Tentacles, slick, black, and barbed, surge from the cavity. They wrap around the woman, impale her flesh, and drag her toward the gaping maw in his chest.
Her frantic screams and struggling don’t deter him. Actually, they only make the red script on his skin pulse brighter.
But before I can straighten and get to my feet, the woman is pulled inside and her scream cuts off.
The crunch of bone and the blood bursting from the seams of his mouth make the other hostages shriek and thrash against their bonds.
“No!”
Tharuzel reaches for the next captive, and we’re all up and running. Chaos erupts behind me. The air fills with shouted orders and the sound of growls and snarls.
The others charge after me.
All I see is the door.
All I feel is the dark bond yanking me forward. Tharuzel's presence is a blazing beacon in my chest, and now that he’s taken form, it’s so much more powerful. The darkness thrums in my veins like never before.
It’s seductive.
I burst through the mill's warped door, spirit fire already crackling across my palms.
The space opens before me—cavernous, gutted, and transformed into a demon nightmare. Rusted restaurant equipment hulks in the background, shadowed by a writhing horde. The stench of char and death is rank in the air and burns my eyes. And every inch of the floor and walls crawls with dark sigils, all pulsing in rhythm with my blood-bond.
Tharuzel holds another hostage by the waist, his gaping mouth hole open, his tentacles jutting out to wrap around his next victim.
The hostages remain in the circle, screaming and fighting against their restraints.
Tharuzel turns, fully manifested. His tentacles claim his next snack and before we get two feet into the building, a second person is lost to the cavernous mouth.
The red script on his black, leathery skin bursts to life and writhes. Tharuzel turns, blood still oozing down his body.
He meets my gaze, and his voice comes from everywhere and nowhere, a chorus of the damned."Finally, you come to me, Poppy Hallowind."
I picture Asher torn apart and bleeding to death, and throw spirit fire straight at his stupid face. He thinks he can lay claim to my soul, but he can’t—because Asherismy soul.
And he tried to take him from me.
A glut of blue flames leaves my hands and crashes into him, hot and pure. He staggers back half a step…
And laughs.
The sound scrapes against my skull and makes my teeth ache. Behind me, the cavalry bursts into action.
Wylder enters on my left, his hands raised, vines erupting from the ground to wrap around a demon crouched near the hostages.
Rowan sprints right, shadow magic coiling around her fists, the dark shadows creating a wall between us and the demon horde.
Sebastian races in beside me, his hands raised, spirit magic arching off him. His affinity is the same as mine but tainted darker—a result of the battle against Tharuzel five years ago with my mom.
He has his own score to settle with this demon.
Eliza and Declan lead the charge against the horde, their tiger-forms massive and snarling.
Wood splinters. Beams crack.
Orion follows, his white tiger gleaming in the crimson light, and behind him two wolves and a leopard pour through the gap.
Chaos unleashes.
