“I thought I had saved you in time …”
“This is the Politia. Come out willingly and we won’t kill you.” The order boomed throughout the cellblock.
My tear slid off my chin, the drop of blood splattering against the floor.
I could go round and round, trying to understand why I deserved the fate I received. But that logic required the belief that life was fair when it wasn’t.
It really wasn’t.
Caleb wrapped his hands around the bars. “You need to leave.”
I didn’t want advice from him, my would-be killer. “They don’t scare me.”
Caleb stared into my eyes. “No, I guess they wouldn’t. Why did you come?” he asked.
“I wanted to make you pay,” I said. I caught the faint whiff of smoke as I stared into Caleb’s eyes.
“And this is your revenge? Putting me in a cage?”
I backed away from him, the smell of smoke getting stronger.
“I expected worse,” he said.
“I just wanted to remind you who the true monster is.” The world might believe I was evil—and I felt thoroughly wicked at the moment—but feeling evil and doing evil were two very different things.
A wall of smoke rose in front of me, stretching and deepening by the second.
“What the—?” Caleb said.
It took on a humanoid shape before filling out, flesh replacing smoke.
Aw, crap.
I’d seen these fuckers before. In fact, I’d just spent an entire day with them.
“Holy shit. Is that what I think it is?” Caleb asked, his eyes wide.
“Probably.” And it smelled like ash and my tainted blood.
There was only one reason why it would smell like me—somehow I had gone and given it life.
Naturally, the moment I went and made a point of being a better person, something like this had to happen.
“Gabrielle, are you armed?” Caleb asked.
“Do I look armed?” I said, as the demon’s muscles filled out under his skin.
Burnished charcoal flesh stretched over corded muscles. Human feet and hands ended in curved claws. At the tips of his big toes and thumbs, the nail arced into deadly talons. Webbed wings sprouted from the demon’s back.
Sharp, pointed teeth descended from his mouth, none so large as his inch-long canines. Those were teeth meant to rip out throats. Nasal slits bisected the demon’s face, and red eyes with horizontal pupils glowed with unholy fire. Finally, wicked horns grew from his temples, twisting back from his face.
Once the demon was fully formed, the smell of sulfur and rot replaced my scent.
He knelt, bowing his head. “Azaelbub, my queen. I am yours to command.” His voice rumbled in a pitch so low I was sure no creature of this world could mimic it.
“What are you doing here?” I didn’t realize until after I finished speaking that the language we conversed in wasn’t English. It was Demonic.
“Whatever it is you bid me to do.” Azaelbub’s voice was a growl.
Oh, screw that. I wanted nothing to do with this creature.
“Can you just go away?”
“Yes.”
Caleb watched us with some combination of horror and fascination on his face.
“Err, then do so.”
Azaelbub bowed his head and crouched. I don’t know what I was expecting—maybe for him to just return to shadow—but that wasn’t what happened.
He sprang up, throwing his body into the air, and blasted through the stone ceiling high above us. His wings, which appeared to be thin, membranous things, battered through stone and mortar.
I covered my head as debris rained down. A moment later, the walls of the castle shook as he exploded through the upper floors of Castle Rushen.
Fucking-A, that wasn’t good.
Outside I heard the sound of shots fired, and then a demonic roar.
Nope, decidedly not good.
Once debris stopped falling, I stepped over to the hole in the ceiling and glanced up. Far above me I could see the night sky. Azaelbub had tunneled an exit through the roof.
“You just let a demon loose. First you imprison me and now you set that thing free.”
I didn’t bother answering Caleb. My job here was more than done.
I padded back down the hall.
“Wait!” Caleb shouted. “You’re not seriously going to leave me here, are you?”
Ignoring him, I hooked a right out of the cellblock. Most officers used the main entrance to head in and out of the building, but there was also a back entrance, one I used to take when I was late or didn’t want to socialize. I decided to make use of that exit once more.
There’d be a fight waiting for me outside, regardless of what exit I chose. But after releasing a demon and confronting a former friend who tried to kill me, a few officers were child’s play.
I braced myself at the back entrance, then pushed the door open. Under the bright light of the moon, officers had fanned out, their guns trained on the various windows and doors of the castle. Once they caught sight of me, their aim shifted.