The final showdown of Zulli’s adventure is coming soon! Demise of a Devil is set to be release in June 2024. Can’t contain your excitement? Here’s a sneak peek of Chapter 1. If you haven’t started reading the NightFly series yet, you can catch it on Amazon and through Kindle Unlimited.
Note: This has not gone through final edits yet. Text is subject to change (and probably will a little bit) before final publication.
“I’m hungry,” I whined to Ryker. It wasn’t entirely untrue, but I needed him to leave so I could give him the slip.
“When are you not hungry, Zulli?” He gave me an unamused eye roll, crossing his arms before glaring at me with boredom stretched across his face.
“We’ve been sitting on this stupid bench for five hours. I’m hungry.” I threw my head back dramatically and clenched my stomach like I was starving to death.
“So go get something to eat.” He shrugged and returned his gaze to the tall glass building across the street, keeping watch on everyone who went in and out. I couldn’t just get up and leave, because Ryker would then see me sneaking in.
“I can’t leave. Mother’s orders. Pleeease Ryker. She told me to stay here while she went inside to meet with Alyce.” A desperate look crossed my face and I batted my big green eyes adoringly. I knew I was acting like a spoiled brat, begging him to go get me food. I would have to apologize later and hoped he forgave me.
He rubbed his fingertips against his forehead before letting out a long breath. “Fine. I saw a sandwich shop around the corner. I’ll be back in fifteen minutes.” I watched as he stood up from the bench and tucked his hands into the pockets of his jeans. His loose-fitting button down was open over his t-shirt and fluttered around him as he walked across the street. His gaze dropped and hit the pavement under his feet.
I sighed to myself as I watched him drift farther and farther out of view. That was not the Ryker I had come to know over the past year—not completely anyway. He was still caring and compassionate, but when my father had scrambled his memories after dosing him with Bliss, he had become more possessive, irrational, and parts of his friendly disposition seemed to get lost in the chaos of his mind. He had been lying to me since the day I’d met him … about his name and working with my father.
Maybe I should have been mad at him, but I found it hard to blame him for any of it. He didn’t do those things to hurt me. In fact, everything he did was to shield me from my father’s madness. Now I could see that my poor friend was aching inside and tired of fighting. I wanted nothing more than to assure him that everything would be okay, but the truth was I didn’t know if it ever would be. Which was why I couldn’t tell him I was sneaking into the building to spy on my mom. He’d try to stop me, and he’d probably be successful in doing it.
Once he turned the corner, I jumped up from the bench and scurried across the street, trotting up the steps into Enchanted Essence Labs, one of the biggest competitors to NightFly Technologies. My mother’s latest plan was to approach my father’s competition and tell them everything Zavyr was up to, hoping we’d all band together and they’d offer us their support to stop him. I warned her it was too risky to tell them anything, begged her not to do it, but when I offered up no other solid plan of my own, there wasn’t much I could do to change her mind.
My ripped jeans, leather jacket, and green hair automatically set me out of place. Trying not to look suspicious, I casually strolled into the lobby, a symphony of modern design and functionality. Walls were adorned with large, abstract art pieces that provided splashes of color against the muted grays and whites elsewhere. The glass windows that lined the front of the building let in the late afternoon sunshine that bathed the contemporary leather sofas and chairs with an orange glow. It was the end of the work day, and most people were making their way home for the night.
Finding a quiet hallway where no employees were present, I let my magic slip over me, warming my insides and tingling against my skin as it turned my human body into an eight-legged arachnid. I knew Alyce’s office was on the fifteenth floor, and I presumed that was where I would also find my mom.
Hitching a ride with an employee in the elevator, I exited the eleventh floor and slowly scuttled the rest of the way up a few more flights of stairs until I reached a corner office. My mom had been meeting with Alyce Payne, CEO of Enchanted Essence Labs, for several hours now, and she hadn’t checked in with us once. I was beginning to worry, and I needed to know she was okay.
By now, I was sure Ryker would have returned with our food, furious to see me gone, and was storming across the street to hunt me down. I wouldn’t have much time before he came barreling through the office door.
As I slipped between the small space between the closed door and floor, I knew I was in the right place when I heard my mother speak.
“I promise you, it’s not a trick. I know this all sounds insane, but I’m telling you the truth.” There was an urgency in my mother’s voice, a desperate plea for Alyce to join her and take action. “Zavyr is the one who created Bliss, and he’s using it to control anyone involved in the magiceutical industry—the military, government officials, and competitors like you. You need to step in and do something. Help us stop him!”
“And risk my business? My employees’ lives?” Alyce’s office chair groaned as she leaned forward, pushing her metal-rimmed glasses up her narrow nose as she propped her elbows on her desk. The wrinkles around her eyes deepened as her gray gaze stared back at my mother. “In the past several weeks, two magiceutical companies have been attacked, several supply shipments have mysteriously disappeared, and our key manufacturers have pulled back on their contracts. I believe what you’re saying, Tabatha, because every company that has supposedly joined your little rebellion so far has been destroyed. Mine won’t be the next. Do not include me in your family feud.”
“It’s too late for that.” My mom stood up from her chair and stared down at Alyce. “Without a doubt, Zavyr knows I’m here right now. Whether you agree to help me or not, you’re now considered a threat to him. He will come after you. The least you can do is fight for your business. I’m begging you to join us. We’re already making progress with a way to break the mind control using grapes, but we need the assistance of your magic technicians and your equipment to further test and experiment. To make its effects stronger and permanent.”
I crawled up a wooden side table pushed up against the wall. From here, I had a good vantage point of both the office door and conversation taking place between Alyce and my mom. I kept an eye on both of them, extending my senses to listen for vibrations in magic that would alert me to any new guests approaching.
“Grapes?” Alyce shot my mom an extremely confused look. “Why in the world would—wait, do you hear that?”
Panic shuddered through me, making my magic pulse, and I almost lost control of my form. My hearing wasn’t as heightened as a spider, but the tiny little hairs covering my body were triggering an intense danger approaching. Not footsteps … it wasn’t coming from the hallway. It was coming from—above?
My mom, with her keen sense of smell and hearing, immediately peered up at the ceiling, right at a vent located directly above Alyce’s desk. “Move!” She dove across the desk and tackled Alyce. A loud clatter filled the room as the office chair toppled over and both bodies went tumbling across the floor.
“Tabatha, what are you—” Alyce stopped herself at the sight of some kind of purple smoke steaming from the vent and consuming the space where she had just been sitting. My mom pushed herself to her feet to drag a dazed Alyce farther away from the mysterious magic. The purple smoke was filling up the room quickly.
My own magic was buzzing, itching to jump in and help. I released it, jumping off the side table and landing in a crouch on the floor as my arms and legs reformed into their human shape. Panic suffused my bones, my magic trembling inside me. “Mom!”
“Zulli?” She had no time to berate me for defying her order. “Zulli, get out of here. Now!”
Her frozen gaze was locked onto me, and I nearly crumbled under the visceral look of pure fear she was shooting my way. Her legs were shaking, barely able to withstand her weight. She let go of Alyce, and as she dropped to her knees, her hands shot up to her mouth to cover a cough. Her palms were speckled with blood when she removed them.
“Mom!” I cried out again, dashing toward her and Alyce writhing in pain beside her. My military training might have protected me against many poisons, but I still wasn’t completely immune to them. My throat was on fire, thousands of sharp razors slicing away at my insides with every movement.
“Go,” my mom managed to croak. She struggled to lift her hand and cup my cheek.
“Not … leaving … you …” Each word was like acid burning my tongue. If I was going to die, then I’d die right here with my mom. And my father, who, I was pretty certain was responsible for whatever was currently happening, would have to live the rest of his life knowing he had killed us both. I wondered if he’d actually mourn the loss.
More purple steam hissed through the vent, the smell of it like rotting meat violating my nostrils. It wasn’t just Alyce’s office that had been attacked. The screams of others down the hallway reached my ears, the vibration of pounding footsteps pulsing through my fingertips as I lay beside my mom, paralyzed and unable to move.
Tears streamed down my mother’s face, her lips slightly parted as if she was trying to tell me something but couldn’t.
A faint sense of cinnamon tickled my nose. Ryker. Ryker could get us out of here. He was nearby, I could smell his magic. No, wait … there was another smell with him—the scent of wet cardboard and mold. My heart lurched in my stomach. That wasn’t Ryker, and neither of them were here to rescue us.
A tall, lanky male with a toothy grin stormed through the office door alongside my dad. The last time I saw Briyan, he had been drugged and transformed into a completely different person, and somehow could wield Ryker’s portal magic. It would appear that hadn’t changed.
“Zulli, my little spider. I wasn’t expecting to see you here as well.” My father casually walked into the office. He wasn’t wearing a mask like Briyan was, the poison barely affecting him because he already had venom coursing through his veins thanks to his spider fangs.
He crouched down beside me, while my mom desperately tried to force herself to move to protect me. I continued to lay there, frozen on the floor. I could move, even if my body felt exceptionally heavy, but I was so stricken with panic and fear that my limbs wouldn’t comply with my demands.
“Do we take her with us?” I heard Briyan’s voice, a bit muffled through the mask he was wearing.
My father pushed himself up from the floor so that he was towering over my vulnerable form. It had been over a month since the last time I had seen him, and in that short amount of time it looked like he had aged nearly twenty years. His silver eyes had lost their shine, replaced with a dull emptiness void of any emotion except greed. His sallow complexion, tinted an unhealthy yellow, mirrored the fading colors of his life draining from him. That single streak of gray that blazed through his black hair was now thicker and more prominent, his clean shaven jawline now dusted with scruff. He still stood tall and confident, dressed finely in his three-piece tailored suit, but the knot of his tie was loose, and behind it, a single button on his shirt was undone.
“D-Dad …” I managed to reach out my hand to tug on his pant leg. He kicked me away, stepped over me to pick up my mom, who was barely conscious on the floor next to me. He hefted her over his shoulder with ease.
“Grab Alyce,” he commanded Briyan.
“Are we leaving her?” The disgust dripping from Briyan’s words wretched my heart. He was once a funny, caring individual. Now, Bliss had completely taken control of his mind. He wouldn’t even say my name.
“We can’t carry both of them, and we need to give Alyce a dose of Bliss so she’ll never trust anything from Tabby’s mouth. Leave her. Either the corrosive magic will eat her alive or that annoying portal user she is so fond of will come to rescue her.” He gave me a shark-like grin. “Or maybe he won’t. How’s that antidote treating him these days? He seemed rather impulsive the last time we met.”
I felt the vibration of a portal opening and saw the knife soaring through it before I registered Ryker standing in the office doorway. “I’m doing just fine, thank you.”
The knife bounced right off my father’s hardened skin, ripping the fabric but not the flesh underneath. He huffed, unamused by Ryker’s attack, adjusted my mother’s body draped over his shoulder, and began walking toward Ryker.
Ryker reached for a dagger on his belt. “Torpens.” Slipping his hand through a tiny portal, Ryker launched a second attack at my father. This time, it was Briyan who answered. An equally small portal opened up directly in front of my father’s chest and swallowed the weapon. It was a tactic Ryker used frequently, but never had it been used against him.
Ryker let out a brutal wail as the blade embedded itself into his right thigh. He immediately pulled it out before any more of the paralytic magic absorbed under his skin to render his limb numb and useless.
“You should watch where you point those things. Someone could get seriously hurt.” Briyan adjusted a limp Alyce over his shoulders. Ryker let out a hoarse cough, uselessly covering his mouth with his arm to avoid the purple smoke.
“I suggest you let us go and get her out of here before the poison causes too much damage.” My dad stood directly in front of Ryker, whose gaze was bouncing back and forth between me and my father. “It’s currently eating away at her insides. If she doesn’t get help soon, its effects won’t be reversible.”
“No!” I forced my limbs to move as I sat up from the floor. “You can’t take her!”
“Zulli …” Ryker rushed over to me, crouching down to slip his arm around my waist as I pushed to my feet. “Zulli, we have to go.”
Ryker’s shaking fingers tried to hold me steady as he leaned against Alyce’s desk. He wasn’t putting any weight on his right leg.
“No. My mom—” Claws came out without warning, and I slashed my hand down the side of Ryker’s face. Hissing, he let me go as I pushed away from him and I stumbled toward the intense heat of magic from a portal Briyan opened up in the middle of Alyce’s office. Briyan stepped through it first with Alyce and disappeared.
“No. No! You can’t do this!” A splatter of blood sprayed into the air as I coughed deeply, my words grating against my tongue like sandpaper. Nausea was clawing its way up my throat, and my stomach churned with unease.
As my hands stretched out toward my mom, Ryker threaded his arms through mine and pulled them back to keep me from jumping into the portal after them. “Stop, Zulli! Don’t do this!”
With one last turn of his head, I caught the pitiful look that crossed my father’s features. A sad, sympathetic expression filled his gaze for only a second before he simply shook his head and faded away, the portal closing behind him.
“No … ” Tears were streaming down my face as I pulled free from Ryker’s weakening grip and fell to the floor. “We have to go after her. Please!”
“You know we can’t.” Ryker’s breathing was labored, much like mine was. Just standing here with me was slowly killing him.
My fist pounded into the wooden desk, tears rolling off my cheeks and soaking into it. The floor under me started rumbling, thrumming with magic vibrating erratically. Without warning, I fell through one of Ryker’s portals, Alyce’s bright office winking out of existence as we reappeared in a hallway back at the prison. I tried to get up, losing my footing, only to come crashing back down. My knee smashed into the tile floor, sending pain radiating through my leg, but it was nothing compared to the burning hole in my heart.
“We have to go back! Ryker, take me back!” A primal rage coursed through me and he was wary of the claws still protruding from my fingertips. I barely had an ounce of strength left in me, but I’d use whatever I had left to get back to my mom.
At the sound of our loud arrival right outside the infirmary, several people rushed out to see what was going on. Myra stood there, an icy shard held firm in her hand. Salynn was right next to her, her fingertips wiggling with the need to secrete poison into the air.
Dr. Lana Fischer was the first to act, darting to my side to calm me down while simultaneously checking me over for injuries. I swatted her hand away.
“Zulli, you need to calm down.” Ryker cautiously placed both his hands firmly on my shoulders, stifling a cough against his grating voice. “There’s nothing we can do right now.”
“Do about what, Zulli?” Lana ignored my earlier retaliation and ran her cold fingers down my face and neck. “What happened?”
“Take me back! Take me back!” I grabbed onto Ryker’s shirt and violently shook him. When my anger turned into desperation, he caught me as I collapsed into his arms. “Please, Ryker. Take me back.” I sobbed into his chest, still clutching his shirt. “Please! He’s going to kill my mom!”
