Page 21 of My Demon Charming
I turn around just as Michelle crashes into me, and we stumble backward. I put my hands up to protect myself, but her breath blows in my face, and its chill clings to my skin like stone.
“You killed my boy. You killed my boy,” she cries.
Good, I want to tell her. He deserved it. But I can’t speak. I can’t blink. I don’t need to look down at myself to know she’s turned me into an ice statue.
She’s never used her power on me, at least not on my entire body, but I still know to fear it. After all, her husband uses it. He sucks it out of her and uses it on me when he’s feeling particularly nasty.
“I’ll show you pain,” she says.
Despite being a statue, she hits me. She slaps and punches, and I can do nothing but watch, powerless to do anything to stop it. Powerless like I’ve been all my life.
“That’s enough out of you.” Lucian towers behind her, grabs her by the neck, and lifts her off the floor.
His arm catches on fire, but it goes out as soon as it comes into contact with her.
“Come at me, bastard. What are you gonna do? Huh? What do you think you can do to me? Your fire can’t touch me. Assh?—”
Lucian doesn’t move. He doesn’t flinch. He simply twists his wrist, a loud crack fills the air, and Michelle tilts her head to the side. When he lets go, she collapses on the floor, quiet and unmoving.
My breathing hardens, which, granted, doesn’t say much, considering I’m frozen in place, but watching her dead body flips something inside me. Something that switches my brain from fiction to reality. Because all those moments with Lucian up on Amethyst Bridge were the dream and this is reality. This is why he’s here. Why I called him to me. To get rid of these people for me. To free me from their rule.
I know it shouldn’t. I know it probably doesn’t say much about me, but hearing her neck crack gives me life. Seeing her take her last breath, seeing her broken like a twig, takes my breath away.
She might have never lifted a finger, might have never touched me, but she turned a blind eye to it. Encouraged it. Embraced it as if it was normal.
But dammit, just because her husband and son were born blood bonders doesn’t mean they should have done those things to me. It doesn’t mean Kevin should have done those things to my mom.
“Are you okay, darling boy? Did she hurt you?” Lucian touches me, but I can only feel its tingle, not the heat of his touch. “I’ll get you out of this?—”
He catches on fire and brushes it all over me, trying to melt the ice covering me. He keeps busy with it, so I can’t do anything. I can’t warn him when Kevin appears, darkness in his eyes, and steps up behind him.
The floor creaks and Lucian turns.
Kevin blows in his face, and the ice trickles down his body.
“You. You’re responsible for my son’s death, aren’t you?”
Lucian conjures his fire, and some of the ice melts away, but it’s pointless. Kevin blows more on him and stops whatever progress he made.
“You conjured yourself a demon, Yu-jin? Why? You thought you’d take revenge on us?” Kevin stares at me, but instead of fear, there’s a glimmer in his eyes. “You foolish boy. All you did was hand me a demon to feed on.”
He raises his hand and digs a dagger into Lucian’s chest. The crack of ice breaking splinters the air, and I feel goosebumps crawling up the back of my neck.
No. No. What have I done? What have I…fuck!
Kevin dips in front of Lucian’s chest, hiding himself from view, but it doesn’t take a genius to know he’s filling himself with Lucian’s power.
You’d think he’d be upset or angry that both his son and wife are dead, but he’s too busy getting horny over possessing a demon’s powers.
Pervert.
Bastard.
Disgusting animal.
I don’t know if those words are for him or me. I’m the one who allowed Lucian to bring me home. I’m the one who got him mixed up in all this. I’m the one who summoned him in the first place and brought him into my messy life.
And now, because of me, he’s enslaved by Kevin, just like me.