“You,” I growled. “You branded me. I remember.”

“Good! Good!” Wells exclaimed, clapping his hands like a kid at the circus. “I’ve been waiting so long to see you again, but there’s never been a reason.”

“Who are you?”

“No, no,” Wells said, shaking his head. He sighed. “You’re asking the wrong person. Who are you?”

I glanced at Red. She didn’t move. Her face was as emotionless as always. I looked back at Wells.

“Me?”

“Yes, you. Because you’re more than we bargained for.”

I blinked a few times as my head swam. None of what he was saying made sense.

“You know who I am,” I said carefully. “I’m Jonas Dreadstone.”

“No, no, no. Come on,” Wells said, exasperated. “Are you going to keep this charade? We know you remember; you wouldn’t be exhibiting these…symptoms…if you didn’t. So which one are you? One of the Dukes? An Archon? Who?”

Red put her hand on Wells’ shoulder.

“I don’t think he knows,” she said.

Wells’ eyes went wide and a smile spread across his face.

“Very interesting. Very interesting.”

My head began to pound, and my Mark began to burn. I took a sharp breath in and exhaled. Then again.

Through gritted teeth, I said, “My name is Jonas Dreadstone. I don’t know what you’re talking about. None of what you’re saying is making sense.”

My Mark began to heat up again. The pounding in my head was like a drumbeat being slammed against my skull.

Red said something. I glanced at her and she repeated herself.

“You don’t know, do you?”

There was something wrong with the words she spoke. I understood them, but they weren’t any language I recognized. They certainly weren’t any language I knew or had ever heard before.

“What?” I muttered, trying to blink away the searing pain in my neck and my head. The sweat on my skin began to boil as my wounds began to burn. I screamed and spasmed.

I felt my chains creak and a couple of them broke. I fell over on my side, the chair cracking as I fell. Red and the Hunters stepped in front of Wells, who picked up his clipboard and backed up, his eyes wide with fear.

Pain washed over my body, like molten lava in my veins. I howled in agony and my vision went white. Then, as quick as it came, the pain was gone.

I blinked and struggled to my feet, steam rising off of my skin. Red and the other Hunters had pulled out knives and were slowly surrounding me. One of them leapt at me, but she was moving in slow motion, as if she was underwater.

I swung my fist and it connected with her jaw. Blood spurted out of her mouth and I heard bone shatter. Her neck turned ninety degrees as she flew into the wall. She collapsed to the ground and twitched a bit, before going still.

The other Hunters looked on, their neutral expressions not faltering. I jumped at Red, who barely managed to bellow a war cry before I was on top of her. I bit into her neck and tore out flesh, blood spurting everywhere. I ripped the knife out of her hand and flung it into the skull of a different Hunter.

Red rolled on the floor for a second, blood pooling beneath her. She tried to grab at me, but I kicked her away. I stood up and immediately felt a knife bury in the small of my back.

I growled and turned around, backhanding the last Hunter away. She fell over and I ripped the knife out of my back. The wound seared itself closed, steam rising off of my flesh.

I walked over to the last Hunter, who was struggling to her feet. I grabbed her by the throat and lifted her up. She just stared at me, emotionless, her arms trying to grab at me. With my other hand, I pushed my hand into her chest, going through skin, muscle, and bone until I reached her heart. I gripped it and felt it beat. Then, I squeezed until it burst. She went limp and I dropped her body onto the floor.

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

I turned to see Wells struggling with a ring of keys by the door. I walked over to him and stood behind him, silently. Finally, he got a key in the door. He began to turn it, but I grabbed his hand and pulled it off the handle. Then, I broke off the key in the door.

I picked him up with both of my hands and threw him across the room. He slammed into the wall and fell to the floor.

He groaned in pain and struggled to his feet. I walked toward him, the stone echoing my breaths.

“Wait!” he pleaded. ”Stop! I’ll tell you everything if you let me live. Just don’t hurt me.”

I smiled and kicked out his feet from under him. He fell to the ground with an unceremonious thud.

I kneeled down to him and snarled, “Speak.”

“I don’t—what do you want to know?” he spluttered.

“Everything,” I demanded. “What’s happening to me? You’re right, I should be dead. I shouldn’t be this strong. What did you do to me?”

“Nothing!” Wells screamed.

“Wrong answer,” I said, grabbing one of his fingers.

He yelped and said, “Wait! Wait! I didn’t do anything special! I just branded you with the Mark! That’s all! I was trying to figure out what went wrong!”

“What do you mean?” I asked, loosening my grip.

“The Mark, do you know how it works?” he asked, his voice shaking. He was sweating and his eyes were dilated. A part of my brain was telling me that I could smell fear mixed in with his sweat. I ignored it.

“No,” I said. “That’s one of your Guild secrets.”

He swallowed and stammered, “It’s a binding circle. It binds something to your body and soul.”

“What thing?”

“A demon!”

I stood up and took a step back.

“I have a demon inside of me?” I asked.

“No, yes, I mean…” Wells said, wiping the sweat from his upper lip. “It’s complicated.”

“You better hope I get it then,” I growled, kneeling back down and grabbing him by the hair.

“The Guild, all of humanity. We were losing the fight against the monsters,” he said. “We needed a new weapon. At first, we had Hunters voluntarily sell their souls to demons, but this was ineffective.”

“Why?”

“People didn’t want eternal damnation,” he spat. “Obviously. So, we improved. We found a way to bind a demon to a human host and have the demon consume the human’s soul. We found a way to bind demons to our service. This was eons ago. The Guild has been doing this forever. It’s what allowed us to grow to these heights. It’s the very foundation of the Guild as we know it.”

My head swam again. My Mark had stopped burning and now just felt heavy and cold, like a chunk of iron embedded in my skin.

“So, what are you saying?” I whispered. “I’m a demon?”

“Yes! Kind of. It’s complicated!”

I grabbed one of his fingers and squeezed. He squealed in pain.

“The Mark forces the demon to assimilate the human’s soul and their memories, taking their place! It gives Hunters the power they need to fight the enemies of humanity! Most of the powers are locked away, of course, but they think they’re humans and fight for us.”

My headache returned. I dropped Wells and rubbed my forehead. The room began to spin and I sat down.

I took a deep breath and said, “How can you bind demons?”

Wells scooted back to the wall, trying to get as far away from me as possible.

“Rock, paper, scissors,” he said.

I leaned over and slapped him.

“It’s balance!” he squealed. “The universe is designed in a principle of checks and balances. Demons are weak to humans, humans are weak to the gods, the gods are weak to demons. No one group can take complete dominance. Rock, paper, scissors. Why do you think demons need to make deals with us? Because we’re their natural counter!”

“Fine,” I said. “I don’t know jack shit about theology. Maybe you’re telling the truth. But I know who I am. I’m not a demon.”

Wells shrugged.

“Maybe?”

I slapped him again.

“Don’t lie to me,” I said.

He nodded quickly and said, “You’re a demon, but we don’t know which one. We never do. I thought you’d regained your memory—”

I slapped him again.

“Don’t lie. Who am I?”

“You’re you!” he screamed. “You’re a demon who has convinced himself it's Jonas Dreadstone and you’ve been Jonas Dreadstone for over thirty years, so what’s the difference?

“Jonas Dreadstone, the farm boy, the Hunter’s Apprentice. He’s dead and gone. You assimilated his soul and were bound by it. You took on his memories and his identity, you forgot who you were. But the Mark is fading, growing weaker.”

“No!” I shouted. “I remember it all! I’m me! I’m not a demon! I’m human!”

“You aren’t human,” Wells said, shaking. “You have been ever since you got the Mark!”

I wanted to kill him. I wanted to tear his head from his neck. He was lying. He had to be. I reached for him, but then I stopped.

He was so small, cowering against the wall. He looked pathetic. What was I doing? I sighed and punched him in the gut. He collapsed, unconscious but very much alive.

I stood up and walked to the door. Then, I heard Red groan. I turned around and saw that she was still alive. She was unconscious, holding her neck. I walked over to her and pulled her hand off of her wound.

The flesh I’d ripped out of her throat was growing back, but she was still bleeding. I tore away strips from her clothes and made makeshift bandages. I wrapped them around her wound, tight. The blood soaked through quickly, but I just wrapped more.

I checked the other Hunters, but they were all dead. I took the largest one’s clothes and put them on. They were a bit bloody, torn, and dirty, and didn’t quite fit me, but it was better than being naked. I looked back down at Red and sighed.

I picked her up and slung her over my shoulder. I kicked open the door and walked out. I couldn’t just leave her there. If what Wells had said was true, she was just like me. And maybe she knew some things that Wells didn’t.