8. “I will kill you before I let you touch him again.”

I growl.

How dare she betray me after all these years. After everything we've been through together?

Byron stands and pets Brimfang as another guy steps through the room and smirks.

"You were right, Ryan. It was way too easy," he says.

Ryan scoffs.

"I told you. There's no way those looks were innocent." Ryan joins the newcomer and stands beside him with a pleased smile.

"The others are on their way."

Ryan crosses his arms and smiles. "Good. This time, no one will be able to stop me. Stop us. We will succeed."

"Is that what you think? I will kill you before I let you touch him again."

My roar makes every particle in my body shake. I've never been this angry. I've never been so disappointed in myself. I brought him here. I brought my Yu-jin right into this trap.

"I'd love to see you try, Grandpa."

Now, I'm not a narcissist, but I know for a fact I look nothing like a grandpa would. Despite my age ranking up in the hundreds, I don't look a day over thirty in human years.

So he can shove his "Grandpa" up his ass.

"Brim, get up. Get up now. Are you really going to take their side? You hate spoiled brats as much as I do."

"Save your breath, demon. Your little kitty cat can't hear you. She only listens to me now," says the other guy and waves at me for good measure.

I sigh in relief. I don't even care to hide it from them. Brim didn't betray us. It's just this guy. An animal whisperer witch if I'm correct.

"Is that so?" I smirk.

Something in it unsettles the guy. I lay Yu-jin down on the bed and take a step closer to the whisperer.

"You can't hurt me. You can't touch me." Even though that's true, it doesn't stop him from backtracking until his back is glued against the dorm door.

"Really? Says who?"

"Step back, asshole!" Ryan steps in front of his friend and gets right in my face.

It doesn't take much more than that for my neck to constrict. An uncomfortable heat rises in my chest, and I step back. The compulsion of my magical contract gets between us like two magnets of the same pole repelling one another.

Ryan Byron purses his lips, way too pleased with himself.

"You think this is going to stop me?"

He dips his head closer to my face, and I can't help but pull back some more as he whispers, "What do you think?"

"I think…" I roar and raise my hand. With a breath, I conjure my fire, and it wraps around my fingers. It's as warm as a touch by my darling boy and as electric as his kiss, but it's also void, hollow. Like a shield that protects me from its own poison. "It's time I resigned."

A fancy parchment way too old-fashioned for this century appears in my hand.

Contract of Employmentreads the top. I crumple it in my hand and let the fire set it ablaze. Parchment turned to ash. Magic turned to dust. I feel it dissolving around me like a tidal wave.

And when it passes…I'm free.

"You were saying?" I snatch Byron by the neck and stretch my wings.

The higher I rise, the more he struggles for air, kicking his legs in a desperate attempt to escape me.

"Don't…forget…your…witch," he croaks.

If he thinks his little reminder will make me go easier on him, he's mistaken. Because as soon as he mentions my witch, I want nothing more than to snap his neck in two and throw him in the trash where he belongs.

But I can't do that. Not yet.

So I let him fall on the floor and dive for the other one. The whisperer. I pin him against the door and squeeze his flimsy little neck as if it's an orange. As if it's nothing but a plastic toy. As if he's just as useless as the material polluting the earth.

His scream turns into a groan that dies when his neck snaps and he drops lifelessly on the floor.

"Alan!" Byron shouts, but there's no point. Alan is no longer with us.

Brimfang unfurls and stretches like the kitty she is, and her yawn turns into a roar.

"Welcome back, Brim."

She slow-blinks at me and turns around to look at Byron, who's now lying in the middle of the room, white as a sheet.

"Now, release Yu-jin, or I'll let my kitty cat tear you to pieces."

He glances at me and tries to sit up but fails because Brim is already at his feet.

"You can't. If you kill?—"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. If I kill you, Yu-jin is lost forever in his dreams. I didn't say she's going to kill you. I just said she's going to tear you apart. You can still cast your magic without your legs and arms, can't you?"

He swallows and stares at Brim, probably realizing how deeply fucked he is.

"You shouldn't have messed with my boy, Byron. Now you'll pay."

Byron starts crawling backward, but no matter how far he goes, there's no escaping my hellcat and me. He's got no option but to let Yu-jin go. Perhaps if he does quickly, I'll spare him.

Emphasis on perhaps.

"So? What's it going to be, Mr. Byron?" Brim roars for effect, and I glare at the bastard who dared touch my man.

"No. You can't…I…" Brim raises her paw and the claws come out.

She starts to bring them down on his thigh, but…they never land. They just stay there mid-air, frozen. One moment, she was alive and threatening, and the next, she's turned into…a living statue.

"What have you?—"

"Oh my God, Alan!" someone says behind me, and I turn to find another guy.

His long dark curls fall in front of his face as he's kneeling over the dead guy, so I can't read his face or see if I recognize him from my classes yesterday.

But if he's here, that means he's Byron's accomplice, and he will die today too.

"Watch out, Vincent!" Ryan Byron shouts.

I leap across the room in two steps just as the new guy, Vincent, snaps around. I reach for his neck, but I pause. My entire body just…stops, and I cannot move it. I can't even blink.

"Oh my God, Ryan. What the fuck happened? Alan is dead?" The guy gives me an arrogant once-over and steps out of my peripheral vision.

"Yeah, he killed him. He…resigned just so he could kill us. He's deranged."

I'm the deranged one? Not the guy who hurt and trapped his classmate so he could abuse his power.?

When I get out of this… Oh, there will be hell to pay. Real, pure hell. No salvation for these brats. No escape.

"Oh God. Oh God. Ryan! For fuck's sake. You didn't say this was going to happen."

"Get your head screwed on straight, idiot. How was I supposed to know?"

I hear a slap, and the tension keeping me trapped releases me. I turn around to face the little shits and growl.

Vincent, the time witch, is holding his head.

"Ouch. That hurt, idiot."

Ryan glares at me.

"Cry about it later. Freeze him. Freeze him again."

Vincent lets go of his head and stretches his hands. One in my direction, the other in Brim's, and we both stop again, stuck in time.

Byron sighs in relief.

"You dickhead. You know I can lose my concentration if you touch me. What's wrong with you?" Vincent slaps Byron back, and the bastard scoffs. "Are you ready?"

Byron moves a rug underneath them and reveals a chalk circle etched on the hardwood floor.

No. No. Not again. They're not doing this again.

"Where are the others?" Vincent asks.

"Screw the others. We need to do this now before you lose focus again and let them go."

He kneels and retrieves a piece of paper from his pants.

The little… I should have known he'd have a backup plan. He's not stupid. He may be a rich, bratty asshole, but that doesn't mean he hasn't thought this through. He wants power. My Yu-jin's power, and he wants it so desperately that he will do anything to get it.

"I don't lose focus. Unless some idiot decides to hit me for no reason!" Vincent bites back.

"Shut up, Vin. Even if you don't, you'll wear out soon enough. Bring me Taylor."

Vincent goes to the bed where my darling boy lies and drags him by the feet. His head thuds as he drags him across the floor.

"No. No. You idiot. Don't smudge the circle. Just his hand inside is enough."

They lay his hand in the middle of the chalk circle, and Byron gets up, approaches the dresser, and pulls out a knife.

Fuck.

They're going to repeat the spell from earlier. They're going to summon another eldritch monster and give themselves more power than either of them should possess.

I need to get free. I need to do something. I need to find some way to unfreeze myself.

I want to shout. I want to set them on fire. But I can't do either without control of my body. How is this possible? How do I always find myself in this position when I'm supposed to be a fucking hell-demon?

I'm smarter than this.

But Yu-jin…he makes me lose my mind. I can't think straight when he's in danger. I can't sit and wait when there are people in this world who want to use him and his powers.

I'll take having him in my life over having my mind a hundred times over.

Which doesn't help me in my current situation. Not in the slightest. They're about to summon an eldritch creature and use it to kill me and Brim. But they won't kill Yu-jin. No. He's too powerful to kill. They'll keep him alive so they can control more creatures. Control a whole army of them. And who knows what they'll do with their army.

But they don't know. They don't know that if they kill me…Yu-jin is dead too.

"Ready?" Ryan asks Vincent, and he nods.

Ryan kneels again and runs the blade across Yu-jin's arm.

This is it.

I've failed him.

I failed my boy, and now he's doomed to suffer.

Because of me.