Falling forward, the creature burst into flames, disintegrating into a shower of ash before hitting the ground as Purson slipped into what he really looked like. His skin thinned and turned a shade of sand. Fur sprouted all over his face, joining with the mane of blond hair. Leathery, coarse wings sprouted from his back. His nostrils elongated and flattened as his mouth stretched grotesquely wide. Sharp canines sprouted as the demon’s eyes glowed iridescent, pupils stretching vertically.

Purson had the head of...the head of a lion.

I would never unsee this.

Snapping out of my stupor, I started to summon my own grace—

Zayne spun toward the Upper Level demon and he changed, but it was nothing like when he was a Warden. The luminous glow pulsed over his body as the raised markings stretched and lifted off his back, becoming solid.

Wings. The markings on his back were where his wings had gone, and how freaking crazy was that?

Now they spilled outward, unfolding and rising high on either side of Zayne. Golden streaks of light pulsed throughout the snow-white feathers.

“Oh, shit,” Purson uttered in a garbled voice, and I think that was the exact moment he realized what Zayne was. He lifted his hands. There were no nasty balls of energy that Upper Level demons could often summon and control. He held his hands in surrender.

“You can have whatever you want. Anything. My legions, my loyalty. My fidelity,” the Upper Level demon pleaded as he summoned the chain to his hands. “Anything. I swear to you. Anything.”

“Your silence would be nice,” Zayne told him, and then he struck.

It was a graceful move, a spin of golden skin and fire. His wings lifted him in the air and then brought him down, tucking back as the flaming curved blade sliced cleanly through the air.

Purson didn’t even have a chance to do whatever he planned to with that chain. Zayne’s blade caught him at the shoulders, cleaving straight through him.

“Dammit,” Purson muttered, and then burst into flames, incinerated on the spot.

That seemed to be a favorite of last words among demons.

Straightening, Zayne shook his wings out before folding them back. They settled against his back and then...they seemed to seep into his skin, leaving behind the raised pattern of what I now knew were wings.

The sickle blades collapsed, shattering into golden dust that glimmered against the dark ground only for a few seconds before disappearing. The network of lit veins faded as Zayne turned back to where I was standing, having done absolutely nothing other than try to touch him.

Finally, I found my voice. “You could do that? Like from the moment you Fell, you could do all of that?”

“Yeah,” he answered.