“Where is the gargoyle?”
Victor stepped in front of her as the Jinn slammed his way through the wall, the air crackling with electricity.
“If you have any other tricks, little one, now would be an appropriate moment to reveal them,” Victor rasped, pulling a large sword from the scabbard on his hip.
“What of your warriors?”
“Dead or wounded.”
Shaking off the clinging dust, the Jinn pointed a finger directly at Juliet, his eyes glowing with an eerie light and his hair floating as if caught on a breeze.
“Give me the gargoyle,” he roared.
Drowning in the potent presence of the Jinn, Juliet was caught off guard when Levet abruptly appeared on a rock above the Jinn’s head, his expression smug.
“I am here, you putrid saddlebag of rotting fungus,” Levet taunted, holding up his hand to reveal a wooden box ornately decorated with gold and precious jewels, including a ruby the size of Juliet’s fist. “And look what I discovered.”
Wondering if her friend had taken complete leave of his senses, Juliet shook her head.
“What the devil is that?”
Victor stiffened with a tension that Juliet did not need to be a mate to sense.
“The Jinn’s tiglia. It holds his anchor to this realm. Without it he will be forced to return to his own world,” he whispered softly.
The demon’s power surged through the tunnel, making the earth shake and the air so thick it was nearly impossible to breathe.
“Give that to me.”
Without warning, Levet launched the box over the head of the Jinn, directly at Juliet.
“Catch.”
Too stunned to think clearly, Juliet snatched the box from the air, her heart nearly halting at the malevolent magic that slammed into her.
Victor instinctively swept an arm around her, keeping her upright even as his wary gaze remained on the Jinn, who was already turning his fury toward Juliet.
“Can you destroy it?” he demanded.
Juliet’s first instinct was to deny the necessary skill for such a task. After all, she had never been properly trained in magic. How could she possibly destroy such a powerful object? And in truth, she simply wanted to drop the vile thing and run as far away as possible. The mere touch of it seemed to taint her.
But, drawing on the bond with her powerful mate, she steadied her nerves and forced herself to actually study the box with her innate talent.
The magic was unfamiliar, but she ignored the complex weave and instead concentrated on the odd tentacles she could sense flowing from the box to the demon. It was almost as if the very essence of the Jinn was in the box while the physical body was allowed to move around the world.
So what if she severed the connection?
She sucked in a deep breath, lifting her head to meet Victor’s steady gaze.
“I will need time.”
His smile was filled with a savage determination. “I can give you that.”
With a growl that made the hairs on her nape rise, Victor launched himself at the Jinn, the sword in his hand a blur of silver as he attacked. At the same moment, Levet jumped off the rock, directly onto the beast’s head.
Momentarily paralyzed, Juliet watched in horror as Victor ignored the massive blows from the Jinn, striking the demon with enough force to halt his desperate attempt to reach his tiglia. She had never witnessed a battle between two such mighty foes. It was…terrifyingly beautiful.
It was only when Levet sent a fireball over her head that she came to her senses.