One For Sorrow: The Veil Series, #5.5 Read Online Free

up the act for long. He wasn’t Asmodeus, but he was smarter than the average Class C.
    “Why are you doing this?” I peeked around his waist to see Ryder arch an eyebrow at what must have looked to him like a Class C growling to herself.
    “There is little else to occupy me in this wretched world with its tepid elements and equally tepid people. You and your Ice Prince, you would kill every last one of us trapped here.”
    “That’s the plan.” I smirked.
    Irritation ticked at this expression. “But here, now, in this time and place, there is opportunity.” He crouched to eye level with me. “If I can remove you, remove the one half-blood creature standing in the way of chaos, this city could be mine.” My fiery reflection shimmered in his dark eyes, but there was nothing of Mammon’s infinite darkness there, nothing of his deep hunger, his need to own, to possess. His greed.
    I wondered where Akil was and if my weakness would amuse or anger him. Both, probably.
    “You are not afraid,” Not-Akil mused.
    “Afraid?” I huffed a dry laugh. “Why would I be afraid when I already know how this ends?” Demons: strike one down, and another rises to fill its egotistical shoes. I should have guessed the leftovers would try to carve out a piece of real estate for themselves. Akil’s presence had kept them in check before. But now… Now Boston was still recovering, and ripe for the picking, if there was a demon left on this side with enough ambition and balls to face me. Frenchy thought he was that demon.
    “All I want is my chance, my time. The princes are not here to stop me. I can be prince of my own city and its weak-minded people.”
    “And what would you be the prince of? The Prince of Charades?” I slowly rose to my feet and lifted my wing. He straightened, his eyes locked with mine. “You can’t just call yourself prince.”
    “Can’t I?
    “All I see is a little demon with grand ideas.” My step forward forced him one step back. “Do you even have a name?”
    The frown looked wrong on Akil’s face, crooked, like the thing behind the act. “My name is Saul.”
    I dropped the ammo clip and gave it a quick kick in Ryder’s direction. Saul tried to turn his head, but I caught his Akil-face in my hand and squeezed.
    The familiar metallic sounds of the magazine ramming home, and the chink-chink of the round being loaded into the chamber had my demon heart skipping. Ryder was about to shoot Saul or me or both.
    I yanked Saul so close that the skin of his face flushed red and started to sizzle. “Nobody gets to use Akil’s memory against me.” I sneered, baring my fangs. “Ever.”
    The gun fired. Saul burst apart in a sudden blast of water that hit me like a slap in the face. I staggered back, more from surprise than anything else. Water pooled on the floor and crept—serpentine-like—up the wall and through a hole in the ceiling. I shot a blast of heat in its direction, but the fire ravaged the rotten wood, forcing me to pull it back and snuff it out before the flames escaped.
    I dropped my gaze to Ryder, standing in a braced stance, gun aimed over my shoulder at my wing, which would explain the new throbbing pain.
    “Ryder, you shot me. Again.”
    “Shit, Muse. I didn’t know it was you. You demons all look the same.”
    “One wing, Ryder. One. Wing. I’m starting to take it personally.”
    “You were blurry, and my head’s all messed up.” He lowered the gun and scratched at his cheek. “Ah, quit your bitchin’. It’s just a nick off that hook-thing you’ve got there. It’ll grow back.”
    I cocked my head and clicked my claws. “I’ll slice some parts off you, and we’ll see if they grow back, shall we?”
    His lips quirked. “He ain’t no Class C.”
    “No, he sure ain’t,” I drawled, shucking off my demon and rolling my shoulders as I settled once more into my human skin.
    “You ever seen one turn to water like that?”
    “No. Well, there was Levi.” The Prince of