squaring off with a demon of their own. The hunter had her bow drawn and an arrow locked into place.
A cool hand landed on my arm, preventing me from lunging into the fight. Ashor was insane if he thought I would sit on the sidelines while my family fought for their freedom. It was clear Verena had no desire to let us go. Like every demon I’d ever encountered, she had an agenda.
The question was, what did she want from us?
I’d have to wait for the answer until after I kicked some demon ass.
The first and even the second kill were no sweat; my demon, my body, and my magic all seemed to align with one purpose. Kill. I spun around, arcing my blade through the air. The tip caught the demon closest to me on the cheek, slicing him from jaw to ear.
The bastard spat at me, which didn’t sit well with the prince. As I was wiping off the grotesque demon saliva with the back of my hand, Ashor tore into the demon with an icy wall of darkness. It wove into his throat, devouring the demon from the inside out.
I gave Ashor a pointed look right after the beast crumbled to ash at my feet. “I had it under control.”
He grinned at me. “Of course you did, luv, but I’m the only one who can swap bodily fluids with my mate.”
I rolled my eyes, turning back to the fight. My family was working its way through the demons blocking the gate, taking them down one by one. I swung toward the queen, who was leaning against a tree trunk, watching with amused glee. Her demons were dying and yet she didn’t seem to care. Not even a fraction.
Ashor’s main objective remained keeping Verena’s guards off me, taking away a chunk of my fun. He didn’t kill most of them like the rest of us did, but knocked them out so they were no longer a threat for the time being—the spitting demon being the exception.
My eyes landed on Angel, and her hate-bright eyes burned. I followed her gaze just in time to see Chase take a hit on the side of his jaw. My cousin grinned, spitting blood from his mouth. “Wrong move, asshole.”
With her feet planted solidly, Angel summoned the power granted to her. Tiny sparks of red flicked into the center of her irises and then those embers ignited into flames. Not just in her eyes, but on her fingers. The fire danced, eager to play. Chase, realizing what Angel was about to do, dashed to his wife’s side, but he wasn’t fast enough to stop her. Seconds later, Hellfire encompassed the gate. “I don’t think so,” Angel said dryly to the demons, shaking her finger at them.
The winged demons snarled to a halt or risked getting burned to a crisp. The fire Angel produced incinerated a demon’s soul, ending their existence permanently. More than half of Verena’s guards were now dead, and the queen decided she’d had enough.
Verena flung out a hand, scowling at the flames threatening to climb into her kingdom. Clang. The gate slammed shut, but unlike the last time, I was on the other side, trapped with Ashor, looking at my family through the iron bars. “You need to go,” I said to them.
Travis shook his head, gripping the gate as if he was going to rip it away. “Not a chance in hell are we leaving you alone.”
Ashor was at my side, watching my back. “I see stubbornness runs in the family,” he said.
Ignoring the prince, I focused on my brother, offering him an encouraging half smile. “I’ll find my way home. I always do.”
The queen sauntered through the clearing with sexy grace, the train of her dress dragging over the ground behind her. Verena approached the fence, running a nail along the iron rods. She tsked as her catlike eyes slithered to Angel. “You and I will meet again, mortal queen. And when we do, you better hope that you are standing on the right side of the fence. Demons aren’t forgiving creatures, especially for one that was made…” Her gaze moved to Angel’s belly. “And with child.”
Chase did not like that. Not. At. All.
The muscle along his jawline pulsed, silver eyes bursting with gold flecks. His desire to rip through the barrier and slit Verena’s throat was oozing off him in violent ripples that were almost visible to the eye. “My wife is no concern of yours.”
Verena raised