her flesh, looking for a way out, and on her wrists where her manacles had once rested, she could see the faint outlines of black, jagged teeth waiting for any scrap of food.
Mixed with the liquid darkness, Nico could actually see her own heart pounding in terror in her chest, but she forced herself not to look away. This was her. Her body, her power, her life. She hadn’t fought for so long and hard only to be afraid of it now.
Nico flicked her eyes to Den. He’d found the edge of her coat and was pressing his hands against it, looking for the edge. She could see the orderly flow of his spirit tensing. He was losing his patience. Soon he would rip the cloth and return them to daylight, and then there would be no way to stop him going up the beach. That wasn’t acceptable. She’d told Josef she would stop him. But Nico was facing a very real dilemma. She couldn’t beat Den, not as she was, not even when she had the dark to move through and he had nothing. That left only one path. She had to become stronger, become something Den couldn’t stop. Nico looked down again at her own darkness, the clawed hands scraping against her flesh. “Become” was the wrong word, she thought with a grim smile. She already was a monster. All that was left was to embrace it. After all, the monster was hers. She’d ripped it from the demon of the Dead Mountain with her own hands. Now it would fight as she commanded, for it was a part of her, and she was the master of herself.
Before she lost her nerve, Nico looked away from Den and turned her focus inward, sinking down into the pit of her soul. The demonseed leaped to meet her with a vigor that turned her stomach, but she ignored the discomfort and opened her arms, pulling the creature in with a lover’s embrace. Power, strong and addictive, flooded her mind. She took it all and held it as hard as she could, letting the slimy black water wash over her, the black teeth bite into her skin and become her own.
When Nico opened her eyes again, she was no longer afraid.
At the edge of her coat’s shell, Den froze. He whirled, finding her instantly, but Nico didn’t even try to run. After all, it wasn’t her killing intent he’d used to find her this time. He was no longer fighting blind, for even a blind man couldn’t miss her eyes glowing like lanterns in the dark. She spread her tainted spirit like claws, pushing the demon’s fear forward. But Den did not flinch when the fear reached him, not even when she shoved it down his throat, and despite herself, Nico was impressed.
“Are you not afraid?” she whispered, wincing at the horrible sound of her own, two-toned voice.
“I have no need for fear,” Den answered simply, looking her up and down. “You are a demonseed?”
“I am Nico,” Nico said. “I am a monster, but I am also myself.”
“A good answer,” Den said, stepping into his stance. “I am also a monster. All men are who know no fear. So, monster Nico”—he grinned wide—“why don’t you make me remember how it feels to be afraid?”
Nico returned his grin, her mouth opening wider than a human’s should to reveal four jagged rows of black teeth, and vanished into the dark.
Den held his stance, waiting.
He didn’t have to wait long. The first blow came from above, a black claw reaching down to grab his head, the razor-sharp talons hooking under his jaw. Den grabbed the hand with both of his, but before he could rip it away, another claw appeared from the ground and lashed up, digging into his leg above the knee.
Den grunted and kicked down, spinning sideways out of both claws. The moment he was free, he grabbed the claw from above and ripped Nico out of the shadows. The claw from the ground vanished as she landed in a crouch. The second her feet were on the ground, Nico sprang up, her body shifting back and forth between solid darkness and smokey shadow as she wrapped her arms around Den’s shoulders, locking herself to him.
Den’s hands went up immediately, but it was too late. She was clutched around his neck. Den froze, his fingers sliding over the black, stone-hard flesh of her arms.
“It’s useless,” he said, his voice tight and calm despite the pressure she was putting on his throat. “You can’t eat me, not without my permission. I am the king of my soul.”
“I know,” Nico whispered, her dual-tone voice dry as dust. “But I’m not trying to eat you. The demon eats souls. I don’t. I’m a human monster, just like you.”
“Really?” Den sneered. “Then what are you trying to do?”
The darkness in front of him shimmered and Nico’s face appeared, her golden eyes narrowing as she smiled wide. “Hold you still.”
Den’s eyes widened in surprise as Nico’s hold vanished and he looked down to see her black claw buried elbow deep in his chest.
Den coughed, but he did not stumble. Instead, his hand shot out, grabbing for her throat. But his fingers passed through her body like water through sand.
“How,” he whispered, hand falling limp at his side.
Nico looked down at her black arm buried in his chest. “Even fortresses have weak points,” she said, her voice wafting like smoke. “Your ability to will your body to absorb any damage has held off the ravages of battle and age, but you’re still human, Den, with a human’s blindness. Blind, you built your fortress to defend against attacks from the outside. Attacks you could see. But in the dark, all shadows are mine, even ones inside your body.” She wiggled her claws in his chest. “All I had to do was hold you still long enough to reach them.”
Den bared his bloody teeth and began to laugh. He fell to his knees in the sand, still laughing as Nico’s claw ripped free. His laughter dissolved into coughing as he collapsed onto his side, looking at her with fading eyes.
“I always knew this was how it would end,” he wheezed. “I knew nothing human could kill me.”
“You’re wrong,” Nico said, her glowing eyes narrowing. “I am still human.”
“No,” Den said, his voice trailing off as the last of his breath left. “You’re not.”
Not anymore.
“No!” Nico shouted, stepping away from Den, her body flashing between hard flesh and smokey shadow as she tried to push the demon back.
Oh yes, the demon answered, completely ignoring her efforts. I told you. Every time you used your powers, I would come back. Every time you were weak, I’d be here. You just suffused your body into shadow to beat this man. How can you even dare to say you’re still human?
“No!” Nico screamed again, clutching her head between her claws. “I am my own master! My soul is my own!”
That may be, the demon said. But that doesn’t mean you’re still human. The voice paused. Do you know how new demons are made, Nico?
Nico clamped her mouth shut, but the demon went on anyway.
I can replicate myself forever through seeds, it said. Over and over, always the same, little shoots of myself growing in fertile soil. But sometimes, through extraordinary pressure, a seed changes. It ceases to be a part of me and becomes something new. A new demon, a true demon, with its own ambitions and drives. If this was the world that was, the world before, I would now try to kill you. Predators can’t abide competition, after all. But this isn’t our world, is it? It’s her world, and so I think I’ll let you be.
“Her who?” Nico snapped.
The demon laughed. Our darling jailor, of course. You’ll know her when she comes, but by then it will be too late. Maybe she’ll actually manage to destroy you rather than just locking you under a corpse, as she did me. But trust me when I say this, little daughter, whatever plans Benehime has for you, the day will come when you would give anything to go back to the time when I was the biggest thing you had to worry about.
“I doubt that,” Nico muttered, pushing the demon’s voice down, down, down until it was little more than a whisper.
You’ll see, the demon said as he faded. Talk to you soon.
Nico slammed the boulder down with a rage she’d never felt before. She was standing in the field, panting as the cool air blew over her face. But even as she realized where she was, she knew something was wrong. Her field, the high golden field of her soul with its rolling hills and enormous sky, was dark. It was night, a cool, still night. Nico looked around in confusion and pictured the sun, the bright noon day that she’d created when she’d made this place.
No sun came. When she looked up at the sky, all she saw was darkness. Endless, endless darkness, and something else. She squinted. High overhead, something was moving against the black sky. A hand, she realized as her blood went cold. A clawed hand, scraping at the sky. From the second she saw it, she could not look away. The hand clenched in the dark above her, clawing faster, harder, until at last it grabbed a great fistful of the sky
