Zane took several steps forward, leaving us behind.

He drew his rapier, ready to square off with his father. I looked around, watching the daemons and Correction Officers move in.

“I told you all to stay back!” Shaytan snarled, his voice thundering throughout the entire neighborhood.

They all froze, while we held our positions, our faces partially obscured by our cloaks.

“Father, don’t be foolish. Stop this before it’s too late,” Zane said.

Shaytan scoffed, then took out a handful of blue powder from a small satchel tied to his massive gold belt. “First of all, let’s cut this invisibility crap. It’s annoying,” he replied, then blew the dust out.

It scattered into a bluish cloud that engulfed us. Within seconds, our invisibility spells were broken, and we were once again visible. That must have been some kind of water-related swamp witch magic, as I could feel the moist particles tickling my skin.

“Second, let’s cut the ‘give up’ crap, too,” Shaytan added. “It’s unbecoming. I didn’t raise you to be a coward. You’ve gone against your own father and kingdom, and that takes balls, my son. Don’t make a fool of yourself now that this whole debacle is coming to an end.”

Zane and Shaytan faced each other, with just five feet of supercharged space between them. The tension oozing from their standoff was starting to weigh us all down, in a way. The daemon king, the most feared of all the hostile creatures on Neraka, stood tall and proud, holding his bejeweled staff. His son, the rebel daemon that had come to our side in favor of a free Neraka, faced him with his chin up and his sword ready.

“You’re right about one thing,” Zane replied. “It all ends here. Now.”

Shaytan took a deep breath, exhaling slowly as he measured his son from head to toe. “I will rule Neraka forever, Zane. And there is nothing you can do about that.”

Zane cocked his head to one side. “I can try.”

“Tell you what. Defeat your brothers,” Shaytan replied, slightly amused. “Kill them, and then I’ll consider fighting you.”

“Are you afraid?” Zane shot back.

Shaytan chuckled, his contempt obvious. “Don’t insult me, you little brat. I just want to see if you’re worth my time. Last time we sparred, I beat the living daylights out of you and your mother begged me to spare you.”

The daemon king didn’t give Zane the opportunity to reply. Instead, he stepped back, allowing Abeles and another daemon warrior to come in. Both drew their swords and came at Zane, roaring. Fiona groaned.

“Oh, hell no! You don’t get to have all the fun, Zane!” she shouted.

Fiona darted from our side and joined Zane in the fight. The daemon guards moved to intervene, as did the COs, but Shaytan’s hand shot out to the side.

“Don’t!” he ordered them, then smirked, watching Fiona and Zane against Abeles and the daemon warrior. “I want to see how this plays out.”

I had to give Shaytan a mental thank you. By keeping the fighters back, he was inadvertently giving me the precious minutes I needed to devise an attack plan. While he enjoyed the theatricality and the showmanship of a good old-fashioned fight to the death between his own sons, I carefully analyzed every daemon and Mara stationed outside the Palisade.

Fiona’s strength gave her a tremendous advantage against the daemon warrior, who was basically three times her size. She dodged his attacks and returned with hard offensive moves. Her short sword was made of an extremely light alloy, allowing her to deliver multiple hits in the span of seconds.

Zane, on the other hand, had his work cut out for him with Abeles, who was noticeably larger. But Zane had his speed and agility working for him; he moved around his brother and slashed at his sides before withdrawing and shifting his position again. He didn’t give Abeles the opportunity to strike back, since he refused to stand still.

Shaytan shifted his focus to me, his red eyes burning holes through my very soul.

“Come on, Miss Hellswan. It’s time to surrender the witch,” he said.

I briefly used my True Sight to check out the mountain base again. Our allies had breached the first level and were working their way to the top. The Maras didn’t stand much of a chance at this point. But the incoming hordes of daemons made my throat close up. All we had to do was get Lumi to take down the shield, then hold out against the thousands of horned fiends headed our way.

I exhaled, then raised an eyebrow at Shaytan.

“Now, why would I ever do that?” I asked.

My sarcasm didn’t escape him. “Because I’ll kill you quickly if you do,” he replied. “Otherwise, I’ll take my sweet time with you.”

Abeles was the first to drop, his throat ripped out. Shaytan frowned, watching his son give out his last breath, blood pouring out of him and glazing the cobblestones. Zane gave his father a sideways glance.

“Don’t make me do this,” Zane said, his voice trembling. “Stop this nonsense.”

“It’s too late to stop,” Shaytan replied, then walked toward us. I instinctively reached behind me and gripped Lumi’s wrist.

Caspian stepped in front of us, drawing his sword and shaking his head.

“You’re not taking her anywhere,” he said, gritting his teeth.

Fiona was having a little trouble with the daemon warrior. He’d managed to pin her beneath him and was about to bring his sword down. Zane rammed into him and knocked him over, and Fiona panted and moved back, looking for her sword. They continued fighting, as the warrior wasn’t going to let Zane get anywhere near Shaytan.

“What are you going to do?” Shaytan replied, smirking at Caspian. “Scowl at me? Poke me with that toothpick?”

My heart jumped in my throat as Caspian rushed forward and brought his sword out in a diagonal slash. Shaytan raised his arm. The blade hit the daemon king’s wrist cuff with a loud clang. Sparks flew. In the next fraction of a second, Shaytan formed a fist with his other hand and drove it into Caspian’s jaw.

The blow was incredibly powerful. I heard Caspian’s jaw break, then watched him fly backward and land on his side with a painful thud. He was unconscious. A gasp slipped out of my throat, and I looked at Shaytan with genuine shock. I hadn’t thought he’d be able to cause that much damage with a single punch.

Shaytan took another step in my direction.

I instinctively moved back. I’d thought about fighting him before, but now I was beginning to question that endeavor.

The daemon warrior came down with a thud, prompting Shaytan to look over his shoulder and curse under his breath. He’d lost another fighter.

“You’re taking this a lot better than I’d thought,” Fiona muttered.

Zane retrieved his rapier, which he’d lodged into the daemon warrior’s throat, and came toward Shaytan with a murderous look on his face. I knew the daemon prince hated hurting his own family, and the fact that Shaytan had forced him to do just that had clearly made something snap inside Zane.

“Plenty more where they came from,” Shaytan replied dryly. “I just don’t like losing prime fighters in the middle of a war.”

“Nice to know we’re of some value to you, Father,” Zane growled and charged at Shaytan.

The daemon king raised his staff and whispered a spell. The bejeweled instrument trembled and morphed into a massive sword, with a mixture of meranium and gold swirls decorating the blade.

Zane hit first, but Shaytan used his right arm cuff to block the attack, then brought his newly formed sword in a lateral swing and cut deep into Zane’s hip.

“Zane!” Fiona croaked.

Shaytan kicked him in the gut, forcing him back several feet. Zane fell backward. Blood poured out of the gaping gash in his side. Fiona ran to him, slid down on her knees and immediately applied some of her healing paste to his wound. She then bit into her wrist and pressed it against his lips, forcing him to drink.

This wasn’t going in the direction I’d wanted. My heart started beating faster as Shaytan resumed his mission to take Lumi away from me.

He sauntered toward us, a confident grin cutting across his face. I could hear the golden marbles braided into his beard jingle as he got closer.

“Come on, little bloodsucker.” Shaytan sneered. “Hand the witch over.”

“Screw you!” I shot back, then put my hand out and released the most powerful barrier I could muster. I felt my entire body instantly drain as the pulse went out. It was strong—remarkably so. It was probably the biggest one to come out of me yet.

It knocked most of the daemon soldiers and Correction Officers back, but, most importantly, it smacked into Shaytan with enough strength to take him down. He fell flat on his back with a pained grunt. Rumbles emerged from the level above—it was definitely going down in Emilian’s mansion! I briefly looked back up and watched the fight spill onto the open terrace.

Shaytan chuckled, then got back up. My blood ran cold. It took him very little time to recover. That didn’t bode well for future efforts to destroy him.

This time, however, he didn’t walk. He darted toward me.

I drew both my swords, but his punch found my face first. The impact made time stand still for a split second. He hit me so hard, I felt my bones break—my cheeks, my nose… even my forehead. Pain spread through my skull like hot lava.

Everything went white. I lost my balance.

I heard him laugh again. Then I heard the sharp clang of my swords hitting the ground.

Then I heard Lumi’s gut-wrenching whimpers.

My eyes peeled open. I could see through the smoky glasses. The sky was beautifully blue and clear. Within the hour, the suns would begin their slow descent into the horizon.

“Let me go!” Lumi screamed.

Shaytan laughed even harder, as if he were having more fun than ever.

My whole face hurt. It would require a few minutes for the bones and crushed tissues to repair themselves. Nevertheless, I needed to see what happened next. I groaned from the pain as I sat up, leaning onto my shaking arms.

Shaytan had grabbed Lumi, his large hand gripping her upper arm.

He tore her black cloak off, delighted to have her in his possession. The satisfaction on his face was too much to bear, but not in a negative way. It hurt like crazy, but I couldn’t help it—I grinned, watching his satisfied expression as he looked Lumi over from head to toe.

He gave me a quick glance, his bright white fangs still bared. Nothing could wipe that smirk off his face. Except what came next, of course.

“What are you grinning about, toothless?” He scoffed.

I ran my tongue over my upper teeth and felt the gap where an incisor had been until a minute earlier. I licked the bleeding gums, feeling another tooth coming out already. I shuddered from the incoming wave of laughter. On one hand, I would’ve loved to see myself in a mirror in that moment; on the other, I would’ve killed to have a camera handy, so I could capture his expression as he followed my gaze and glared at Lumi.

Something was awfully wrong, he must’ve thought, as Lumi’s skin began to ripple all over.

She gave him a broad grin, then started to laugh.

As expected, Shaytan’s amusement abandoned the mountain altogether in the following second.

He let go of Lumi—only to realize that she wasn’t Lumi at all.

As her skin trembled and twitched, Avril regained her natural form. She’d swapped places with Lumi via the swamp witch’s proprietary magic. Heron had been against it for a minute, until he’d understood the genius behind it.

“What the hell?” Shaytan murmured, his eyes wide with shock.

“Dude, you really underestimated our ability to pull one over on you,” I replied, running my tongue over my teeth again. They were all back and healthy, despite the taste of blood in my mouth.

“You… Where is she?” he growled.

Avril took a couple of steps back, in case he sought to take it out on her first. I got back on my feet again, picking my swords up in the process.

“Not here, obviously,” I replied with a smirk.

“Where is she?!” he shouted, downright livid and unhinged.

Fear tickled my throat. I was about to witness the full extent of his wrath.

“What part of ‘not here’ didn’t you understand?” I shot back, then assumed my attack stance and brought my swords up.

Lumi was with Heron. With a little bit of luck, she was already doing what she was supposed to do. All I had to do now was try to stay alive. That was, by far, the greatest challenge I’d ever faced.

The king of daemons had his sights set on me.

His blazing red eyes promised me a world of pain.