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.Anything to get Asbeel’s voice out of my mind.But still I found my feet moving, one shuffling step, then another.“Let him go,” Joen said, stepping in front of me, her daggers drawn.“Let him go,” Asbeel repeated in a mocking high-pitched voice.With a snarl, Joen leaped at him, ignoring the heat of the fiery walls, ignoring that wicked sword, long and curved and jagged and ablaze with demonic red fire.In a blink, Asbeel’s sword was swinging, and Joen was falling away.My trance broken, I charged at Asbeel with my sword drawn.Red and blue flame crashed against each other again and again, each contact hissing and throwing off a burst of steam.Asbeel gave ground willingly, retreating directly toward one of the fire walls.The heat grew as we approached the sheet of flame, and though Asbeel seemed entirely unaffected, I had to halt my advance and fall back.“Come on then,” I snarled, settling into a defensive stance.“Yeah, bring it, eh?” Joen said, gathering herself up from the ground.I looked at her, stunned.Asbeel’s swing had struck her, I was sure of it.But there she was, standing up unhurt, with only a slight tear in her leather tunic.She saw my look and threw me a wink—all the answer I would get, as the demon was advancing again.Joen dropped into a low crouch and moved to her right.I moved to the left.Asbeel shadowed me, moving slowly and deliberately, never exposing more than his side to Joen.He reached out with his sword, a surprisingly tentative strike for such a typically cocky foe.I parried solidly, pushing his sword away.Again he lunged out lazily, and again I parried.He followed with a quick, shortened horizontal swipe that probably would not have reached me anyway.Still, I tapped the top of his sword with my own and drove the blade down.I realized my mistake as soon as steel hit steel.He let his blade drop, pulled it down even, and rushed forward.With no resistance, my parry had gone farther than I wanted, and I could not bring my blade to bear.Neither could he, but he had other weapons at his disposal—foremost among them, his own weight.I tried to step back, but the demon pushed against me, pressing me backward, driving me toward the second wall of fire.Joen came in hard on his flank, her left dagger up defensively, her right jabbing hard.The demon tried to dodge, but I used my position to my advantage, locking my leg against his, preventing him from taking a step.Joen’s dagger drove into the demon’s side.He howled in pain, shoved off me hard, throwing me backward.In a flash, his sword was back in his hand, and he was whipping around.His inhuman strength was on clear display, his sword pummeling through Joen’s defenses, sending her tumbling.My heart dropped, but only for a second.Somehow she came to her feet, apparently unhurt and still holding both daggers.Asbeel’s position had suddenly worsened dramatically.He no longer had a wall of fire to his back; instead he had the two of us on opposite sides, both unhurt.I moved in, cautiously executing a simple attack routine.Asbeel’s sword was there to block each attack, but as Joen moved in from the other side, he had to whip his sword around.Again his strength served him well, and he had the sword around in time, but only just.Joen ducked under his wild swing and fell back.Which left him defenseless from my side.I lunged in, aiming for a killing blow.But Asbeel jumped, beating his great black wings once.He was above us, floating over us.He lashed out with his foot, aiming for my head, but I ducked under the blow.Joen leaped at him, digging her dagger into his ankle.The demon howled in pain, and kicked out at her.She tumbled away.I couldn’t tell whether she had been hit, or had let go on her own.Either way, she landed gracefully, rolling to her feet, her daggers at the ready once more.The demon beat his wings again, floating over Joen’s head, and dropped to the ground.Joen and I met him in coordinated attack.Each time I attacked, Joen followed suit, her movements a perfect complement to my own.It felt as though I were leading her in a slow dance.I swept in from Asbeel’s right, swinging high; Joen came in from his left, crouched low, her daggers jabbing in unison.Asbeel ducked under my swing and brought his sword across to defeat Joen’s attack.But as I retracted, Asbeel continued his motion, sweeping his and Joen’s blades out to the side, bringing around the hilt of his sword.The hilt: that wicked mass of twisted metal, that same vicious weapon that had struck Perrault months before, that had caused the wound that had killed him.And it leaped for Joen.When Perrault was wounded, I had stood behind him, afraid or unable to fight.I would not let that happen again.I would not watch the demon kill another who fought with me, who fought for me.I screamed as I lunged, throwing my off-balance body not at Asbeel, but at his arm.My aim was true, my sword diving straight for the sinewy forearm.But the demon’s arm arm was not there—he had released the grip on his sword; his whole move had been a feint.His hand found my throat
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