of my poison vines. It wasn’t me, right? I didn’t enjoy killing grotesquely. In fact, yesterday had been my first time killing someone and it had shaken me to my bones.
The demon’s power ripped through the air, and suddenly I knew what he was—an archdemon.
He grinned at me and uttered two demonic words, “Inferno Princessca.”
Icy fear gripped me like no other, even worse than the terror that fueled my cowardly run earlier. This time, the terror froze every muscle in my body. I couldn’t even drag in a breath.
The archdemon sprang toward me, his icy hellfire piercing my vine-shield and slamming into my chest.
I was done, I thought, tears flowing down my face. I should have made one of the Fae kings to vow to take care of my siblings when I had the chance.
“Evie! Evelina!” the Fae kings screamed, but they were too late.
I waited for myself to drop to my knees in a heap and be burned to a crisp.
The hellfire fizzled out on my skin like the mist.
The archdemon’s crimson eyes glowed eerily before he bellowed his order in a demonic tongue, which I understood perfectly. “Take the girl and return home! I need her alive!”
All the demons abandoned the Fae and rushed toward me. They planned to drag me to Hell.
The Fae kings roared in rage, and their powers merged.
A vortex of fire and ice and sunbeam and starlight rained down, hitting the demons and turning every one of them to flying ashes.
Chapter 27
The archdemon shifted to a plume of smoke and vanished into the ground before the Fae kings’ combined powers torched him.
The demon who wanted me the most had escaped.
When all three kings reached me, my vines had retreated. Baron, Rowan, and Rydstrom held me in their arms, crowding me. Though they glared and snarled at each other, none of them had the strength left to fight each other off.
“Are you hurt?” they asked me and inspected me clumsily. It seemed that none of them were especially good at caring for other people.
Kings were pampered, and my mind had finally caught up with the fact that they were the real deal. They were the Fae kings, the most powerful beings in Elfame that existed on the other side of the Veil.
“I don’t feel too hot,” I complained. Guess I was still a whiner, and that hadn’t changed. “I have bruises and scratches here and there. But it’s no biggie. You, however, need to tend to yourselves. All of you are wounded. Do you have any Fae medics on call?”
“Don’t fuss over us,” Baron said. “We’re Fae kings. We regenerate superfast.”
Their gazes lingered on the Veil, the flame waving before burning brightly again, still calling me.
“Everything has changed,” Rydstrom said, a distant look in his dark sapphire eyes. “Today, the Veil opened for the first time in millennia and let the demons pass through without being summoned to Earth.”
“The last time it remained opened was ten thousand years ago,” Rowan agreed grimly. “Almost all the worlds were destroyed in the species wars.”
Baron let out a ragged breath. “If we hadn’t stopped the demons, the horde would have reached the mortal realm.”
“Lucifer has been trying to bring down the Veil ever since his epic fall from the heaven,” Rydstrom said, fire in his words. “The Lord of the Underworld wants his realm on Earth. He’ll soon receive the word that the one who can tear open the Veil has come, and he’ll have his demons hunt down Evelina with all his might.”
My heart rammed into my ribcage and blood rang in my ears.
“I’m so very sorry,” I stuttered. “But I put the Veil back, right? I’ll just stay away from it from now on. I know I fucked up so big. What else can I do to fix it for good? I really don’t want Satan and his nasty demons to come after my ass.” I shuddered at the thought of more Hell creatures chasing me—or worse, my siblings. “Is there anything I can do, guys?”
Their attention snagged back to me, no accusation in their eyes.
Rydstrom traced his thumb across my sooty cheek. Rowan and Baron glowered at him, but didn’t assault him.
“You need to understand who you are, Evelina,” the Night King said mercilessly. “Time for hiding is over. You’re the prophesized one who can open and seal the Veil.” His eyes sparkled with satisfaction. “And my search is finally over.”
“What? No, no,” I cried out. “I’m not the one. I opened the Veil by