Demon Marked

would do it.
    But she didn’t need to. She only needed her hand to fit through a hole the size of her wrist. So there was just a choice to make: What did she need more, her smaller fingers or her thumb?
    She thought of her weapons in her cache. Chose the thumb.
    The first bone snapped. Ash held in her cry, watching the demon for any sign that he’d heard it. No, she’d been making too much noise, rattling and screaming this whole time.
    And he’d never believe the halfling would get free, but she had to hurry. He’d almost finished sewing, would turn around, and the opportunity would be lost.
    Now the second bone. Snap! Oh, God. But it was working. Her hand slipped a little in the manacle. Nicholas’s head came up. His eyes opened and met hers. His Gift flared.
    The demon snipped off the end of the barbed wire and looked at him. “There is your Gift. I will tell—”
    “Don’t you want to be the first to know what it is?” Though he was barely able to speak, Nicholas’s voice covered the next snap!
    “Tell me.”
    “I see fear. Yours. It’s like a black ribbon, all around you. You fear Lucifer.”
    “As all demons do.”
    Snap!
    Her hand slipped through. The chains rattled as she swung, unbalanced.
    Nicholas smiled. “You should have feared her .”
    Ash called in her boomstick. Thumb, forefinger. That was all she fucking needed.
    The demon turned. Very close range, hellhound venom. She pulled the trigger. The boom echoed through the chamber. His face exploded.
    “Loud,” Nicholas said. “Go fast.”
    “I know.” Before the demon had even collapsed to the floor, she’d vanished the weapon again, reached up for the chain. It took one good pull to haul herself up. Bracing her feet against the ceiling, she yanked. The bolt tore from stone in a shower of chips—she fell.
    Between heartbeats, she flipped around, got her feet under her. Landed.
    “My God, you’re amazing.”
    She formed her wings, leapt for his chain. Pulled it free. He dropped—even she couldn’t outrace gravity and catch him.
    But he was sewn up, so nothing fell out.
    He stood, his hands locked together in front of him. “Manacles?”
    “No time. Here.” She placed a crossbow in his hand. It would be awkward, but he could fire it. “Come on.”
    She shifted into her demon form, vanished her clothes—and vanished the manacle and chain, too.
    Nicholas stared. “What the—”
    “They aren’t connected to the tower anymore,” she realized. “They’re ours now, so we can take them.”
    “Take mine.”
    Oh, that made it so much easier. She vanished the manacles, his chain. Facing the door, she took a deep breath. “We really need more training before we do this.”
    “We’ll get it. After we get out.”
    She shoved open the door, ducked into the corridor. No glowing red eyes. Just screams.
    A lot more screams than there had been before. The smell of ozone and charred flesh choked the air.
    She expected the charred flesh. Not the ozone.
    Oh. Oh . . . She knew who that was.
    “Open your mental shields,” she said. “Now. Let them find us.”
    Three pairs of glowing red eyes appeared in the middle of the corridor. Sir Pup. Jake stood in front of the hellhound, electricity arcing between his hands. Holding a bloodied sword, his skin blackened with soot, Hugh stared through the darkness toward them.
    “Say your names,” he said.
    She started forward. “Ash and Nicholas.”
    “Truth.”
    Jake nodded. “Then get your asses over here, hang on to me. Let’s get the fuck out of— Oh, Jesus flippin’ Christ. St. Croix, what did they do to you?”
    Nicholas took Ash’s hand, reached out to touch Jake’s arm.
    “Strangely enough, they gave me a present. And Lucifer gave more than he bargained for.”
     
    They found a healer first.
    Jake teleported them straight to Pim, sitting in the novice common room on the second floor of the Special Investigations warehouse. When she saw Nicholas, her “Oh, my God!” brought others running.
    “Help him,” Ash said.
    Pim recovered a moment later, knelt in front of him. “All right—”
    Nicholas shook his head. “Her hand, first.”
    “But—” Ash broke off when his mouth set. Okay. So he couldn’t bear being healed while she was hurting. One day, she’d point out that she felt exactly the same way—but not today, if agreeing meant no more delay. She held out her hand to Pim. “Go.”
    The novice touched her palm. Warmth spread through Ash’s fingers; she felt the