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long tusks protruding from its jaws. I tense, dropping into a defensive stance. Claws swipe past me and I duck and stab upwards. My knife catches it in the arm, but barely breaks the skin. Dizziness from my near-drowning slows me down.
    I duck another swipe, getting into position to strike. The fiend dives, headfirst this time, teeth bared. I roll underneath its claws and swing my fist, fire lighting as I punch it in the mouth.
    The impact vibrates through my bones, but the fiend’s tusk breaks in two, and its face crumples inwards where I struck it.
    Breathing heavily, I move back, out of the way of its stumpy legs. The fiend raises a hand to its ruined face and bellows in pain, feet stamping, sending ripples across the ground. I stumble, blood spilling from the cut on my arm again. The fight has torn it open.
    Not good. The fiend takes another swing at me, and I don’t have time to think. I duck, hitting its arm with a well-aimed left hook. It’s twice my size and too slow to catch me as I slide under its feet and slash at its ankles. Once, then twice. I come upright and kick it square in the solar plexus. The fiend’s all muscle, but I’m made of different stuff to normal humans, and my kick drives it down, gasping for breath.
    I’ve forgotten about the wings. Without warning, leathery wingbeats carry it into the air. The fiend hovers out of reach, then dives at me. Fire flickers along my blade as I swipe at its outstretched hands, but not before one of its claws catches my already-injured arm. Pain turns my vision red.
    No. Through the haze, I see my dagger burning, surrounded by red flame, held high. The fiend takes flight again, claws ready for another dive. I sway on my feet but keep the dagger ready, aiming for the killing blow. As the fiend’s weight comes crashing down on me, I aim right for its heart.
    The impact slams me onto my back. I feel wetness and know it’s the fiend’s blood soaking into me, but my arm’s slick with my own blood, too. The world’s slipping away, even as the fiend crumbles to rock, even as I know I’ve won.
    No…
    The world falls apart in pieces, and I’m gone.
     

 
     
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER FOUR
     
    I’m sitting in a metal chair in what looks like a lab, though the walls are made of stone like the inside of a cave. Someone sits opposite me, smiling.
    Jared. Of course.
    “I do wish you would be more cooperative,” says Jared, with a melodramatic sigh. “You know there is no easy way out for you.”
    “It was worth a try.” The voice comes from my own mouth, but it’s not mine. Cas.
    “Worth a try.” Jared shakes his head. “To think you had the audacity to try to take your own life.”
    “I told you, I didn’t,” says Cas, with a touch of impatience. “Don’t you think I’d have done that years ago if it wasn’t pointless? I couldn’t do a better job than you, anyway.”
    My heart twists, reminding me I’m not really here. What Jared did to Cas—tortured him to test his limits as an unkillable Pyros—was just sick. If I hadn’t seen it myself through Cas’s eyes, I’d never have thought anyone would be capable of something so cruel and depraved.
    But where am I, and how am I supposed to get out of here?
    “Do I detect a hint of resentment? Cas, you alone walked away from the war unscathed. You’ll never be able to repay me for what I did for you.”
    “Oh, believe me, I’d like to try.”
    “We’ve been through this already,” says Jared. “So, if you didn’t try to commit suicide, then what…?” He trails off. “The girl.”
    “What?”
    “The girl did something. Let me see.”
    Cas makes an impatient noise. “It’s stopped bleeding already.” But he bares his left arm, and my heart skitters.
    A long, ropy scar cuts right through the middle of his tattoo. It’s mostly healed, but blood streaks the skin either side of it.
    Shock pulses through me. I did that. Somehow, through our connection, the wound transferred over to