something in my chest pulled as the demon opened its mouth to breathe.
We can’t lose him.
Without thinking, I burst out from the shelter of the dresser and hurled a
potion bomb toward the demon’s open maw. Unfortunately, the beast
snapped its jaws shut, and the bomb ricocheted off its head and into the wall.
Oh, shit. Not ag—
I dove for cover behind the dresser as a fireball enveloped the room. The
dresser lifted off its feet and flew over my head before smashing into the
wall. Bits of stone debris rained down around me. Rolling over, I gasped and
choked on the smoke.
Stars and town lights twinkled through a gaping hole where the window
had been. The demon was gone.
“Jax!” I coughed.
He heaved part of the vanity off himself and stood. “Are you insane?”
“Yes.” I scrambled across the debris to where Amal was lying beside the
two sleepers, who had landed behind the overturned bed. She was still
breathing. I shook her hard. “Amal!”
No response. She was out cold.
Jaxson was at my side in an instant. “Fuck. She’s alive, at least.” He
pulled the rubble off her and lifted her sleeping form. “We need to get out of
here. Did you get the knife?”
I stormed over to the hole in the tower. “Yes, but I can’t believe that
asshole got away.”
“Doesn’t matter. We got the Soul Knife. That’s a win.”
I touched the knife tucked in my belt as I looked out over the strange
vertical horizon. The lights of the town twinkling on the left, and the starlit
predawn sky on the right. I tilted my head to the right to correctly orient the
view. The scene should have soothed me, but the circumstances only made
my blood boil.
A set of black talons lashed through the open gap and tore into my jacket.