Chapter 8

CHAPTER EIGHT

The demons' black eyes glittered with malevolent amusement. One of them curved his finger in a slow, deliberate motion, beckoning us to come outside and join the macabre tableau. A shiver of dread rippled across my skin, and terror seeped into my bones like winter frost.

Above us, the sky darkened further, angry clouds vexing and churning as if alive. Suddenly, jets of black smoke erupted from the clouds, twisting and coalescing into even more demonic forms. They materialized on the porch, surrounding our frozen friends, their suits impeccable and their smiles razor-sharp.

"No," I whispered.

Justice's features hardened with determination and fear as he made a sudden dash for the door. Garrick was faster, throwing himself in front of Justice with outstretched arms.

"You can't go out there!" Garrick shouted.

Justice struggled against him, his eyes wild with desperation. "My friends are out there!"

Garrick's arm shot out, latching onto Justice with unmistakable force. His muscles visibly strained as he held the other man back. "Yes, I know," he replied in a grim whisper. "But those creatures are sloth demons. One touch, and you freeze. Not merely unable to move but too lazy to even try. Too lethargic to eat or drink."

The situation unfolded like a fever dream, each new revelation more nightmarish than the last. I glanced at Grady and Scott with an understanding of the true nature of their predicament.

Garrick continued, his words tumbling out in a rushed, terrified stream. "We have to get out of here while we still can. If we don't, we'll end up like them. Motionless, helpless, until we waste away and die."

The demons seemed to hear Garrick's words, their grins widening impossibly. More black smoke poured from the sky, and the demon ranks grew with each passing second. They were patient, these sloth demons. They had all the time in the world to wait for us.

I glanced at Justice, saw the anguish etched into every line of his face as he stared at our frozen friends. We were trapped, caught between an impossible choice. Abandon our friends or join them in their living death.

The sloth demons waited, silent and still, as the storm raged above. There was no sign of Maci, but she could be here, hiding in the shadows, and we would never know it.

"We need to get out of here before the sloth demons curse us, too," Garrick reiterated.

"Everyone, we will do the same thing we did in the cave," Justice commanded. "Form a chain and hold on. I'll open the door and use vampire speed to get us out of here."

Justice's fingers dug into Garrick's arm. "This time, we all stay together. Do not separate us for any reason, like you did when Sawyer and I went after the Mirror of Aethereal."

The bitterness in his voice was unmistakable.

Garrick's eyebrow arched, a challenge flashing in his eyes. "You don't trust me?" He pulled his arm free.

"In a word? No," Justice grumbled.

The air seemed to crackle with tension, raising goosebumps on my skin.

Maggie's gaze flicked between the two men, her brow furrowing in confusion. "You separated them? Why?"

Garrick's voice softened as he addressed Maggie, but I could still hear the underlying firmness. "I'm not apologizing for that, love," he stated. "Justice needed to find you when you were under the spell, and I knew he would."

My pulse quickened as I sensed our fragile alliance teetering on the brink of collapse. The tension between Justice and Garrick was like an electric cord slowly unraveling, filling the air with a charge. Their unspoken hostility crackled like the lightning outside. What if this was Maci's doing, trying to turn us against each other?

"We have to work together," I managed, my jaw clenching with the effort of each word. "Or the sloth demons will easily overtake us."

"All right. Listen up, you two." My brother stepped between the two alphas, giving them a hard look. "I don't know what kind of soap opera crap you've got going on, but we've got bigger fish to fry. Or, in this case, sloths to gank.

"You want to have a slapfight? Do it on your own time." He tilted his head toward the sloth demons outside. "Right now, we've got a bunch of cursed demons on our asses. So, how about we table the trust issues for now, huh? You can go back to your little lovers' spat when we're not, you know, in mortal danger. Until then, suck it up, buttercup. We move as a team, or we don't move at all."

Garrick and Justice locked gazes, and a silent, fragile understanding passed between them. I sucked in snippets of air as Justice's hand clutched mine.

"Good job, bros." Damon flashed a winning smile. "Kiss and make up. You can break up later, but let's get the hell out of here first."

A wave of relief washed through me as my brother broke the tension with his characteristic charm. I tilted my head toward the kitchen. "What about the staff here?"

Sean McDuff, the owner, entered the room. His bushy red eyebrows lowered in a worried frown. "We'll be fine," he assured us, his Scottish lilt somehow comforting. "We have a room enchanted to keep the baddies out. It's you I'm worried about."

A pang of guilt squeezed my gut at the genuine concern in Sean's voice. Here we were, bringing danger to his doorstep after everything he had done to try to keep us safe.

Justice's voice cut through my thoughts, firm and decisive. "Okay, you head back into that room. I'll get us out of here."

"Don't let go of the chain," Garrick warned. "Or the sloth demons will touch you."

Terror gripped me, its icy tendrils reaching into every corner of my being. An image of those creatures reaching for us flashed through my mind. I didn't want to become a living statue like poor Grady and Scott.

"What if they follow us?" Maggie's voice trembled. Her blue eyes, wide with fright, darted between Garrick and the door as if expecting the demons to burst through at any moment.

"They might," Garrick admitted, his honesty doing little to ease the knot of fear in my stomach. "We need to get to the Unseelie portal. Hopefully, they won't follow us there."

As we prepared to make our desperate escape, trouble stalked us, following our every step. The Unseelie Portal awaited, but what dangers lurked beyond it? And would we all make it there in one piece?

I looked at our human train, and a cold sweat broke out across my skin. I tightened my grip on Justice's hand. Damon held my hand, followed by Zara, whose slender fingers were intertwined with Maggie's. Garrick brought up the rear, his presence a reassuring rock.

A thick, oppressive silence filled the room, laced with a pungent undercurrent of fear.

My gaze darted to the windows, and my breath caught in my throat. The sloth demons had crept closer, their faces pressing against the glass. Their hot, rancid breath fogged the window panes.

A wave of nausea washed over me. They studied us, their beady eyes glinting with malevolent intelligence. They were searching for the weakest link in our chain, and my stomach clenched painfully at the thought that it might be me.

I redoubled my grip on Damon's and Justice's hands, my fingers aching with the fierce intensity of my hold. Determination surged through me, overriding my fear. I wouldn't let go, no matter what horrors awaited us. I couldn't be the one to break our lifeline.

The sound of my own rapid breathing seemed unnaturally loud in the tense silence.

Justice led us to the back of the house toward the kitchen door. My pulse quickened as I spotted the demons gathered there, too, their grotesque forms blocking our only escape route. We had no choice but to face them.

Justice glanced back at us, his eyes steely with determination. He gave a curt nod, and the message was clear. This was it.

He reached for the doorknob, and my chest tightened. Every nerve in my body was on high alert, bracing for the icy touch of demonic hands. I held my breath, waiting for the inevitable.

With a swift motion, Justice wrenched the door open. A blast of frigid air hit me, carrying the putrid stench of the sloth demons. Justice surged forward, pulling our human chain with him.

Reality warped and twisted, melting at the edges of my vision. My stomach lurched as I felt my feet leave the ground, my body weightless and untethered, like a kite being pulled along by an unstoppable force.

Angry hisses erupted around us, a cacophony of inhuman rage that froze my blood. My senses sharpened to a knife's edge, and time seemed to slow. Terror and exhilaration mingled in my gut as we hurtled through the night, our desperate flight carrying us away from the sloth demons' grasping claws.