Kester’s lip curled back from his teeth, and his deep growl resonated through her bones. Abrax swung the halberd in a tight figure eight, his eyes locked on the hound. The incubus’s blade began to glow, charging with some kind of magic. When he slashed it, a bolt of blue light shot straight at the hound. But Kester had already leapt away. Snarling, he charged the incubus. Abrax dodged, moving like a cloud of curling black smoke and reappearing a few feet away. Kester skidded to a stop, just missing him.

Just as Abrax swung the halberd’s blade, Ursula heard footfalls behind her. Sword ready, she whirled to find one of the king’s guards remaining, his platinum hair swirling around his head like a living thing. “The king will enjoy playing with you once I subdue you.” His pale eyes flashed, and he slashed his blade, but the battle fury already burned through Ursula, and she parried.

That sense of precision filled her muscles, warming her like a desert wind. They think I’m an animal. He was fast, but she was faster. They want to slaughter me like a pig. Their swords clanged as she attacked and he parried. She backed him against the bar until he faltered. Kill. She drove her sword through his chest.

As she watched blood bubble from his mouth, horror hit her. She’d just killed someone. But there wasn’t time to think about what she’d done—not with Kester’s growl filling the hall. She spun to find his jaws locked on Abrax’s arm, snapping the incubus’s bones.

Her hands shaking, Ursula stared down at her crimson blade. What kind of killer was F.U.?

The incubus’s roar called her attention back to the fight, and she watched as his halberd skittered across the floor. Her heart sped up—they were too close to the edge.

Kester leapt for the incubus’s throat, but he curled away in a cloud of black smoke, appearing again at the platform’s edge. Kester pounced, and Ursula’s world tilted as she watched them both plummet over the edge.

“Kester!” she screamed, running to the ledge. Her blood roaring in her ears, she peered into the abyss. Desperately, she hoped to see Kester clinging by his fingertips to one of the tree roots, but there was no sign of him. Far below she could see the orbs swirling, and the music thumped in the distance. Panic stole her breath, and for just a moment, the steep drop into oblivion called to her, like a magnetic pull.

But oblivion did not await her at the other end of death. Eternal hellfire awaited her.