“How will I carry your children? Your blood is acidic.” The thought of carrying an acidic daaeman child in her belly made her shudder, not to mention the mental picture of how it might get in there.

“There are ways,” he replied calmly. “Our ancestors bred children on humans in ancient times through the use of—”

“Yes, yes, I know. It’s how elemental witches came into existence.”

“The concept is much the same.”

“What if I’m in love with someone else?”

He roared and Sarafina almost wet herself. “Don’t speak to me of love. Love is for children. Love only gets people in trouble, like it got the Cae of the Ytrayi in trouble.”

She couldn’t argue with that last part.

He closed his eyes for a moment and drew a deep, steadying breath, once again trying to master his emotions. Bai reached out to her. “Now come. Let’s get to know each other a little while we wait.”

Oh, hell no.

Sarafina scooped the sword from the floor and ran for the door. She’d spent an entire day exploring this piece of land; surely she could find a place to hide.

Behind her Bai roared again. His boots clomped on the concrete as he chased her.

Only she’d better hurry.

Good God, this was worse than nightmares she had as a child. The monster in her closet was real and it wanted to do a whole lot more than just kill her.

THIRTY

THIRTY

THE SENSATION OF STEFAN’S THROAT SQUEEZING between Theo’s hands was pleasing. Especially since the action stopped such phrases like, “Bai has taken Sarafina to Eudae.” Those were words he never wanted to hear and could not believe were true.

Stefan’s eyes bulged and he scrabbled at Theo’s forearms, under far too much duress to even consider calling fire. Theo was armed with plenty of earth charms that countered fire, anyway. In the paper-rock-scissors game of elemental magick, strong earth magick usually won out over flame.

They were somewhere near the Conservatory. In the foyer, the Atrika and the Duskoff were still in battle with the Coven witches. The blue ball was still shooting off sparks of power-stealing magick. Even this far into the building Theo had to dodge them from time to time.

His primary concern was making sure Stefan didn’t live through the day.

“Too bad you sent away your pet demon, isn’t it, Stefan?” Theo growled. “Looks like you need someone to protect you from me.”

Two huge hands landed on his shoulders and pulled him backward. Theo landed on his side, hard, while Stefan coughed and choked. Looking up, Theo had a half a second to see an Atrika standing over him before he had to roll to the side to avoid a blast of demon magick.

Guess he’d spoken too soon.

“Kill . . . him,” Stefan gasped, holding his throat and staring at Theo with razor-slit eyes.