The Unlikeable Demon Hunter (Nava Katz #1)(96)

The whoosh of wind against my skin was Drio blowing past me. Adramelech shot a blast of fire at him, and had Drio not had super speed, he'd have been flambéed. "Only need one Rasha to get free," the demon taunted.

I poked my head back up the attic stairwell to see he'd disappeared again. Cursing, Drio spun and was gone, hunting him. I followed, skidding to a stop in the atrium at the top of the stairs that led down to the main floor.



       
         
       
        

Below, Rohan had Adramelech pinned facedown on the ground, Drio chanting as he stood over them. Rohan pressed the blade along his elbow against the demon's spine, his knee resting on the peacock feathers, bending them out of the way.

Adramelech burst into flame.

Rohan kept his arm on the demon's back, despite the flames engulfing his sleeve. Pain etched his features as he waited for Drio to finish the chant.

I leaned over the low railing for a better look.

Drio nodded at Rohan, who shifted, allowing Drio to plunge the ritual blade into the demon's sweet spot. Adramelech winked out of existence, dead. All that was left was a single peacock feather.

Rohan sank back on his calves, beating his still-flaming arm against the stone floor.

As I stepped onto the top stair, headed for the pair, a black ball of smoke blazed up from the spot where the demon had lain.

Drio barely managed to pull Rohan out of the way. The farmhouse went from zero to inferno in a second, smoke and flame billowing up toward me. Not a normal fire, this was oily and vicious, snapping in evil tendrils, sparking and hissing. The demon's "gift."

The staircase collapsed in a rumbling roar. To jump down would be to jump into the heart of the fire. Blackness curled and danced around me, sucking more and more light from the world. I felt my way along the wall, my lungs burning from the incessant heat, looking for a window. The smoke slithered inside me, defiling me. I spat it out as best I could, throwing my arm over my mouth and nose to make a filter.

I couldn't see, couldn't hear anything except the roar and crackle of the flames licking at the walls and floor behind me. The flames had a languid quality, as if they had all the time in the world to devour me. As a gift, this one sucked balls.

My fingers brushed a doorframe and I almost wept. Granted, I was already weeping from the fire, my tears leaving sticky streaks on my cheeks. The faintest trickle of cool breeze swept over me and I turned toward it in relief. It had to be coming from one of the empty window panes. I could make it out of here. Safe. Not a second too soon, either, because out from the hallway came a deafening crash. I suspected the roof had caved in.

I was almost to the window when I heard it. A thin, plaintive, terrified cry for help from another room. The person cried out again. Definitely female. When she cried out for a third time, this time for Rohan, I knew who it was.

Lily.





27





Swearing viciously under my breath, I detoured away from the window and towards Lily. I tried to call out that I was coming, to reassure her she wasn't going to die, but I only coughed.

I was willing to believe that the guys had escaped, anything else was unthinkable, but if no one was coming for me, it was because they absolutely couldn't. That they were trusting me to make it out alive. 

That meant they had no idea that Lily was here. Was it my fault Adramelech had brought her here, by implying on the night of the wrap party that I could give him the person who could make Rohan hurt? The demon had said that night was illuminating. I'd never meant for him to turn his sights on Lily, but I'd done exactly that.

Too bad I hadn't put Poppy in his sights. I would have been outside already.

Probably.

Groping my way back toward the door, my fingers brushed a smooth basin with a familiar curve. I fumbled around, thanking all the gods and fates when I felt the tap. Only the tiniest trickle of coppery smelling water came out but it was the richest treasure ever. I ripped off my shirt and immersed it in the water as much as possible. Tying it around my head like a scarf, I then wet my bra and upper body as much as I could.

Eyes screwed shut, I advanced inch by inch. Flaming bits of ceiling rained down on me, burning my skin. But the wet shirt kept my hair from catching on fire. I held one sleeve in place across my nose and mouth, sucking on the water, desperate for cool air in my desert-dry mouth.

Once in the hallway, my progress slowed further. I had to feel for each step before I placed my weight. I didn't know where the roof had collapsed and I didn't want to plunge down to the main floor.

Lily cried out again, sobbing.

I stepped into the room that sounded like the source and carefully cracked one eye. The fire was in here as well, but there was a flame-free circle. Lily sat in the middle of it, tied to a chair with rope. She'd fallen over in her attempts to wriggle free and her left ankle had puffed up to twice its size. Flames licked at the boards, millimeters from her hair. A gag was tied around her mouth with enough of it slipped down for me to have heard her cry out.