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

front of him. “I can’t see anything down here.”
    “I dropped my cell. It has to be close to you.” He groped around in the dark, hands out, reaching. He still had the gun in his hand, so he wasn’t completely vulnerable. “I’m coming down.”
    “No, there’s no use you gettin’ trapped down here. Go, finish off the demon then come get me.”
    “You going to be okay?”
    “Sure, the dark never hurt anyone.”
    I was more concerned with what lurked in the dark. I turned my gaze on the rest of the staircase, seeing through shades of red—my own firelight.
    “Muse?”
    “Yeah?”
    “Deep fry his ass.”
    I grinned over sharp teeth. “I’m on it.”
    I made it onto the next landing when the rain started. It fell from apparently nowhere and sizzled against my lava-veined skin. Indoor rain. There was always something new to learn when hunting demons. They each had unique talents. A little rain wasn’t going to hurt me, unless Saul could wash me down a hallway the way Levi had. I shook off that unpleasant memory and pushed more heat through my skin.
    “Tickles,” I purred, stalking toward the door at the end of the landing. A third staircase—leading to the attic—had collapsed, and the ceiling above was little more than a few rotten boards. I saw the eaves, and through the holes in the roof, Boston’s orange tinged-night sky. There was only one last place to look.
    The last room was vast, covering what remained of the top floor. A master bedroom, perhaps. The windows overlooked Boston’s twinkling skyline, and as I approached the dirt-smudged glass, I had the sense that Akil had often stood in the same spot, admiring 1930s Boston, a city that would soon be his. Memories can sometimes be so powerful, they drag the past into the present. I felt him then as surely as if he stood behind me. It wasn’t Saul, no, but a gut-deep ache and a heartfelt knowing. It was real. I wondered if wherever he was in the netherworld, he might be standing somewhere high, his wings held aloft, his eyes on the burned forest or barrens, but his thoughts with me. I liked to think so. I see you , the presence said. I know you . I will never forget.
    I smiled and closed my eyes.
    Saul might have landed the blow had I not felt a pull to my left and followed it like an instinct. I spun on my feet, using the weight of my wing to pivot, and backhanded Saul across the back of his slippery demon head. His wings shot out, slimy and smooth. He slapped one across my face while he groped for the window frame to stop himself from toppling outside.
    I raked my claws down his back, opening up four vicious gashes and drew back a fist. He let out a howl and whirled on me, splashing an arch of cool water across my torso. Pain flashed through my body, clamping muscles and screaming inside my head. Goddamned water elementals.
    He burst forward in a flurry of claws and teeth and wings. I hunched low, tucked in my wing, and tackled him low enough to lift him up and throw him over my back. Water and fire hissed, crackled, and spat where our bodies clashed. Pain danced all over and throbbed my vision. I twisted and yanked the heat from the nearest sources—nearby streetlights, car engines, electrical cables anything and everything—and funneled it through me to blast it all at him. He bucked and writhed on the floor, his wings curling inward. His skin cracked and pulled tight across his jagged bones. And he screamed, screamed the way only creatures from the netherworld could. Those screams weren’t meant for this world. Neither was he.
    My fire spluttered. I reached for more but couldn’t find anything. The neighborhood was too empty, too desolate. The further I reached, the weaker the result would be.
    Saul’s glare fixed on me. His cracked lips split as he smiled. “It might not be me.” Water dribbled from his lips, down his cheek and neck. “But we will not rest. We w-will not h-hide.”
    A snarl rippled across my lips. I stood over him,