“Not until I get what I want and even then, it will be too late for the Naturals. Camelot belongs to the Dark.”
“What do you want with Camelot?” I demanded. “Tell me.”
“You’ll see.” He took a step towards me, congealed blood oozing from the sigil carved into his chest. “We will take this world without our master. We will rise again.”
“Not if I have anything to do with it.”
I feigned left, then struck right. My sword sliced through the air, falling towards the Balan’s ribs.
He ducked and lunged behind me, his bulk moving too fast for me to counter, then slammed his foot down onto the back of my leg.
A scream tore from my lips as jagged bone erupted from my shin. I buckled, falling to the ground in agony.
The Balan stood over me, his eyes black. Glancing at the blood pooling underneath me, he licked his lips, his barbed tongue darting out like a perverted lizard tasting the air.
“Pathetic,” he said, lowering himself over me. “You don’t even understand the gift the Dark has given you.”
I grimaced as I tried to wriggle away from the rotting creature, but his hands slammed down beside my head, caging me within his grasp.
“We would have been unstoppable,” he rasped, curling a clammy hand around my throat. “You would have been my queen.”
“Gross,” I choked out. “You reek of rotting flesh. Haven’t you heard of deodorant? It’s common courtesy.”
The Balan snarled and tightened his grip. “You accepted your fate. Now embrace it.”
White-hot barbs dug into my mind and I screamed as the demon began to drill into my head. Without the focused power of his sigil, the invasion was agonising.
“You can’t control me,” I cried, fighting the power that was clawing inside me.
“You would fight for them?” His rotting breath stank as the creature bared its rows of razor-sharp teeth. “They tortured you for years, blaming you for their own shortcomings. They will execute you. The Dark will embrace you, Madeleine. Come with me and I will show you just how powerful you really are. I would never hold you back. With me, you can be free.”
I gasped as images began to flash through my mind. Freedom. Acceptance. Meaning. All the things I’d dreamed of…
“No!” I screeched. “I don’t believe you!”
“All you have to do is let go. Let go and you can have everything you have ever wanted.”
The Balan was torn away from me, the connection between our minds severed. I roared as his barbs dragged through my psyche, but I was free.
I opened my eyes to find a familiar form standing over me. Elijah.
“What are you doing?” I dragged myself to my knees, my broken leg dangling uselessly. “You can’t be here!”
He shoved me aside as he passed, not even looking at me. His hand brushed against my bare skin and I froze as cold Darkness rushed through our connection. Everything that made him human was gone.
I cried out as I felt the link between us sever. “Elijah, no…”
But he wasn’t paying any attention to me. His gaze was focused solely on the Balan. What could he possibly do to the demon who had bound his soul? Nothing, unless he didn’t have one.
No… The gravity of what he’d just done slammed into me and I almost collapsed. Elijah had severed the connection with his soul and now he was one hundred percent Dark—he’d given up his freedom to save me.
His voice echoed across the hillside. “Ikakantor, your time has come.”
The Balan demon roared and fell to his knees as if an invisible force pushed him.
Ikakantor? It must be his true name. Elijah had just levelled the playing field.
“You have no power over me anymore,” he said as he stood over the demon.
“You waited this long to play your hand?” Ikakantor asked with a sneer. “What is it about her?”
Silver glinted in Elijah’s hand—my arondight hilt. “I guess you’ll never know.”
Electric sparks showered across the trail as the blade erupted, links of cold iron clicking together as he swung.
The blade sliced through the Balan’s neck, severing his head from his shoulders. A black, inky cloud poured out of the hacked flesh, rushing into the air. It pooled in the sky like an angry storm cloud, crackling with menacing Darkness.
The empty body slumped to the ground and exploded into flame, the fireball consuming flesh until there was nothing left but a scorch mark on the grass.
The Balan was an inky mass of swirling energy raging above us. Without another body to possess, it was powerless against us. It began to rise, flying away from us and Camelot until it disappeared into the night.
Elijah let my sword retract and knelt beside me.
“My sword. How…?”
“Shh,” he murmured, evading my question yet again. “I’ve got to set your leg. I doubt your fancy doctor could set a break like that without causing some damage.”
“And you can?”
“Let’s find out.” He smirked and set the hilt beside me. “I will need two hands for this.”
“What—”
He pressed down on my shin and I screamed a perverse curse as the bone crunched back into place.
“Seriously?” I exclaimed, punching him in the arm.
“I think the words you’re looking for are ‘thank you’.” Looking at the wound in my leg, he added, “Give it a minute and you’ll be fine.”
“I think I’ll need a lot longer than that.”
“I doubt it.” He winked. “You’ve got the best of both worlds now.”
I grasped his wrist. “Did you have to?”
“It was clear you were losing,” he replied. “It wasn’t a clean kill, but at least you’re free.”
“You gave up the last connection to your soul to save my life. Why?”
He lowered his gaze, hiding their silver sheen from me. “Don’t read too much into it.”
Leaving me, Elijah walked over to the scorched ground where Ikakantor had made his last stand and scuffed his toe across the soot. The Balan’s body was gone, but I knew he had more hanging in his meat closet—unless the team of Naturals the Regula had
