I take a step to the side, staring fixedly at my attacker. He’s clawing at the fingers squeezing his throat, trying to make words come out, but the only sound leaving his lips is muffled wheezing. His feet are dangling almost a foot off the ground.
Without looking away from the bastard, my demon asks, “Did he hurt you, cub?”
For a moment, I’m taken aback by the tone of his voice. It’s steady, as usual, but infused with so much brute force that he sounds like Death incarnate.
“No,” I choke out. “But he tried.”
“Go back to your friends.”
I can’t make my legs move.
“Do as I say,” he growls and turns toward me. “Now.”
All the air leaves my lungs. I can’t believe I once thought his eyes seemed empty. Looking at them now, it feels like I’m staring into the magma chambers of two volcanoes—
