demon slayer 05.5 - the tenth dark lord a leaping Read Online Free Page B

choosing.
    It paused over a meaty-looking guy who hadn’t even bothered to wear sleeves on his jacket. His beefy arm showed an angular sun tattoo lit up with goose bumps as the flame studied him. He let out a choked breath as it moved on.
    It paused, hovering over the scared blond kid I’d seen earlier. Oh no. Only this time it didn’t just pause. It flickered over his head and grew brighter.
    Marking him.
    Okay. Now. We had to do something now. I wasn’t sure what.
    I drew a switch star, but I knew I couldn’t start killing these people. Yes, they were ready to murder one of their own, and it was sick, and I was willing to bet they weren’t the nicest guys on the block, but that didn’t warrant a death sentence from me. If I could even murder them all, which I couldn’t.
    I glanced behind me. It would be nice if we could get some support right about now. Dimitri didn’t need to get every flipping witch off the ski lift, and even if he did, the early rescues could get off their butts and join us. It wasn’t as if we’d left them far behind.
    With a jolt I realized I’d forgotten about Frieda. I turned back and considered it a gift that she was still with me, watching the ceremony.
    “We’ll save him,” I told her. Somehow.
    She leveled a steady gaze at me and seemed unable to speak for a moment. She licked her lips. “That’s not Bruce.”
    It took me a second to register her meaning as we watched the blond kid walk toward the cauldron. He was shaking, his lips pressed tight, his shoulders drawn back like a soldier’s. Anybody could see he was scared out of his mind. Damned if he wasn’t going to go through with it. Behind him walked a woolly mammoth of a guy with gold hoops in each ear and a Grizzly Adams beard that hid most of his face. They both stopped in front of the leader. He nodded.
    “Thank you for your sacrifice,” he said, his voice heavy with emotion.
    Maybe he really did care. Of course it wasn’t going to stop him from killing his so-called brother.
    This was sick. I didn’t care if it wasn’t Frieda’s son. We had to find a way to stop this.
    The woolly mammoth guy said something low to the leader and the boy. The kid’s eyes bugged out, and even the leader gave a pause.
    “You don’t have to…” Baldie began.
    Woolly mammoth shoved the kid aside and stepped forward, hands raised as he addressed the coven of Dark Lords. “I’m taking his place. This is a willing sacrifice.”
    Frieda gave a small scream. The mammoth looked straight at her and locked eyes with his mother.

CHAPTER FOUR
    The leader didn’t even look at us. “Get ’em.”
    A dozen Dark Lords charged up the hill. I grabbed Frieda to keep her from pulling a mamma bear and sent us both stumbling backward. We needed to run, hide, but we were on the top of a crag with nothing but the wind and a broken ski lift at our backs.
    This situation was going from bad to downright impossible.
    Grandma seemed to be thinking the same thing. She drew a spell jar, clearly reluctant to use it. Her gray hair tangled around her shoulders. “Shit. Okay. Skull was a reasonable enough guy. Most of the time. Maybe we can talk to him.”
    Yeah, right. “The guy who just sliced his hand open? To lead a sacrifice? He seems real sweet.” But if I could make him understand that I was a demon slayer—that I was willing to join the fight—maybe we could work together. It was our only option at this point.
    The Dark Lords were on us immediately. A pair of rough-looking men disarmed Grandma and held her arms away from her so she couldn’t use them.
    Frieda made a run for it—straight toward her son. I saw her briefly as she hugged him hard before Skull got to me. He took my arms and held them in a viselike grip behind my back. Cripes, the man was tall.
    “Hold up,” I ordered. “Do you have any idea what you people are about to unleash?” The air reeked of sulfur.
    “Yes,” he grunted, his grip tightening. “And you’re fucking it