Chapter 58
Elariya
“Ashes of Deception”
Zyrra and the rebels vanished, phasing into the air as the portal swallowed me whole.
Within moments, I was dragged into the same suffocating darkness I'd experienced that night in Griffyn Forest when I’d portaled. But this time, there was no transition. I was engulfed in a fog of blackness then falling.
Wind whipped past my face as I tumbled through the void, my stomach lurching with each twist and turn.
Silent screams trapped in my throat, lost in the roar of whatever magic was carrying me away from Vyrenth Hollow. Away from safety, away from home.
I couldn't tell which way was up or down, couldn't see anything but endless pitch stretching in every direction. Then, suddenly, I slammed into solid ground, hitting the forest floor.
Pain exploded through my body as leaves and dirt went flying up around me. I lay there gasping, every breath sending sharp spikes of agony through my ribs. The taste of blood filled my mouth, and when I tried to move, the world spun violently.
Tall shadowy trees surrounded me. Dawn was just breaking through the canopy, but shadows still cloaked the forest floor.
Where was I?
And where were they?
Just as I managed to lift my head, rough laughter echoed through the trees above me.
"Well, well. Look what fell from the sky," came a rough accented voice.
Footsteps sounded, then four figures appeared before me. They were the rebels from the house. I expected Zyrra to appear next, but she was nowhere to be found.
"The little princess finally joined us," one of them sneered, his teeth filed to sharp points. "Took you long enough."
I struggled to push myself up, my hands shaking as I tried to get my bearings. I wasn’t carrying Wolfe’s dagger anymore. I must have lost it in the portal.
Every muscle in my body screamed in protest, but I had to move. I had to get away from these monsters.
The tallest one reached for me. I swatted his hands and tried to move away from them.
“Get away from me,” I cried.
"We have ourselves a feisty one, boys," he cackled, coming closer.
“I wonder if she’s a screamer,” said another. His face was a map of scars, and when he grinned, I could see that half his teeth were missing. “We’ll just have to see. See if she’ll scream for me when I’m buried deep inside her.”
Panic gave me strength, and I scrambled to my feet. Ignoring the fire shooting through my ribs, I bolted toward a gap between the two rebels in front of me.
I made it three steps before a massive hand caught me across the face. It belonged to the one with the sharp teeth. The backhand slap he gave me sent me sprawling on the ground. Stars exploded across my vision as I went down hard again, and my poor body felt like it would shatter like glass.
"Where do you think you're going, little bird?" He loomed over me, his boot pressing down on my shoulder to keep me pinned.
My cheek burned like fire, and blood dribbled from my split lip. “Let me go!”
"No, no, no. We've got plans for you before the master takes you.”
Rough hands grabbed me, hauling me upright despite my struggles. I tried to fight them off, but there were too many, and they were too strong.
They bound my hands behind my back with coarse rope that bit into my wrists, then shoved me down against the trunk of a massive oak tree.
Pure terror clawed its way through my body, panic flooding my system like poison.
They're going to hurt me. They're going to— I couldn't even finish the thought.
Horrific images flashed through my mind of what they meant to do to me, and bile rose in my throat. Wolfe would never know what happened to me.
I was completely at their mercy, and they had none.
My whole body shuddered, then an unexpected warmth pierced through my fear, comforting me. It bloomed inside my chest and tingled through the shackle around my wrist. I instantly recognized what it was.
It was Wolfe's magic. I could feel it pulsing through the shackles, then deep inside me as it reached across whatever distance separated us through the Void.
He was coming for me.
The sky above us began to tremble.
A deep rumble echoed through the forest, growing louder by the second. The rebels looked up in confusion as the very air seemed to vibrate with power.
The trees swayed and creaked, their branches whipping back and forth as if caught in a violent tempest, though there was no wind.
Then I saw him. My beautiful villain.
He’d come for me.
Wolfe descended from the dawn sky, his massive black wings spread wide as they cast shadows across the forest floor, dimming the oncoming sun. Blue flames danced along the edges of his sword, mirroring his unbridled fury.
The rebels scrambled backward, their earlier bravado evaporating in an instant.
"What the fuck—" one of them started to say.
He never finished the sentence.
Wolfe landed with earth-shaking force, his boots hitting the ground so hard that cracks spider-webbed out from where he stood.
Without hesitation, he raised his free hand and unleashed a sphere of crackling energy that slammed into the nearest rebel, sending him flying into a tree trunk with a sickening crunch.
The shockwave that followed was devastating.
It rippled outward in a perfect circle, lifting the remaining rebels off their feet and hurling them backward through the air like ragdolls.
They crashed into trees, rocks, and undergrowth with bone-jarring impact.
One of them even exploded as he smashed into a tree and his body parts shattered into the air.
In the sudden silence that followed, Wolfe looked at me and rushed to my side.
He undid the ropes with the flick of his wrist, then he crouched and cupped my face, examining my bruises.
“Who did this to you?”
I touched his face, too, so happy and relieved to see him. I just wanted him to hold me. But I would happily answer his question.
To my left, the rebel with the sharp teeth who’d hit me was struggling to pull himself upright against a fallen log.
“Him,” I whispered, pointing toward him.
Wolfe's eyes went completely black, raw fury returning to his face. He released me, and the temperature around us dropped several degrees. Shadows began to writhe around his body like dragons in the sky as he faced the rebel
"You." Wolfe’s voice cut through the forest in a gravelly rasp as he rose to his full height and moved closer to the rebel. "You made the mistake of putting your hands on her. Now you must die.”
The rebel tried to scramble backward, but there was nowhere to run. “Please, Lord Nightblade, I—”
Wolfe threw a ball of dark energy at the rebel. The instant it struck him, his skin ripped away from his body, then the rest of him splintered into a million fragments. He didn’t even bleed. Before I could even blink, what remained of him became ashes in the wind.
The other Fae rebels who weren’t dead from the attack Wolfe launched on his entry tried to get up and run away, but they were too slow.
Wolfe disintegrated them, too.
When he turned back to me, half his face had become skeletal, swarming with shadows, no different from a…wraith.
The glimpses of those powers I’d gotten over the past few weeks were enough to make my soul shiver. I’d seen more of them when he’d killed the Ruskiel, and I knew they weren’t of the Fae.
I’d always wanted to ask him about them but held back, hoping he’d tell me.
He was about to return to me when the ground began to shake violently. Trees crashed and splintered somewhere deeper in the forest, the sound growing closer by the second.
Something massive was coming.
A roar split the dawn air. Not quite animal, not quite human, but something far worse.
The beast that burst through the tree line looked like something dragged up from the deepest pits of the darkest hell, an abomination of sinew and malice.
It stood nearly twenty feet tall on four powerful legs, its hide a slick, oily black that seemed to absorb light.
Spines jutted from its shoulders and back, gleaming like polished bones, while its elongated head featured rows of razor-sharp teeth and eyes that glowed with malevolent intelligence.
Behind the creature, more portals tore open. Rebels poured through. Gods, there were dozens of them, armed and ready for battle.
"Fuck," Wolfe cursed, pulling me behind him as the beast lowered its head and charged straight for us.
“Wolfe!”
"Stay down," he commanded, throwing up his hand. A shimmering barrier erupted around me, encasing me in a protective shield that hummed with raw energy.
It was so dense I couldn’t imagine anything getting through.
The skeletal half of Wolfe’s face became more pronounced, his eye socket a pulsing void.
He moved away from me, rolling his shoulders as shadows began to pour from his skin like smoke. His wings unfurled to their full, magnificent span, gleaming with darkness.
When he raised his sword, power crackled around him in bright blue energy, bending the air as he gathered strength.
"Let’s end this!” he snarled at the advancing beast, his voice echoing with inhuman resonance.
With that, Wolfe launched himself into the air with explosive force, his massive wings carrying him forward with unmatchable speed. He collided with the beast head-on, his blade slicing into its hide as they crashed together in a symphony of roars and steel against bone.
Gods above. This was a nightmare. A living nightmare.
How in the hells did things get worse?
The clash between the Fae prince and the hell beast was deafening. Wolfe's blade carved deep gouges into the beast's hide, spraying thick blood in wide arcs as the creature shrieked in fury. The sound was so loud it made my ears ring even through the protective barrier.
More rebels poured through the portals, their battle cries echoing through the forest.