* * *
Corson
“What are you doing?” the words were blurted frombesideme.
I’d heard them coming, seen them approaching, but my attention remained mostly focused on Wren. A shadow fell over us, and I bared my teeth at the human beside me. Jolie, I dimly recalled her name. The woman gawked at me before focusing on what I was doingwithWren.
The humans knew something had changed with Hawk, but they didn’t know how or why. In case people one day got it in their heads to use demons to become immortal too, we’d worked to keep the knowledge of how the change from mortal to immortal occurred from them, but I didn’t care if they saw me with Wren now. The humans still wouldn’t fully know how the transformation worked, and even if they did, I would do whatever was necessary to save Wren. Let the mortals try to turn on us and use us, it would be the greatest regret of theirlives.
Tears shimmered in Jolie’s eyes as she focused on Wren. “What are you doing?” she askedagain.
Hawk rested his hand on Jolie’s arm and pulled her back a step. I sliced my arm open again to pour more blood into Wren’swound.
“Is she dead?” Jolie whispered, her lower liptrembling.
“Dying,” I grated through my teeth as Wren’s heart gave a little beat and her breath rattled out once more. My blood would ward off her immediate death, but that didn’t mean it would keep itatbay.
Hawk’s eyes were wary as he studied Wren then me. He’d once told me being a demon was preferable to being dead, but he wouldn’t have picked becoming a demon. Fate had chosen his course when Lilitu’s canagh blood mixed with his while he was dying. Hawk accepted that course, though there were times he didn’tlikeit.
He would never have agreed to do this. He would never haveofferedit.
“Corson—”
“She agreed,” I broke in before he could say more. “I asked her. I told her what it entailed, and she agreed to it. She knows theconsequences.”
Hawk gave a brisk nod and pulled Jolie further away. Over Hawk’s shoulder, I saw the others mulling about the woods. Most of them were bruised and bloodied. I wondered how many were dead, but I’d sort that mess outlater.
Bale kicked aside the head of the horseman. Unlike its horse, the rider hadn’t turned to dust. “Greed,” she sneered. “I should haveknown.”
“We all should have known,” Shax said. “We didn’t, and that is the point of the horsemen; they work from the shadows, manipulating and playing theirgames.”
“I hate these things,”Erinsaid.
“We all do.” Magnus dropped the black cloak onto Greed’s body. “Where did the cloakcomefrom?”
“I found it in the woods,” Vargas said. “When I was taking a piss. I didn’t feel possessive about it in the beginning, but once I brought it back to thehouse….”
“Your greed increased,” Magnus said when Vargas’s voice trailed off, and he wrapped his hand around hiscross.
“Yes. I set it down, and Hawk and I went to get Erin, but when I discovered others touching it, I found I wanted it moreandmore.”
“So did I,”Hawksaid.
“From now on, no more picking things up when you don’t know where they came from,” Caim commanded as he gazed pointedly at everyone gathering around us. “We have no idea how the horsemen work, notentirely.”
Lix strolled forward with his sword blade resting against his skeletal shoulder. “Where is Greed’shorse?”
“It turned to ash when I lopped off Greed’s head,” Ianswered.
Bale stalked toward me and rested the tip of her sword in the dirt beside me. “What will you do if this doesn’t work? If shestilldies?”
I snarled at her, but she didn’t back awayfromme.
“It is a possibility you must face, Corson,”shesaid.
“Notrightnow.”
Caim knelt by my side. His head turned to the side as he studied Wren. “She isstrong.”
