Blackbird Broken (The Witch King's Crown #2) - Keri Arthur Page 0,3

and her breath was a harsh rattle that sang across the night. If not for the roar of that engine, it would have alerted the demons to our presence.

Though there was every chance they already knew, especially given the stealthy manner in which they were approaching.

Part of me wished they’d just attack and get it over with. I hated waiting.

The ever-growing closeness of that engine drowned out all other sounds, leaving me with only the energy pulse in Nex’s steel as an indicator of the demons’ growing closeness. I flexed my fingers on her hilt, more to allow the cool air to caress my palm than to ease the tension.

Mo’s magic reached toward a peak. She was close, so close, to finishing.

Maybe lady luck was on our side tonight. Maybe we could fly out of here before the demons arrived—

The roar of the engine faded as the car moved further away, and silence crept back. Silence, and anticipation.

They knew we were here.

I flexed my fingers again, trying to remain calm. While I couldn’t see them, I could now feel them. Smell them. Their ashy, acidic scent flooded the air, and they were no longer making any effort to conceal their presence. And there were at least a dozen of them approaching.

Fuck.

I pushed away from the wall and walked into the center of the canyon. Defensively it wasn’t a smart move, but I needed those demons to concentrate on me rather than Mo. No matter what else happened, I had to give her time to finish her wall. The fate of life on earth might well depend upon it.

White lightning flicked from the sharp points of both daggers now, sizzling lightly as it hit the water. Steam rose, curling around my legs, a gentle fog that in no way hid my form. I waited, my heart pounding so fiercely it felt like it was about to tear out of my chest. They were close now. So damn close.

Then the darkness shifted and a scaly brown shadow launched at me. I held my ground, waiting, as it arrowed through the air, reaching for me with brutally sharp claws. At the last possible moment, I dropped low, raised Nex, and sliced the bastard open from neck to genitals. As the black rain of his blood and guts fell all around me and his body flopped lifelessly into the water behind, I pushed upright and waited for the next attack. It was tempting, so very tempting, to unleash the combined power of the daggers and cinder the whole unseen lot of them, but I’d only just recovered from the effort of killing the red bastard, and I had no idea what sort of toll unleashing the daggers so soon after that would have on me. Better to wait and only use it as a last means of survival.

There was no immediate response from the narrow darkness of the slot ahead. No sound to indicate they were still on the move. Either they were waiting to see what my next move was or they were deciding whether it was feasible to sneak up on me from the other side of the bridge.

I shifted stance so that I was slightly side-on and able to see both ahead and behind.

Mo, I noted, was almost finished. A few more minutes was all she needed …

With a roar that echoed across the night, the demons attacked. Not just one or two, but at least a dozen of them. They rushed from both sides of the canyon, their claws and yellowed tusks glinting in the fractured, eager light being emitted by both daggers. I swore and attacked, twisting and slashing, cutting fingers and arms and legs. Sliced faces and chests, dodging and weaving as best I could in the slippery confines of the beck. And still they came at me, a never-ending flow of stinking, bleeding scaly flesh.

Three more dropped over the edge of the bridge and arrowed toward Mo. I screamed a denial and clashed the blades together to form a cross. Power surged—one that spoke of storms, not magic, and a force that came from deep within rather than the sky—and then twin bolts of lightning shot from the ends of both blades. They peeled away the night as they arced across the canyon, cindering the three demons in an instant.

Something hit my back, a weight that bit and tore even as it drove me into the water. I screamed again and slashed back with Vita; felt a