City of Spells (Into the Crooked Place #2) - Alexandra Christo Page 0,109
upright.
Up ahead, the skies growled with his anger.
“Foolish child,” he said from the ground. He was staring at Zekia. “How dare you betray me like this?”
His hand cut into the air and suddenly Zekia was on the ground, screaming.
Her body twisted, like he was snapping her bones apart.
“I will make you pay. I will make you regret the day you were—”
He paused and let out a choked sound.
Tavia squeezed the neck of the doll tightly.
See how you like it, she thought.
Ashwood pulled his hand from the air and brought it to his own throat and Zekia let out a gasp of relief as the Kingpin’s magic ripped from her.
They watched, all of them, as Ashwood gasped for breath, choking on nothing at all.
He looked up as Tavia pinched the neck of the doll and Wesley, standing by her side where he belonged, watched on.
“My boy,” Ashwood said in a breathless stammer. “Help me.”
Wesley’s face remained plain.
“He’s not your boy,” Tavia said. “And nobody’s going to help you now.”
39
Karam
KARAM COULD NOT SEE the Kingpin’s face, but she could sense his growing fear as he looked from the mirror doll to Tavia to Wesley. To the two crooks that his legacy had created, who were now ready to undo him.
Tavia had managed to blood the doll after all.
And they had Zekia to thank.
Karam had been so sure the vision was real and she had been so sure Tavia’s death was final, and all of it had been an illusion.
If they lived through this, Karam planned to have strong words with the Indescribable God on how to be a bit clearer with its plans for the future.
“Then I guess that I’ll have fun trying,” Tavia said. “I’ve always loved a good fight.”
“Be careful what you wish for,” Ashwood sneered.
His smile basically hissed.
“Wekne ohg vjs.”
The words howled like a storm as they slid out of his mouth.
Karam recognized the words. It was a summoning, all too familiar.
Awaken and feast.
On cue, a bang as loud as the Star Eggs sounded from underneath the bridge.
“Here is the fight you wished for,” Ashwood said. “If I can’t kill you, then they will.”
The water below rippled and then parted ever so slightly, giving breath to the cruel life that hid beneath. There was a screech, like the sound the night made before the sun tore it down, and then from the depths of the Creijen waters, six ungodly creatures scurried out.
Shadow demons.
These were the things Karam had fought alongside Arjun and, even before that, in the rings of the underrealm. She had seen them clawing at men’s necks and faces, drinking their blood like fimpir bats.
“In the name of spirits,” Karam said, staring in horror.
And the demons, like they had heard her gasp, turned their shadow heads from the waters that birthed them and growled up at her. It took only seconds for them to leap up onto the bridge.
Karam swallowed and the demons barked back.
Spit stretched like string between their teeth and their bones bulged from their half-shadowed bodies. One dug its claws into the bridge and scraped a line through the ground like it was a throat.
“Cast a light,” Karam called out, to Saxony or Wesley or whoever could manage it first. “It will make them cower.”
But Saxony was at her sister’s side, tending to Zekia, who was still curled on the ground, sobbing in pain from whatever it was the Kingpin had tried to do to her.
Tavia was beside them, clutching on to the mirror doll to keep Ashwood at bay.
And Wesley just stared.
He blinked, staring at the demons in total horror.
“Wesley,” Tavia said. “Cast a light!”
Zekia winced up at her brother. “It’s my fault,” she croaked. “Please don’t be afraid.”
Saxony’s jaw tensed and it was then that Karam knew Wesley was scared, perhaps for the first time in his life.
These demons had tortured him under Zekia’s control. They had ripped into him and not only torn the flesh from his bones, but it seemed they had gotten their claws into something else.
Something deeper.
Something far inside his mind.
And the creature could sense it as much as Karam could, because five of the six galloped toward Wesley and the others.
“Use your shield to keep them away!” Karam yelled to Saxony.
But she didn’t need to, for her love was already casting a protection over the four of them as all of the demons tried their attack.
They bit and clawed and scraped at the barrier, trying desperately