I thrashed and squealed against my shackles, frustration and terror chewing at my nerves. Andy wriggled and screamed on his back in a cloud of electric-burnt steam. She’d kill him. After all that, he’d die anyway and I’d be left to bear it.

Sammi laughed, malice crackling icicles from her hair, and thrust the mirror closer to his face. “Suck it up, metalshit.”

His forearms bunched in agony, claws raking the air, and in a smoky flash his bangle vanished.
Bumps broke out on my skin, and ozone ripped my nose raw. My wings jerked. The bangle snapped into view on his right arm, and in a hail of blue sparks, current erupted.

My hair sprang taut in crackling static. The air sizzled, electrified. My clothes plastered themselves to my skin, and my wrists slammed tight into my back, steel cuffs straining toward him in irresistible magnetic field.

The mirror wailed in iron flux and jerked forward, too, but Sammi held on. She screeched demon laughter, her teeth bristling like needles. “You can do better than that.”

Andy’s—no, Dennis’—Dennis' muscles cramped tight with current. His arms convulsed and bulged. His sharp iron-boned wings jerked, sizzling blue current dragging them irresistibly taut, and in a crack of electric thunder the red rubber rope around his chest snapped.

Delilah wailed, and my skin shivered. Ebony’s laugh razored. He tore his tied hands and ankles apart with a whip of ultraflex limbs and slashing metal teeth. Mercury blood splatted.

He leapt and hovered, flaring his wings and curling his copper claws like a fierce metal angel. His black hair sprang jagged in sparking green current. Violet neon rage glowed in his eyes, and in a flash of razor-sharp silver, he dived for Sammi.
She stumbled back, brandishing the blinding mirror before her, but her long gown tangled in her heels. They crashed to the ground together in a flail of thrashing limbs, and Dennis sank cruel teeth into her wrist and ripped the shining mirror from her hands.

She howled and struggled, the mirror’s beam slashing the night air like a crazy searchlight. Demon blood splashed scarlet, and Sammi kicked and clawed with purple talons, a monster’s yellow hellscales breaking out on her skin. Her needle teeth flashed, green ichor spilling onto Dennis' skin in hissing acid burn.
My heart choked, and I thrashed in fury against my chains. Surely she’d kill him. But he just pinned her under his body with a powerful thrust of wings, jammed her throat into the ground with slashing claws, and shone the screaming mirror directly into her eyes.

The howl that erupted from her mouth chilled my blood to ice. The glass door shattered, ripped apart by shuddering frequencies. Shining shards showered, melting on Sammi’s smoking scales.
Dennis' claws slashed at her face, demon blood flowing, but as fast as he tore the wounds open, the faster they healed over. Hellflame roiled crimson in her hair, lashing out at his hands with electric fury.
But her eyes burned golden, light streaming in from the mirror like an evil white river, and little by little her struggles weakened. Her hands fought his, the mirror’s light flashing over her face, into her eyes and out. And Dennis fought her down and held her there and laughed as she struggled. Sweat dripped copper on his burnt blue skin, and voltage ripped his silver wings blue. His glinting fangs dripped bloody rage. “Teach you to hurt my girl.”

My heart swelled, burning, and tears scorched my eyes and seared down the side of my nose. He’d kill again for me, and it was all my fault. This would never end. I didn’t care if the hellbitch deserved it. I hated it.
Fevered fingers snaked around my ankle.
My pulse exploded back into life. Some hellworm come to munch me up. I scrabbled back, blinded by the terrible sight before me, but the grip wouldn’t ease.
Something clicked before my eyes like teeth, and terror bit my nerves raw and yanked me lucid.
Ashley snapped his fingers again and hushed me with a match-scented claw on my lips. “Shh. Show me your hands.”

Disbelief mushed my brain. “You’re . . . You’re still alive?” And he bloody was, bless him. Unhurt. The hellish burns were gone, his hair intact, his pretty crimson wings gleaming softly in the night-light. My tears flowed harder. He’d come back for me. Somehow. “How’d ya get in here? What happened? Your burns . . . ?”

Secrets flickered his gaze away. “Told ya. I’m cool. Show me your hands.”
Behind him, Sammi and Dennis rolled, still fighting, tumbling blue and brown limbs and silvery wings and streaking purple hair. Taking no notice of us. My stomach coiled tight. Dennis was strong, even for a fairy. They’d kill each other before this was over.
Urgency rippled my blood, erasing any questions until later. I twisted and shuffled my butt aside so Ashley could reach. “Quick. Get these fucking things off.”
Charlotte murmured beside me, her blue eyes pooling wide. “Ashley?”
“Yeah, Char. It’s me. Hang on.” He jammed one claw into a link of my chain. Heat sizzled, and the metal shone red. I yanked. The cuffs split, and I pulled free in a wash of cool relief. I rubbed my still-cuffed wrists, broken chain dangling.
Ashley winked, devilish, and crawled over to Charlotte. I jabbed him with my foot and hissed a whisper. “Hey! How did you find us here?”
He yanked Char’s cuffs apart and jerked his pointy chin toward the screeching demon. “You care? Let’s get outta here.”
Charlotte tugged her dress straight, sullen. “Why’d you do her first? Huh?”
I ignored her and grabbed Ashley’s arm as he started to dart into the shadows toward the glass door. I pointed at Dennis, who still clawed at Sammi’s lizard-skinned throat from beneath, her whip-scaly thighs gripping him bare through her ripped dress. “We can’t leave him!”
Ash shook me off, urgent like fever. “Now, Apples!”
A crash cut off my retort. A blur of inked muscle, torn leather, swishing brown hair, a graceful body streaking through the broken window to land on the tiles.
Jake, fresh and unhurt, his curving brown muscles gleaming in a fighting crouch. Dark flame licked over his fingers, fairyfire dancing between his hands like a toy. His sapphire eyes fixed on Sammi, blazing bright, and his voice sang with a banshee’s seductive song as he pointed a flame-dripping finger at her. “Demon weakling,” he crooned. “Die.”

And he launched himself at her, horizontal in a spear of blazing fairyfire.
Flesh and bone slammed together. Skin split. Blood splashed, red and silver. Yowls mingled. Sammi tumbled screeching away from Dennis, and she and Jake thudded against the balcony. Her skull smacked hard into the iron railing. She spluttered, golden venom splashing from needle teeth, more yellow-green scales sprouting on her neck. Jake sank cruel fingers into her throat and rammed her head into the steel, again and again.

Dennis scrabbled free, the squealing mirror spilling blinding light from his hand. He flexed crumpled foil wings and held the mirror up in two triumphant hands. White-hot light poured out like a beacon, splitting the night air like a scream, and clawed straight into Sammi’s eyes.
She roared like a wounded dragon and tried to squeeze her eyes shut, but Jake gripped her scaly cheekbones and forced her scorched lids open. “Die, demon. Go back to hell.”
I shook Ashley off and scrambled up to Dennis. I’d forgotten how big he was. My head barely reached his shoulder. I scrabbled for his rust-flecked arm. “Come on. Leave her.”
“No.” His voice grated, metal on metal. Sweat and blood slicked his dark blue skin. “She dies.”
“But we’re free! Let’s go!” I tugged his arm again, and the mirror’s light scorched a smoking path down Sammi’s body, away from her eyes.
He shook me off, determined. “It’s for you, Appolonnia. She’ll never let you be.”
“You can’t kill her for me!” My voice rose, hysterical. This was all wrong. “I won’t let you. Put it down, Dennis, or I’ll stop you.”
He snarled, full of pain and helplessness. “You can’t stop me, Apples. No one can.”
His rage stabbed my heart, and my courage flowered, not dark and mirrortwisted but true. Death was all Dennis had. All he knew how to give. And he’d never change that without me. Without me, he’d never find anything worth living for, and he’d never stop.
Dennis' dark fingers shook around the rusted iron, but he held the mirror tight and wouldn’t look at me. “Leave me. Get out of here.”
“No,” I said steadily. “I won’t let you do it.” And I leapt as far as I could into the air and thrust my face into the mirror’s burning light.

My lashes singed afire. My eyeballs screamed, the worst pain I’d ever felt, like a great grasping hand ripping through my skull and down my spine and deep into my guts. I couldn’t see anything, only blinding white. The force dragged my hair back, stretched my wings taut like drumskins, pulled my skin tight over my bones until it ripped. Air rushed from my lungs, and my throat vibrated. I was screaming, but I couldn’t hear anything but my own melting flesh and the mirror, that evil black beast tearing ravenous teeth into my soul.
And then, whiteness tore from my eyes, the mirror tumbling free like a bright arc of flame on my scorched retinas. He’d let the mirror go.

His strong metal hands enfolded my ribs, dragged me down, implored me. Dimly I heard yelling, voices, a scream not mine, and I flexed my aching wings, stretched out my roasted hands, and grabbed.
I didn’t need to see to catch it this time. This thing had murmured sweet anarchy in my heart for what seemed like so long, I could feel it. I just knew.
My claws ripped on sharp metal edges, and my wailing heart rejoiced. I clutched the mirror blindly, cruel metal slashing my skin, and rammed my little fist into the glass.
My knuckles ripped and broke with a sick crunch. My fist lacerated on razor petals. The mirrorbeast gasped and roared, thrashing its scaly tail in my heart, and I thudded in a rush to the ground.
Silence.

Slowly, I peeled my raw-scraped eyes. My vision flooded white, then blue, then shimmered slowly into focus. My body ached. Ashes fouled my mouth. The room swam in giddy circles, and I looked down into mirrorswitched colors. Blue blood streamed orange over my slashed hand. My yellow skin glared purple in spiking light. The rusty sphere tumbled away, but I dragged myself after it on my belly, and when I fumbled it up, a mess of shattered glass and dust fell out. Shiny, twinkling, like a pile of pretty diamonds.
A ghostly black bubble twisted up like smoke from the pile of shards. It writhed through the splinters, scattering them, searching for a fragment large enough, any piece it could slither inside and hide. But the glass crumbled like fairy glitter, and with a squeal and a final thrash, the bubble popped, hellblack remnants wisping away.

The squidgy, dead. Good riddance.
The scaly beast inside me whiplashed one final time, and fled.

And then strong rust-brown arms scooped me up in the warm, familiar scent of iron. Fresh breeze ruffled my hair, drying the sweat on my skin. Stars tumbled overhead like jewels, and in the heady sensation of falling, I fainted.

Notes

One more chapter to go!!!!!
I hope you have enjoyed the story so far but they all have to end sometime.

In the meantime though, i have started a new story called Repossession and i hope you read that one too.
Love you all and thank you for staying with me throughout the years.

Stay Weird
- Grimm