Free Demons Forever (Peachville High Demons #6) by Sarra Cannon Page B

and glanced toward the dome. In the distance, Jackson pounded against the invisible barrier. His face wore the worry of a thousand days. His eyes urged me to get up and fight, but I struggled to stay alert.
    The tiger's fangs pierced the skin on my neck, ripping a scream from my throat.
    I wasn't going to die like this. Not because of some stupid glamour trick. I remembered my father's words. Shifting into a shadow is like forgetting yourself. Stop trying so hard. Just let go.
    So I did.
    My body disappeared. The tiger's jaw slammed into the ground where I had been, but I was now behind her. Dizziness threatened to wash over me, so this time instead of trying to fight it, I gave in. I let it take me under and twist my insides. I forgot my human body and embraced this other me that had been hiding inside all these years.
    I flew to a branch midway up the nearest tree. Using the force of my demon strength, a strength I hadn't even realized I possessed, I ripped a dozen long branches from the tree and sent them down around the tiger, trapping her inside.
    When I was sure the branches would hold her for a moment, I turned my attention to the three witches who rushed toward her. I fell from the tree and shifted effortlessly, flying through the air faster than the wind itself.
    Before the witches knew I was even there, I became human again and reached deep within the earth, pulling a sheet of dirt and rock up in front of them like a wall. They slammed against it, pushing it in my direction. It fell toward me and I struggled to hold it.
    My heart beat with wild panic, seeing a way to defeat them. I didn't want to be a killer, but what choice had they left me? When it was either me or them, I couldn't afford to hesitate or show mercy. I had to be strong. I had to live.
    With one giant magical push, I toppled the earth wall over them, crushing them into the ground.
    Behind me, the tiger's roar gave me enough warning to shift and move just as she pounced. A single claw cut through my leg as I disappeared. The pain broke my focus, my body plunging hard into the ground.
    I scrambled backward, her teeth barely missing me. Frantic, I ripped a cluster of rocks from the ground, holding them over her head.
    The tiger shifted to her witch form, cowering under the stones.
    Why didn't she run?
    I expected her to leap at me or growl or at least try to move out of the way of the crushing debris. Instead, she looked up at the stones above her.
    "Do it," she said, her voice high-pitched and trembling. "If I'm going to die, I want it to be just like her. I want to feel what my sister felt in her final moments."
    Guilt surged through me. I hadn't meant to kill her sister when we'd come into the shadow world, but I thought she'd killed Mary Anne. All I could think about at the time was revenge.
    "I'm sorry," I said. The rocks hovered over her, and I didn't know whether to drop them or push them to the side. Was this another one of her tricks? "I know you don't believe me, but I never meant to kill your sister."
    She turned to me then, her face softening for a moment. Her green eyes clear. "I'm lost without her," she whispered.
    Then, something inside her cracked. Her eyes opened so wide, I thought they were going to pop out of her skull. Her mouth twisted up in a grotesque smile and she began to laugh.
    I didn't know what to make of it. I half expected her to shift again and try to rip my throat out.
    Instead, her insane laughter turned to sobs that shook her entire body. She threw herself against the ground, raking her nails furiously on the hard surface of the rocks. Blood trickled from her fingertips and she barely seemed to notice. Then, suddenly, the witch stopped moving, her eyes staring dead ahead. The rapid rise and fall of her chest the only indication she was even still alive.
    Behind her, the black barrier that locked me out of the domed city dissipated into thin air.
    Several guards rushed out to us. They seized the witch under her arms and