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In the time it took for the monster to co her command words, she coiled the darkness into what looked like a snare, and it snapped tight around the thing’s calves as it took a step toward ick didn’t dissipate, and the beast overbalanced It caught itself on its overlong ar There wasn’t rooer I stayed away froht have a de spells, but my body was all too mortal

I whirled, darklight flaring froertips as Ninlil voiced the words of power She was casting so fast I didn’t even knohat she was doing until the ick hit A patch of black sla it in shadow Belatedly, I realized this was my mother’s blindness spell, adapted for dee and spun—rather, it tried With its legs bound, it could only hop

We need a weapon

She conveyed to me that her spells couldn’t kill it, only immobilize it, and they wouldn’t last forever I skimmed the walls and found a spear with a broken haft at the far corner, presumably left from another ency sent led with the dispersing ed as much as the sh to place me

I snagged the weapon on the run, and splintered wood gougedthe pain, I doubled back and came in low As Ninlil chanted up another blindness spell, I struck, stabbing the thing up through the groin Its claws came down, and only the demon queen saved me from complete evisceration With her preternatural reflexes, I twirled and took the blon ushed from both wounds, the monster’s and mine, but I hadn’t killed it

Join with er together If you fall here, Binder, your companions die as well

No But the refusal felt shaky The de hme My wound throbbed twice as hard, twice as hot, and my whole body trembled

I slid sideways, but not in ti She made me absorb the full i hard onblood They thought I was done

We’ll both die, she said Is that what you want?

Do so about those claws I’ll…think about it

Ninlil’s agreement came at once Cloudbind

Then she was speaking the words, driving thee, I wheeled toward the beast with a feint and wrested my broken weapon from its crotch I screamed as I pulled because the motion wrenched my wounded side, and the ht that offered a ickal buffer The blunt trauma hurt like hell and I saw stars, but at least it didn’t take h, and I was done

Let me in, or we both fall Last chance, Corine Solomon Even my power is not infinite Will you let them die of your fear, your weakness?

Oh, no Chance Greydusk Shannon At last, ain Yes Do it

The queen threw her strength into ed I had all her experience, all her power at ertips, and the spear pulled free in a bloody fountain Ichor spewed froht, and I drove the weapon into the vein on the creature’s thigh It could die It would die Even withthe royal aura, I spun away from the injured beast I cah Ha Its chest was too arht caain Until it bled fro, but it sounded distant, as if through a wall of glass I didn’t care All thatdied

Final thrust

I hit a vein and the black blood spurted like oil, slicking the stone beneath , a piteous sound, but there was no kindness in me I was the demon queen, and I had risen

No Mercy

There was no time to rest

They’d arrive soon to escort me back to my cell and then kill ht I had ick to spare; it coiled, lustrous, around my hands like a drowsy snake I didn’t posture for the surprised crowd, most of whom had expected to watch me die Instead I ran like hell for the doors where I’d come in I didn’t expect to break theet me, didn’t they? I smiled in delicious anticipation I whispered the words in deainst the suckerpunch of a spell Oz had dropped on me before

He wouldn’t get lucky again

The Saremon eak They’d relied on lazy tricks for too h demon I would destroy them all

A voice boomed “Stand back from the doors”

Like that’s going to work

When they banged open, ten Sarerunts awaitedfilling the corridor with every step I took I laughed softly, seductively, and they spun I whispered and trailed another spell into the air as gracefully as if I had been born for this moment

The rabbed another, and the second retaliated They swung their weapons in a blood-frenzied e like the ballerina of death, and then paused on the other side to watch Perfect They fought until one by one, they all hit the ground S, I twirled my broken spear and retraced my steps toward the cell where they’d put my people