I was knee deep in demon corpses when something slammed me from behind. I hurtled into the demon in front of me with enough force to flatten us both. I looked down, seeing the ragged metal edge of a sizeable pole protruding from my stomach. It had gone right through me and into the brown-haired demon I’d landed on.

My body was pinned, but my arms were still free. I stabbed the demon’s eyes out before someone yanked my bone knife away. More agony exploded as the pole was lifted with me still on the other end like a skewered fish. I gritted my teeth hard enough to bite off a fang as I shoved myself forward with all my strength. It felt like the pole had been made from razor wire, but I didn’t stop until I fell off the other end. Then I whirled, spitting my fang at the demon who’d done this to me.

Dagon looked at the fang and arched a brow. “I’ve never cared enough to ask before, but do those grow back?”

“I’ll have two to bite you with in no time,” I promised.

He took the pole he’d impaled me on and hurled it again. Instead of aiming for me, he skewered the demon next to him. Everyone’s eyes bulged, mine included.

“When I said bring her to me, it wasn’t a suggestion,” he told the demons in a blisteringly cheerful voice. “If you make me get her myself, why do I need any of you alive?”

I was grabbed from behind before I could twitch to fly away. Then the demons tore into me as if their lives depended on it, which they now knew they did. Soon, it took all my strength to stay conscious and keep my limbs from being ripped off. Pain drenched me, far past my ability to concentrate enough to cast a spell. After a while, I wasn’t even sure if I was still standing. Whatever Ian had left to do, I found myself thinking dazedly, it had better fucking dazzle me when he gets back!

Then power hit me with the suddenness of a rogue wave. The beatings stopped as the demons looked around to see what had caused it. I tried, too, but there was too much blood in my eyes to see. “What?” I heard Dagon say. He sounded surprised. Was that a good thing or a bad thing?

I swiped at my eyes and turned toward Dagon’s voice. Several hard blinks later, I saw Ian flying toward us. He was about thirty meters away, surrounded by small, pale objects that circled him in the air. At first, I thought it was a flock of tiny white birds. When I blinked again, I realized they were bones. Human-looking ones. They were moving around Ian in faster and faster circles. Ian’s lips were moving, too, but he was too far away for me to hear him. He must be doing a spell. Why? Ian knew that Dagon was too powerful for most spells to work on him.

The bones suddenly exploded, forming into a pale cloud around Ian. As soon as they did, Ian stabbed himself in the chest with one of his silver knives and twisted the blade. If not for his demon brands, that would have killed him. Blood flowed out and shock filled me. I only knew one type of spell that required bones turning into dust and blood from the heart. A grave magic spell.

“Ian, don’t!” I shouted.

He ignored me while his blood coated the powdered bones until the cloud that surrounded him was red. From the curse Dagon muttered, he knew what type of spell Ian was attempting, too. More power blasted through the air as Ian began summoning the darkest of energies from beyond the grave.

Gods, he must be trying to create a wraith. If he did, not even Dagon could stand against it. But grave magic was far more likely to kill its caster than be successful. That’s why even I had never attempted it. Ian’s brands might prevent the spell from killing him, but it could hurt Ian so badly, he wouldn’t be able to fight off a weak demon, let alone Dagon. I had to make sure Dagon didn’t take advantage of that weakness.

But to do that, I needed to get through these damn demons! Seizing on the distraction, I ripped the arm off the nearest one while he was still looking up at Ian. Then I stabbed it fingers-first into his eyes when he swung back around. He screamed as both of them were pierced from his own twitching appendages. He fell onto me, eyes still smoking as he died. Demon bone was demon bone, whether or not skin was still attached to it.

I held him in front of me as a shield while tearing off more of his bones to use as weapons. I wished I still had my machete, but at some point, one of the demons had ripped it from me. They no longer swarmed me from the front now that I had a weapon that could kill them. But there were still two demons clinging to my back, so I couldn’t fly away yet.

I threw myself backward, trying to get them off me by brute force. When I fell on them, I stabbed blindly at whatever was behind me. I ended up killing one out of sheer luck. With only one more clinging to me, I managed to get in the air, but then another demon snatched my leg and anchored me to the ground. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Dagon fly into Ian, punching, kicking, and stabbing him with a frenzy bordering on maniacal. Ian only protected his eyes as he fought, and all the while, his lips never stopped moving.

A familiar power blasted out from Dagon. Just as fast, I blocked his third attempt to freeze time. Then a brutal blow returned my attention to the demon on my back. I let myself drop out of the air, using all my momentum to give him the full force of our landing. Blood shot up around us but he held on, teeth and claws tearing into me. I stabbed at every part I could reach while looking for something else I could use. In moments, more demons would pile on top of me. I didn’t dare deplete more of my strength with another elaborate spell. I had to keep canceling out Dagon’s spells against Ian.

A demon running toward me leapt over a pile of metal shards between us. Yes, that! I sent a quick spell to fling the metal into his eyes and into the demon’s eyes behind me. The shards blinded the running demon, and I tripped him when he came near. He fell on top of me. I slashed my makeshift bone knife through his eyes, then flung him at the next demon hurtling toward me.

His body knocked him down. I took that split second to flip over and stab the eyes out of the demon beneath me, then leapt to my feet. I’d hacked my way through two more demons when Dagon’s laugh made me whip my head up again.

The red cloud around Ian had formed into two figures that were now clear enough to identify. Fenkir and Rani, I realized in disbelief. Ian had used their bones for this spell?

“You fool!” Dagon chortled. “Don’t you know wraiths are made when the rage of a murdered person is yanked from their bones and given form? But I didn’t kill Fenkir and Rani. You’re raising creatures that will attack her!”

Dagon was right. Wraiths went after their murderers and no one else. Why would Ian raise wraiths from Fenkir and Rani’s bones? They’d go straight for me as soon as the spell was finished, if Dagon didn’t kill Ian first!

Trust me without arguing for once.

Ian’s words were a reminder I didn’t want in my appalled state. But I couldn’t ignore the fact that Ian had trusted me when everything he’d known would’ve urged him not to. I did owe him the same, even if everything I knew screamed at me to run for my life before he finished that spell.

But if this ended up killing me, I’d make sure my first words to Ian after I came back from the dead was I knew this was a bad idea!

Chapter 40

Whatever happened, I couldn’t afford to be incapacitated when Ian was done with that spell. I yanked a hunk of breastplate and rib from the demon body nearest me. Then I wrapped my hand around it so the rib bones poked out between my fingers. With that and the long, thin radius bone in my other hand, I started slashing at every demon near me.