and stepped into the triangle with me. As he did, I tried again for the moon power, hoping the binding was weakened enough for me to snag it. No such luck.
His fist felt like iron against my cheek. The pain was sharp and excruciating.
They were on me so fast. Three giant men in such a small space. I tried to defend myself for half a second, but it was no use. One grabbed my hair, then violently wrenched my arms behind my back. The last one punched me in the face. The pain was unreal. Bones cracked. Blood flowed. They were going to bash my face in—maybe they already had. My shoulder popped, and my arm went numb.
Someone jabbed me in the stomach. All the air left my lungs. Blood choked the back of my throat. My arms were released, and the pain in my shoulder rocketed through me. My knees buckled, and I dropped to the floor.
But they didn’t stop.
They kicked me in my chest. Ribs cracked.
They kicked me in my back until pain radiated up and down my spine.
Someone stomped on my foot. My ankle cracked and broke. I barely felt it. I couldn’t feel anything anymore.
I wasn’t afraid to die. I was almost glad it was coming. This would all be over. I would start again, some where else. Another plane. Somewhere my mother couldn’t touch me. Somewhere Dare couldn’t touch me.
My cheek lay against Tambuku’s wooden floor. I was curled on my side. I could still see out of one eye. I stared into the spotlight until I imagined it was a tunnel of white, ready to suck me in and whisk me away.
Dare’s voice broke through my reverie. “Enough. You’re going to kill her.”
Please, just do it. I wanted to say it out loud, but one side of my jaw was definitely broken.
I looked up at Dare with my one good eye. He was smiling down at me. Beryl stood by his side. The men who’d beat me were breathing heavy. One shook out his fingers. His knuckles were bloody.
“Go drive the van around and bring the cage inside,” Dare said absently.
The air shuddered. A dark shape wavered behind his head. Beryl’s hair fluttered. Enormous black wings sounded like a flag snapping in the wind.
They all spun around and looked up at Priya. His face was hardened, jaw tense. He swung his arm around and backhanded Dare across the cheek. The elderly Hellfire leader’s face flew sideways. Priya’s silvery body darted forward. Beryl and the henchmen cried out and stumbled as he landed.
Two quick strides and his bare foot stamped on the edge of my binding. Heka fizzled and popped. The terrible pressure dropped away.
Free.
Free, but so broken, I couldn’t move.
I guess I didn’t need to.
The moon power came to me in a rush, coating the room in a blanket of silver light.
All knacks. That’s what Dare said. It made sense now. I didn’t need a spell. Whatever I could imagine, I could do.
Not demon, but not human, either. Something in-between.
I wanted to tell Priya to get behind me, but I couldn’t speak. I didn’t need to, though, did I? I screamed at him in my head to move back. His wings extended and flapped, then flew out of sight. My hair blew forward as he landed behind me.
No good would come of letting Dare walk out of here alive. If I lived, he’d keep me chained like a dog and use me to do God only knew what. But if I died, Lon and Jupe would be sitting ducks. Either Lon would kill Dare and end up in jail, or Dare would make their lives miserable—whatever lives he allowed them to have. He was a horrible person, a sadistic asshole with too much power. And he was a killer.
A killer who was pulling a gun out of his suit jacket, looking at me with murder in his eyes.
Eat or be eaten. No choice now.
I mentally marked them all: Dare, Beryl, the three men. And as Dare hesitated, pointing the gun first at me, then behind me at Priya, I thought of Merrimoth that night on the beach, hurling fire at me and Lon. That’s what I wanted.
Dare’s rage-filled gaze connected with mine. The panic I’d felt before his men destroyed my body was now reflected in his eyes. And with the moon power fueling my Heka, I directed all of my willpower into one single word:
Burn.
Orange and yellow flames lit up the room. Swirled