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  The demon howled as its mercurial blood covered my hand.

  “Ow!” I hissed, yanking the rod back out completely. That was going to sting. I’d purposefully angled the strike up, hoping to hit its heart under the ribs—if it even had one. I quickly wiped as much blood as I could on my skirt.

  I got lucky, because the demon in front of me fell to its knees.

  But I didn’t have time to enjoy it, because a nasty snarling came from behind me.

  “Valkyrie,” Fen yelled. “Watch your back!” I whipped around, still running my burning hand along my makeshift loincloth to get the acid blood off. “Don’t try to fight them. Get back to the caves!” Fen roared. “You cannot stay out here. It’s too dangerous.”

  “I can handle this!” I had to, right?

  The one I had knocked in the head walked back and forth, its forked tongue lashing in and out of its gross slit of a mouth. It looked pissed that I had knocked it down.

  “Braza,” it rumbled, blinking dark eyelids over its glowing orbs.

  “Greeza, braza,” I shot back. “It’s all the same to me.”

  It paced in a slow circle, so I followed it. I felt like a sumo wrestler poised at the ready with my comically small rod thrust out. When I circled back around to Fen’s direction, I was relieved to see he was still holding down the fort and no other devils were shimmying up the rocks.

  “It seems they are after you!” Fen shouted. “They’ve never attacked on such a level, and they aren’t interested in me like they usually are.”

  “How did they know I was here?” I yelled back. “I just arrived!”

  I didn’t want to believe it, but I knew it was true. The Norns had indeed rung the alarms.

  “Energy is released,” Fen growled, dispersing a group of demons with one slice of his blade, “when someone arrives in a world.” He grunted as he shot a few more off the dais with a kick from his powerful leg. “The Norns must have sent…a message to watch…for it.” He ended with a long swipe of his spear that sent ten demons soaring through the air.

  He was something to behold. If I hadn’t been so freaked out, I would’ve enjoyed watching him. Snarling brought me back to the land of the living, where demons were after me.

  “Braza benna lai, Surtr,” the thing rattled.

  “Sorry, buddy, but I don’t speak Evil Demon,” I said as I lurched forward, trying to surprise it.

  The demon dodged to the side and waggled its serpent tongue.

  It was on to me.

  I had to think of something else. I had no training in this sort of thing, so surprise was my only real tactic. It was an asset I could think quickly on my feet.

  “Braza benna lai,” it garbled again, and then spat, “Surtr.”

  “Fen!” I shouted. “Do you know what this thing is saying?”

  “It’s telling you”—Fen smashed his fist into the side of a demon head—“by the orders of their ruler, Surtr, you must go with them now. There is no other choice for you.” He whipped his sword up and over, decapitating a dozen at once. “Do not go with them, Valkyrie, whatever you do. We will prevail.” His voice was firm.

  I found it hard to believe that we would prevail with seven hundred fire demons gunning for my blood. But I wasn’t going to give up either. I wasn’t a quitter.

  “Okay, I’ll go with you,” I told the demon as I lowered the iron rod to my side and assumed a non-threatening stance. “I’ll even go quietly.”

  “Valkyrie, no!” Fen roared with such force the room echoed with his power. I saw more than one demon flinch back. “You will not go with them! I will not allow it. Their method of torture surpasses all others. You will not be safe at their hands, no matter what they tell you! Surtr is evil. He will not trade you to the Norns for anything until he is done. His pleasure will be to break you by taking your flesh.”

  Break me? Take my flesh? That didn’t sound at all good.

  But I couldn’t tell Fen it was a trick. It would ruin the surprise.

  I continued with my submissive posture, while trying not to think about torture and flesh tearing. “Do you understand me, Demon Breath? I said I’d go with you.”

  The thing glanced at me uncertainly.

  I shrugged my shoulders in a what-are-you-waiting-for gesture. My hand and arm were still burning from the demon acid. The skin literally kept peeling off as blood ran down my arm, hitting the ground. It made my grip on the rod slippery, so I had to factor that in.

  The demon pointed at my weapon and said, “Wata-ju.”

  “You want me to put this down?”

  The thing snarled, which I took for a yes.

  “Okay.” I bent at the knee, setting the rod down next to my foot, as close as I could to my body, balancing it slyly on a small rock. “Satisfied now? It’s down.”

  It started for me.

  This plan had better work, Phoebe, or you’re in a whole lot of trouble.

  I stilled myself, as I’d done before, and let the thing get within two feet of me. Just as it came close enough, I slid a toe under the iron. Right at that moment, Fen rent the air with another terrifying howl and yelled, “Valkyrie, you cannot do this!”

  My foot connected with the iron rod, launching it up into my waiting hand.

  It was just like I’d done over and over in junior high with my baton at band practice. I wasn’t a talented musician, I’d given up on that dream early on, but I could wield a mean baton.

  The demon grabbed my upper arm and wrenched me forward. I used the momentum to launch myself into it, thrusting the rod into its neck, straight up at an angle, piercing its brain.

  Fen broke his stance on the dais and raced toward me.

  I yelled, “No, Fen! Get back there. I told you I had this!”

  The demon dropped instantly. No screeching, no grabbing.

  It was stone-cold dead.

  Fen slid to a stop in front of us, his mouth open. “Why didn’t you tell me you could fight, shieldmaiden?”

  “Um?” Because I had no idea? This is my very first time? Demons rushed into the cave in earnest now that Fen had left his perch. There seemed to be no end in sight. We were not going to win this one. “Fen, they’re coming.”

  He whirled around, spreading his arms wide, charging the incoming mob of forked-tongued beasties like they were a swarm of flies and nothing more.

  I stood behind him, hands fisted around my lone rod, skin peeling off my hand and arm. There wasn’t enough money in all the worlds to pay me to charge into the demon mass. There was nothing I could help Fen with in there. I would be overwhelmed in a moment.

  “Valkyrie, go back to my den…there is a way ou—” He leaped into the air and, right before my eyes, changed fluidly into his wolf form before he hit the ground.

  It was seamless and graceful, a beautiful metamorphosis—because this man was a demigod. He was no human.

  His animal form was unbelievably breathtaking, and truly frightening.

  He was the biggest wolf I’d ever seen in my life, at least six feet tall at the shoulders. He had brilliant, gleaming dark fur with streaks of silver flowing through it.

  He barreled straight into the demons, his powerful jaws snapping them in half like toothpicks, his enormous body sideswiping them into cavern walls, where they landed on the floor like broken matchsticks. He let out a roar that shook the cave, the rocks actually raining down from the ceiling.

  Stunned, I realized he’d just been toying with them before.

  Like they were sport. Maybe his only real distraction in this dismal place was a good fight?

  If he’d shifted earlier, this cave would’ve been cleared of them already. It didn’t matter if there were hundreds, nothing would’ve gotten by him on the dais if he’d been in his wolf form.

  I should’ve trusted him.

  He was a demigod, and I was so very…stupid.

  Because Fen had left his position to help me, some of the fire demons had spread to the sides, and now that he was occupied, they scoote
d out of the shadows and made their way toward me. There were too many.

  I turned and ran.

  It was all I could do.

  11

  __________________________

  ____________

  Fen’s fierce snarls echoed behind me as I booked through the tunnel back the way I’d come. My only chance was to make it to his lair before they got to me. He’d been in the process of telling me there was a way out, even though I hadn’t seen one.

  I had to trust him as I raced between the lava fields as fast as my feet could propel me. I sprinted into the original tunnel, hazarding a glance over my shoulder and gasped. There had to be at least twenty demons trailing me, and they were gaining with each step.

  They were certainly speedy when they wanted to be.

  Instead of heading back toward Fen’s den, which would be a dead end unless I could find the exit quickly, which I wasn’t hopeful about, I veered and ran toward the portal.

  It was only a few feet away, and in the scope of my current situation, it was my only real option. I wasn’t making it back to his lair before they caught up to me, even though I was running faster than what I thought was normal.

  Maybe, just maybe, the portal would open if I begged and pleaded.

  Whatever had tossed me here, whether it had been the tree or interference by another force, might still be awake in there. I had plenty of blood gushing from my arm to offer as payment. I’d give it just about anything it wanted.

  I might even promise it my firstborn.

  I bounded up to the smooth stone and pounded a single bloody fist against it in a flurry of movement. “Open up! Please. I need a ride! Take me home!” Absolutely nothing happened, except my blood was now smeared all over the surface and my hand ached more.

  No glow kindled. Not even a flicker.

  I kicked it in frustration. “Damn it!”

  “Greeza,” several gravelly voices rumbled from behind me. “Braza, Surtr.”

  I slid around slowly, my heart pounding so hard it felt like it was going to thump out of my chest. I made sure my hand stayed on the rock, keeping it pressed hard against the surface, just in case.

  The other hand held my only iron rod, but what good was it going to do me now? I couldn’t gouge out twenty necks in one swipe. I wasn’t Fen.

  “Greeza.”

  “I’m not your greeza!” I shouted in what I hoped was a menacing tone. “I’m not even supposed to be here! This has all been a huge mistake. If you let me go, I promise to never come back. You have my absolute word on that. Tell your leader I want no trouble.”

  They formed a semicircle around me.

  One of the demons stepped forward. They all looked the same—black, charred skin with forked tongues slithering in and out of their awful, thin, dark mouths.

  This one looked no different.

  I thrust my rod up and swung it in front of me. The beastie just stared, blinking its black eyelids over its red orbs.

  “Stay back! Or I’ll kill you like I did your friends!” My voice was rough and dry.

  The thing chortled.

  The sound resembled a fork stuck in a garbage disposal, but it was a laugh nonetheless. This demon thought I was weak, even after what I’d done to its pals. I bet they all thought this was going to be a walk down easy street. Just plop me over their bony shoulders and carry me away like the ettins did.

  “I will kill you all,” I raged. I was not going to give up. If Verdandi and Bragnon couldn’t get me, I wasn’t going to let these guys win. “I swear, I will kill each and every one of you.”

  Then, without a warning or a signal, they all stepped forward as one, like someone had issued an invisible order.

  The leader spoke. “Braza benna lai, Surtr.”

  “Yeah, I know.” I affected a bored tone. “You already said that. I have no choice but to come with you. But listen, buddy, where I come from there is always a choice.” I didn’t wait for a response.

  I sprang forward, surprising myself as well as the demon.

  Before it had time to react, I’d already sunk my rod deeply into its chest.

  These guys were not overly bright on tactics, which definitely worked in my favor. I hadn’t premeditated my moves, and I’d trusted my gut. Now I could only hope the rest of the demons, which had just witnessed me brazenly taking out the guy in charge, would see me as a threat and back off.

  The demon dropped to its knees.

  Yes.

  My rod was still lodged in its chest.

  I gripped the end tightly, letting out a war whoop as I pulled it back out in one motion. I couldn’t help myself. The adrenaline was flowing freely. My skin prickled with it. My heart pumped swiftly, running at what felt like a hundred miles an hour.

  The demon stayed on the ground. I wasn’t sure if I’d pierced a vital organ or not, but it was down. I darted a glance around the semicircle in front of me. All the demons had their eyes pinned on their fallen leader, then one by one—to a demon—they lifted their burning red eyes to mine.

  I watched in mild fascination as their irises dimmed and, a moment later, lit up like a new match had been ignited inside their depths. All their eyes re-fired at the same time and were now a blur of swirling bronze.

  Heating up to the color of pissed-off orange.

  No, no!

  A hand hit my leg. My eyes ripped back to the demon on the ground. It was staring intently at me. A grotesque grin flashed across its charred face. The beastie’s diabolical tar-filled mouth looked so wrong as the ends turned up, producing more of a crazed grimace than an actual smile.

  A small bead of dark acid-blood bloomed out of its mouth and slid down the side of its chin. I watched, horrifyingly riveted, as its forked tongue shot out and lapped it off as it growled, “Teka lai rada, greeza.”

  No translation needed for that one. Its smug face said it all.

  It’s all over for you, sweetheart.

  Without thinking, I stamped my foot into its thigh and plunged the rod back into its chest, tearing a larger hole as I went. The iron had already reacted with its blood, and now its insides leaked through the bigger hole, gushing out in an oozing mass of bubbling, putrid molasses.

  The demon rolled to its side, twitching once before going completely still.

  Take that! Yeehaw!

  There was no time to be satisfied. I glanced up and all the minions stepped forward at once, each of them emitting a low hissing noise. What was happening? There had been some kind of a shift in them that I didn’t understand. They all started garbling at once, each of them grating and screeching something different.

  It sounded like a million marbles dropping onto the floor at the same time.

  “Stay back,” I shouted, my body now flush against the inactive portal. I had absolutely nowhere to go and was fresh out of options. The beasties had their newly orange eyes lit on me. I could see them pulsing. Someone else was in charge.

  Someone a heck of a lot smarter.

  A long bellow echoed through the room, shaking the rocks from the ceiling and sending them tumbling to the floor.

  Fen was in the tunnel.

  Help was coming!

  The demons snapped their heads toward the sound in unison, like a mass of cyborg robots from every sci-fi movie I’d ever seen. Their togetherness was downright creepy. Having this many demons under the control of one unified brain was not going to end well.

  I really didn’t want to meet the brain behind this operation.

  I stood on tiptoes, frantically trying to get a glimpse of Fen, but the stick figures gathered in front of me effectively blocked my view.

  Another demon separated itself from the others and marched toward me, stepping over its fallen friend like it wasn’t even there. This one looked angrier, and its eyes flickered in agitation. It stopped a few paces short of me and turned its head, issuing a few sharp, barking orders to the group.

  The demon beasties reacted swiftly.

  Half of them turned a
nd ran toward Fen, while the other half came at me in a speedy blur of black limbs.

  There was nothing I could do to protect myself.

  Bony hands grabbed on to me and pulled, yanking me forward, their fingers jabbing painfully into my skin.

  “No,” I screamed, trying to resist. “Fen!”

  He roared, still in his wolf form, but the other demons had swarmed him. It would take him a moment to break free.

  Suddenly, I was off my feet.

  These things were carrying me, just like the ettins had, their skeletal hands a lot stronger now that they had me in their tight grips. I twisted and turned, bucking like crazy. “Let go of me!”

  They headed back toward Fen’s lair. They were moving quickly, and it was pitch dark once we hit the tunnel. I kicked my legs out. “Let me go! I’m not going with you!”

  We emerged into the smaller cave, and the demons below me ran straight for a small pile of rocks just past the pool. The new leader extended its hand and said something, scrabbling at the first stone. It was a big boulder, but it rolled it away with little effort.

  A pinpoint of red light shot into the room from the now exposed hole in the wall.

  There’d been an exit in here all along.

  I rocked my body with renewed vigor. They were not taking me out of here. I channeled all my strength into freeing the hand that still held the rod. They had taken me while I’d still been clutching it. I yanked it up, feeling sharp nails bite into me, but finally tore free. I swung the iron down in anger, screaming at the top of my lungs, “Get away from me!”

  My rod connected with the demon next to me as a pulse of energy raced through my battered arm and into the rod. The demon flew away from me like I’d shot it with a high-powered rifle.

  There was a smoking hole where his shoulder used to be.

  He was dead where he landed.

  Holy crap!

  The demons stopped in their tracks, pausing uncertainly, talking loudly, until their leader stepped forward and yelled something garbled.

  It walked over and laid a hand on me. “Dona tagit rue.”

  Some kind of pulse shot through me, and I was paralyzed. I couldn’t move.

  The demon had spelled me with something!