Chapter 5 #2
I almost smirked. If only she knew just how old I was or how many dangerous scenarios I’d been in. But this girl was as smart as she was devious, and I was not dumb enough to think myself wiser than her, so I nodded my head.
Tennessee stopped in front of us, his face grim.
“I know the rule has been no new tricks with the Unseelie . . . but if they come at you before you get to Issale, I want you to unleash holy hell on them, okay? Whatever you’ve got, give it to ‘em. Just get your soulmate and those dragons to Issale. Okay?”
I smiled. He was so much like Edward, but he was even more like Michael and it continued to blow my mind. “I’ll make sure Savannah arrives with them.”
They both nodded, their expressions solemn and worried.
“Can you tell . . . Everest where we went?”
Tenn frowned. “Where’d he go anyway?”
A sparkle lit up Tegan’s pale-green eyes and I wondered if she’d put the pieces together yet. “He went to help Frankie, didn’t he?”
When Tenn’s eyes bugged out of his head, I smiled. “He merely stepped into the Seelie tunnel and helped her get to the appropriate year she was meant to find.”
Tenn groaned. “I feel the need to vomit. Please get the hell out of here so I know you’re all safe.” With that, he stormed back into the house.
“Auryn?”
I gasped and my whole body tightened into knots. I looked to Tegan with wide eyes, unsure of what to say because I wasn’t sure how much she knew. But she just grinned. It had been a test, and I’d given her the answer.
She lifted the Book of Shadows up to show me. “Your name is in here many times, just took me a minute to put the pieces together.”
“Tegan, look—”
“Don’t worry. I’m damn good at secrets and even better at lying.” Her grin was almost unnerving. “I’ll let him know as soon as he returns. Just focus on getting them home.”
Tegan knew. Somehow that gave me comfort.
I nodded with a smile, then turned and raced over to where my soulmate was perched on Koth’s back.
A gust of wind hit my back, lifting me off my feet and gently setting me between the spikes in front of my soulmate.
I glanced over to thank her but she’d gone back inside already.
I had a really, really bad feeling about this, but I wasn’t in a position to question those who made this call.
I swung my leg over the spike and readjusted until I was sitting facing backwards, with Akecheta directly in front of me and Savannah behind him. I patted Koth’s black scales. “Fly as fast as you can, my lord.”
We shot straight into the sky without warning, the cold spring air rushing through my hair as we raced toward the moon.
Tegan’s thick cloud gave me the slightest tickle of nerves because even I couldn’t see through it.
Two seconds later, Koth sliced through the cloud and into the crisp, clear night sky.
From above, with the moonlight shining down, Tegan’s clouds almost looked like snow.
Finally, Koth leveled out so we weren’t climbing the sky anymore. Silas, Yaluk, Tyce, and Dace flew around us. Their presence made me feel both better and terrified. Better for the protection. Terrified for the reason they thought we’d need it.
Savannah cursed.
I looked over and almost smiled at the sight of her clutching my soulmate’s shoulders from behind him. “You okay, Savannah?”
“She’s alive but she ain’t thrivin’ out here!” she shouted back over the rush of the wind in our ears.
That did it. I cackled. But when Akecheta chuckled and then winced, I leaned forward and pressed my hands to his, which were covering his wound.
Sharp, hot electricity shot straight between my shoulder blades. I gasped and sat up straight. Akecheta’s black eyes widened and then flashed through about ten different colors while those black lines spread across his face. Savannah still clung to his back, muttering about how fast Koth flew.
I glanced over my shoulder and just barely made out the shape of them in the distance. “Unseelies on our six! Coming in fast!” I shouted in shifter language.
Savannah choked on a gasp, peeking her head above my soulmate's shoulder. “Unseelie!?”
My eyebrows rose. “You speak shifter?”
“Right, that’s the most important news here!” she whisper-hissed. “What’s the plan?”
“You just hang on to him, got it?” When she nodded, I looked to my soulmate. “You have to get to Issale.”
He cringed but nodded.
“SILAS! brEACH!” I dove off Koth’s back . . . and landed on Silas’s spine. I gripped the pale spike to steady myself. With a grin, I shouted down to him in shifter language, “Remember me now?”
He grumbled beneath my feet. Those last few years before I became Saber, I’d disguised myself as an arcana civilian taking refuge with Elan and the dragons and offering magical assistance in exchange.
We’d fought many, many a shifter hunter in those years.
Silas and I had made one hell of a team.
I crouched down and pressed my hands to his scales the way I used to when we fought together.
“Koth, leave us!” I shouted in the shifter language.
Without losing speed, his big black head snapped in my direction, his purple eyes wide with fear. He shook his head.
“You three are more important than me! Get to Issale! NOW!” I yelled back.
Silas snorted a ball of fire. The dragons were talking. I knew them well enough to recognize it by now. They were most likely arguing, and we didn’t have time for that. The Unseelie were gaining speed and fast. I didn’t have to strain to see them now.
“KOTH!” I turned my gaze to my soulmate. “Tell him, please.”
Akecheta cringed and squeezed his eyes shut, then nodded. “My lord, please go,” he whispered.
Savannah’s eyes were wider than I’d ever seen them, but she had her wand between her teeth. She was terrified, but she was ready for battle. That’s my girl.
Koth shook his head rapidly.
“He does not understand,” my soulmate whispered.
The tingling on my spine was a full-on burning itch now.
It felt like fire ants biting me one after another.
I looked behind us to where three dozen Unseelie knights were closing in.
They were close enough now to hear their maniacal laughter and see their razor-sharp teeth.
My stomach tightened into knots. Koth was the dragons’ best fighter and their best chance against the Unseelie, but he held Akecheta and Savannah, so he’d be of no use.
Plus, he was the best Shifter King in eight centuries—his survival was crucial in this war.
Four dragons and me in my Saber form were nothing against three Unseelie.
But Auryn . . . Auryn could take them on her own.
I met my soulmate’s eyes again with the question I knew he’d hear.
Those black lines spread across his face. He nodded and then whispered, “I love you.”
“I love you too.”
He took a deep breath, then yelled, “KOTH, NOW!” He sagged against Savannah, who immediately wrapped her arms around him.
Light flashed in my peripheral vision. When I looked, I found the Unseelie knights had unsheathed their swords.
Here goes nothing. I took a deep breath, then lunged straight into the air, pushing my magic out of me at the same time.
I felt my glamour slide off of me a split second before my long strawberry blonde hair flew around me.
“SABER!” Savannah screamed. “CATCH HER!”
“GO!” I screamed as my wings flapped behind me, catching me mid-air.
Savannah choked on a gasp.
Akecheta smiled.
Koth did a double-take. I knew what he was seeing was a shock. A vampire sprouting angel wings was surprising. But he must’ve gotten his answer because he flapped his wings once and took off with Tyce, Dace, and Yaluk flanking him.
I turned my attention back to the Unseelies and summoned my magic to my palms. Glowing, golden light radiated from me like two small full moons. “Silas, on my three.”
He snorted and spun around to face me, his wings flapping to keep him in place.
“One . . .”
The knights were close enough to see our reflection in the silver of their armor.
“Two . . .”
I glanced behind me to see Koth moving farther away . . . but not fast enough.
“Three!”
At the same exact time, Silas and I unleashed holy hell upon our enemies—just as Tenn had said to do.
Silas’s fire burned so hot it was nearly white in color.
My muscles and blood sang with relief and joy to finally be wielding Heavenly magic again.
The second my golden Heavenly magic hit them, they burst into dust. Silas’s fire took a few seconds longer to turn them to ash.
We charged head-on for them without hesitation or mercy.
There wasn’t time for a battle of strength; these were kill shots.
My magic left my palms like a wave that made me think of my mother.
She’d taught me how to fight like this. Everything my golden wave touched crumbled.
A handful of Unseelies dropped down to try and sneak up beneath my wave, but Silas had been ready for it.
His fire shot up around me, so I tucked my wings in.
A sharp, shrill shriek ripped through the night sky. SONEILLON! I’d know her shriek anywhere.
Silas roared in pain beneath me.
I gasped and pushed my wings back out and dove down for him, but I wasn’t fast enough.
Red blood splashed onto my face and my white wings.
Soneillon and Silas were tangled up in arms and wings and were plummeting toward the ground.
Silas tried to flap his wings but one of them had a gouge the size of my body sliced into it, so instead of raising, he tilted to the side and rolled.
Soneillon’s black runes weren’t glowing red, which was a surprise until she looked up at me and I saw the gory gash across her face.
I grinned. “Aw, what’s wrong? Mother got your tricks?” I screamed and blasted her in the face with Heavenly magic.
She flew off like a bullet ricocheting against metal.
“SILAS!” I screamed.
He flapped his wings but he was sinking even faster now.
I tucked my wings in and pushed as hard as I could with my arms outstretched.
When my fingers grazed his scales, I let out a roar and grabbed hold of his spikes to stop his freefall.
Then I saw it. His entire snout had some kind of black tar on it, sealing his mouth and nose shut.
He was suffocating.
“SILAS!”
I dove for his face, taking his massive dragon snout in my hands and then pushing Heavenly magic into it. His yellow eyes went wild. My fire was burning him, I knew that much, but we had no choice. The tar was Unseelie magic and only that of Heaven would remove it before he suffocated to death.
“I’m sorry! I'm sorry!” I shouted and flicked my head left and right to get my hair out of my face. My heart was pounding through my veins. “Five more seconds!”
Five.
Four.
Three.
Two.
One—He inhaled so hard through his nostrils that my palms slammed into his snout like he was trying to suck them in too.
I dropped my hands and flapped my wings to lift us back higher in the sky.
The Unseelies were gone. I’d killed the last of them before Soneillon attacked, but I’d need air space to ease a one-winged dragon to the ground.
We lifted a few feet in the air, but I could still make out the city streets below, so we were entirely too damn close.
His injured wing buckled, causing us to flip several times in the air.
I wrapped my legs around his body and squeezed as hard as I could.
I wasn’t even remotely human. I was strong enough to keep us both afloat.
He clawed at his mouth with his hands, but the tar wasn’t coming off.
“I have to do it—” Something cold and slimy wrapped around my throat and yanked me backwards.
Silas’s yellow eyes widened as my body was pulled off of him and gravity took control of his fall.
I gripped whatever had caught me only to feel smooth scales beneath my fingertips.
NO. But I didn’t have time to scream or react before Astaroth’s snake tightened around my throat, cutting off my breath.
Two large feet slammed into my spine right between my wings and the snake on my throat pulled higher. “My, my, the angel of night has finally returned.”
I threw my hands up to swing at him, but snakes shot out of his clothes and wrapped around my body. I blasted them with my magic, but like the head of a hydra, every time I killed one, another appeared.
“I wonder how many he’ll kill simply by landing on them?” Astaroth purred in my ear.
NO, SILAS! I looked down and the last of the breath I’d been holding left me in a rush. Silas was trying to fly but the one wing had gone entirely limp, so he was just rolling like a tumbleweed across the sky and sinking faster and faster.
“Oh pity. He’s a fighter.” Astaroth chuckled. “Let’s see if he can handle more.”
Three dozen snakes dropped from above me.
My chest was burning. My muscles were locking up.
I was almost out of air, but I had to save him.
I threw my magic out like lasers, bursting snakes like confetti.
Darkness crept into my vision, tunneling from the sides.
I wasn’t going to last. Silas’s best weapon was his fire, but his mouth was still sealed shut.
Tears filled my eyes. I pressed my palms to the snakes around my throat and blasted my magic into them, but I was too weak. They didn’t die, they just loosened their grip. I sucked in a half-breath, but it wasn’t enough to chase away the tunnel vision.
Bright, neon-blue flight flashed beneath me.
I looked down and cried out. A dozen dragon souls swooped in and caught Silas from his free fall.
Savannah. I couldn’t see her anywhere, but there was no one else who could’ve summoned a horde of dragons from the dead to rescue us.
Tears blurred what was left of my vision.
That’s my girl.
And then darkness claimed me.