Page 125 of Dancing With Demons

The python twisted around Ronin’s abdomen—crushing him.

“Even for a demon, my babies deliver death within three minutes. So you save one, or you lose them both.”

“Lucifer!”

He waved. “Toodles.”

Lucifer winked out of the room, leaving me screaming in his wake.

“Char-lotte!” Ronin gasped, his face reddening dangerously. “D-Dora... go to... Dora!”

I sobbed, heart-shredding for my body was already turning in the direction he told me to go. “I’m sorry. I’m s-so sorry. I love you, Ronin. Always.” I ran for Dora—

—and didn’t move.

“What—?” Icy cold spread from my tattoo, hardening my lower limbs to lead. I wasn’t going anywhere. “What is this!”

Dora’s lips turned a dangerous blackish-blue. Her flailing feet started to slow.

“Fuck!” Ronin thrashed in the python’s grip. “It’s the... sub bond! It’s forcing you to choose me,” he burst out. “I order you to save your sister! I ORDER YOU TO SAVE YOUR SISTER!”

The cold gripped me, its invisible chains holding me back—demanding I accept the choice it made for me. “No!”

Dora stopped kicking. Her hands fell to her sides as her eyes drifted shut.

“NO!”

“Charlotte Hunter, I release you from the sub bond!”

BOOM!

Ronin’s python exploded—torn apart by the force of the fiery explosion. The flames greedily consumed it and then rushed through the room—

—and time stopped.

The rushing flames. The hissing snake in the rafters. My heartbeat. It all winked out.

I spun away and raced toward Samael. Reason wasn’t controlling me. Neither was instinct. The only thing fueling my sprint as I crossed the room, ripped the flaming sword from Samael’s chest and jumped on Dora’s bed... was the look on Lucifer’s face when I hunted him down, taught him my true name, and shoved it down his throat.

“Arggh!” Launching off the footboard, I hefted the sword high—and swung.

The blade sliced through the snake, severing it clean in two, and releasing its charge.

I seized Dora as she fell, then ran for the door—bursting into the hall as the explosion ripped through the bedroom, blowing the double doors right off the hinges.

We tumbled head over heels over limbs, collapsing into a groaning heap thirty feet away.

“Agh,” Dora wheezed—coughing and hacking as she sucked desperate air into her lungs. “What happened?” She eyed me, concern and relief warring on her face. “How did... you do that?”

“I don’t know,” I whispered—my mind trying, and failing, to understand how I outran a deadly explosion. “I just... don’t know.”

Chapter Sixteen

“Istill don’t understand what happened.”

Tristan and I stood outside the door to Ronin’s bedroom. It had been a strange and hectic few days since Lucifer killed Samael and ran off with his feathers, but somehow, we found ourselves back at the academy. Honestly, where else were we going to go?

Dora was here too, but in our room next door. The adjoining door was gone to give her privacy while she dealt with the aftermath of everything that happened over the last few months.