“What the fuck?!” he mutters as we watch the sky fill with this strange power, illuminating the dust that hangs in the air, sending it swirling and churning.
But then, all of a sudden, it stops, we’re plunged back into darkness and I see Thorne staggering backwards, his shadows angrily circling him.
Briony stumbles backward too, peering down to her hands like she’s been burned, and falling onto her backside.
I go to rush forward to cover her with my body.
I’m too late.
A huge demon plummets down, gripping her by the shoulders and sweeping her up into the sky. I leap after her, snapping my jaws towards her ankles.
Too late again. She’s out of reach.
The moon has forced me into my wolf form, has gifted me with additional abilities.
They’re fucking useless.
I howl and bark as my shadows and that of my bond brothers chase after her. The demon moves quickly and soon she’s lost in the swarm.
Gone.
Chapter Thirty-One
Briony
The demon lifts me high into the sky, its claws digging through my coat and my sweater and piercing my skin. I kick my legs and swing my hips, attempting to break free from its grasp as I also try to hit it with my magic. But hit only grasps me all the more securely and I can’t find the right angle.
I’ve been injured by demons before but this time feels different. A hot sensation burns where the demon’s claws penetrate my flesh and then it stops and a numb feeling creeps through my body from the point where my skin has been wounded to every one of my limbs. It leaves my muscles heavy and my joints paralyzed. Soon, I’m struggling to move at all and then finally, I can’t feel anything.
It lifts me high into the sky and into the swarm of demons until they’re all crowded and jostling around us, squawking in their high-pitched voices, seeming to repeat that word like the demon in the trial did.
“Yoooouuuu!”
“Let me go!” I scream as that numbness crawls up my throat and towards my face, making it difficult for me to breathe. I struggle for air as the demons churn around me in the sky and I wonder why they haven’t killed me yet, what they intend to do to me. Then I hear a loud rumble and a searing hot flame comes piercing through the swarm. Several of the demons catch alight immediately, screeching and flapping away as the fire consumes them. The others scramble and I see Blaze soaring through the demons directly for me. Some swoop out of his way, coming for him from behind, diving down to scratch or pluck at his back, but he drives forward.
The demon who has me attempts to fly away, but Blaze is faster and soon he’s gaining on us. More flames soar over my head, annihilating my captor. Its claws release and I plummet towards the ground, not even able to scream because the numbness has infected my voice.
I close my eyes, willing my magic out and finding it stuck and useless. And then, as suddenly as I started to fall, I stop, caught in Blaze’s claws. I hang from them as he spirals away from the sky and down to the ground away from the scattering demons. He places me carefully on my feet, but my legs are as numb as the rest of me. They won’t work and I tumble to the ground, hitting it with a thud and being able to do nothing but stare up into Blaze’s anxious eyes as he nudges me with his snout.
I try to convey through my eyes alone that I’m okay, but he nudges me again, whining and licking at me and reminding me of Dray’s wolf.
“Briony!” I hear Beaufort call, and then the faces of the three Princes peer down over me.
“Are you okay?” Dray asks me.
I stare back up at them, unable to even blink my eyes.
“Demon venom,” Thorne says. “Look at her shoulders. Puncture wounds.”
“Shit!” Beaufort mutters, making my heart and my lungs – the only things that still seem to be working – beat and expand all the more quickly.
“Just relax, sweetheart,” Beaufort says, sweeping me up into his arms.
“The demons are retreating,” Drays says, from somewhere beside us. “I think the dragon spooked them.”
“Then let’s get her inside the fort,” Beaufort says. “I have an idea of how we can keep the demons out and us safe.”
“Safe?” Dray scoffs. “Bardin could be in there.”
