Her face stark white, she gazed up at me with wide eyes. “The cult. They’ve killed someone, but I don’t know who.”
“Whoa, wait a minute, Eva.” I took her shoulders in my hands and rubbed her arms. She was chilled to the bone. “Your powers are clearly coming out now, but you don’t know how they work yet.”
“I’m telling you,” she hissed as her eyes filled with tears. “Someone’s dead, Caim.”
“Okay.” I squeezed her shoulders tight. “We can’t jump to conclusions. There might be more to it than that. Explain to me exactly what you felt.”
Breath hitching, she spilled out her words without a single breath of air. “Like something in me shattered. Like loss. Like my soul was split apart and some of it went to a place I’ve never been. Another...realm.” She swallowed hard. “Somewhere far away from here.”
Fear flickered in my gut. She sounded so certain, and the look on her face took me back to a time I wanted to forget. Memories flashed through my mind. The moment Az had walked through that door, his eyes hollowed out by what he’d seen. His face had collapsed beneath the weight of his emotions. And then the words had spilled from his mouth. Morax. Gone. Destroyed. Never to be found again.
Grief slammed into my gut, and my breath rushed from my lungs from the force of it. I couldn’t lose anyone else. Eva had to bewrong. My soul wasn’t complete without my Legion. Phenex, Stolas, Bael, and Valac. They were part of me, and I was part of them.
“I’m sorry,” Eva whispered as she grabbed my arm. It was then that I noticed I’d started stumbling down the block, further and further away from the fire, as if my heart was being pulled to where the rest of my Legion was hurting.
“You have nothing to be sorry for,” I managed to grind out. “It isn’t your fault that these murderous assholes are targeting my family.” It was all I could do not to choke on the words. I knew what Eva had seen, but I didn’t dare think on it too long. If I did, I would crumble beneath the weight of it. And my Legion needed me to stay strong.
Suddenly, the thunder of footsteps exploded down the street. Eva sucked in a gasp and pressed up against me, her fingers trembling around the hilt of the dagger she clutched to her chest. I squared my shoulders, pushed her behind me, and turned toward the growing sound. It might just be the two of us, but we would make our final stand here. Two against thirteen was terrible odds, but I would go down fighting if I must. And I’d take as many of them with me as I could.
“Get ready to run,” I said in a commanding voice. “When I say go,go.”
“What?” She clutched at my shirt, trying to get me to turn and face her. But I steeled myself and glared down the length of the empty street, waiting for the arrival of the cult. “I’m not going to leave you here to fight them alone.”
“Eva,” I said through gritted teeth. “When I say go, go. That was our deal.”
“I don’t care about our stupid deal,” she argued, her voice rising. “I’m not leaving you here to fight a dozen demons on your own!”
“You won’t have to.” Phenex’s booming voice echoed down the silent street as the Legion rounded the corner. Bael and Stolas strode beside him with Valac rounding out the back. The four of them came to a sudden stop in the middle of the street. Four shadows that were the brightest thing I’d ever seen in my entire life. Eva gasped and took off at a run. A smile stretched across my face as she leapt up at Phenex and wrapped her arms around his neck.
Phenex’s eyes practically popped out of his head. He wasn’t too used to women hugging his violent ass, and he tried to act like he preferred scaring people away. Deep down inside, he was a softie though. My favorite softie in the whole fucking world.
Still smiling, I picked up the pace and met the others in the street. Phenex lowered Eva to the ground. While she hugged the others, I stared up at my old friend, cocking my head.
“Where the hell have you been?” I asked.
He jerked his thumb over his shoulder. “Ran into a few cult assholes a couple blocks south. They’d surrounded some terrified humans.” Furrowing his brows, he frowned. “Why are you as white as a sheet?”
I glanced over at Eva. She had her forehead pressed against Valac’s and was whispering to him, asking him if she was going crazy.
“Eva felt something,” I said quietly. “Her power. It told her someone was dead.”
“No one’s dead.” His frown deepened. “The assholes sent someone to the hospital but nothing more than that. We stepped in before they could do anything worse.”
A strange sensation slithered through me. A warning. “Did you kill any of the newborn demons?”
Could Eva have felttheirdeaths instead of ours? It was a terrible thought. It would mean she belonged to them in a way we hadn’t anticipated. Truth be told, it made sense in a horrible, twisted way. Her blood had birthed them. Perhaps it went even deeper than that. A bond. A promise. And if that were true, it only confirmed Eva needed the cure as soon as possible. Because that bond could end up being the downfall of us all.
“None.” Phenex grunted. “The assholes are cowards. They ran the second they saw us.”
“Ran? How many were there?” I asked.
He shrugged. “Two, three maybe. Definitely not all of them. How many did you find on 33rdStreet?”
“Not a single soul,” I replied with a frown. “They set fire to the police station, but they didn’t attack anyone. If it weren’t for all the screaming humans, it might almost seem like they’d never even been there.”
“But I don’t understand,” Eva whispered, glancing at each of our faces in turn. “We heard there was an attack. Nothing happened. Not really. Was the whole thing just about setting the police station on fire? But why?”
“I’ll admit,” Bael said, running his fingers through his sandy blond hair. “It doesn’t make much sense. It’s like they were trying to make a spectacle.”
