Russel straightened. “What better way to ensure your organization remains undetected than by infiltrating, and eventually controlling, the foremost demon hunters on the continent?”

“Controlling?” Blake shook his head. “Impossible.”

“Win the loyalty of key figures and you can control any group.”

A knock on the metal doors echoed through the training room. Piotr and Chay tensed.

“Enter!” Russel called loudly.

The door opened and a well-built man with black hair and warm chestnut skin strode inside. A body hung over his shoulder, the person’s legs dangling limply in front of his chest.

My blood ran cold.

A second man ambled in after the first, dragging someone behind him by one arm. His lips pulled into a smile, his cheeks flushed.

My fear flashed into full-blown panic.

Daniel, the demon mage from Portland, let his victim drop to the hard floor. Justin’s head lolled limply, blood streaking his slack face.

“Don’t move,” Russel ordered calmly.

It took me a long moment to tear my horrified stare off Justin. My frantic gaze flicked across the other newcomer, who’d dumped his victim on the floor as well—Makiko, her hair tangled and body unmoving—then flashed to the men at the table.

I choked on a gasp.

Piotr held two pistols, the sides of their barrels engraved with runes. He had one gun leveled on Blake and one on Kai. Chay was in front of me and Aaron, though I hadn’t noticed him move. He’d conjured two long daggers from somewhere, and one point was aimed at Aaron’s throat. The other was inches from my jugular.

Daniel and his pal crossed the room, and Piotr and Chay seamlessly shifted over so that one mythic covered each member of our group. I stared into Daniel’s face as he positioned himself in front of me, his mocking smile daring me to try something.

I vibrated with the tension gripping my muscles, terror racing through my veins.

“I expected you sooner, Anand,” Russel said to the chestnut-skinned man.

“The little lady was a handful,” Anand replied as he studied his hostage, Kai. “Daniel and I had to corner her.”

Daniel’s smile widened. “I owed her one.”

A faint sizzle of electricity ran up Kai’s arms.

Russel walked around the table and stopped behind his four men. “You may have delusional ideas about escaping. You are already aware that Daniel is a demon mage, but in case you believe that the three of you can overpower him as well as a heliomage and three guild officers …”

Russel lifted a hand toward Blake, his fingers outspread. The terramage’s eyes widened.

“Russel,” he began hoarsely. “You—”

Magic sparked over Russel’s hand—crimson magic. The blazing power snaked up his arm as a glowing circle formed around his outstretched fingers. Runes bloomed inside it, and the temperature plummeted.

With a crackling pulse, a beam of ruby power blasted from Russel’s palm.

I didn’t mean to, but my brain overrode my conscious command and my eyes squeezed shut. I didn’t see the spear of magic strike Blake’s broad chest.

But I heard it. The horrific crunch. The thump of a body hitting the floor. The wheezing rasp of breath. The terrible silence that followed, broken by my terrified gasps.

“So, as you see, I have no qualms about killing any of you,” Russel said into the silence. “At the first moment of resistance, you will die.”

I forced my eyes open. Russel’s gaze turned to me, a faint crimson gleam hazing his irises. Tremors shook my limbs, and I was afraid to look at Kai and Aaron beside me.

Justin and Makiko were unconscious. Maybe … maybe dead. And Blake was …

Two demon mages and three powerful mythics had taken us prisoner. And no one, not a single soul outside this room, knew where we were. There would be no rescue.

We’d walked right into the cult’s clutches.

Chapter Twenty-One

“Well, Russel?” Piotr said in his ugly rasp of a voice.

The second officer, a senior member who’d been with the guild for over twenty years and whom Blake had said he trusted with his life, studied us with eyes that glowed with demonic power. “Before I call the Magnus Dux, we’ll confirm they haven’t spread information about the Court to anyone else.”

My rapid breathing filled my ears, and I tried to force my lungs to slow down before I got dizzier. At the same time, I commanded myself not to look toward the doors, where Justin and Makiko lay unmoving.

It was more difficult to ignore Blake and the snaking rivulet of his blood running across the black floor.

Russel pointed at me. “We’ll start with her. Women break more easily.”

Aaron jerked, red sparks leaping from his clenched fists.

“Hold still,” Chay snapped at him. “Unless you want to find out what happens when a heliomage lights a pyromage on fire.”

“I’ll tell you whatever you want.” The snarl in Aaron’s voice couldn’t hide an edge of fear. “Leave Tori alone.”

Russel gestured. Daniel grabbed my arm, hauled me to the table, and threw me down on my back. The folders slid off, papers scattering. Daniel’s hand snapped around my throat, powerful fingers squeezing as he held me down, restricting my air.

“Stop it!” Aaron yelled. “I told you—”

“Do you think I’m naïve enough to believe you’d tell me everything?” Russel reached under the table and picked up a black case. He set it beside my shoulder. “I’m afraid what I need to know is too important to trust your word.”

“You’re a demon hunter,” Kai hissed. “Why would you give up your body to a demon?”

As Russel turned his crimson-sheened gaze to Kai, I locked stares with Daniel. He grinned eagerly, more than ready to participate in my interrogation—especially if he got to force answers out of me.

“What better triumph over a demon is there,” Russel told Kai, “than to subjugate it in every way—to take its body, defeat its will, and command its magic?”

I wrapped my hands around Daniel’s wrist, struggling for air.

“Save us,” I gasped, scarcely able to produce sound.

With the click of a latch, Russel opened his case, not noticing Daniel’s sudden anger. “Demon mages created using weak-willed fools become weak demon mages who can barely control their demons.”

“And I’ll save you—”

Russel considered the rows of shiny, terrifying torture instruments in his case as though deciding what to start with. “Not once, in the four years since I underwent the ritual—”

“—with the amulet,” I gasped.

“—has my demon gained control of me for even a moment.”

Crimson blazed across Daniel’s eyes, transforming them into glowing lava.

Daniel lurched back, hands jumping to his face as he shouted in shock. Sucking in a desperate breath of air, I jammed my hand into my belt pouch.

Daniel staggered, fingers digging into his smooth cheeks. “No! I’m in command, you bastard! Stop—”

His eyes blazed brighter, and his furious, desperate expression morphed into jaw-clenching determination, teeth bared in a snarl. His gaze snapped to me. I yanked the amulet out of its pouch and lunged up, arm stretching toward the demon mage.

A hand closed around my forearm and powerful fingers constricted with so much force that blinding pain shot up my arm. I screamed.

Russel’s other hand flashed. Crimson blazed over his skin. Daniel—or his demon—thrust out both arms, but power had barely begun to flare over his fingers when Russel’s spell unleashed.

A boom of power. Blinding red light.

Daniel flew twenty feet and smashed into the wall. He slid down it to the floor, leaving a smear of blood on the polyester padding.

Russel dug his fingers into my arm. The demonic amulet swung like a pendulum, its chain still clutched in my hand.

His eyes narrowed as he studied it. “And what might this be?”

My jaw clenched. Blinking away tears of pain, I flicked a glance at Aaron and Kai, warning them to hold still. They didn’t react, their faces white and limbs rigid.

“An arcane artifact, Piotr?” Russel inquired. “Or an infernus?”

“I’m not certain.”

“Hmm.” Russel extended his hand, palm turned up as though to scoop the pendant out of the air.

I dropped the chain.

It’s an irresistible reflex: when you’re about to take hold of something and it falls, you catch it. Simple. Instinctive.

Russel caught the falling medallion with his enhanced reflexes, his fingers closing tightly around it. He straightened, the chain hanging off his fist, and frowned at me.

I stared back, terrified out of my mind while also hoping desperately.

Russel opened his mouth—and his eyes flashed to red.

He reeled back, amulet crushed in his fist. Demonic power exploded across his limbs and streaked over him in crawling veins. His mouth gaped, face contorting. Scarlet lines raced up his face to his temples, forming phantom horns.

I lurched off the table, falling awkwardly to the floor as I put the flimsy barrier between me and the demon mage. Russel convulsed, then dropped to his knees. Quaking. Heaving. Magic rippled off him, condensing—forming into wings that rose off his back and a thick tail with fur that ran down its length.

He arched backward, chest thrown out, head hanging back as a horrific scream tore through his throat.

A second voice joined his in a deep roar of primal rage.

The glowing power covering Russel’s entire body shimmered like heatwaves, then bulged outward. A different face tore away from the human’s—a terrible face with bared fangs, formed of the same semi-transparent power as the horns and wings.

Shoulders appeared, doubled over Russel’s. The demon writhed like a nightmare version of a butterfly wriggling from its cocoon, all while Russel screamed as though he were being ripped apart.

Blood splattered the floor.

Where veins of power marked his skin, Russel’s flesh split open. Blood ran and he shuddered violently. The demon’s phantom face flashed from triumphant rage to fear, and it wrenched from its host in a sudden panic.