30. Chapter 30
Chapter 30
A urelia froze at the familiar face that gazed at her now. Through her. Milky white eyes focused on everything and nothing at once. Asmodeous’ mouth curved into a cruel smile as he took his place beside his brother, the two males like the opposing chess pieces.
The same black bands that adorned Maloch’s wrists were etched into Asmodeous’ as well. No weapon in his hand—as if he himself was a much greater threat than any blade.
“Are you so eager to see your companions die?” Asmodeous asked, the words giving voice to Aurelia's greatest fear. “Come with us and they will be spared.” He offered, revealing gleaming, perfect teeth, somehow worse than his brother’s disfigured mouth. “I am more— forgiving than my brother,” he purred with a tilt of his head toward Maloch.
The offer was tempting. So tempting . . .
They’d been running for so damned long that she nearly wondered what relief might taste like if she simply . . . stopped.
“Don’t listen to him,” Ven murmured from beside her, adjusting his grip on his sword, “cast him out of your mind.”
And she realized he didn’t just mean the words the white prince spoke as she shook her head, feeling a weight slither out of her thoughts as Asmodeous gave a self-satisfied chuckle.
“Very well,” the prince mused.
The demons surrounding them seemed to come back to life once more, answering to their masters’ call as the princes advanced.
“If I give myself up—you can still get the ring to Ravenstone,” Aurelia hissed to Ven, slicing through a drugar that clawed toward them as a dark blot shot across the sky.
He whipped his head toward her, eyes flashing with grim determination as ash rained down around them. “No,” he growled, “I will die before I give you up.” His words hit her with visceral force.
But it wasn’t only him fighting.
Her eyes marked Karro, Valea, Tanis . . . The Wraith who had been as much a brother to her as the one she'd lost. The Nostari princess who had helped them escape Mountveil. The human she'd freed—only to bring into this . They would die, too.
A hand gripped her arm, ripping through her thoughts. And Karro's eyes blazed fiercely as he said, “We do not fight alone.”
Valea turned at the words, surprise flashing across her expression before her focus returned to the demons surrounding them.
Aurelia looked across the expanse, to where Asmodeous and Maloch drew closer. Drawing on her magick, she tried—she fucking tried to make it surface despite the spell that bound it. But no matter how much she pulled and tugged on that thread, it would not give. They needed a miracle . . .
They needed a weapon.
“Give me the ring!” Aurelia shouted through the din.
Valea’s quicksilver hair whipped across her face, eyes flaring at the order as she seemed to battle herself over giving up her last bargaining chip.
“You can’t!” Karro bellowed, eyes wild with panic as the Captain finally dug her hand into her uniform. But Aurelia hardly heard the warning as Valea pressed the ring into her waiting palm. There was only a moment’s hesitation as the cold metal bit into her skin and she slipped it over her finger.
She pressed back against the ancient presence that coiled in her mind, a wall against the tide of something far worse than Asmodeous or Maloch. The voice remained silent, dormant though she knew he was there. And something like amused curiosity was feather-light against her thoughts as she called forth her magick, lightning crackling at her fingertips in answer as her power broke through the spell.
Asmodeous grinned.
The heavy weight of the ring pulsed against her hand, and she flooded her mind with her own thoughts, leaving no room for the presence that attempted to slither inside her.
Thunder rumbled overhead, despite the falling snow, the sky churning as her body raged with power. Heat and light and simmering energy hummed under her skin just waiting to be unleashed. The same feeling she’d had when she’d put the ring on once before—that her magick was limitless. That she was limitless.
Hands raised, lightning surged from her fingertips, burning everything standing in her path.
In the distance, a deafening cacophony washed over the forest. The screams and the screeches of the demons rising with their princes. She glanced over her shoulder, and across the expanse, she saw him—the green glow that Maloch cast throughout the pines rippling toward them as he drew closer.
Ven gripped her arm, hauling her behind him as she shook off the numbness spreading through her body and sent out another branch of lightning to blaze a path ahead of them.
“Go!” Karro shouted above the noise, breaking away from the group as Maloch closed in, eyes burning with fury. So close now that Aurelia could make out every gruesome stitch closing his mouth.
She pushed Tanis ahead of her, but Asmodeous was a blur of white as he appeared before the human.
Tanis froze at the sight of the demon prince, and he took a single, unhurried step toward her. He looked down at the woman, taking her slender neck in his hand like a lover might as his depthless eyes fell to her face. And then his mouth split into a malevolent smile.
The snap of her neck echoed through the pines.
Asmodeous held Tanis' limp body before him, his maggot white hand still clamped around her neck. Shimmering rivulets left the woman's dark skin, swirling and spinning through the air. Aurelia watched in horror as her smooth, beautiful heart-shaped face withered and blackened. As if rot and decay had etched years, decades—centuries into her. And the light from the woman's eyes finally dimmed as the glimmering ether left her body and seeped into the demon prince with a final, breathless gasp.
Asmodeous dropped Tanis to the ground, unrecognizable now as he stepped over her lifeless body.
Aurelia stumbled back, lightning flooding down her spine, blistering heat spreading through her arms as it forged itself into a sharply honed weapon at her disposal. White and gold branches split off from her fingers, ripping into Asmodeous’ chest.
He took a halting step forward, arms splayed wide as if to embrace the power that surged from her, drinking down her magick.
The heat was threatening to overtake her—and yet he didn’t flinch as he took another step, and another—into the blinding white that funneled through her and straight into him.
Too much—she was channeling too much power. It was more than she'd ever called forth, and still the demon prince drank it down, unharmed.
His smile flashed through the haze as her lightning flickered and sputtered.
Dread threatened to smother what was left of her power as she dredged the well of her magick, sending wave after wave crashing against the demon prince. But the arrogant smirk on his face never left as he remained completely unharmed, taking a final, battling step forward.
He stumbled.
And something shifted in his expression as he glanced down. Something that looked like . . . fear.
Cracks formed along his alabaster skin, and the white of his chest began to splinter. His steps faltered—shock etched into the cruel slash of his mouth as he gritted his teeth and fought to reach her. But Aurelia dug and pulled at her power, sending an unrelenting wall of magick into the demon prince's pale chest.
His white skin cracked and fissured, a black hole spidering out from the center of his chest where she concentrated the flood of blinding white. She could feel the last dregs of her power as she clawed and tore at her magick. Heat seared her neck, evaporating the sweat gathering there as everything was bleached pale gold around her.
Asmodeous fell to one knee, clutching at his chest. “Wait—” the prince shouted through the haze, desperation bleeding through his cold voice. “Don’t you wish to know what you truly are?” he rasped.
And for a moment—just a moment, her attack wavered. The charged air going stagnant as she considered his words.
To find out what she was. Who she was . . .
She looked at the scene unfolding around her.
Tanis’ body lay a dozen feet away. Valea’s arrows were spent, her clutch empty as she stabbed and kicked at the horde of demons circling where Karro fought at her back.
Aurelia spun wildly, searching for Ven.
She nearly fell to her knees when she caught the flash of his dark hair, slicked with sweat and grime as he fought Maloch. The graceful arc of his blade met the prince’s scythe with a resounding ring, the deafening blow bringing him to the ground.
She could say yes. She could end this. Here. Now.
Asmodeous’ eyes glittered with promise, his lips curving into a cold smile.
And she shoved him from her head, sending a final blast of lightning surging through her fingertips and straight into his Fateforsaken soul.
The smirk fell from his lips as his chest caved under her searing, scorching power. Her skin blistered, the ring turning white as it burned her, melting, fragmenting as Asmodeous let out a final, deafening scream.
White flame engulfed the prince, his kneeling form crumbling into black ash as the ring finally fell from her finger, nothing more than dust blowing away in the frost-coated wind. And it was as if a weight had been lifted from her mind. Like a sodden cloak lifted from her body as she looked at what remained of the demon prince.
An inhuman roar reverberated through the trees, shaking the very ground as Maloch looked at the pile of ash that had been his brother. His heavy blade came crashing down on Ven, the blows crushing with their power as Karro stepped forward, the two Wraiths battling the dark prince. With a sweeping blow, Ven was knocked a dozen feet across the ground, rolling to a stop as Maloch turned all his fury on Karro. His massive blade sliced down as the Wraith raised his arm to block the attack.
A sickening crunch ripped through the night air.
Karro’s shout was guttural as Maloch raised his blade once more—shining wetly in the moonlight with blood. And a heap of white fell to the ground between them.
Valea.
Blood seeped through her white gear, staining the snow crimson. Her bright red eyes fluttered open as Karro shielded her with his body, raising his blade to meet Maloch’s as the ragged circle of demons began to close in on them.
Aurelia reached for her magick—but it was nowhere to be found. With the ring destroyed, her power had dissolved, too.
Sulfur coated her mouth. The edge of the fray was in sight. Just a few more yards of fighting and they would have been free of it. She could nearly smell the cool, crisp winter air outside of the clearing.
They’d been so fucking close . . .
Maloch’s onyx arm rippled with muscle, his blade raised above Karro for a killing strike as the mountainside beneath them shook.
The heavy ring of metal on metal echoed through the snow-dusted pines as the demon brought his massive blade down. And a lithe, dark form stood between Karro and the prince—white teeth gritted as she shoved Maloch back.
Ink black hair whipped across Nira’s face as she turned. The sutures across Maloch’s mouth stretched vulgarly in reply as a dozen more Wraiths emerged around them, cutting through the demons that closed in. And Aurelia sent up a silent thanks to whoever watched over them—the Unnamed, or Fate, or some other god who had chosen benevolence for them this night.
Ven regained his footing, pressing an attack on Maloch once more—the prince seeming off balance now that he faced both of the Wraiths.
Nira shouted something over the din, but Aurelia was too far away to hear it.
Black flame erupted from Ven’s fingertips, a small show of his magick compared to what she’d witnessed before—but it was enough of a shock that Maloch fell back.
Aurelia grasped at the threads of her own power, willing the magick to come forward, but as the heat surfaced—it was dispelled just as quickly. She clutched blindly for her dagger, her fingers finally grasping its familiar hilt, a determined breath filling her lungs as she ran toward them.
Finding her opening, she plunged her dagger into Maloch’s back, the tip of her blade barely piercing the demon prince’s ebony skin.
He turned, his cruel face contorting from where he towered over her. And a dark blade punched through his gut. The prince looked down, irritation creasing his immortal brow as he gripped a massive hand around the sword, yanking it free.
Nira appeared before Maloch, pressing a coin to his forehead. And malice glittered in his black eyes as his skin burst into fire around the circle of iron. The prince stood frozen, bound by some magick that sent green flames licking across his shoulders, down his arms, until the unholy fire churned around his behemoth form.
You will regret this day. The words echoed around them as at last, the prince was swept away in a whirlwind of smoke and sulfur that whipped through the pines.
There was no reprieve as shadows crawled forward to fill the void in his wake. Ven wiped a bloody hand across his brow, picking up his sword from the ground and tossing Aurelia her dagger.
“Lanthius is working to unravel the spell,” Nira grunted as she sliced through another demon. That explained how Aurelia's magick had leaked through—how the Wraiths had been able to cast themselves here.
The three of them fought their way to where Karro stood, feral as he lashed out at the demons crowding around him—seeming more beast than man as he held the perimeter around Valea’s blood-soaked body.
The other Wraiths tightened around them as Nira glanced up to the pines that still lit up the forest like beacons. “We can’t stay here!”
Ven grasped Karro’s shoulder, trying to pry him from the haze of battle.
“She took a blade for me,” Karro snarled. “I will not leave her!”
“No one is asking you to, brother,” Ven replied.
The fight bled out of Karro’s eyes, sense pouring back into them as he lifted Valea into his arms. Anguish distorted his features as he tore into his wrist with his fangs, pressing his blood to her lips, murmuring something so low that the others could not hear.
Whatever Nira and the other Wraiths made of the Nostari female—they didn’t stop to question it as they fought their way toward the edge of the fray.
Aurelia lifted her blade as golden warmth spread through her, that familiar prickle at the back of her neck. Her power was returning—
A dark heap moved from the ground, crawling across their path.
Horror scraped against her senses as she recognized the face. The husk of the creature that looked at her now was only a gruesome image of the woman that had once inhabited the body.
Tanis struggled to her feet, her movements disjointed, uncanny. Her neck still at the sickening angle from when Asmodeous had broken it. And then she turned to face Aurelia, green light glowing from where hazel eyes had been as she stumbled toward them.
Ven lifted his blade, but Aurelia stilled his hand.
He gave her a small, somber nod as she stepped forward with her dagger.
She’d been the one to bring the woman with them. She’d been the one who had sealed her fate—and she would be the one who gave her a clean death.
Her blade slid through Tanis’ chest with a wet hiss as Ven's shadows slithered across the ground at his call, the cool silk of his magick wrapping around her body and casting them into darkness.