I tried crawling to the patch of trees at the corner of the fort. There were demons fighting everywhere. I couldn’t prevent the damage that came from Chase, but I could at least get clear of the rest.
But each movement was harder than the last. Whatever was happening to him was bad and it was taking its toll. At one point I had to stop and spit out a mouthful of blood, horrified when something small and white landed on the ground. A tooth. A few paces after that, I bit back a scream as my right elbow gave out with a soft but distinct cracking.
Just when I wasn’t sure I could make it another inch, Heckle was there. “Here,” he whispered as he lifted me from the ground. It hurt. Everything hurt. But I let him drag me to the sideline. “This ends now.”
Another flash, even brighter than the ones before, lit up the sky, but unlike the previous two, this wasn’t lightning. It was something else. When it cleared, I gasped. The battle was gone. The pain, the other demons, the blood and bodies. All of it. Evaporated as though it had never been. The only things left were me and Heckle, and Jax and Chase.
For a moment, I was sure Chase had taken one too many knocks to the head. This was a hallucination. That, or death. “What—”
“This war is between your two demon clans. Using a mortal to gain advantage is unbalanced.”
Chase stalked forward, stopping just shy of grabbing Heckle around the throat. “You have no right to interfere.”
“On the contrary, it is my job to interfere.” He stepped back and gestured to Jax. “This is your game board. You will play your hands out. Alone. Royal blood against royal blood.”
Chase looked as though he might argue, but Jax simply nodded and stepped away. “Take your opportunity, Zenak. Let’s finish this once and for all.”
And with a grin, Chase lunged forward and threw the first punch. In fact, he was throwing the only punches. I backed away as they fought. Chase assaulted Jax with fury, but he refused to strike back. He did his best to dodge the blows, but dealt none of his own. He didn’t want to hurt me.
“How can you let them do this,” I whispered furiously. “You know he won’t fight back. You said they couldn’t use me, yet that’s what Chase is doing.”
“Do you remember what we discussed?” Heckle asked, voice low. “They are brutal and vicious, but I believe Azirak to be the lesser of the two evils.”
I nodded as a chilly breeze whipped the leaves into a frenzy above their heads. The nearly bare branches stretched into the sky like skeletal fingers, reaching for heaven.
In the middle of the fort, Chase stood over Jax with a mix of hate and pity. “What are you going to do? You hurt me and you hurt her. We both know you don’t want that. I don’t either. Just roll over and die. Make this easy on everyone. End your pathetic existence. No more feeding the demon. Isn’t that what you’ve always wanted?”
It was there in Jax’s eyes. He was buying his brother’s bullshit. I had to do something to tip the scales in Jax’s favor. There was one way to get him to fight back.
Heckle was right. It was time for the backup plan.
“You’re sure. You can do what you said?” My insides trembled at the thought of going through with it, but something had to give.
A faint shimmer surrounded Heckle’s left hand. A moment later, he held out a pristine-looking blade. “I can. But as I warned, it will come with a price. You may lose him regardless of this sacrifice. There is no way to predict the outcome. It will all come down to choice.”
If I agreed to follow through, then it would give Jax the freedom to kill Chase. The good part about that was, it would ensure that Zenak would never have his powers restored, and that Jax would live. The bad part was, Azirak’s powers would be restored. It would break the curse that bound the demons and give them the freedom again. Forever. Heckle didn’t know what would happen to human Jax.
It was a gamble. And in the end, that’s all life really was. A series of gambles. “Chase!” I took the knife and positioned the knife above my forearm.
He froze for a second, glancing up from a weary-looking Jax, and laughed. “Come on, Samantha. You’re the biggest chicken when it comes to pain. You freaked out two weeks ago when you got a splinter.”
He was right. I stubbed my toe and screamed about it for an hour. But this was different. This was for Jax. Nothing I could do would kill Chase, but I could take the wind out of his sails.
I could take myself out of the equation.
“What’s the point? You can’t kill me. The link doesn’t work that way.” He eyed the knife. “I can still kill you, though. One swipe across my throat and you’ll be choking back your own blood. Don’t make me do it, Samantha. Please. Just step aside and let this play out.”
“I can’t kill you, but I can make you miserable.”
“I’m commanding you to put the knife down.”
I smiled and reveled in the shocked expression on his face. “And I’m commanding you to go to hell.”
He took a step toward me, mouth wide open. “How the hell—we’re still linked. I can feel it.”
Behind Chase, Jax climbed to his feet with a frightening smile. A sickening crack sounded as he tilted his head to the left, and then the right. “You’ve got no control over her.”
Chase spun on his brother. Lightning-fast, he whipped his fist forward and caught Jax in the jaw. Without a moment of hesitation, Jax retaliated by dropping to the ground and sweeping the back of Chase’s knees. He went down hard and all the air whooshed from my body as the sting of impact sent a dull twinge through my muscles. But he wasn’t down long. Jax was unwilling to do any real damage—but Chase wasn’t. In a graceful arc, Chase launched into a kip up and delivered a jab that caught Jax directly in the throat. He struggled for air and stumbled back, crashing into the large rock at the center of the fort.
Chase turned to me. “What’s the plan, Samantha?”
“Jax can’t hurt you because of me,” I said. “If I’m not in the way, he’ll take you down.” When I’d gone over this with Heckle, I expected to get to this point and freeze up. There was nothing. No second thought. No hesitation. Just conviction. Chase had to pay for what he did. Jax had to stay safe.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Jax
Sam was a mess. Multiple gashes across her face, right eye swollen along with her bottom lip. She held her left arm at an odd angle, and it was easy to see she was having a hard time holding on to the knife.
And where the fuck had it even come from?
“I’m giving you one more chance,” she said. I had a bad feeling. It was more than the strangely energized colored smoke swirling around her head. I shouldn’t have been able to see them in the darkness of the clearing, but for some reason, it was brighter than normal. Almost neon. It was a whisper in my head. Something jumbled and indistinct, but somehow I knew in my gut that it was bad. “Let me go. Release me from the link.”
I wondered if this was where I would have ended up if it hadn’t been for Sam. If the situation had been reversed and she’d bonded with Chase all those years ago instead, would I have been the killer? Would I be standing in my brother’s place?
Chase shook his head. “I’m sorry you were dragged into this, Samantha, but you’re the only insurance I have. I can’t break the link.”
“Sam…” The broken, low whispers in my head cleared, and I didn’t know how, or where they’d come from, but I knew what she was going to do. “NOO!”