The werewolf I’d wounded twitched beside me, wheezing, intestines spilling from the gash in his stomach. I ignored him.
“What are you waiting for?” Harvest snarled, voice low, lethal—gleeful.Flames erupted around him, shooting out in erratic bursts. “Grab her.”
I didn’t think so.
I hurled my scythe into the air, morphing it mid-flight into hundreds of jagged daggers. Throwing my hands forward, I directed the swarm of blades at the advancing demons.
They scattered like flies.
The daggers rained down, finding flesh with brutal precision. Shrill screams tore through the air as bodies dropped around me, some twitching, some still. Blood splattered the barren ground. But it wasn’t enough. There were still too many. They were everywhere.
A banshee shrieked as she latched onto my leg, sinking her sharp teeth into my knee.
I screamed, lifting my other leg andkickingher so hard her head flew clean off her shoulders. Blood spurted from the stump, soaking my shirt. I barely caught my breath before something else came at me—a bird demon with razor wings, talons grabbing my hair as it tried to carry me off the ground.
Ifadedonly toreappearbeside Melinda.
She groaned, dragging herself up onto one elbow, trying to rise. She couldn’t even stand. I couldn’t leave her.
A massive fist crashed into my face.
The crunch in my nose was instant, white-hot pain radiating through my skull. I staggered, faded again—re-faded right back, trying to grab Melinda. The moment my hand touched her shoulder; I tried to blink us both to Grim’s woods.
Nothing happened.
It was like we were tethered here. Held.
I tried to fade again—anywhere—but before I could, a swarm of gremlins leapt onto my back, gnashing teeth and claws slicing at my skin. I howled, twisting and flinging them off me, but they were relentless, biting into arms, my shoulders, my neck.
My heart pounded in my ears.
Panic tried to crawl its way up my throat, but I swallowed it down and let rage take over. My body was screaming, one eye blurry from swelling. My nose was definitely broken. I could barely breathe without the taste of blood in my mouth.
But I didn’t stop.
With a roar, I bulldozed forward, slamming into a pack of demons, tossing them aside with brute force and fury. I needed space. I needed an opening.
And then I saw him.
Harvest.
He stood at the back of the horde like a general surveying the battlefield. A ring of witches surrounded him, chanting in some ancient tongue I didn’t recognize. Their voices echoed with an unnatural rhythm, humming with power.
That’s why I couldn’t fade.
The witches. One had pulled me here. Another was clearly anchoring me.
I locked onto the closest one.
Fine, I’d kill them all and make them undo whatever they’d done. I’d get Melinda out—somehow. I didn’t know where Sebastian was, but I had to believe he was safer than us.
I faded.
Re-faded directly behind Harvest—andkickedhim in the back as hard as I could. The crack of bone and cartilage echoed through the clearing. He stumbled forward, flames on his head flaring in anger.
I didn’t pause.
Materializing my blade mid-motion, I spun and slammed it into one of the witches’ shimmering barriers. The magic rippled, holding firm—but her eyes flew open, wild with panic.
