The Rose Witch - Chandelle LaVaun Page 0,32

torn apart, like my rib cage was severed in half. Shooting pain shot down my arms and into my stomach. My eyes twitched. Blue light flashed.

“MISS!”

“What happened? Atley, what got her?”

“I DON’T KNOW!” he shouted back. I knew he dropped down in front of me but my vision was all wonky. “Breathe, miss. We’ll get help!”

“What’s that light?” Peabo pointed to my chest. “What is she Tony Stark?”

I looked down at my chest and choked on a scream. That bright blue light was coming from me. That glowing blue crescent moon inside my clear crystal quartz pendant was pulsing with light.

A warm gust of wind rushed over us smelling like salt and maple syrup—

“SHIT!” Atley shouted and spun around.

Both boys pulled daggers I hadn’t even seen on them and sprinted toward the water. I glanced ahead of them and my heart stopped. Big black creatures shot out of the water, looking like the ugly angry child of a hydra and a kraken. Long tentacles with faces and big red eyes sliced through the air. The boys charged right in, daggers raised.

I had to get out of here. This was my chance. But my legs felt like they were glued in sludge. It took everything in me to move a single muscle. I clenched my teeth and screamed as I pushed up to my feet. The world wobbled but I held on. I just had to lose these boys while they were fighting the water demons. I turned my back to the ocean just as a massive black object the size of a small car leapt through the bushes and onto the sand. It crawled toward me on eight legs, clearing the distance between us in a flash.

And I couldn’t move. My body seized up.

The massive spider-demon jumped in the air. It flew to right over my head then dropped.

I braced myself as a pearly white stinger dropped down right for me. But then a gust of wind that smelled like a bonfire slammed into my chest. Black smoke swirled in front of my face. The incubus jumped in front of me and the spider-demon’s stinger sank into his chest with a sickening swoosh.

I gasped.

He flicked his wrist and black smoke coiled around the spider-demon. It hissed and then turned to dust. The incubus spun around, the spider-demon’s stinger still lodged in his sternum. His glowing gold eyes looked me up and down three times, like he was checking to make sure I wasn’t hurt. He glanced over my shoulder and snarled, then reached up and plucked the stinger from his chest and tossed it aside.

My jaw dropped. My eyes widened.

He walked around me and held his hands up in front of him. Black smoke poured like a river from his palms. I turned just in time to watch it slam into the water-demons. Each and every one shrieked and froze and then burst into dust. A dozen of them dead instantly from his smoke.

“Bloody fuck. What?” I shrieked.

He turned and his golden gaze met mine.

I froze.

Chapter Ten

Chloe

His eyes bore into mine and heat filled my veins. A scorching fire exploded in my chest. My cheeks warmed like I was actually blushing. I was blushing like a schoolgirl for an incubus. Which meant it was official, I’d lost my mind. My most prized possession. Gone. With each passing second that his eyes burned into mine, I felt something shatter inside me. I didn’t know what that something was yet and that scared me.

I knew I needed to be afraid of him.

He’d given me plenty of reason to be.

But my mind kept replaying the memory of him saving people from that train. He’d even stopped it from crashing and possibly exploding. He’d caught me and gently sat me on my feet. I no longer knew what to think of him.

And then he’d gone and taken a spider-demon stinger to the chest.

For me.

I didn’t understand any of it. Not who he was or what he wanted, and most definitely not how the hell he’d just done whatever he’d just done…but I was sick of running. I was sick of being afraid. I was sick of being confused and not knowing what was going on.

With him standing ten feet away from me, the salty ocean air was able to chase his smoky scent away, leaving my brain free to think freely.

A shadow moved behind him and then that massive black hellhound appeared out of thin air. One red and one gold eye stared right