Dagon howled in victory and stopped beating on the outside of Ian’s circle. Ereshki ran forward, clapping with the delight of a child. Ian dropped to his knees beneath the Anzu’s massive form. His blood splattered the circle’s edge, sending more stabs into me that paled next to the anguish of seeing Ian on his knees.

The Anzu reared back for another flesh-rending bite—

Ian twisted, using the blood slicking the ground to slide past the Anzu’s descending head. Then he stabbed the horn through the creature’s mouth so violently, the tip went straight through the Anzu’s head and into the wall of the circle.

Pain blasted me, but beneath it, I felt a crack! that stopped the pain for a blissful moment.

When I looked up, the horn’s tip was still embedded in the wall surrounding the circle, and now, a spiderweb of fractures spread out to reveal that part of the invisible wall.

“No,” Dagon whispered. “It’s not possible!”

But it was. Brute force and multiple blasts of magic hadn’t made a single fissure in the circle, but somehow, the horn could damage it. And if it could be damaged, it could fall.

Ian kicked the dead Anzu aside. Then, its blue blood mixing with the scarlet swaths that splattered him, he rose, eyeing the crack with single-minded focus.

“Use the horn to break the circle!” I shouted, a fierce thrill of hope acting as a shot of adrenaline. “It isn’t the same as using magic. That crack you made stopped the pain!”

“No!” Dagon screamed, now beating against the walls with everything he had. Ereshki ran over to join him. Their double assault ripped into me with blinding ferocity, but amidst that, I felt another, stronger crack! that briefly stopped the pain.

“It’s working!” I croaked when my throat cleared of blood enough for me to speak. “Don’t stop!”

He didn’t. I felt each hammer of Ian’s fist against that wall in the snap of my bones becoming slower and the pulverizing of my insides becoming less crippling. Soon, I caught glimpses of Ian through the blood that took longer to block out my vision.

Ian had the horn wrapped around his hand like a pair of brass knuckles as he hammered at the wall with the determination of the damned. Fractures made the entire circle visible from floor to ceiling, resembling cracked glass. Dagon and Ereshki had switched to beating against my circle instead of Ian’s, and the fury on Dagon’s face was balm to my endless pain.

Dagon wouldn’t be so furious unless Ian was winning.

“Don’t stop!” I repeated before my vision and mouth flooded with blood again. I felt like I was drowning, but that was impossible. Vampires didn’t need to breathe to survive.

Then I felt the magic, foul and putrid, pulsing through the pain. Dagon and Ereshki had stopped using physical force on my circle. Now, they were casting the darkest of magic at it. The circle reacted with all the defensive violence in it. Soon, even the relentless hammering of Ian’s fist wasn’t enough to counter it. I wasn’t being drowned; I was being plunged toward death.

“Veritas!”

Ian’s voice cut through the currents pulling me under. I tried to lift my head, but it was too heavy.

“Answer me, Veritas!”

The sharpness in Ian’s voice was nothing compared to the detonations going off inside me. Dagon and Ereshki’s magic was too strong. My body was giving out. I didn’t know how much damage Ian had done to the circle, or if it would be enough, and I couldn’t open my eyes to look. I didn’t have the strength.

“If you don’t answer, I will stop beating this circle and let them kill me!”

Fucking hell. Was it really too much to ask that he not get killed for me again? I, at least, had a chance at coming back from the dead once I died. Ian didn’t, but was he letting that stop him from making his threat? Of course not.

“Veritas, I mean it!”

I still couldn’t speak or see, but I marshaled all my energy in order to move one finger. It was my middle one, and I stuck it straight up in the direction his voice came from.

A harsh laugh preceded his reply. “Good. I’m almost through this wall, but it’s taken quite a lot from me. When it goes down, I need you to be ready because Dagon will attack you. Do you hear? You can’t stay slumped in a pool of your own blood.”

Did he think I was lying in my own pureed guts because it was a hot new fashion trend? If I could’ve flipped him off with both hands, I would have.

“Whatever you did to terrify Tenoch all those years ago, I need you to do it again,” Ian went on, shocking me. “That part of you is buried too deep to be beaten down by this spell. It’s also been waiting a long time to come out. Now, you need to let it.”

Tenoch’s face flashed in my mind. Not one of the memories I cherished; the one I’d tried the hardest to forget. The horror on his face when he stared at the bodies lying beside pools of darkness around me, and worse, the revulsion in his eyes when he looked up from them to stare at me . . .

“No,” I croaked, so appalled I managed to speak.

“Yes,” he snapped. “I won’t let Tenoch’s fear cost you your life. And do you think Dagon will stop at you? Do you want me to break down these walls only to get slaughtered by that sod?”

With each word, he continued hammering at the circle. I felt it in every flash of relief in my broken body, but now I was worried, too. How much had it taken from Ian for him to keep beating on that magic-imbued barrier? Was it everything he had?

I reached down inside myself and felt around until I brushed the most forbidden aspects of my other half. Yes, that power was still there, but would it be enough? Worse, would it be too much? Ian was right; that part had been held back for so long that I had no idea what it would do if I let it out again.

“Can’t . . . control it,” I managed to say.

“You don’t need to.” A shout that coincided with a boom! that shook me to my core. “I trust you, all of you. You won’t hurt me, and nothing you can do will ever horrify me. Let yourself free, Veritas! Every bit of you!”

I could feel the cracks on the walls widening. Soon, they would come down, and Dagon would come at us with everything he had. He didn’t even need to get close to Ian to kill him, either. A shot through the heart with a silver bullet would be enough, and Ian had left automatic weapons filled with silver rounds at the bottom of his circle.

Ereshki might be magically and physically depleted from her part in Dagon’s spells, but she could also take Ian out with one of those guns, and if Ian was in as bad shape as he implied, he might not be able to stop her, either.

But would summoning the darkest part of my power be worse? Tenoch had believed that so much, he’d created not one, but two assassins to take me out, if I brought it forth again. My other nature hadn’t hurt Ian before, but if I let the worst of it out, would it stop at killing Dagon? Or would it kill Ian, too?

It didn’t kill Tenoch.

The thought seared me, bringing another blast of hope. When I’d let the darkest aspect of my power free so long ago, I’d only killed the vampires who’d kidnapped me. Not the sire I loved. At the height of everything Tenoch had feared until his dying day, I’d still protected him.

Did that mean Ian was right? Was my power only as evil as I allowed it to be?