The panic only grew worse. People trampled each other, bodies hit the floor, and more reapers filled the room. I spun around, breathlessly surveying the chaos, and my shoe tapped the body of the girl I couldn’t save. She stared wide-eyed up at me, dead, half her body eaten, her soul surely in Hell. An explosion of energy made me look to my left. Will had another demonic reaper cornered. I let my swords go and dug out my phone. I texted to Cadan “HELP!” I prayed he’d check his messages immediately and get over here.

“Ellie!” Kate seized my arm. “We have to get out of here!”

I looked over at Will, who was now battling a different vir, and I faced Kate again. “You go. I have to help Will.”

“No way!” she shouted. “I’m not leaving you here! What are those things?”

I shook my head. “You have to go. Trust me, Kate, I can take care of myself. Just go!”

Marcus appeared, taking Kate securely by the arm. He dragged her toward the exit as she fought him, screaming my name, and her frightened gaze didn’t leave mine until we were separated in the crowd. I silently prayed that she would make it out all right. I had to stop the demonic reapers from taking anymore souls.

I called my swords again and jumped back into the fray. Shoulder to shoulder, I pushed my way through the scrambling crowd as they went in the opposite direction toward safety. I stepped over another body. I held my breath and didn’t look. I didn’t want to know who it was, if it was someone I knew. A firm hand took my shoulder and I raised my sword, but it was only Marcus.

“Kate’s out,” he assured me. He was out of breath and a gash was healing on his cheek. His sword was completely red. “I don’t know about your other friends. I couldn’t find them. There has to be at least seven or eight demonic vir left in here, Ellie. This doesn’t look good.”

“I know,” I said. “They’re here for me, but they’re distracted by the humans. We have to kill as many of the vir as possible and even our odds more. Get to work.”

Marcus left me and I caught the eye of one of the vir a ways down the wall. His lips, corpse-blue against his ashen skin, curled into an ugly grin. My heart pounded as I looked around. The crowd was thinning, allowing for a little more maneuverability. A little was all I needed.

The demonic reaper called a sword of his own and the blade shimmered into his hand out of thin air. He charged at me. I raised mine just as we were about to collide, and I jumped high. He slowed, his head tilted as his gaze followed me in confusion, but it was enough to throw him off. My shoe touched the wall and I kicked off. My blade swept down in an arc and cleanly through the reaper’s neck. He and his flinging skull were gone in seconds. I landed hard, my knees folding on impact. A crescent of blood from my sword strike glowed neon in front of me beneath the black light, as did the splashes of gore across my white tank and skin.

I looked up into Landon’s face and my heart stopped. Instead of having fled, he stood staring at me as I held my swords, covered in blood. Bodies streaked behind him, some darting in terror, some falling to the ground.

“Landon,” I rasped and rose slowly.

His brow creased as he tried to piece together what he was seeing. “Ellie, did you just—?”

Then his face smashed into the wall with an earsplitting crack. I choked on my tongue as I watched the demonic reaper lift Landon up by his shirt collar and bare her fangs to bite. I moved so fast that I don’t think she saw me coming. I reeled my arm back and swung my sword. The fiery blade buried right into the side of her skull, splitting her head in two. The white flames drowned her and she was gone, letting Landon crumple to the floor. I collapsed with him, letting my swords disappear and helping him to roll onto his back. My entire body went numb and my stomach churned. Landon’s face…He was dead. Landon was dead.

Someone grabbed a fistful of my hair. I screeched as I was dragged across the floor, away from Landon’s body, kicking and tearing at hands that gripped me like steel. The pain made it hard for me to open my eyes, but when I did, I caught the silhouette of an enormous horned shape.

“Humans,” Merodach spit. “I don’t know why you even bother. All they do is scream and scatter like birds. You can’t protect them and you can’t win this war.”

He released my hair and the relief on my scalp was instantaneous. I pressed my hands into my head to soothe my skin as I gathered my limbs together and pushed myself to my feet. I picked my swords back up. “You reapers keep saying that, like you’re trying to convince yourselves it’s true. That’s pretty pathetic.”

“Xastur!” he barked, his pale eyes frozen on my face. Another demonic reaper appeared beside Merodach. “Wrap it up.”

Xastur nodded and vanished in a flash. Merodach tilted his head at me with a curious look. He opened his mouth to speak, but a form materialized right where Xastur had just gone from. The figure was lightning-fast and I was able to make out a hand—a hand that took hold of Merodach’s throat and sent him flying across the room and crashing through a window. He disappeared into the darkness outside as glass rained down. As the newcomer slowed and his blurred form took shape, I recognized Cadan.

“Are you okay?” he asked me, his eyes blazing.

“Yeah,” I said, and the nausea began to spin in my gut again. “They killed my friend. Oh my God, Landon is dead.” I wanted to grieve for him, but now wasn’t the time. “I think Xastur is helping Merodach run the show. Find and stop him.”