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Chapter 17

"Ezra!" I screamed.

His shoulders shifted, and he slowly drew an arm under himself. He pushed up onto his hands and knees, motions jerky, limbs trembling.

He raised his head. Blood trickled down his left cheek. The white scar down his face, eight years old, had reopened. His shirt, damp with fresh blood, stuck to his right side, where the old gashes from that same attack raked up his torso. His old injuries, healed by demon magic, had torn with Eterran's exit from his body.

Shoulders heaving, Ezra looked across the circle at the demon.

Eterran was crouched where he had appeared. His left knuckles were propped on the floor, a leather bracer around his wrist, but his right elbow ended in a scarred stump, white lines running up his reddish-brown skin toward his shoulder. The old injury did nothing to reduce the demon's aura of power. His near-decade-long imprisonment inside Ezra hadn't withered the thick, heavy muscles that banded his torso.

He raised his head, crimson eyes fixing on his former host. Dark blood leaked down the left side of his face—Ezra's reopened wound was mirrored on the demon. His countenance wasn't as human as Zylas's, but his sharp features were recognizable. Long black hair hung over one shoulder, tied with a leather string, and from the waist down, he wore lightweight demonic body armor.

Those powerful muscles rippled as the demon braced himself, then stood.

With the movement, dim streaks of crimson flashed inside the circle—and Ezra crumpled to the floor with a hoarse cry. Eterran dropped back to his knees.

Faint ribbons of power rippled between them. They ran from mage to demon, twisting and writhing.

"What is that?" I gasped, near soundless with panic.

"Are they still bound?" Zak pressed his hands to the invisible barrier. "I think… the contract is linking them together? Eterran is still tied to Ezra's soul."

I remembered what Robin had said. Once the demon spirit and human soul are bound, it can't be undone.

So she'd created this ritual to circumvent their contract, not break it. We'd all thought separating them would be enough.

With painful effort, Ezra pushed up onto his knees, panting for air.

"Get him out of the circle, Zak!" I shouted, hysteria edging my voice. "Hurry!"

"They're still bound."

"But—"

Eterran gathered himself again. When he stood, the strings of power—of essence, of soul—that tied him to Ezra rippled, and Ezra shuddered, his breath rasping more violently. Eterran's broad torso was streaked with wounds that mirrored his former host's scars, and blood trickled down the demon's reddish-brown skin.

"Stand, Ezra."

I recoiled slightly. Eterran had spoken through Ezra more than once, but hearing his real voice sent terror cascading through me. Deeper than baritone, growling, bestial. Inhuman.

Ezra stared at the demon.

"We are dying," Eterran snarled quietly. "I feel it. You feel it. We cannot exist like this. The bond cannot be broken while we both live."

Ezra's jaw tightened.

Crimson flared in the demon's eyes. "Stand."

As terror-laced confusion ricocheted through my head, Zak's voice filled my ears, words he'd spoken when I'd first told him I wanted to save Ezra. Any form of demon contract is for life. They only ever end with a death.

They only ever end with a death.

With a death.

"No," I gasped.

With a deep inhalation, Ezra climbed to his feet and straightened his spine. Wiping the blood off his chin, he faced the demon. Eterran's wings unfurled, filling his half of the circle.

"We finally learned how to be allies," Ezra said, quiet and hoarse. "Don't you want to try to find another way?"

"There is no time. We are dying."

"I don't want it to end like this."

The demon's upper lip curled. "Want. A weak word for a weak male. Have you learned nothing?"

Ezra sucked in a sharp breath.

"If you want your life, take it from me," Eterran snarled softly, "before I take mine from you."

For a second, Ezra didn't move—then he reached for the sheath on his thigh and drew the long knife Zak had lent him. In answer, Eterran curled his fingers, claws unsheathing. The faint streaks of power between them rippled.

The demon launched across the circle.

"No!"

My shout was still ringing through the room as Ezra thrust his knife out. With a boom, a gust of wind shoved the huge demon back before his claws could reach the aeromage's fragile human skin.

The demon staggered, tail snapping. The crimson ribbons running from demon to mage shuddered, and they panted harshly.

"It feels…" Ezra gasped unsteadily. "It feels like it's pulling my heart out."

Eterran bared his teeth, revealing predatory canines. Crimson flashed up his arm and six-inch talons formed on his fingers, magically extending his claws into deadly weapons.

The demon lunged again. Wind burst from Ezra, and the demon's talons raked across the dense barrier of air. As the wind blew outward, Ezra slashed with the knife.

Eterran twisted aside, and his tail slammed into Ezra's legs. He fell. Eterran pounced, stabbing downward with his glowing talons, and Ezra rolled, kicking out. Another boom of wind.

The threads of magic linking them writhed, and Eterran's talons flickered, half dissolving before they solidified.

Gulping air, Ezra rolled onto his hands and knees, the knife in his fist clattering against the floor. He shoved up, stumbling for balance as the soul link fluctuated wildly.

Eterran raised his arm, palm pointed at Ezra. Crimson spiraled out from his wrist—and the link between them blazed. Pained gasps rushed from both of them as Eterran's attempted spell broke apart.

"Eterran," Ezra panted. "We can't do this. We can't—"

"Nailēris!" the demon roared, the deep boom of his voice shocking me. "Do you only want life if it is easy? If it tears your soul to fight me, then tear your soul. While your heart is still beating, do not tell me you can't fight."

He raised his arm again. The demonic spell flared around his wrist, and the threads of their link burned again. This time, Eterran didn't flinch. The spell solidified, the distorted runes igniting with power.

Shuddering with pain, Ezra cast his arm out in an arc, the dagger flashing.

A howling gale hit Eterran as his spell unleashed. The crimson power exploded, throwing demon and mage backward. They crashed into opposite ends of the barrier, the invisible dome shimmering on impact.

I hammered my fists against it. "Zak, do something! Break the circle! Help him!"

For a second, he didn't move. Then he stooped, grabbed the dropped grimoire, and started flipping through it. Searching for the ritual—for the key to breaking the circle.

Wings stretched wide, Eterran clambered up. The soul link frizzled. Its glow had grown fainter, and I didn't think that was a good thing.

"Stand," he growled.

Ezra braced his elbows on the floor, shoulders heaving with each rapid breath.

"You are weak. You want life, but you do not need it."

Ezra's head came up, his teeth bared. He shoved to his feet, one hand pressed to his bloody side, the movement making the threads of power dance sickeningly. "I survived being a demon mage for ten years. I'm not going to die now."

"Then fight." The demon's eyes burned. "Hold back nothing. Rip your soul out to kill me, so you can die with pride."

Air whistled through Ezra's clenched teeth. Eterran's crimson talons reformed—and they charged each other.

They met in the circle's center. Flashing crimson. Howling wind. Eterran drove into Ezra, slashing with his talons. A buffeting gust. A thrust of the knife. Talons grazed Ezra's side. Ezra raked the knife across Eterran's ribs, but the wound did nothing to slow the demon.

The soul link flashed and writhed, and demon and mage staggered and stumbled even as they fought. Battling through the link. Battling through the pain.

Battling desperately for survival.

Snarling, the demon smashed his forearm into Ezra so hard he slammed into the barrier directly in front of me. He slid down to the floor, legs sprawled in front of him.

"Ezra!" I shoved against the invisible wall, trembling from head to toe.

He pulled his legs in and pushed himself up, back pressed to the dome. Across the circle, Eterran raised his arm and magic flared out from his hand. A seething orb of demonic power blasted from his palm.

Ezra dove for the ground and the magic exploded against the barrier right in front of my face. Lunging up, Ezra charged. His knife slashed the air, and a gust shoved Eterran back a step.

Demon and mage clashed again. They were slowing. Weakening. Their lives draining away as the soul link leeched the strength out of them. In a minute or two, maybe less, neither would be able to continue.

And they knew it.

Gasping, Ezra threw a burst of wind at the demon—but it was weak. Way too weak. Instead of being driven back, Eterran snapped his wings out, repelling the gust.

With a roar, he launched at Ezra, his talons flashing for the mage's chest.

Ezra should've ducked. Blocked. Countered.

Instead, he clutched his blade and lunged to meet the demon. They slammed together, and my scream rang out—a cry of anguished terror.

Blood splattered the floor.

In the center of the circle, demon and mage didn't move. Ezra held Eterran's wrist. He'd forced the demon's arm down, deflecting those lethal talons away from his heart—but not far enough.

The six-inch talons were buried in his stomach, right on top of his old scars.

In Ezra's other hand, he held the hilt of his knife, the full length of its blade rammed between Eterran's ribs, a few inches too low to strike his heart.

Their chests heaved for breath. Blood spread over Ezra's shirt. A line of thicker, darker blood ran from the knife in Eterran's chest.

The aeromage's gasping inhalations slowed. His stare locked on Eterran's and his hand, clutching his weapon's hilt, tightened.

Time seemed to distort, one second dragging into the next. Mage or demon. One of them had to act—was about to act—would deliver the killing blow. Whoever moved first would survive.

Ezra sucked in a deep breath, gathering the dregs of his strength. Steeling himself.

A final instant, a heartbeat, a reckoning.

Then he twisted the knife.

A spiral of air blades tore through the demon's chest. Wind burst from Eterran's back, carrying a mist of dark blood, and the demon lurched away, his talons tearing from Ezra's stomach.

A gory hole in the center of Eterran's chest wept blood down his front. His limbs quivered faintly, and the demon sank to his knees. As the glow in his eyes dimmed from crimson to dark scarlet, he slumped onto his side.

Ezra dropped onto his hands and knees. Ripples of transparent power shivered between him and the demon as they stared at each other—then Ezra leaned forward. Reached out.

He grasped the demon's hand, holding it tight. Eterran's eyes darkened from scarlet to black as blood pooled beneath him. Bitterness flickered across the demon's features, then softened into weary peace.

"Vh'renith vē thāit." The unfamiliar words rasped from his throat. "Never forget."

His eyelids slid closed over ebony eyes, and the shudder of his body stilled. As quiet fell across the room, the faint radiance of the soul link dissolved into nothing.

"Victory," Ezra whispered, "or death. I'll remember."

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