Chapter LIII
LIII.
I fight the urge to sink to the ground beside Diripo.
It should be over. The dagger should’ve sapped his energy like the cuffs depleted mine. Except he isn’t fighting with only his own strength. Pieces of my father have become part of him, raging through his blood like they do mine.
Ferus has the strength of two demons now. My body still shakes from exhaustion. I can’t beat him. I should let him go.
My gaze trails over Diripo’s body, and my throat tightens. If I give up, Ferus will keep hurting the people I care about. Nate, Atty, my mother. Ferus will punish them in order to harm me.
Beyond them, there’s the rest of humanity to contend with. They’re not as awful as I was taught to believe. Mal’s smile drifts through my mind. His reminders that my genetics don’t mean I’m broken—they make me who I am.
And I’m better than a narcissistic red demon with muscles where a brain should be.
I close my eyes and take a shaking breath. Ferus may be strong, but I have the blood of my father and mother in me. And I have me. I don’t need anything or anyone else.
I’m ready to kick his ass.
My body’s healed some since I removed the cuff. My arm still aches, but it’s no longer bent at an awkward angle. I test my wings. My feet rise off the carpet, then land back softly. “You want to keep fighting, Ferus?” I say to the empty room. “Bring it.”
I dash to where he threw my sword and secure it to my waist before taking off after him.
It’s not hard for me to spot him.
My father’s wings are massive, three times the size of mine. And because they don’t belong to him, they don’t allow Ferus to fly smoothly.
He staggers through the air, gaining then losing elevation. He bobs up and down like people on the roller coaster Nate showed me at the Santa Monica Pier. They screamed with every drop, but Ferus is relishing the falls.
He doesn’t scream. He howls with laughter. A choked sound that echoes over the stones of Dominus and sends chills up my spine.
Once I get a good angle on him, I aim with my hand stretched in front of me and attempt to fling a fireball his way. But only smoke puffs from my palms.
I’m not at full power yet. Dammit.
I trail Ferus over Hell, my eyes locking on the places I traversed with Nate.
Lot Thirteen—where in the worst of humanity, I found one of the best. Even if he gets on my nerves sometimes.
Lot Eleven—a place that made me think I saw a beast in the mirrors when what I was seeing were the parts of me that make me powerful and strong.
Lot Eight—where I followed the ghost of my mom through the mud before finding the real thing on Earth.
And ahead, the ice castle. The place where I spent the night with Nate and found my angel side.
I fought so hard to escape these places, and now I’m battling a demon with a stitched-on pair of wings and a sword in his chest so that I can stay here forever.
Yet this doesn’t feel wrong. None of it.
Not how I got here or how I jet through the air after Ferus.
Fighting for my home now feels like what I was born to do.
Far below, the escaped shadelings battle with the souldiers, wails from both sides rising through the air, but I cut through their cries like thread, my eyes finding my target.
Ferus lands on one of the ice castle’s parapets to catch his breath, and I attempt to lob another fireball. I’m back at full power, but the flame misses him by inches.
Instead, it melts a hole into the castle wall. Through it, I can make out the bedroom my father furnished for a woman who would never sleep there. The room where I first kissed Nate. Where I fell in love. I can’t do anything but watch as the flame falls to the rug in front of the bed and catches.
Horrified, I freeze midair.
Maybe it will fizzle out.
But I know fire, and it doesn’t take long to engulf the bedsheets and anything in the room that’s not ice. The walls begin to disintegrate from the heat.
I gasp under my breath. A piece of my heart dissolves with every block of ice that melts away.
“You missed, Princess.”
Shit.
I’d forgotten about Ferus.
My head snaps up at his voice. He smirks at me, Father’s wings battering the air behind him.
Blood throbs against my skull, and I lob another ball of flame at him with a scream.
He jumps out of the way and flies from the castle.
The fire hits the parapet he’d been on, melting the turrets and pouring water down the rest of the building in cascades like waterfalls.
In moments, the castle bends into itself and collapses with a loud crack.
My heart falls with it, and I cry out.
No.
Please no.
The one spot in this dark world built not to punish, but to love. The one remnant left to remind me of happy times with Nate until I can see him again.
Gone forever.
I shake my head and swallow the lump in my throat before jetting after Ferus. There’s no time to mourn that loss now. I have an asshole to decimate.
Ferus disappears through the wall leading out of the lot, and I finally realize what he’s doing. My stomach falls as fast as the crumbling ice castle.
He’s going to throw the ring in the Ignis River. Make sure neither of us can formally take Father’s place before insisting it belongs to him since that’s how Father left it.
“Oh, absolutely not.” I’m already bleeding, so I don’t need to cut myself this time to smash through the magicked brick wall and land on the bridge. Ferus stands before me, a snarl curling his features. He dangles the ring over the river.
“Ferus,” I call. “You already lost. Take it like a man—demon—whatever you are.”
He opens his mouth to reply when one of Father’s chariots soars over our heads with a screech. It’s almost as out of control as Ferus was with his pilfered wings. It darts back and forth, struggling to maintain direction as it bounces through the air.
“What the—?” I ask.
I’m too distracted by the chariot to realize that Ferus has released the ring over the railing. By the time I notice his fingers are empty, the crimson gem is glittering on its way to the fires below.
“Fuck!” I rush to the railing, ready to jump over the side, but the metal is falling too fast. I’ll never catch it before it hits the flames. It’s too small to slow itself down.
I watch in horror as it disappears from view and lands with a sizzling sound.
Ferus is on me in seconds. He doesn’t have a weapon, so he uses his fists. I dodge his blows, and he punches only air. He screams and lunges again.
“Oh, no you don’t, Ficus,” a voice shouts from the wayward chariot as it gets closer.
The voice punches me almost as hard as Ferus, and I blink the figure it emanates from into focus. “Nate?” I wheeze. “What are you doing back here?”
He manages to half dock the vehicle on the bridge and jumps out, landing between me and Ferus. I squint at him, sure I passed out long ago in the throne room and he’s some figment of my imagination.
“I thought you could use some help. Luckily, one of those chariot things was parked near the entrance. You know, we really could have used one of those when we broke out.”
He smiles at me, and my chest warms the way it always does when I see him.
Not a figment of my imagination.
The grin drops from my face.
Which means he’s in danger. Ferus will tear him to shreds.
“I told you they have tracking. But also, not the time.” I push myself to my feet, ignoring the pain that clambers up my leg, and draw my sword. “Look, I appreciate you wanting to help, Nate, but get out of the way. I’ve got this.”
But he’s already charging at Ferus, my mother’s bow in his grasp. He shoots an arrow and misses by a mile. He shoots another, repeating the useless process.
I groan and resist the urge to roll my eyes.
Ferus sneers and grabs for the dagger I mashed into his chest.
Smoke billows from his palm, and he hisses before wrenching the blade from his flesh. He charges Nate, who now fumbles with an arrow that’s twisted in the bow.
My eyes widen. Angel weapons can’t kill me, but they sure as here can harm humans.
“Nate!” I run forward and draw my wings to their fullest size. I wrap Nate in their feathers as Ferus attacks, pulling him into me and shielding both of us from the blows.
My mother explained that the gold in my wings comes from my angel side, but what I haven’t counted on is how much of my father is in them as well.
I expect them to shield us from the angel weapon the same way my skin protected me earlier.
But the dagger slices through my feathers, and pain screeches up my shoulder.
I swear, then push Nate behind me as one of my wings plunges into the fires below.
I let out a howl that’s more animal than human.
Pain and anger redden my entire body. I’ve lost so much in my life.
Seventeen years I could have spent with my mother.
A father who’s far too existent in the human world while being mostly non-existent in mine.
The ring—the only thing he’s given to me, even if it was for selfish reasons.
Nate, almost twice. And now a literal piece of myself, surrendered to the flames below.
I stare in horror as the gold in my wings glints one last time, then winks out in the flames. Blood drips down my shoulder and puddles indigo at my feet. My entire body sways at the sudden loss of weight on my left side, and Nate grabs me by the waist to steady me.
“You okay, Dev?” he whispers.
I swallow and blink back tears for what feels like the fiftieth time in this fight. I swore I wouldn’t let Ferus see me cry, and I intend to keep that promise. I can mourn everything I’ve lost later. But first, I’m going to stop Ferus from taking anything else from me.
I lift my head and hold my sword in front of my chest. “That’s it, Ferus. I’m ending this.”
“You keep saying that, Princess.” He snickers. “You talk big, but you’re too weak to do anything about it.” He raises my mother’s dagger, still searing his flesh with a sizzling sound. “You’re out of moves.”
“Am I?” A grin tugs at my lips. “Try me.”