“Roxie, light it up!” I shouted. I stood in the dead center of the camp, holding my crossbow up and waiting to take aim.
Roxie’s powers hadn’t been working well since we’d gotten to Caudry, and her first attempt at a fireball was only a plaintive little puff of fire. But as the Kirpka took a turn charging at her, she tried again, and this time a huge fireball burst from her hands.
The demon snarled and jumped back from it, but for a split second, the creature was fully visible. I fired a bolt at it, but it leapt out of the way and my arrow landed in the dirt.
Hurriedly, I reloaded the crossbow, and Roxie’s bright blue burst of fire revealed the demon in the shadows. I shot at it again, but it was too fast. My hands were trembling, and I didn’t know if I could aim and shoot fast enough to hit the demon.
It was circling closer to me, so when Roxie sent a fireball toward it, the heat from the flames blew my hair back. When it went dark again, it attacked me.
I couldn’t see it—I only felt the razor-sharp talons burning in my side as it threw me to the ground. I rolled onto my back, ignoring the pain as best I could. My nose was filled with the creature’s pungent sulfurous scent, and the whole world went quiet.
It was just me and the demon standing over me, with its eyes trying to suck in all my energy. I could literally feel the life being pulled from me, like a darkness seeping through my skin. Drool dripped down from its teeth, landing on my skin like scalding water.
The crossbow felt like ice in my hands, and I lifted it up.
As I said “Vade retro me tenebris,” I heard Basima’s voice with mine, speaking through me. The demon snarled, and I aimed the crossbow between its eyes and pulled the trigger.
The sound it made when the arrow struck was like a thousand screams erupting at once. Like every soul it had ever eaten crying out in pain.
I clamped my hands over my ears, certain that my eardrums would explode.
Bright white light began shining from the creature, through its eyes and the gaps between its scales. But the light kept growing, until it was completely engulfed in it.
The Kirpka let out one last angry howl before exploding into pitch-black ashes that rained down on us.
59. cleanse
My ears were still ringing from the Kirpka’s death cries, and I glanced around the camp, trying to make sure everyone was okay, but then my eyes landed on Gabe.
He’d returned to his human form, lying on his side, and I crawled toward him, ignoring the burning pain from the Kirpka’s claws. He looked peaceful and still, with bloodied wounds marking up his bare skin, but it was the gash with burnt edges on his temple that scared me.
“Gabe?” I whispered thickly, and his flesh felt unusually cold as I touched his arm. “Gabe?”
Then slowly, his eyes fluttered open, dark golden and confused.
“You’re alive,” I gasped in relief, and without thinking, I kissed him quickly and roughly on the mouth.
“Is it over, then?” Gabe asked.
I nodded. “I think so.”
He sat up, wincing as he did, and touched at a particularly nasty-looking wound on his temple. It was a long bloody cut across his head, leaving a thin bald line in his hair, but flesh around it had turned purplish and it had blisters as if it was burned.
“Did somebody shoot at me with a silver bullet?” he asked, touching the wound gently. “At least it just grazed me, or I might be dead.”
“Selena!” Della Jane wailed, breaking through our moment.
I looked back to see Della Jane kneeling over her daughter’s bloody body. My mom had wrapped a shawl around Della Jane, covering her naked body, but she was too busy sobbing to notice.
“Oh no,” Gabe whispered. He tried to stand up, but his legs gave out from under him. “Can you get some clothes, and help me over to my sister?”
I did as I was told—rushing over to borrow a pair of jeans and an old T-shirt from Gideon. When he saw my own injuries, Gideon insisted on helping Gabe. After I brought the clothes to Gabe and he changed as quickly as his pain would allow, Gideon helped him to his feet.
“I can handle it from here,” Gabe said, letting go of Gideon and hobbling across the grass to where his mother knelt sobbing.
“My baby, my poor baby,” Della Jane cried, brushing Selena’s hair back from her face. “Wake up.”
“Mom,” Gabe said gently, and put his hand on her shoulder. “She’s gone.”
Della Jane recoiled from his touch. “And that’s your fault! None of this would’ve happened if you hadn’t gotten involved with these people!”
Gabe stepped back as if he’d been slapped.
“I did what I had to do, so I could keep you all safe!” Della Jane stared up at him with tears streaming down her face. “Why did you have to ruin it?”
“You made a deal with the devil, and you didn’t think you’d get hurt?” he asked, sounding as if he was fighting back his own tears.
“And this is all for nothing,” Della Jane went on in a trembling falsetto. “What if others come? What will I do then?”