Total pages in book: 64
Estimated words: 65167 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 326(@200wpm)___ 261(@250wpm)___ 217(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 65167 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 326(@200wpm)___ 261(@250wpm)___ 217(@300wpm)
He scoffs. “I saved your mother. You and I both know that. It was your father who turned her into a shell of what she once was.”
I shake my head. “My father was horrid to her. To all of us. I know that. But she fought him. She left him. You? You stole all that fight from her. You stole her love. Her light.”
His gaze tightens, grows sharp as a knife, yet I don’t flinch. My words are my weapon against him, and they’re sharper than any sword he could draw.
“Maybe it's resolve,” I go on. “Resolve to end your reign of terror. To reclaim our lives from your clutches.”
The sky darkens to an inky black, a perfect backdrop to his monstrous form. The first stars begin to prick through the ether as tension coils between us.
“And maybe,” I add, my voice barely above a whisper, “it’s anticipation.”
His eyebrows furrow.
“Anticipation for the moment when you no longer hold power over me, over my mother. When we can be free.” I give him a taunting smile. “Your own people want me to end you. They’re ready to mutiny.”
“You don’t have that kind of power.” He raises his hand. “Get on your knees, bitch.”
Magic coils around me like a vise—tightening, pressing, whispering dark promises into my ear. My knees buckle for a breath, just one, but I don’t fall.
His eyes glow with the smug certainty that I’ll break. That I’ll kneel like I did that first time.
But I didn’t the last time.
His power has increased since then, though.
“You can’t resist me,” he growls. “Every part of you answers to me.”
My breath comes shallow, my body screaming for release, for relief, for surrender. But I grit my teeth and stay upright.
“You raised me on fear,” I say, voice ragged. “But fear doesn’t own me anymore.”
His magic pulses harder now—hot and violent. It’s trying to break into my mind, crack open my soul. My vision blurs. My heart hammers.
But I won’t kneel.
Not to him.
Not ever again.
I think of every time he made me feel small. Every time I bit my tongue to survive. Every time I cried behind closed doors and hated myself for it.
And I push back.
I use the power of my blood.
I use me.
The girl who survived him.
The woman who outgrew his menacing insults.
Power explodes inside me—not dark, but raw and bright and burning clean. His magic hits a wall, and for the first time, his eyes widen.
He wasn’t expecting this.
“You taught me pain,” I say, taking a step forward. “Now let me teach you humility.”
His magic shatters against mine.
And he takes a step back.
Not much. But enough.
I smile, even as sweat drips down my spine and my muscles tremble from the strain. “Still think I belong on my knees?”
He doesn’t answer.
Because he knows the truth.
I’m not his stepdaughter anymore.
I’m his damnation.
67
I stand tall before the demon king, my heart pounding like a war drum. The look in his eyes is no longer contemptuous or domineering. I’m not sure what it is. Frightened?
No, he’d never let me see that.
Apprehensive?
Maybe.
“Aren’t you going to fight?” I demand. “Isn't that what we’re here for?” A bitter laugh escapes me. “Or was that just another one of your lies?”
His lips curl into a twisted smirk. “You're no better than I am,” he snarls. “You can pretend all you want, but we’re the same.”
Seriously? That’s where he’s going?
A sure way to get me to knock him on his ass.
“No,” I say, the word punctuated with the conviction of someone who finally knows her worth. “We are not the same.”
I strike first.
A quick jab to his solar plexus.
He blocks it—barely—but I pivot and drive my heel into his side.
He grunts, stumbles, but recovers fast.
Too fast.
He sweeps his arm, and a blast of dark energy slams into me like a wrecking ball. I fly backward, my spine ricocheting off air held stiff with psychokinesis. It doesn’t hurt as much as it should—I’ve been hit harder—but it knocks the breath from my lungs.
I don’t give him the satisfaction of staying down.
I flip to my feet, teeth clenched, and surge forward. He throws another wave of cold and crushing power. I slice through it with mine, moving like lightning. His eyes flare, and this time, we both move at once.
He’s strong, for sure. Taller than me by nearly a foot, broader, and made of raw fury. His magic hammers at mine, a brutal back-and-forth of invisible forces slamming into one another midair. He’s trying to get inside my head, trying to wrap his power around my mind and squeeze.
No.
Fuck, no.
I throw him.
He slams against an invisible wall I create behind him, and before he can fall, I pull him forward again and spin him in midair. His body corkscrews like a tornado. When he lands, he’s on his knees.
“Who’s on his knees now?” I jeer.