Chapter 10
CHAPTER TEN
SAVANNAH
It felt like an hour since Everest vanished into that orb in the middle of the archway.
None of us had moved even an inch. We all just stared at it.
I was trying not to think about all that weird eye contact Frost Mountain Man had been giving me, or the strange expressions, or his knowledge of my father and entire bloodline.
It didn’t bode well. But that was a problem for future-me.
Present-me needed to be ready to grab Saber—Auryn—the moment she came through.
She’d sacrificed herself for me and the others.
I owed her everything.
Black shadowy smoke billowed out of the ground in the middle of the archway.
I held my breath and rolled to the balls of my feet, ready for anything.
The woman who emerged from the darkness looked nothing like Saber but like the angel Saber had turned herself into.
Auryn. Everest’s daughter in her truest form.
I didn’t understand how the son of Lilith and a Seelie King had an angel for a daughter.
For now I was happy to assume that was above my paygrade.
Auryn landed on all fours in the dirt and leaves beneath the arch.
Time slowed around us. Her long strawberry-blonde hair was caked in what had to be black demon blood.
She wore some fancy black suede-looking cloak with a hood, where the sleeves had to be six inches too long for her.
She was panting hard, like breathing was a struggle.
Those angel wings of hers were starting to turn gray, or maybe they were covered in ash.
My heartbeat quickened. All of this I noticed in the blink of an eye.
In perfect unison, everyone dove for her.
“NO! Stay outta my circle!” I screamed and shoved Lennox and Warner aside to get to the circle first. I had to give them credit.
They stopped immediately. I’d put one hell of a spell on this circle back in the day, one I never intended to remove.
My pulse thundered in my ears. I raised my hands to remove it when I spotted my mangled hands and my heart sank. “Tegan—”
“On it.” Rainbow magic slammed into the circle like a wave on the beach. When it hit my spell, it went full Fourth of July fireworks show on us. “Savannah, go—”
“AURYN!” I dove without hesitation. My knees slammed into the cold, hard ground in front of her, but I paid that no attention and just pulled her into my arms. “I’ve got you. I’ve got you. You’re okay.”
She let out a broken sob, her whole body trembling. The rest of my Coven rushed to us, huddling around to check on her.
“Let’s go, folks.” Tegan started to open a portal, then gasped. “He’s out! He’s in Avolire—”
“Demons!” Tenn shouted. He tapped on the golden bands on his arm and Michael’s sword appeared before him. He was back in his Haven uniform just as a wall of demons descended upon us. “NOW!”
It was a sea of black, a rushing tide slicing between trees and through rays of dawn.
It was an ambush straight from a nightmare designed to kill and kill only.
There were so many of them coming it was difficult to tell them apart from one another.
This Coven jumped right into action, though, which I loved about them.
I loved the wall of snarling Devons even more.
It was nearly impossible to tell which one was the real Devon. It was one hell of a skill.
Bentley raced over to grab Tegan and Tenn by the elbows and then dragged them over to stand behind Cooper and Hunter. Surprisingly, they let him move them without any fight—then again, they were both firing magic over Bentley’s shoulders.
“Get the hell out of here if you see a chance. Until then, fight from here,” Bentley shouted, then spun and lunged into the sea of demons.
Timothy did a double-take over his shoulder, then cursed and sprinted over to stand on the other side of his nephew, the three men making a wall of their own against our top two priorities.
Royce threw up vines like a net between the trees to catch the demons, but it just kept getting ripped down by the onslaught of our enemy.
Jackson, Mei-Ling, and Tai raced to the front line with Devon’s projections and swords drawn.
Jackson we knew was a menace on the battlefield, but Frankie’s extended family were hella impressive for humans.
Willow’s blue magic flashed left and right.
Thiago was trying to pull shadows off the oncoming threat so we could see them easier, and so could the sun.
Kenneth and Warner zipped left and right with weapons while Lennox and Mona threw magic from their palms.
Auryn still trembled where she sat crouched on the ground at the base of a tree.
I threw my hands up and pushed my magic out, but it just sparkled and popped.
My mangled hands from the Unseelie’s magic refused to let me wield magic the way a Coven member should.
With a curse, I pulled out the dagger Cooper had given me and raised it up to the sky just as a spider-demon dropped from the trees.
Its body impaled itself on my blade, but when the demon crashed to the ground, it took my dagger with it.
I cursed and yanked it free only to drop it immediately.
Every time I gripped the hilt, it slipped from my fingers.
My skin was too scarred, my fingers broken and wonky—I just couldn’t hold on to it.
My heart sank. I glanced around at the fight happening and wanted to cry, scream, and throw up all at the same time.
The Coven was missing some key players with big crowd control magic.
Emersyn’s fire, Bettina’s ice, and Deacon’s persuasion would’ve been dominating this ambush.
Or even Easton’s body armor or Lily’s sunlight.
I picked up a stick as thick as my arm and held it like a baseball bat.
Miss Frankie wasn’t the only one who’d played ball in her past. Yet when I swung my stick-bat into the nearest demon, it felt like hitting cement, my bones rattled and buzzed in my body while the demon only wobbled a little.
“SHIT!” I screamed.
“Savannah!” Lennox sprinted toward me with her dagger in her right hand and a wand in her left. She thrust her left arm out and stretched to close the distance between us faster. “Take my wand!”
Just as my fingertips grazed her wand, bright flames the same color as her yellow-green eyes wrapped around her left forearm, burning what was left of the sleeve of her black long-sleeved shirt.
She screamed out and dropped to her knees, clutching her arm.
Everyone was shouting for her, but I was closest so I slid over and grabbed her wrist to pull her arm out enough for me to see—I gasped.
Right there, in bold black Roman numerals was the Mark of The Tower.
A strangled scream left my lips. “NO!”
“What’s wrong?” Tegan shouted without missing a beat in fighting.
My mouth warmed and watered like I was going to be sick. “We lost Frankie,” I heard myself say softly.
“WHAT?” the others shouted and spun to face me.
I pointed to the Mark on Lennox’s arm. “Lennox just got Marked Tower!”
“What does that mean?” Mei-Ling looked around the group in a panic. “What does that mean?”
Tenn’s eyes were glassy and his cheeks flushed. He stared at the new Mark on Lennox’s arm like it was a demon itself. “It means . . . it means . . . she . . . she . . .” He swallowed roughly.
“It means Frankie has died,” Auryn spoke softly with a raw-sounding voice. Her eyes that were identical to her father’s were full of unshed tears and her bottom lip trembled.
Oh no.
EVEREST.
Oh Goddess. NO. My chest tightened like someone was sitting on me. Frankie died. Everest’s soulmate died. We all just stopped and stared in horror at Lennox’s Mark, including Lennox.
A massive demon tackled Tenn and Tegan to the ground at the same time.
Three more dove on top of the pile. The rest of us screamed and dove for them but that momentary pause had cost us too much.
We’d all forgotten where we were and what we were doing.
Devon’s projections vanished. The ambush turned into a horror film.
Every time I blinked someone else was tackled to the ground.
All it took was one moment of heartbroken devastation and the tide had turned on us.
Soneillon stepped out from behind a tree to my right. My breath caught. I glanced away to not be manipulated by her but the idea of taking my eyes off her made me sick. I peeked up with my peripheral vision and saw the runes on her skin glowing red. She let out a little cackle and swung her arm.
“SAVANNAH!” Auryn shrieked. “DOWN!”
I turned toward Soneillon in time to see sharply pointed shards of demon-glass headed right for me.
Nadia flashed through my mind for a split second.
My body was locked in place. I had no idea what was wrong with me, I didn’t freeze up like this.
That demon-glass was going to kill me like it had Nadia.
At the last second, Auryn pushed off the ground in front of me and thrust her arm forward so the long sleeve of her cloak took the hit of the glass.
I stumbled back and gagged only to crash into something warm—and then two hands gripped my arms. I gagged again.
A deep male chuckle rumbled through my back. Then I felt his breath against my ear. “I’ve heard that before,” he whispered.
My pulse quickened. I knew I needed to help my Coven-mates with the demons but the male behind me could not be ignored. “Azazel,” I whispered.
“Good girl,” he whispered back as he ran his fingers through my hair, causing a cold chill to slide down my spine. “This doesn’t have to hurt, Darkling.”