CHAPTER FOURTEEN
"WHAT IS HAPPENING?" a male voice demanded.
I didn't reply. I dragged myself over to Adrian, needing to use my upper body because my legs still wouldn't work. He was curled into a ball, and the blue tinge clinging to his skin scared me so much, I almost burst into tears. When I reached him, I wrapped myself around him, trying to use my body to warm his. He was barely breathing, and his skin was so cold, it took only seconds to realize that he needed a lot more warmth. Now.
I summoned all the strength I had to drag him over to the fireplace. The tiles in front of it were hot, and I laid him over them. Then I grabbed the poker from the demon's ashes. It was so icy after being embedded in the demon's body that it stuck to my hands, so I simultaneously froze and burned as I used it to stoke the fire higher. Once it was blazing, I threw myself on top of Adrian, hoping the trifecta of heat coming from all sides would reverse the awful effects of the demon's touch.
Nearby, demands for answers grew louder, but I kept ignoring them. All my attention was on Adrian, whose skin was slowly losing that terrifying bluish color. I barely noticed the agony shooting through me as the slingshot began to wind itself back into my right arm as if it were a snake returning to its home. I did notice Adrian wince when a section of the rope brushed across him, but I was so happy to see him coming back around that I didn't pause to wonder why.
"Adrian? Can you hear me?" I asked, lightly shaking him.
He made a noise. More moan than a word, but it was a response. Then he tried again, and this time, I understood him.
"That...hurt," he croaked.
Relief crashed into me with such force, I could no longer control my tears. They spilled from my eyes even as I laughed from the sheer, giddy joy of him being alive.
"So much," I agreed, climbing off him so he had room to maneuver. "I still can't feel my legs."
That was true, but the slingshot was back to being twined around my finger, wrist and forearm as if it were no more than the tattoo it now resembled. If I wasn't sitting next to a pile of demon ashes, I would've sworn that I'd imagined it reforming into the hallowed weapon, but the ash was there. So was the pain, and the last time I'd felt anything this excruciating was when I'd used the slingshot to wipe out Adrian's former realm.
Adrian looked at the ashes on the floor next to us, then at my right arm. His hand landed on my tattoo, which was still shimmering with that iridescent golden color. With a yelp, he let go and a red welt appeared on his palm.
"Son of a bitch," Adrian breathed. "It still works."
Tremors ran over me as the shock from the last several minutes faded enough for me to fully accept that.
"Not like it used to." My voice was shaky, yet even as I spoke, I began to pull myself together. "But enough."
More than enough. Having a weapon that could kill demons built-in to my arm was an incredible gift. So what if I was only able to kill them one at a time? That might not be as scary as how the slingshot had simultaneously wiped hundreds of them out the first time I had used it, but everyone had thought it was defunct after that, if you counted how it had resembled nothing more than a tattoo on my arm.
Adrian sat up very slowly. Every movement was clearly painful for him, and seeing it made tears well in my eyes for a different reason this time.
"I'm sorry," I whispered. "I distracted you, that's why he was able to grab you. I shouldn't have gotten in your way."
He pulled me into his arms. His embrace was chilly, but it was still the best thing I'd ever felt. "It's not your fault," he murmured. "I couldn't beat him. Oblivion was one of the oldest, deadliest demons in existence. Demetrius wasn't playing when he brought him here as backup."
Costume Man picked that moment to lose his cool. "I demand to know what's happening!" he snapped as he stomped over to us.
Adrian let me go, then pushed himself off the floor and rose. His movements were far slower than normal, but the stare he leveled at Costume Man was full of warning.
"You're not in Kansas anymore, Toto, and if you want to go home, you'll shut up and do what we say."
"I'm a park ranger as well as the tour guide for Scotty's Castle," Costume Man said, recovering. "If you don't want to get arrested, you'll do what I say."
To punctuate his point, Costume Man, aka the park ranger, pulled out a gun. Before I could react, Adrian had knocked it out of his hand. Even in his weakened condition, he was far faster than a normal person.