“You want a piece of this?”

I grabbed his ears and slammed my head forward, breaking his nose. He howled. Black blood poured from his mouth and busted face. I held onto his head as he writhed, trying to get away from me.

“What the fuck is wrong with you. I thought you wanted a piece of me?” I distantly realized that he was affecting me, making me do to him what he wanted to do to me. But I couldn’t pull back.

Calm, Rylee. Feel the calm. These horsemen are tough because of how strong they are, but they can still be sent back. You know that. Ophelia was right, but I couldn’t let go of him. If I did, I would be done in. The demons around us backed farther, making room as if we were a show they didn’t want to miss. But why wouldn’t they take a shot at me now that I was down? At the edges of the circle, I caught the eyes of two demons with scars on their cheeks. Two parallel vertical lines with an intersecting dash.

Moloch’s demons were helping in the only way they could, holding their own back. I hoped it was enough.

War stood and inadvertently took me with him. My legs trembled under the strain of holding me so tightly to him while the poison from the blades made my blood sluggish.

I bent backward as I pulled my whip free from my hip. War couldn’t keep his hands to himself and he slid one palm up my belly.

What a fucking idiot.

Orion roared at him. “Kill her, you fool!”

“In my own time,” War yelled back. “I want to make this last. I haven’t had a woman in centuries who could—”

I sat up with the whip stretched between my two hands. “And you’re not about to, you piece of shit.” I wrapped it around his neck and yanked it tight as I let go of him, and my entire weight dropped to the ground. He let out a strangled scream that barely gurgled past his lips. Putting my boots to his shoulder, I straightened out, pulling for all I was worth. The demons around us still hadn’t come any closer. Thank the gods for Moloch and his friends.

War clawed at the whip while I was killing his body. Why was he still here? “Go, would you, already!” I yelled at him.

A laugh that could only be Orion’s reached me, and the crowd parted. I Tracked Marcella and Tiomon. For the moment, they were together and safe, but not very far away.

Which meant they were still in danger.

Orion leaned over me while I strangled his general. “Rylee, Rylee, Rylee. When will you learn that you are not meant to win this war?”

He kicked me hard in the hand closest to him, breaking bones. I clung to the whip with all I had left in me.

“Go, War. You’ve failed,” I whispered thinking of Marcella and Zane. They did not need war in their lives, not ever. I gave myself over to the calm and the love of those two babies; to the purity of their innocence and their sweet souls. The whip began to glow, pulsing in time with my heart. The light as pure and clean as the love I had for those around me.

War’s black eyes widened. “No,” he mouthed as his body began to dissolve.

Orion let out a roar and booted the side of my head. The world spun, and I kept pushing War away with all the power of a Slayer I had in me.

The horde around us shifted, like storm clouds carrying the threat of an epic flood to wipe us off the face of the earth. Or maybe that was my eyes watering from the pain. Orion booted me again, but not as hard. I looked up at him, the blood trickling down the side of his face as he shook his head. The bond worked against him again.

He lifted his foot and I braced myself, but he stepped back. “Fucking manipulative bitch.”

War glared down at me as his body turned into nothing but a distant, ugly memory.

I lay on the ground. “Sticks and fucking stones, Orion. And I will hurt you.” I pushed myself up. The demons let out a series of low, angry hisses that filled the air like pissed off cicadas. But they didn’t approach us. Moloch’s demons held them back.

Orion spat on the ground in front of me. “You think I won’t kill you now?”

I slowly reattached my whip to the left side of my belt and pulled my two blades. “I think you’ll try.”

My body hurt all over, and the poison was slowing me down. Faris’s bite had faded, and while it had healed some things, I was not at my best.

And I was about to face the biggest, baddest demon of them all.

Fucking hell, it felt like a Monday hopped up on steroids.

CHAPTER 39

LIAM

THE NUMBER OF demons was beyond staggering. He fought with his cutlass and fists, and picked up a short blade for his other hand somewhere in the melee. But they kept coming, the demons interchangeable as far as he was concerned. One downed body replaced by an upright one over and over.

He let out a grunt as he was hit from the side. The one good thing about Faris’s body was that it took damage almost as well as a Guardian’s. Almost.

There was a thundering of hooves and a bay unicorn slid to a stop in front of him.

Take your daughter, Wolf. The unicorn spun sideways showing him a tiny girl that had Rylee’s eyes. Without hesitation he reached for her, pulling her tightly against his chest. His daughter.

A demon with long spider legs came at him from the left. He let out a snarl and cut off the two closest legs, unbalancing it. Marcella clung to him, but didn’t cry. Didn’t let out a peep.

I will guard this side of her, you guard the other. The unicorn said as she struck out, demolishing three demons with one well-placed kick.

Side by side they fought. Above them, Marco and Ophelia culled the horde while Eve flew high, protecting Zane. Doran, Louisa, and the other supernaturals held their own, but for how long? There was no way they could defeat this number of demons. No way at all.