Chapter 41
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
Gremory
The tide turned on the battlefield as soon as Delphine’s witches sacrificed their lives to break the dark magic Belial used to turn his people into zombies, as Tabitha and Michaela called them.
Speaking of my little sprite, I turned my gaze to the healers’ camp and spotted her bright blonde pixie cut darting between patients.
My enhanced vision easily noted the sweat on her brow and the way her clothing clung to her body.
It still unsettled me that she was here, but Delphine had insisted it was the right decision.
Her insistence only enhanced my worries.
Many of those freed by the witches fled the field, but they would be caught and questioned. We did not murder those who surrendered, but I’d be damn sure they meant it before letting them go free. Never again would I let such a disaster happen. We deserved peace and happiness in Tellisa.
My senses tingled, anticipating a new danger. I whipped around just as Foras dropped out of the sky before me.
“Hello, traitor,” Foras sneered.
He was a slimy piece of shit before, and that clearly had not changed, nor had his power status. I smirked. “Foras. Still licking the boots of your superiors, hoping one will look your way?”
The power-hungry hybrid dropped into a fighting stance, two whips with sharp spikes unfurling in his hands.
He hissed like a pissed off cat, snapping the whips at me, but I didn’t move.
Foras was an opponent I could handle. He may have been conniving in certain circles, but I had spent years training for war and perfecting my ability to understand my enemies.
Foras could create illusions, and every move I made would draw me further into whatever false scene he conjured.
“Aren’t you going to fight me, former general and all that?” Foras taunted, attempting to draw me out.
I stood on the balls of my feet, ready, but unmoving, a smile playing at my lips. It infuriated him.
Foras snapped his whips in my direction, but I caught them easily, fire coated my hands and I sent the flames back down the vines.
He cried out in pain, too slow to drop the whips before my flames reached him.
Now that he was distracted, I rushed at the fucker, stellatium blade in hand.
His eyes widened in fear, too scared to even use his power as I snarled with rage, unleashing my daemon and driving the dagger into his chest. His screams died the moment I pierced his heart.
Looming over him, I snarled in his pathetic face. “For all the pain you caused, you deserve a more prolonged death. Perhaps a few rounds with Morax for threatening his mate. Even so, you’re not worth the effort.”
Foras died, alone and snivelling. No illusions, only death.
A surge of power drew my attention back to the battle.
I flew across our army, barking out orders to stay in formation, splitting the enemies into more manageable sections.
Unfortunately, that powerful blast was all too familiar.
The Obscuritas Kings were entering the battle.
Belial was still hidden, but we’d draw him out eventually.
Laszlo Blackbyrn sent a blast of frigid air laced with icicles sharp as blades into the sky where I hovered.
The asshole might have been strong, but I was born in this life and easily shielded against the onslaught.
A few creatures near me were not as successful, their cries filling the sky as they dropped to the earth, bloodied and in need of care.
Others pulled them away instantly, carting them to the healers.
I set my sights on Laszlo. The Princes requested their fathers be left alive until their arrival, but I wouldn’t waste an opportunity to maim them a little.
Morax dove from the opposite side of the field, his dark wings blotting out the sun and eyes shining with power.
Samuel Delano shot a net of thick vines at him, trapping his wings.
The daemon prince roared in fury, and Michaela’s voice rang out in alarm on the wind.
The distraction of my comrade falling from the sky and his mate charging onto the field worked all too well, and pain lanced through my side when a spear of ice pierced a lung.
My power faltered, and I fell heavily to the earth, quickly urging my body to heal.
But it wasn’t quick enough. Laszlo was on me in a second.
His power clearly favored water, and the cold-hearted bastard was using ice to lock down my limbs.
I pushed fire into my veins to melt the frigid ice anchoring me to the ground.
“Looks like I caught a rat,” Laszlo purred in that flat voice I loathed. “I always knew there were traitors in our midst. But you stood by while we tortured so many pathetic creatures. That must weigh heavily on your soul.”
He wasn’t wrong. While undercover, before I rescued Tabitha and fled, I looked on as the Kings committed horrible acts of violence against so many. And I would carry the weight of it for eternity.
“I will avenge all who were ruined at your hands when I kill you and the scum who follow your lead so willingly,” I snarled at him. But my bite was not quite hitting its mark.
Laszlo smirked, his black eyes shining with power. “That spear was tipped with stellatium. You won’t be healing so well, daemon trash. I will enjoy snuffing out the rebel army’s general.”
A pain-filled grunt escaped my lips as the ice covering my body suddenly speared into my flesh, tiny ice picks digging into my skin.
I couldn’t heal and fight it off at the same time, not with the wound from the metal so dangerous to daemons and lumens.
Fear pulsed in my chest as Laszlo stalked closer, a stellatium sword glinting in the sun, and aimed at my heart.
Before he could take another step, Delphine dropped from the sky, her magic crackling with her fury. “Over my dead body, false king.”
My heart flooded with love for this woman, and true fear followed right behind it as my mate battled Laszlo. She produced her own sword, parrying his with ease, as if she could anticipate his moves. I imagined she could, to an extent, with her abilities to see flashes of the future.
Laszlo taunted her, called her filthy names and threatened to enslave her for his pleasure.
The thought of it sent renewed power through my veins, burning away the ice digging into my flesh.
I was nearly free when a scream of terror pierced my heart.
Craning my neck to the right, I saw daemon dogs attacking the healers.
These devil animals were a fucked-up creation of Belial’s.
He stole them from the forest and altered them in horrible ways.
I’d only encountered them once and had hoped to never do so again.
But now the rabid monsters were nearing Tabitha.
Leona was with her, blades in hand, fighting, but my mate was not so well trained.
“Nuriela!” I bellowed her name.
The lumen launched off the field where she was fighting off ten daemons, her eyes instantly going to Leona and Tabitha. But she was too damn far.
I snapped my attention back to Delphine. She wasn’t tiring to the untrained eye, but her movements were imperceptibly slower. My mates needed me. They were fighting battles they could not win alone.
With their safety at risk, my power flared, the ice hissing as it turned to steam, finally freeing me.
I attempted to stand, only to be jumped from behind by three daemon traitors.
One had a stellatium blade, and the other two held me down as the blade-wielder stalked toward me, straddled my waist, and brought the blade to my throat.
Panic set in, but I was too weak in this moment to change my fate. Time seemed to slow as the crazed fucker pressed the sharp edge to my skin.
“My loves, forgive me,” I murmured the words, sending my last thoughts out to Delphine and Tabitha.
The daemon on top of me suddenly started screaming, his eyes bugging out, and he jumped off me. The other two followed, clawing at their chests. I turned my gaze to see Delphine whispering furiously and watched as the daemons burned from the inside out.
Tabitha screamed, and this one was truly terrifying. A daemon dog launched into the air and knocked her to the ground, his sharp teeth aiming for her throat.
Delphine bellowed words I didn’t quite understand, but I could feel her power woosh out of her and toward Tabitha.
A jewel around her slender neck glowed a brilliant green, and just before the beast could rip into her throat, a blast of magic threw the feral thing away.
It slammed into a tree and to the earth with a thud.
Relief filled my chest, but it was short-lived.
When I turned back, Delphine was in Laszlo’s grasp, the tip of his blade resting over my mate’s heart.
Her eyes were sad, and neither of us could even shout before he shoved the blade into her chest. Laszlo tossed her away and leapt into the sky.
I scrambled over to her, sensing Tabitha running for us.
She shouldn’t have been, but I was too focused on Delphine in my arms to stop her.
“It’s all right my love, you’ll heal,” I murmured softly. “Please stay with me.”
Tabitha dropped to the ground beside me and took Delphine’s hand. “Please don’t leave me. I need you.” Tears ran down her cheeks, and the green jem on her necklace now glimmered with magic.
Delphine’s magic.
My mate smiled softly. “I love you both. My heart. My soul. Be happy. For me.”
Her heart stopped, and a piece of my own shattered. She was mortal. Delphine used every bit of her magic to save Tabitha. She was on this fucking field because of me, saving me when I should have been saving her.
I roared in anguish, a rush of power sweeping out of me and knocking down the dozen or so creatures closest to us. Tabitha cried, her body shaking with sadness.
Nuri was beside us now, kneeling gently next to me. Morax and Michaela joined her, and they both bowed their heads, a thick cloud encasing us.
Mor eyed the necklace around Tabitha’s throat. “Did Delphine give you that?”
Tabitha nodded, sniffling. “Just before going to fight. She said it was to protect me when she couldn’t.”
“She was mortal when he stabbed her,” Nuri whispered, awe coloring her words. “Her magic now lives in that stone. It’s been ages since I’ve seen anything like it.”
Morax laid his hand on my shoulder in comfort. “We need to move her. And get back to the battle. The witches will be faltering with their leader gone. We must push forward.”
He was right, I knew he was, but my heart was in pieces, the mate bond dim without Delphine’s fierce soul on the other end. Morax pushed healing power into my body as I stood with Delphine in my arms. We moved quickly, taking her body to the healers’ camp, now devoid of the beasts.
Leona waited for us, her gaze fixed behind us and seemingly far away. “It’s time to go to the castle.”