The Sweetest Burn (Broken Destiny #2)(34)

"I left you behind in a demon realm once," I snapped. "I'm never doing that again, so we can waste time arguing, or we can get those people and then all get out of here."

He muttered a particularly foul Demonish curse, but with a short nod, he gave up the fight. We were almost at the staircase when my arm suddenly flamed with pain, coinciding with a loud whooshing sound behind us.

I didn't need to turn around to know that we were no longer alone in the room.

"Fuck," Adrian hissed, shoving me toward the stairs. "Run!"

I did, for the first few steps. Then I spun around, remembering that I had the hallowed grave dirt. I burst back into the room to see Adrian smash a grand piano over someone's head. The wood from the piano immediately took on a pale, shiny glaze and then exploded outward, revealing an African-American man with white hair and eerie, albino-like eyes. Being brained by a baby grand didn't seem to faze the demon, either. He grinned, saying something very fast in Demonish. I didn't know what, but I recognized one word: Adrian's name.



       
         
       
        

"Oh shit," I whispered.

The demon knew who Adrian was. So much for Zach saying that Adrian wouldn't need to be disguised with Archon glamour. Then again, who else would be strong enough to treat a piano like a baseball bat?

The demon swung his gaze toward me next. Adrian took advantage of his distraction and hurled a fireplace poker at him. The poker sunk into the demon's chest, impaling him. Adrian immediately chucked a chair, the other couch and the coffee table at him next. My right arm was throbbing with pain, but I got into the mix and flung a handful of grave dirt at the demon.

To my surprise, nothing happened, and Adrian stopped his furniture assault to shove me back toward the staircase.

"I told you, run!" he warned me. "He's-!"

That's all Adrian got out before the furniture covering the demon exploded away. In the next moment, he had grabbed Adrian. Almost at once, a blue tinge covered Adrian's skin, followed by a shiny white layer that resembled ice. Frostbite, I realized in horror, remembering the glazed sheen that had overtaken the wood from the piano. That's why Adrian had been fighting this demon with furniture instead of his fists. Somehow, the demon must be able to freeze everything that he touched.

And everything he'd touched had frozen so rapidly, it had ended up exploding.

"No!" I screamed, grabbing the remaining grave dirt and throwing it at the demon.

Not only did it fail to make the demon release Adrian, he grinned at me as if I'd amused him. His teeth were filed into icicle-like points, and those pale, white-on-white eyes seemed to burn into mine. A choking sound escaped Adrian and his arms began to flail in a jerky, uncoordinated way. Panic overwhelmed me, making the pain from my now golden tattoo feel almost blissful by comparison. The demon was killing Adrian right before my eyes, and the only weapon I had wasn't working!

It's not your only weapon.

The words whispered across my mind, so faint that I barely heard them. I don't know why I looked down at my right hand, but I did. Even with my jacket covering me to the wrist, the tattoo of the ancient slingshot was glowing so brightly that it lit up the space around me. In fact, the incredible light radiating from it made the image of the rope that wrapped around my fingers and hand look almost...real.

Without thought, I grasped a section and pulled. If I would've paused to consider what I was doing, I never would've done it, let alone kept pulling when I felt the unmistakable give of something tangible beneath my skin. 

The demon's grin faded into a look of disbelief. I didn't pull anymore; I yanked, agony searing up my arm as if I'd sliced it open to the bone. But when I glanced at my right arm, my skin was unbroken. And I now held a long, golden rope that was very, very real-and thrummed with enough supernatural power to make my teeth rattle.

As if everything were happening in slow motion, I saw myself grab a fragment of wood and fit it into the sling's loop. Saw the demon drop Adrian and charge toward me. Watched me dodge him and spin the rope, then snap it at him. Then felt the icy, paralyzing power of his abilities as the demon's hands closed over my legs, but in moments, that grip loosened, then vanished.

I fell to the floor, my legs feeling like they'd been turned into popsicles. The demon's face was right next to mine as my head banged onto the tile, and I glimpsed a cut on his forehead. Before I could roll away from him in instinctive defense, his features began to splinter, crack and dissolve. By the time I'd hauled myself into a sitting position, he was nothing more than a pile of ashes on the ground next to me.