!” Wrath screamed, and though they couldn’t possibly understand the words, the surrounding crowd shouted in appreciation.
Embrace the pain.
Pride’s lips pulled back, teeth bared, breaths heaving and fluid-filled from the knife’s strike he’d taken earlier.The rest of his cuts and bruises seared and throbbed.Ithurt.
Embrace the pain...
Saer’s vision sharpened as understanding settled in.She absorbed the blows and wounds landed upon her as though they fueled a fire, rather than quenched it.She reveled in it.Was elevated by it.
Craved it.
Saer lunged at Runeak at the same time he pulled from within, forcing his body to undergo a violent shift from human toDaemoenic.Sable wings ripped through Saer’s back with a sickening, flesh-rending sound.Silver horns thickened and solidified, claws lengthened, and hooves encased his feet, all in the span of one heartbeat to the next.
The soldiers cried out when he crashed into their leader, slamming her onto her back.Saer’s endless maw opened and dove at the connection between his sister’s neck and shoulder, crunching the armor and flesh in his powerful jaw.He drove rows of razor canines in until he tasted blood.
Wrath screamed.
The scream shifted to a howl.
The howl turned into maniacal laughter.
Embrace the pain.
Saer shook his head while clenched on Runeak’s flesh, her body pinned.Any human would have passed out as their tissue ripped open.Runeak stilled her laughter, then shifted into a foreboding growl.
Pride shoved his metallic claws into her torso, wrenching in opposite directions.Her collar bone snapped under the strength of it and her high-pitched gasp stabbed his ears.Saer loosed his muzzle and bellowed down at her, teeth dripping with blood.“Do you yield, Runeakael?”
The shine in Wrath’s eyes was beautiful and horrifying.
She lifted a shaking hand, slick with blood, and wrapped her fingers around the end of Saer’s right horn, staining it crimson.She jerked to bring his maw closer with unfeasible vitality, something between a snarl and a grin curling her lips.“No.”
Saer opened his jaw to bite her skull.
She shifted.
Wrath’s thick, razor-tipped left horn speared into Saer’s wide maw at an angle, perforating the flesh of his cheek, like a deranged fish hook.He roared and shoved, pulling himself off the skewering appendage.Vermillion fluid splashed.Witnesses screamed and cheered.
Saer’s claw lifted to touch the hewn damage at the side of his jaw while keeping an eye on Runeak.She crouched on all four limbs—the huntress once more.Wrath lost little of her terrible grace when she moved, despite broken bones.Baring her unholy teeth in a barking growl, she charged.
