Marked For Death: A Dark Urban Fantasy Novel Becca Blake (fiction novels to read .txt) 📖

all I could do just to keep up with the ferocity of his unrelenting assault. With every swing, I backed up, always on defense.

All of my friends had been taken down in front of me. I was on my own, and I had to take control of the situation.

He didn’t stop until my back met the hard wall, and I had nowhere else to go. He pinned me against the wall with his forearm, pressing so hard against my neck that I struggled to breathe. My sword slipped out of my hand as I clawed at his arms.

“Fix it,” Raxael snarled. “And I might let you live.”

When I didn’t respond, he raised his bladed arm and thrust it forward like a spear. I squeezed my eyes shut, but instead of stabbing me, he shoved his arm through the window behind me. Panes of glass shattered, and shards sprinkled across the ground.

“Tell me how to fix this. Now.”

He didn’t know if he could get back his ability to plane-shift without me, I realized. Finally—something I could use to my advantage.

“No,” I rasped out. “It will die with me.”

Behind Raxael, I could see Orion struggling to his feet, trying to use his sword to stand. His face was pale, and even from this distance I could see how ragged his breathing was.

The back of Raxael’s other hand—the one without the blade—struck me across the cheek. His rough skin raked against mine, and the coppery taste of blood trickled into my mouth.

“I will drag you back to the infernal plane if I must, and I assure you, I will get the answer from you.”

Orion shuffled toward Raxael with determined strides. With every pained step, he closed the distance.

“You want to know the truth?” I asked, forcing myself to smile despite my fear.

Raxael’s savage growl bared his sharp teeth, and his breath was a flame across my cheek.

“There’s no reversing it,” I said. “You’ll never be able to shift planes without summoning a portal again. Even if you kill me now, someone will come along to challenge you, and your reign will be over.”

“You lie!”

Orion stumbled over Maki’s body, and the dirt on the ground crunched beneath him as he caught himself.

Raxael looked over his shoulder, still pinning me to the wall. He swept his tail to the side, and Orion lost whatever strength he’d found. His legs gave out beneath him, and when he fell this time, he didn’t get back up.

“No!” As I thrashed under Raxael’s grip, I allowed myself to feel everything I’d been trying to hold back. My rage at seeing him attack Orion, at the Arbiters’ corruption that caused this, at Jacob’s betrayal. My fury at Maki, and the fact I might never know what happened to my parents. I felt all of it at once, and an anger like nothing I’d ever felt before surged through me.

I wrapped my hands around Raxael’s arm, which was still pressed against my neck. The familiar warmth of magic that spread into my palms was a welcome relief.

But when I tried to channel that energy, only a few sparks came.

If my magic really was returning, it needed to hurry the hell up.

Reality seemed to glitch around Raxael as his body shifted in and out of existence. He appeared in exactly the same place, as if he’d simply flickered, but the pressure being removed from my neck was enough for me to drop down and crawl for my sword.

Raxael caught me by my ankle just as my hand closed around the hilt. I rolled to the side, arcing the sword with me, and slashed for his wrist.

He flickered away at the second my attack should have connected, and my sword carved through nothing but air.

“This magic will run out.” A horrifying grin spread across his demonic face. “How long do we have until I regain my full abilities?”

I leaped to my feet to prepare for his next attack. If he was smart, he’d stay out of my reach until the enchantment’s power ran out. He was faster than me, and I would lose that game of chicken.

“The enchantment will last as long as I choose,” I lied, hoping it would be enough to buy time to bring him down.

He fell for my taunt and lunged for me, but this time his movement was aided by a small shift forward. I barely made it out of his way in time.

As Raxael circled around me, he laughed. He plane-shifted short distances—a few feet at a time, like he was testing the limits of the enchantment as it faded.

“You’re losing control of it, aren’t you?” he asked. “Did you really think you could overpower a demon lord?”

I rushed for him, and he shifted away once more. His movements were becoming more precise, less erratic. I didn’t have long.

He was just too damned fast.

“I don’t think I’m going to kill you, you know. I’ll still take you back to the infernal plane. Won’t that be fun?”

He appeared behind me and waited until I spun around to attack before shifting away again. Taunting me. Playing with me, just as he had with the others.

My next attempt ended in his tail swatting me aside, as though I were nothing more than an irritating housefly.

He shifted across the warehouse, then returned to me.

“Looks like your time’s up.”

Chapter Thirty-Three

Even after getting the amulet to work, we’d lost. We had our chance, and I blew it. We would all die here because of my failure.

“I don’t think I’ll kill you just yet,” Raxael said. “Let’s make this more interesting.”

He plane-shifted to Orion and pressed the edge against the back of his neck.

“Which of them should I kill first?”

Raxael appeared again behind Celia, who lay on the ground unconscious. The heat from his arm glowed red on her face, but he didn’t touch her.

I kept my mouth shut and did my best not to give him a reaction. We may have lost, but that didn’t mean I had to play along and