Cygnet thinks Chase is still possessed,I realized.
As if my first two failures weren’t painful enough, this was how I learned that Cygnet had such little faith in me. He didn’t trust me to see the job through. He must’ve assumed I was screwing around at Chase’s apartment, treating it like a vacation instead of work.
The worst part was that there was a scrap of truth in that.
But Chase was no longer possessed. Faust was gone. It took multiple tries and methods, and it pushed my patience to the limit, but the demon had finally been exorcised.
Hadn’t he?
A million terrified thoughts raced through my mind, and I had no time to process any of them. Cygnet was already drawing his sword. His black blade gleamed sickly green beneath the fluorescent lights.
And I noticed something too late.
There was no protective rosary wrapped around the hilt of Cygnet’s sword. In his rush to prove a point—to prove he was a better exorcist than me—my brother had forgotten to shield his blade. In this moment, his sword was not a holy weapon, but a regular one. One capable of hurting a human. Of killing one.
Dread tore through me like claws. Even shouting for Cygnet to stop would take too long.
It was going to be an accident—an awful miscalculation on Cygnet’s part. A horrific, brutal accident.
But accident or not, he was still going to kill Chase.
Cygnet swung his blade with deadly precision.
Before I could even scream, an ear-ringing metallicclangechoed through the room.
Chase’s hand shot up. He caught the blade between his fingers. There was no blood. His fingers were diamond-hard, and where his blunt fingernails had been seconds ago there were now long black claws.
The claws of a demon.
My heart sank, and a sickening feeling churned my stomach.
I had failed. Again.
But... Chase was alive. And despite the unbelievable nature of what I’d just seen, I had no choice but to believe it.
The demon had saved Chase’s life.
I would’ve sank to my knees had it not been for the adrenaline pumping in my veins. I ran to Chase and grabbed his arm. Cygnet backed off, his expression cold.
“Chase,” I cried. But as his name left my lips, I already knew that’s not who I was looking at. It was Chase’s body, but those blazing eyes, long fangs, and confident aura belonged to Faust.
Still, I couldn’t bring myself to let go of Chase’s arm. My fingers trembled as they dug into him.
The terror reminded me of a painful old wound. I refused to lose somebody I cared about again. And even though I knew the danger had passed, the fear lingered in my body, like poison chipping away at my nerves.
Cygnet broke the silence. “I told you so.”
I whirled on my brother with a snarl. “You could’ve killed him!”
“He’s possessed. He won’t be killed so easily.”
“You didn’t know that until you swung your blade! Where’s your rosary?”
A flash of panic crossed Cygnet’s face. His eyes rounded as he glanced down at his hilt. He looked slightly pale.
He hadn’t meant to forget his rosary. It was an accident. That was the slightest bit of consolation. But I was still furious, and the next words out of Cygnet’s mouth made me even more so.
“Yes... You’re right. I was reckless,” he admitted. “But come on, Sagitta. You’re not as stupid as you’re acting right now.”
