Ruined

Chapter Thirty-Six

Sam

Something had happened. The silver strand I’d seen connecting me to Jax after our kiss was out of sight, but I could still feel it. I had nothing to compare it to, but if not for the fact that I hadn’t felt any of the blows Chase delivered, I would have sworn Jax had unintentionally linked us. Every once in a while I felt a flash of anger, and a rush of something like adrenaline—only a thousand times stronger. It was from Jax. I didn’t know how, but I was sure.

Heckle pulled me aside as the great battle began. By the time he finished explaining what he was doing there, I had an idea of my own. Heckle, as it turned out, wasn’t an ordinary run-of-the-mill demon. In fact, he wasn’t a demon at all. He was something special. Something useful. Together, we’d hashed out an additional plan. Backup. Just in case…

But he’d disappeared, and Azirak’s demons came for me, intent on keeping their promise. Help came from the most unlikely source. Chase. But even though he’d taken down the group circling, there were more. Many more. And if they couldn’t get to me directly, they knew they could get to me through Chase.

Through the link.

They rushed him, fists flying.

I turned to escape the chaos, but a sharp pain exploded on the right side of my head. Then, another to the gut, followed by air leaving my lungs. I crumbled to my knees as involuntary tears fell, and the world took on a blurry haze. Every blow dealt to Chase landed on me.

Something wet trailed down the upper right side of my face, tickling slightly as it went. When I lifted my hand and pulled it away, it was smeared with blood. Panicking was a bad idea, but I couldn’t help it. I tried to take a deep breath, but it was like someone had wrapped a rubber band around my chest, making it worse. Ribbons of color danced before my eyes as spikes of pain rolled over me. I’d broken several ribs in high school. I knew how it felt.

I tried crawling to the patch of trees at the corner of the fort. There were demons fighting everywhere. I couldn’t prevent the damage that came from Chase, but I could at least get clear of the rest.

But each movement was harder than the last. Whatever was happening to him was bad and it was taking its toll. At one point I had to stop and spit out a mouthful of blood, horrified when something small and white landed on the ground. A tooth. A few paces after that, I bit back a scream as my right elbow gave out with a soft but distinct cracking.

Just when I wasn’t sure I could make it another inch, Heckle was there. “Here,” he whispered as he lifted me from the ground. It hurt. Everything hurt. But I let him drag me to the sideline. “This ends now.”

Another flash, even brighter than the ones before, lit up the sky, but unlike the previous two, this wasn’t lightning. It was something else. When it cleared, I gasped. The battle was gone. The pain, the other demons, the blood and bodies. All of it. Evaporated as though it had never been. The only things left were me and Heckle, and Jax and Chase.

For a moment, I was sure Chase had taken one too many knocks to the head. This was a hallucination. That, or death. “What—”

“This war is between your two demon clans. Using a mortal to gain advantage is unbalanced.”

Chase stalked forward, stopping just shy of grabbing Heckle around the throat. “You have no right to interfere.”

“On the contrary, it is my job to interfere.” He stepped back and gestured to Jax. “This is your game board. You will play your hands out. Alone. Royal blood against royal blood.”

Chase looked as though he might argue, but Jax simply nodded and stepped away. “Take your opportunity, Zenak. Let’s finish this once and for all.”

And with a grin, Chase lunged forward and threw the first punch. In fact, he was throwing the only punches. I backed away as they fought. Chase assaulted Jax with fury, but he refused to strike back. He did his best to dodge the blows, but dealt none of his own. He didn’t want to hurt me.

“How can you let them do this,” I whispered furiously. “You know he won’t fight back. You said they couldn’t use me, yet that’s what Chase is doing.”

“Do you remember what we discussed?” Heckle asked, voice low. “They are brutal and vicious, but I believe Azirak to be the lesser of the two evils.”

I nodded as a chilly breeze whipped the leaves into a frenzy above their heads. The nearly bare branches stretched into the sky like skeletal fingers, reaching for heaven.

In the middle of the fort, Chase stood over Jax with a mix of hate and pity. “What are you going to do? You hurt me and you hurt her. We both know you don’t want that. I don’t either. Just roll over and die. Make this easy on everyone. End your pathetic existence. No more feeding the demon. Isn’t that what you’ve always wanted?”

It was there in Jax’s eyes. He was buying his brother’s bullshit. I had to do something to tip the scales in Jax’s favor. There was one way to get him to fight back.

Heckle was right. It was time for the backup plan.

“You’re sure. You can do what you said?” My insides trembled at the thought of going through with it, but something had to give.

A faint shimmer surrounded Heckle’s left hand. A moment later, he held out a pristine-looking blade. “I can. But as I warned, it will come with a price. You may lose him regardless of this sacrifice. There is no way to predict the outcome. It will all come down to choice.”

If I agreed to follow through, then it would give Jax the freedom to kill Chase. The good part about that was, it would ensure that Zenak would never have his powers restored, and that Jax would live. The bad part was, Azirak’s powers would be restored. It would break the curse that bound the demons and give them the freedom again. Forever. Heckle didn’t know what would happen to human Jax.

It was a gamble. And in the end, that’s all life really was. A series of gambles. “Chase!” I took the knife and positioned the knife above my forearm.

He froze for a second, glancing up from a weary-looking Jax, and laughed. “Come on, Samantha. You’re the biggest chicken when it comes to pain. You freaked out two weeks ago when you got a splinter.”

He was right. I stubbed my toe and screamed about it for an hour. But this was different. This was for Jax. Nothing I could do would kill Chase, but I could take the wind out of his sails.

I could take myself out of the equation.

“What’s the point? You can’t kill me. The link doesn’t work that way.” He eyed the knife. “I can still kill you, though. One swipe across my throat and you’ll be choking back your own blood. Don’t make me do it, Samantha. Please. Just step aside and let this play out.”

“I can’t kill you, but I can make you miserable.”

“I’m commanding you to put the knife down.”

I smiled and reveled in the shocked expression on his face. “And I’m commanding you to go to hell.”

He took a step toward me, mouth wide open. “How the hell—we’re still linked. I can feel it.”

Behind Chase, Jax climbed to his feet with a frightening smile. A sickening crack sounded as he tilted his head to the left, and then the right. “You’ve got no control over her.”

Chase spun on his brother. Lightning-fast, he whipped his fist forward and caught Jax in the jaw. Without a moment of hesitation, Jax retaliated by dropping to the ground and sweeping the back of Chase’s knees. He went down hard and all the air whooshed from my body as the sting of impact sent a dull twinge through my muscles. But he wasn’t down long. Jax was unwilling to do any real damage—but Chase wasn’t. In a graceful arc, Chase launched into a kip up and delivered a jab that caught Jax directly in the throat. He struggled for air and stumbled back, crashing into the large rock at the center of the fort.

Chase turned to me. “What’s the plan, Samantha?”

“Jax can’t hurt you because of me,” I said. “If I’m not in the way, he’ll take you down.” When I’d gone over this with Heckle, I expected to get to this point and freeze up. There was nothing. No second thought. No hesitation. Just conviction. Chase had to pay for what he did. Jax had to stay safe.