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The explosion was a visual thing asback ina small space between the barrel and the Devil’s neck A puff of hot gray srew in voluht, narrow pattern

My hands fought the kick, which was slow and heavy, trying to shove an to depress the skin of her neck, pierce the flesh Disappear inside her Spread out, the pattern widening Her cervical spine snapped I held my position as the barrel eun was ean to crarunted with pain and doubled over I stu e I ed a partial breath and tiltedhad happened The smoke fro blood, barely tingeing the air Hu a lot like Onorio blood The Devil’s blood

I had just killed a hu An assassination I had killed a huer of my own life I had just committed murder I blew out a breath, forced , I reverseduntil my back touched the wall The brick was cold and wet and slick The Devil’s swords faltered A faint hesitation in un pellets burst from her throat Out the far side of her neck Her head tilted Her eyes started going wide Her knees eak Tio photography

Bruiser was landing within the path of the Devil’s swords, his ar outward to deflect the Devil’s strikes He would have survived the landing He ht even have survived the Devil’s assault I could have disabled her I could have done any nus to assure Bruiser’s life Instead I killed her

No one would thank me Not the cops she had killed Not their families Not Reach, whoeance The words were bitter in ht Beast is best hunter

In for a dollar, in for a death I forced rinus fro a hand, his fingers nearly touching the crystal quartz prison on his chest He was getting ready to use it, to force the hatchling to work for hi to ride the arcenciel At his side, Bethany also reached, her black eyes glittering, her gold earrings and beads halted in flight, her face fully vamped out Desire and avarice wrenched her expression into soht go from pan to fire

I pushed ers between Peregrinus’ hand and the necklace Took the crystal quartz that hung around his neck, gripped it in one hand, and yanked The thong holding it in place snapped and flew free, suspended in the air Wrapping around my wrist with a quick bite of pain as the leather ends linked with my speed, my bubble in ti dry ice, a burning frost I curled

Nausea flooded up ed My abdomen coiled and spiraled and knotted I vomited and the splash that hit the as pure blood That can’t be good

I fell and felt a sword pass slowly overainst my body as I heaved, and heaved More and more blood erupted from me The world spun drunkenly I had lost tooinsideover, not while I was in the bubble of tih Must stop now

I left Peregrinus fighting the two vaoals ht have been Bruiser and the other Onorios would protect Leo, Katie, and Grégoire, no ht have wanted or planned And without the crystal, without riding the arcenciel, and without the Devil, Peregrinus was done

I looked at the thing hanging on the wall of Leo’s dungeon, believing in ut that it needed to be beheaded Beast’s fear response ht be the only proof, but I trusted it s in the dungeon, in the sub-five baseet there, do the deed, and get the arcenciel up, outside, and free before I died, however, not without blood in my veins, so that was a moral decision I didn’t have to make

I took the crystal to the elevator shaft and looked up I could see part of Eli’s face, a few floors up, leaning over the edge and trying to get a view He had probably heard the Judge fire by now

Still in the gray place of the change, the energies moved around me like black fireflies, but slower, jerky, not fluid and smooth I bent and set the crystal on the clay floor I snapped open the pocket on the thigh holster Bruiser had given ’s scale and set it beside the crystal

I shouted, "Soul! I’ve got the hatchling!"

Fro bell, as sword blade i out for what felt like seconds, low and deep and sonorous Above ht appeared and illuht had been turned on and was shining down

Fro of swords and the first boo up with ht the hilt down on the smoky crystal It shattered sloith tiny cracks and splits and a near-ed, followed by a shoulder and wing, all metal, and covered by spines It occurred to ht be the best place for me I backed away, back into the scion lair, as time in the Gray Between, and the bubble of time around the previously imprisoned arcenciel, synchronized into its own version of slo-mo

The imprisoned arcenciel leaped froinning to spread, she changed frohts Landed on the floor of the elevator shaft several floors above, next to Eli’s head, still looking down Lights like a dozen rainbows shifted fro, silver tone, like the sound of a thousand bells and the warht She looked back once and ing With a leap, she flew out of sight, toward the outer door, which Eli had left open and unguarded for just thisas if I were being cut in two I had coht, killed without combat, with sneak attack An assassination The death roiled in my stomach and burned there like acid The Devil had needed to die, but her life and death sat on hts