The infected’s knife landed in my shoulder.
I hissed.
Rage shot through my bonds.
I lurched to the side, missing his next knife.
They weren’t kill shots.
And while the other infected kept my squad busy, he walked toward me with empty eyes.
Melanie controlled him.
She didn’t want me dead.
In a split second, the infected burst into blue flames. Gone. Nothing.
Then every demon around us dropped, blackish fluid seeping from their orifices.
Aspen took care of the bodies, and Dusty helped me out of the earth before we were overrun again.
It was then I realized that I had a problem.
Melanie’s infected would never be able to take me. No matter the numbers Aspen and Ronen faced, they’d die before they let her drag me to the gates.
And if I told them to let me go—really told them—she’d know.
No.
I had to pursue her.
I had to look reckless, so overcome by rage that I’d follow her anywhere just to kill her.
That part wouldn’t be difficult.
I wasenraged.
She possessed my father. She threatened my kingdom. She threatened the people I loved.
A battle roar ripped from my throat, and I sent my Hellfire and Glory into the incoming horde. Their bodies ate themselves, dissolving into a disgusting mess before dotting the mud with their tainted remains.
I did it again.
And again.
Clearing a path to Melanie, who grinned with my father’s face and waited.
She thought she had me.
I let her think that.
Chapter
Fifty-Three
Ronen
Icarved through necks, sifting souls. My shadows felled leagues of infected. Aspen burned them, recycling them to the lowest circles.
