never be safe. There is nowhere you can hide that he can’t reach you,” he snarls, and then he lunges.
With a firm grip on the staff of my scythe, I shove, makin’ the weapon hit him square in the chest as he dives for me. With strength I didn’t know I was capable of, the bark-covered demon goes flyin’ back and slams into the branch-covered wall.
He lands in a heap on the floor, joinin’ the mountain of broken glass left behind from the table he shattered. Without hesitation, I quickly make my way over to him. I’m barefoot and steppin’ on glass, but I don’t feel an ounce of pain as I flip my scythe from the blade that allows me to do damage, to the blade that allows me to reduce this demon to dust.
I have no idea how I know that, or how I know to do any of this, or how I’m suddenly so damn strong, but I don’t care. I’m awake durin’ a tribulation for the first time in my life, and I’m seein’ exactly what I’m capable of. Instead of bein’ scared or in shock, I feel complete and right in a way I can’t put into words. This is how I was always meant to be. I can feel that I was fractured before, and I know I need to do everythin’ I can to ensure that I’m never broken into pieces that way again.
I suddenly feel the call of the Hellgate pulsing inside of me, and it makes me pause. I’ve known for weeks that the gate was there, but I’ve never felt a pull to it or a draw like Flint and Alder have described happens to them. It’s been silent for me the whole time I’ve been here, but suddenly, I can feel it now.
I breathe in its need as its demands ring in my ears. I can feel the weight of it settlin’ like an obligation on my shoulders, and I know it needs somethin’ from me, I just don’t know what.
Mickey groans and sits up from where he collapsed to the floor. I pull my attention away from the Hellgate and focus back on the demon who thought he could come into my home and threaten my people.
A voice in the back of my mind inserts that this is technically Flint and Alder’s home and that I need to be less clingy, but I punch that thought across the face, and it goes skitterin’ away.
I press the blade of my scythe against where I suspect Mickey’s throat is beneath all the tree limbs and lean in closer. “You move one inch, and existence as you know it is over,” I growl.
He freezes instantly, which is exactly when the bay window to my left explodes. I don’t even flinch as glass comes flyin’ toward me. Shards embed themselves in my skin as my demons come leapin’ into the room, but I don’t feel a thing aside from my fury and desire for retribution. I stand still as a buildin’ as chaos rains down around me.
Unfortunately for him, Mickey doesn’t do the same. He jerks his body to the side to instinctively protect himself from the pieces of window now flyin’ his way. But all that does is nick his bark-like skin against the blade of my scythe, and with a poof, Mickey just up and turns himself to a cloud of dust.
Well, crap.
Alder and Flint land next to me with a thud, and I can feel the rage radiatin’ off both of them. I turn to take them in as they scan the room for the threat that’s no longer here aside from hacked off pieces of wood limbs still bleedin’ on the floor and a ruined dinin’ room.
“What was that?” I demand, gesturin’ to the window. “I was about to force some answers out of him before you two bull in china shop’ed the window.”
Both of their furious gazes snap to me, and I see a flicker of surprise on their faces as they take me in and register what I’ve said. It makes me wonder what I look like. I reach over and pluck a large piece of glass from my side and hold it up to see if I can catch my reflection. I look the same, but better. There’s a weird purple haze surroundin’ my body, and I see shadows of somethin’ at my back, but when I look over my shoulder, nothin’ is there. My