Snap out of it, Rubi!Flame cried.
I shook my head, feeling a trickle of blood wet my ear.Shit. Shit. Shit.
Focus!
Then, just as the demon closed the distance—
Clang.
A metal object slammed into its head, knocking it sideways. It let out a guttural snarl, shaking its grotesque skull.
I turned, breathless.
Poppy was in her mother’s arms, her tiny palms outstretched, sun-shaped yang Marks glowing orange. At her feet lay the crushed remains of a huge metal lid, the thing she’d just thrown with magic.
A female yang. Blake’s daughter. What was she, five years old? The ferocity in her eyes was pure Axefire.
It wasn’t much, but it had bought me a few precious seconds.
The demon snarled, recovering. Its slitted red eyes locked onto Poppy now.
Hell no.
I surged forward, striking out with the whip as the demon lunged again, but it was too fast. Too close.
I slammed into it, but it flipped us in midair, its weight crushing me against the ground as we landed, its claws digging into my shoulders.
Its mouth latched onto my skin, biting the side of my neck.
I screamed as an unnatural pull wrenched through me, a black hole opening inside my chest. It was feeding on me.
I’d be dead within seconds.
I thrashed, but my limbs were weak, draining, like my strength was being sucked straight from my bones. A high-pitched ringing filled my ears, my vision going hazy at the edges.
Please, please—I wasn’t sure who I was entreating—Flame, the goddess of compassion, the Kingdom of Sky. Flame was locked up, unable to help. Calla, Edith, Quinn, all gone and, hopefully, safe. Blake, who was out there somewhere, fighting.
Something inside me cracked open.
I opened my mouth.
A melody pulled from the marrow of my bones, from the pit of my lungs, from some primal place that had been waiting, dormant, for this exact moment. It pushed its way up my throat, spilling from my lips.
The sound was pure power.
It was the crack of thunder before a storm, the wail of wind through jagged cliffs, the shudder of the earth before it splits apart. It didn’t just ring in my ears; it thrummed through the air, through the very fabric of the space around us.
The demon shrieked and flung itself off me, its entire body convulsing as if I’d burned it. The sound kept rising, a melody that wasn’t entirely mine but something raw and ancient and terrifying. It poured out of me like floodwater breaking through a dam.
Slowly I struggled to my feet as I kept singing. Blood trickled down my neck, but the wound itself seemed to be small.
The demons’ red-slitted eyes went wide, their bodies seizing as if held in invisible chains. Some had already fed and were red and engorged to double their normal size. They jerked and convulsed, but I was already losing my hold on them.
I didn’t know what I was doing or how I was doing it. And I had no way of killing them.
When my hold on them broke, they would tear us apart. One demon wrenched itself away from my power and took a step toward us.
They were breaking free.
