I hesitated. Like I always did, I hesitated. I didn’t know if the demon I had pinned was bluffing or not and rather than commit to a course of action, I let my mind wander.

This time, it was only for a moment; a fraction of a fraction of a second. But for the greater demon under me, that was all the time she needed.

Her three tails, whiplike lengths ending in half-meter long blades, struck out at me. I pulled, hearing tendons tearing on her arms, but her blades struck me to the bone and my arms on one side went slack, releasing her.

We both hissed in pain, and I drew on my magic to burn her right as she hit me with a raw, messy command spell. I stumbled barely long enough for her to cast something far more practiced. This time, she disappeared.

Either by luck or practice I remembered what Lilly had told me in Sandmeadow, after our spar: “it’s a lot harder to use magic and get away with it if you have to hide your own aura while doing it.”

Her goons—contracted, corrupted, mind controlled or whatever—surrounded me, menacing with their magicked weapons, but I ignored them. My eyes, glowing with aura sight, searched for my real opponent.

I saw her aura move: a black mass studded with pale blue stars and ringed with rich violet, running at incredible speed around me. Not toward Taava or Nelys, but toward Seyari and Joisse.

If she tips that fight in her favor…

I didn’t want to think about it. Didn’t have time to.

The people surrounding me could have been innocent, but I was in no place to care about them over my friends. The cuts in my arm, viciously deep, but fine almost like papercuts, were already healing. Not fast enough.

I blocked a sword slash with an arm on my good side, numb to the pain as it bit into me, and spun, sweeping with my tail. The nearly two-meter-long limb caught three people and sent them flying with a heavy crunch of breaking bone. The swordsman, sword still in hand and his expression far, far too calm, stood in my path. He was still recovering from his last swing.

I leaned down, bent my legs, and headbutted him, horns first. Even with how my horn tips pointed backward, the thick demonic bone dented his armor and bowled him to one side. Opening created, I dashed through, taking one last person down on my way out with a clumsy fist from my last good arm.

My feet pounded through bloody mud, past our ruined wagon and up the snowy hillside toward Seyari and Joisse. I followed the trail Joisse had torn into the forest, following the bouncing aura of the invisible demon who managed to stay just out of claws reach.

Not twenty meters off the road, we joined the other fight, and I saw the aura dash for Seyari.

“Sey! Behind you!” I shouted a warning to my fiancée.

Caught in the middle of calling forth yet another lance of holy light, she didn’t hesitate, whirling and rolling to one side.

She was too slow—but only just.

One of the invisible demon’s tails caught her, blade biting deep into her side. She gasped, and I tried to sprint the last few meters even faster, readying a stream of fire.

Behind her, another demon: a horned, bat-winged, hooved man with skin the color of tarnished silver and eyes like burning pyrite, readied his own spell. He was closer—and he just might have beat me to the punch.

But he was distracted. And he’d forgotten about Joisse.

Our newest ally, probably half again as tall as the one I presumed to be a demon of avarice, slammed into the silver demon’s side, shoulder first. Joisse’s long, thick spikes dug into him and he screamed in pain and fury.

I didn’t see how hurt Joisse was, because my own spell was ready. I threw my good hand forward and a stream of crimson fire burst forth, bathing the forest in unnatural light. The still-invisible demon realized where I was aiming and dove to one side.

She got out, but the tail that had struck Seyari wasn’t so lucky. Caught by my fire, hot enough to push me toward exhaustion, the bladed tail incinerated, leaving nothing more than a glowing stump. The rest of my fire went wide, roaring past Joisse and the avarice demon, through the trunk of a tree, and up into the midday sky like a flare.

The now two-tailed demon screeched, calling upon her magic again, aura flaring even as her invisibility flickered off. Between us and the other demons, the tree I’d burned through started to fall.

Seyari staggered up from her roll, cursing as blood flowed freely from her side, a holy glow starting. I saw Joisse fly off the avarice demon, trailing dark blood as the sharp, brownish-gold wind tore into her. I felt her pain, her desperation through the contract, and I willed my power into her even as I grabbed for the tailed demon with my good hand.

I think I can feel all my fingers again.

I reached the demon just as she blurred and warped, bending out of my reach at an impossible angle. Faster than I could even register, she had moved behind Seyari. The tree between the twin fights fell, shaking the ground and dusting all of us with snow that glittered in the daylight.

Even injured and potentially mana-exhausted, the three-quarters angel was far from helpless. Seyari twisted away from the blades aimed at her neck just in time, one sliding up and grazing the shaved side of her head. I dashed forward through branches and falling snow, watching in my periphery as Joisse, her energy and fury renewed, leapt again on the avarice demon, mangled limbs tearing into him.

I reached the tailed demon just in time for her to blur away again, sliding around Seyari’s side. I barely managed to interpose myself between the two and knock her tails aside with my own.

“Hundreds dead, on your mind,” she cast her thoughts at me again.

Just up the hill, I felt Joisse get thrown away again by wind magic, she was getting weaker—and fast. But for now, the silver demon had to focus its full attention on her.

“What do you want?” I hissed at the three-tailed demon.

“Isn’t it obvious, Wrath?” she spoke aloud, her voice like a thousand candles sputtering out—all at once. “We want you to die!”

Instead of a response, I leapt at her. If she isn’t lying, to those about to die, I’m sorry. Pouring all my magic into speed, claws growing white-hot, I threw myself forward, and she had just enough time to realize I’d regained the use of all my arms before I reached her.

My fire and my fury struggled against her magic, a shield of shimmering force. For a moment, the shield held against my assault and I felt myself slipping. Right as I broke through, she blurred, moving away at an impossible speed.

She couldn’t dodge all of my arms.

I caught her with a single clawed hand, but it was enough. Pushing with magic and muscle, I tore through her, cutting or breaking bone and burning whatever organs she had. I felt her spine, grabbed her arm with another hand, wrapped my tail around a leg, catching her second knee, and pulled.

The demonic woman tore in two, halves already nearly cauterized, even as her arm I held started to blacken. Her final defense was a scream in my mind, painful enough to make me stumble. Behind me, I heard Seyari scream and collapse.

I roared and slammed the pieces of demon together, crushing and mangling until the scream cut off. When she died, her black, starry aura burst outward, slamming into me. An instinctual part of me understood—she’d challenged my title and lost. Now I’d get my due. My gem pulsed, crimson, green, black, blue, purple.

I stumbled, falling forward, pushing away the memories that weren’t mine; the fragments of soul that weren’t me. Golden, warm fields, buildings of a style I’d never seen, an opportunity lost, and a family name tarnished: the final straw that would beget a civil war.

The people I saw wore unfamiliar high-class clothing and walked halls and gardens of wealth. They all had familiar furred ears and tails. Kazzel. Raavia.

Taava.

The Black Claw.

From back in the direction of the others, I heard a cry for help.

“Sey!” I shouted.

“On it!” my fiancée replied, dashing after the trail of carnage that Joisse and her opponent had tunneled into the snow-covered forest.

Sparing a thought for Joisse and a hope that her new life wouldn’t end here. I sprinted down the hill and passed over the road where I’d first fought the three-tailed demon. My feet practically flew across the ground. I felt good. Not mentally—I was barely holding it together there.

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No, physically. Whoever that demon was, by intention or not, they’d gone against me in a way that lost them their soul when they’d died. And I’d gotten that soul, maybe entirely. That’s something to ask Sey or even Lilly later.

Right now, I needed to move. I could still hear fighting, and Seyari was somewhere behind me, still alive and hopefully not mana exhausted. Lorelei’s death reared fresh in my mind.

I heard another scream as my boots hit the churned snow by the far side of the road. Behind me, I only counted three bodies—one still moving. And they were human. Who knows how many Black Claw were waiting in the wagon. Damnit.

I need to be faster!

Tracks in the snow led me deeper into the forest, and I saw motion ahead through the trees. A half-dozen people, perhaps—but I couldn’t make out Taava or Nelys.

I heard another pained shout, this time clearly from Taava. A memory of a dark winter wood hit me: a cave, lit by candles, and a person we failed to reach in time.

Not again.

My magic shifted, new power surging. I almost hesitated, almost didn’t want to risk manifesting some echo of the dead demon, some power that wasn’t like me. Or worse, that wasn’t mine.

I didn’t though—I encouraged it instead.

Heat formed behind and below my lower set of shoulders. I half expected a new limb to push out, but what I got instead were twin jets of fire. The spell felt complex, powerful, and old. But it also felt familiar in a way—structured almost like Seyari had taught me, bits of how I’d design something filling in the cracks.

The fire spread, drawing out into wings of flame. I couldn’t see their appearance, but I felt their heat on my back: warm, but their true heat isolated—my coat safe save for twin holes burned clean through it.

I flapped, a wash of heat melting snow behind me, and I shot forward. I didn’t even think about going up. The speed was so great, in fact, that I couldn’t avoid the first tree.

I slammed into it, shoulder first. The crack of wood was nothing compared to the burning hiss of my flame wing as my new pseudo-limb, with some resistance, cleaved through the trunk.

New limb. Fire or not, I could almost feel the spell-created wings of fire—my wings. I didn’t have time to think about them, or what they might mean. I made them with my magic, somehow or another, because I needed to be faster. Right now, that speed was all that mattered.

Racing ahead of the falling tree, I didn’t enter a clearing, rather I entered a steep, rocky gap with a half-frozen creek at the bottom. A mixed group of armored thugs and white-and-brown cloaked assassins had surrounded a rocky hill on the other side.

Several thugs were down for the count, laid out on the ground like broken dolls. Their wounds were many, and fresh. If I had to make a guess, the same people I was chasing did them in.

I reached the first of the Black Claw assassins just in time for them to notice me; she must have turned when I hit the tree. Her eyes widened, just in time for my clawed hand to catch her in the torso.

Her flesh searing, I flung the assassin against the rocks, even as I pulled up clumsily to the other side of the ditch. She hit hard, and I didn’t bother to check if she was still alive. Something flew toward me, and I drew in my wings around myself, stumbling from my boots’ lack of grip on the icy rocks. Crimson fire surrounded me, shape so defined as to look like my own pair of demonic wings, only warmer, and far more deadly. Whatever it was that hit me disintegrated against my wings.

Even riding the high of gaining whatever power I’d gotten, I could feel the new spell draining away at my reserves. Not quickly, but enough to matter.

I heard motion. Flicking my wings open, I threw what almost looked like a whip of fire at the aggressor. It clipped them, and they tumbled down in the snow, out of view behind more rocks.

I didn’t linger, instead rounding the corner to where I’d heard Taava and Nelys shouting. The moment the scene came into view, my heart sank and my fury surged.

Nelys lay on the ground, bleeding. Taava stood over them, blood dripping from one shut eye, a slash across her chest, and a small arrow in her thigh. She held three throwing daggers, one in her dominant hand, one in a reverse grip, and another in her tail.

Surrounding her were three assassins: each holding a shortsword.

Five.

One full group, but with better weapons. My aura sight was still on, and each Black Claw glowed faintly with magic, stronger at their weapons.

Light from my wings bathed the area crimson, and Taava’s eyes flicked up to me. When they did, the Black Claw assassins struck as one.

I launched myself at them, fire burning and claws outstretched. Barely, just barely I reached them before they reached Taava.

I grabbed the rearmost, my searing claws catching only cloth, and spun. One wing clipped another Black Claw, sending them stumbling and burning. My tail caught the last one full-on, throwing them over and past Nelys to crash against the rock.

The small boulder groaned, and started to give way, falling back toward the creek below. Taava kicked off it at the same time, straight at the one I’d grabbed.

Searing claws have great purchase in flesh, but scissor straight through cloth. Set free, but caught off guard, the man barely had time to block Taava’s first two strikes, but her tail-held blade shot forward and straight through his cheek.

My momentum carried me past Taava and into the falling boulder. I kicked through the dying assassin and off the rock, sending it careening off down into the ditch, landing with a splash just as I turned to stand protectively over Nelys.

In a proper duel, the injured Taava looked like she could hold her own. So, I focused on the other remaining assassin, who was standing up with their cloak now on fire. Our eyes met, and to my surprise both of us threw magic forward. Their lightning met my fire in a small explosion that tossed Taava and her opponent to the side. I shielded myself and Nelys with my wings, but the last assassin had no such luck and was caught in the blast.

They flew backwards into a tree, smoking. A mound of snow rolled off the branches above and buried them. Taava rolled upright first, and I ran to her aid, not wanting to risk my wings in such tight quarters.

I moved to flank, and the distraction gave Taava what she needed—an opening. Small as it was, she took it, dipping under the assassin’s guard to drive a small dagger into his chest, just to the left of the middle. The assassin gasped, arm straining to deflect one of my clawed hands.

Another of my hands, balled into a fist, found the handle of Taava’s blade and punched it the rest of the way in. The Black Claw assassin stumbled over and crashed into the snow, blood pouring from the wound.

Taava hissed. “Across the river?”

“One left,” I replied, turning. “Is Nelys alive?”

Taava shrugged; she looked pale and I could see her shaking. “I don’t know. Maybe—but not for long.”.

I looked over at where Nelys lay. The snow around them was stained with blood—enough to make my stomach twist. A contract? No—not with Nelys. I know they wouldn’t want it.

Seyari then. I have to go back to her and Joisse

I flapped again and took off back across the river, more a long jump than true flight. My eyes looked for an aura in the snow, and I found the last assassin. They barely had time to react before I flew over them. From my hands, I washed them with crimson fire, and a cut-off scream let me know I’d hit.

But I didn’t have time to check. Across the road and into the forest, I flew, burning my way through the denser foliage. At the site of the battle, the bright tan of pine splinters and rich green of needles littered the ground. There’d been a dense stand of trees here only moments ago. I saw Seyari struggling toward me, shouldering Joisse. The other wrath demon looked bad, but she limped along.

From under a log, I could see a twisted silver leg. An arm lay a few meters away, and between them a thick smear of dark blood had boiled away the snow. I wanted to congratulate them on the kill—to ask Joisse if she was okay. But I didn’t have time, and I shouted as soon as I drew close.

“Sey! Nelys! Dying!”

“Where?” Sey looked up, eyes widening at my wings of fire. “Renna, what—”

“No time!” I reached out my two right hands. I can’t carry them both.

“Go!” Joisse wheezed. I’ll—” She coughed up some blood. “—live.”

I’ll be right back, Joisse. Wishing I had time for a response, I pulled Seyari close when she took my hands, using the weight of my tail to turn and my legs to kick off for a flying leap back toward Nelys and Taava.

The kazzel was on one knee when we got back, her breath ragged. She looked at us. “Poison. Do—do Nelys first.”

Seyari nodded and leapt out of my arms, running to Nelys’s side. Holy magic suffused the former pirate’s small form, and Seyari swore. More magic poured from her; more light glowed around Nelys.

Next to me, Taava shuddered and collapsed. I grabbed her and carried her over next to Seyari. The half-angel exhaled, pale, sweaty and shaking.

“I—I think they’ll live, but they might need more than I can give right now.”

My heart clenched. “What about Taava?”

Seyari turned around and swore. The half-angel looked up at me and sighed, before doing something I didn’t expect. She smiled. “Be a little gentler when you carry me out of here, okay? Oh, and you might want to stand back.”

“Huh?” I stuttered, even as I set Taava down and did as I was asked. Acutely, I felt the drain of my wings on my mana, and I dismissed the spell, the crimson glow fading as I felt the odd, but very familiar sensation of losing two limbs.

In front of me, Seyari put her hands on both Nelys and Taava and began to glow. Her silver, braided hair lifted and her eyes poured out a bright gold light. Even though it burned to look at, and made some part of me twist with discomfort, I didn’t look away.

I watched as color returned to Taava’s cheeks, and as Nelys twitched and muttered. All too soon, it was over. Seyari collapsed forward, face-first into the snow.

Shocked as I was, I didn’t quite catch her in time. But I’ll tell her I did.

I scooped all three of them up after checking their breathing. Even and regular, thank Dhias.

Taava and Seyari went over my shoulders, leaving my lower arms to princess-carry Nelys. Even if the danger appeared to be past, I walked back to the road slowly and carefully. I could still feel Joisse distantly through our contract—and she wasn’t any worse than she had been. But that didn’t mean she could walk.

If she was out of it too… Well I should have enough arms for everyone, and I can pull a wagon.

I didn’t want to risk Nelys, Taava or Seyari by leaving them unattended, so I trudged across the road carrying all three and made my way warily back up the hill. Joisse sat against a tree, breathing heavily. The ground under her—bare dirt mostly—was mixed with dark blood.

“I’m sorry, Zarenna.” She coughed. “I’m not very strong—I didn’t want to just give in. I was worried I’d hurt someone on our side.”

“Shhh,” I set the others down carefully and knelt beside her. “It’s okay, everyone lived—they’re just out for a little while.”

Joisse looked over at me and smiled a tusked smile, her eyes unfocused. ““I… my fury. All the different parts of me wanted different things. I think… I think I just wanted the war to end, but… everything was so foggy… Now I know what I want, but I don’t know if I can have it.”

I reached out and took her hand, willing a bit more of my nearly-gone mana into our contract. “You can. You will.”

“You should just kill me.”

“No!” I shouted loud enough that we both jumped. “No way. I meant everything I said earlier Joisse, and I know you did too. You literally just said you wanted to live—that you had things you wanted to do.”

Joisse perked up a little as the mana took hold. “Mhm. I can think a lot straighter now. I like it, but it’s also harder. In a good way, I think. Could… we talk about something nice for a while?”

I looked down at the others out cold on the ground, and thought of the carnage left on the road and the path here. I had every reason to insist we try to move now, but I found I didn’t care to. “Sure, Joisse.”

“Thanks.”

“How about I tell you the time Abigail dragged me and Tania to the backstage of a play by convincing us she had permission to be back there.” I traced my tail through the dirt while warming the soil enough that my friends wouldn’t freeze.

Joisse giggled, coughing a little. “Really?”

I smiled sheepishly. “Yeah, really. We were young, and honestly a little naïve. Tania was always smarter than me, but she was pretty sheltered. We both were, I guess. I just had Abby for a good-bad influence.”

Joisse smiled, and I launched into my story in earnest.