Page 66 of Blood and War
“The fear you smell is nothing but your own.” She growled. Turning with him, meeting his gaze every step of the way. She wouldn’t be afraid, not anymore. She was strong, and she was still standing.
Demitria dared a glance toward the unconscious figures. They hadn’t moved, but nothing had changed either. That was all that mattered. A brief glimpse of the rise and fall of their chests was all she needed to know to keep going. To keep pushing.
“This is all over if you choose.” He lunged, claws pointed for her chest. Demitria rolled out of the way with less than an inch to spare. Narrowly escaping the deadly blow he’d tried for. He was fast, but she’d been quicker. Her blade swung again, this time it pierced flesh. A deafening roar of pain erupted from his body as he twisted, striking for her. She rolled again. He was slowing, but she wouldn’t let her guard down. “I’ll take my time killing you.” He seethed, “Taste your flesh like I did your parents. I still remember how your mother tasted. Her blood sickly sweet.” Another toothy grin, an effort to get under her skin.
It worked, just not how he’d hoped.
Demitria let the rage consume her as the guilt she’d been forever carrying disappeared. Let the fire she’d barely contained overcome her, and launched at him with such fierceness, the demon couldn’t move. She moved so fast he hadn’t had the chance to.
She was screaming, roaring, as she exploded. Embedding the blade through the demon's chest with an ethereal force shedidn’t know she possessed. Ripping any ounce of life from the creature’s body.
“My name is Demitria Collins,” She panted, standing over the demon that had ruined her life. Those crimson eyes bore into her own.Fear. She could see the fear in them as she towered over him. Could taste it in her mouth as a familiar itch radiated down her spine. “I am not afraid.” She plunged her sword deeper. Deeper until it pierced the dirt beneath him, and the demon ceased to exist.
Thirty-Nine
DEMITRIA
She couldn’t move. The adrenaline that was pumping through her body had left her feeling numb. Legs nearly useless. Despite it all, she’d made it. The body beneath her was proof of that.
On shaky legs, she crawled off the demon, snatching the golden pocket watch from his talons as she did. A lightness had enveloped her body. A warmth, like a soft caress that eased every worry she’d had. It was the guilt, she realized, that no longer plagued her. That utter feeling of despair and worthlessness that had been dragging her for so many years, torturing her at every waking moment, was gone. Killing Reim had lightened her. Healed her soul in a way that no one else had ever been able to since the death of her parents.
Using her sword as a crutch, Demitria stood, taller than she had in years. The mist began to dissipate, and with it, the bodies of her friends vanished into nothingness.
“Demitria!” Kellan reached her first. Her name rolling off his tongue like a prayer, for the first time, she realized. And she—she’dlovedthe way it sounded coming from his mouth. He’d come from the opposite direction from where his body had been minutes before. Had it… not been real? Had he not been caught?“By the gods, we couldn’t reach you.” Kellan held her face in his hands, and she realized her entire body was shaking. Reim’s corpse still lay unmoving feet away. That had been real. She’d felt it in her entire body when he’d died. “I’m so sorry you had to face him alone.” Kellan crushed her in an embrace she didn’t dare break away from. Hugging her body so close to his they’d felt like one.
“I killed him.” She whispered. “All that pain… the guilt. It’s just… gone.”
“They’d be so proud of you.” His breath ghosted over her ear, and the shiver wreaked havoc on her insides at its warmth. At the things it did to her. “I’m so proud of you.” Kellan had known the strife the demon had caused her. The pain that had engraved itself under her skin at what Reim had done. He knew, more than any of the others aside from Jace, just how hard that had to have been on her. The trauma it would have caused.
“You were taken, and I just… Jace was there, and I couldn’t let him kill you. Either of you.” She held them in for as long as she could. The tears fell freely from her eyes, soaking his cloak as they trickled down her cheeks.
“He consumed human souls.” Kellan spoke. “I’d recognize that power anywhere. That’s why we couldn’t reach you. To tell you it wasn’t real. We couldn’t touch anything in the clearing without succumbing to that power ourselves. But you won. You overcame it all, and you beat it.” Pulling away from her, Kellan cupped her face in his hands softly so all she could see was him. Staring into those azure eyes that’d she’d grown so fond of these weeks since he’d captured her. His thumb gently caressed her bottom lip, her body igniting underneath the touch. Begging him to close the distance, despite the others that surrounded them. In that moment, it was only her and Kellan.
“You’re beautiful.” He whispered, as if seeing her for the first time. In a different light than before, like watching her had ignited something within him.
“What…was that?” Demitria pulled away from Kellan at Jace’s voice.He didn’t know.
“That is what killed our parents.” She wiped the back of her sleeve across the tears lining her eyes. “It’s what I couldn’t tell you back in Solis.”
Jace stumbled backward, hand clenched to his chest as the words left her lips. Pain. Grief. She watched it change his features, hollowing his face until his own tears fell.
“Wh-What do you mean?”
“When I didn’t come back from patrol, he found us. He remembered that night, and taunted me with it.” She couldn’t hold back the new wave of tears that fell. She wasn’t consumed with her own grief, but Jace. The heartache she watched him relive again. “He was after me, and Kellan took the blow. That was why I brought him back.”
“The life debt you said you owed.” Jace’s jaw went slack, his green eyes blown wide.
Demitria nodded. “Now you understand, the things I’ve done up until now. The things I’ve seen out here…” She let her voice trail off. She wouldn’t tell him about the capture. How Reim had nearly killed her. She’d save him from that horror. His grief today was enough.
Jace wound his arms around her, pulling her into his embrace. “I’m sorry you had to face him alone. That I wasn’t there. That we didn’t face himtogether.”
“That demon means nothing to us.” She whispered, hugging him for a moment before stepping away. “He has no hold on me, not anymore.” Demitria wiped her eyes once more for good measure.
“We have company.” Gabriel broke. “Draw your weapons.” His voice carried far, as if he’d been standing directly beside them, not on the other end of the clearing. Demitria’s eyes wandered the land. Surveying. Searching for an oncoming attack, but through the mist, she couldn’t see a damn thing. It had lightened some, but not enough. She cursed her human eyes.
Kellan immediately moved to the defensive, pulling his sword free from its sheath as he wrapped a protective arm around her. Pressing his body into hers as a shield, eyes solely focused to the west of them. “Stay behind me.” Eire had her bow drawn, arrow notched in place. As much as she hated protecting the other humans, she couldn’t disobey a direct order. Not from Gabriel, so she and Kane fanned out between the remaining humans.
“Multiple.” Kellan called. “Be ready.” Demitria didn’t know what was coming, and Kellan was too preoccupied to answer any questions she may have about it, so she did the only thing she could think of. With tired arms, she lifted the sword up that had been dragging along the ground and readied it as best she could. Her arms felt weak. Heavy, as she readied herself the best she could.
