0.5 Deadly Hearts Read Online Free Page A

shattered spirit, lord of the seventh dominion,” she said, “I hereby sentence you to death.”
    “ Under whose authority ?”
    “Mine.” She aimed her sword at his breast again. “I exorcise you, impious demon. In vain do you boast of this deed. I command you to restore this man as proof you no longer have any rule over his soul.”
    Rich threw his head back and cackled. His arm muscles bulged as he fought against the bindings.
    Elise hooked the tip of her falchion in the charms. “I abjure you, stripping you of the arms with which you fight. I revoke the powers by which this man became bound to your service.”
    His laughter turned to a shriek. His ribs rippled underneath his shirt like limbs twisting underneath a bed sheet.
    Even as he screamed, a guttural voice rolled through the room. “ He doesn’t love you, ” Courevore said. “ He will never love you .”
    Elise’s sword wavered. She tightened her grip on the hilt.
    “This creature is restored, rejecting your influence, and granted divine mercy for defense against your assaults. Now get the fuck out .”
    His ribs rippled again, and Elise heard a crack . Blood spread over his chest.
    She dropped one of the swords and ripped his shirt open. His sternum had snapped. Jagged shards of bone ripped through the skin.
    A red eye stared from the place his heart should have been.
    “Huh,” she said.
    It rolled around to focus the gaping maw of its pupil on her face, and it looked through her. “ He rejected you because you’re broken ,” the demon said, and this time, it spoke directly into her skull. Her eardrums throbbed. “ The women I killed have all failed as wives, but you’ll never even be good enough to marry, much less fuck. Malformed hermaphrodite with a wasted soul .”
    The other sword slipped from her fingers, and Elise tried to cover her ears, but it wasn’t good enough. The voice came from within.
    James shouted, and it sounded like he was a thousand miles away. “Elise!”
    “ Useless, ugly, broken ,” Courevore said.
    She wanted to slap the smugness off Rich’s twisted face.
    “ Crux sacra sit mihi lux ,” Elise said. The words were unsteady. There was no power behind them. “ Non draco sit— ”
    A rope snapped. Rich’s hand shot out and clenched on her throat.
    A gurgle escaped her lips.
    “ He only pretends to like you ,” Courevore hissed into her mind.
    It was hard to speak without any air. Her head swam.
    “You are so full of shit,” she grunted, and then she punched her hand through his chest and grabbed the eyeball.
    It pulsed in her hand, hot and slippery and flailing wildly against her fingers, like a bird trapped in a net. His fingers tightened on her throat, and she responded by tightening her grip, too. “ Let me go or I’ll kill you ,” Courevore said.
    She couldn’t speak anymore, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t give him a last, well-deserved “fuck you.”
    Flexing her biceps, she ripped at the muscle, trying to wrench it free of his chest cavity. Bone scraped against her wrist. Fingernails dug into her throat.
    And then James was between them, and he forced the hand off of Elise, pushed her away. She fell onto her ass. Her lungs ached with the sudden rush of oxygen.
    “ She’ll hate you once she finds out ,” Courevore said, focusing the eyeball on James.“ Your heart is blacker than hers .”
    James whispered something into Rich’s ear—something too quiet for Elise to hear. But the eye within his chest rolled with shock, his lungs wheezed in a gasp, and James stepped away apparently unperturbed by the demon.
    He helped Elise stand and gave her one of the falchions.
    “Let’s finish this,” he said, voice hard.
    Elise couldn’t agree more.
    “ Crux sacra sit mihi dux ,” she said, stronger this time. “ Non draco sit mihi lux. Vade retro, Satana. Nunquam suade mihi vana. ”
    Rich screamed again, tearing at his own face with the free hand.
    Elise gathered her strength for a final push.