Kaden didn’t speak, but his shadows seemed to pour from the walls, great columns of midnight smoke unfurling from the slick obsidian and billowing around Fleshtalker’s ankles.
“Your wings appear to be healing nicely,” he added, unconcerned with the shadows of death coiling up his legs. “Shall we go another round?”
My stomach lurched, and I fought the urge to be sick. This was the male who’d orchestrated my mate’s suffering. The demon who’d tortured him, warped his mind to the point that Kaden barely recognized me.
My skin itched with the need to bury my dagger in the demon’s black heart. But not before I’d had the chance to shatter his teeth and peel the flesh from his bones.
“As usual, Fleshtalker,” Kaden growled, “you forget your place.”
And then his shadows lunged, winding around Fleshtalker’s head and slamming him to the floor. The ground trembled from the impact, and I watched with grim satisfaction as Kaden stalked toward the demon.
Slowly, he placed his booted foot on the side ofFleshtalker’s face, grinding his heel into the male’s cheek until I heard a cry of pain.
A muscle feathered in Kaden’s jaw as he pressed down harder, nostrils flaring as a resounding crack echoed through the hall.
My throat went dry as Kaden cocked his head, using the toe of his boot to flip Fleshtalker’s body over.
With his skull shattered, the demon’s face was no longer recognizable –– his nose and cheekbones just amorphous blobs of bruised flesh. Kaden clucked his tongue in dissatisfaction before drawing a rowan-wood stake from his pocket.
The tip was stained with Kaden’s own blood, and his eyes widened as he bent to shove it up through Fleshtalker’s sternum.
I heard a crunch as it punctured bone, and a slow smile twisted Kaden’s handsome face as he rotated the stake. Fleshtalker’s eyes fluttered beneath his eyelids, and I wondered if he could still feel pain with bits of his brain leaking out of his skull.
“As artistic as this is,” came Adriel’s voice, “can wepleaseget the fuck out of here?”
Kaden jerked his head up, seemingly annoyed, though it was hard to read anything in his expression when his eyes were that eerie solid black.
With a sigh, he straightened and continued down the hall, his body reflected in the polished obsidian floor as his tattered wings dragged behind him.
As I watched him go, something inside me shattered. Any satisfaction I’d felt watching him crush Fleshtalker’s skull and plunge the stake through his heart evaporated in an instant.
The Kaden I knew was gone.
Slowly, I followed him to the palace entrance and the gleaming black walkway beyond. No demons tried to stop us as we approached the exit, and when I reached the narrow obsidian bridge, I saw why.
Adriel let out a colorful string of swear words, but Kaden merely stiffened. “It looks as if my father’s army has flown in to greet us.”
Almost immediately, the air filled with the screech of demons, and I looked up to see the black outline of dozens of wings superimposed against the ash-choked sky.
My mouth went dry as I palmed my dagger, and the royal guard gripped my arm. “Kaden can’t fly,” he growled, his tone low and urgent. “Not with his wings like that.”
“Any suggestions?” I asked, eyeing the horde of Semphrys’s soldiers circling overhead. None of them had fallen into a dive. They were waiting for us to try to escape.
Adriel gritted his teeth and turned to the princess. “You fly Lyra. I’ll fly him.”
Sorsha’s eyes widened in panic, as if the royal guard had just asked her to take on the army of demons single-handedly. “You know I can’t,” she choked.
My chest squeezed with sympathy, even as fear clawed its way up my throat.
“Youhaveto,” Adriel gritted out. “It’s the only way.”
Sorsha started to shake her head, tears filling her eyes.
“Can’t you take us through the earth?” I demanded, rounding on him.
Sorsha hadn’t summoned her wings in years. He couldn’t possibly expect her to do it now when we had a small army bearing down on us.
“No,” he snarled, a muscle working in his jaw. “Taking you that far last time was a stretch. Three —” He shook hishead. “If I tried and failed, all of us could end up buried alive.”
