Chapter Twenty-Three
CHARLIE
Blood from monsters that I’d torn apart dripped down my wyvern jowls, and bones crunched between my razor-sharp teeth.
As the town below crumbled to pieces, I sank my sharp claws into the neck of a flying serpent, then twisted to snap its vertebrae.
The creature went limp, and I tossed its body aside as I surged forward to deliver a killing blow to an incoming manticore.
At one time, I might’ve delighted in the bloodshed, but now I just wanted it over with so we could save as many people as possible. The dying screams of soldiers echoed through the battlefield below. We had to get the rest of our people to the lake and be done with it.
Ava’s voice captured my attention as Oberi dove downward. Air swirled around the battlefield, allowing me to track the chaos that had been unleashed below us. Ava’s arrow sliced through the air, moving so quickly that it crossed twenty yards in a split-second.
I sensed exactly who was down there by the strength of her magic.
Naya. She flapped her leathery wings and jumped out of the way, while Ava’s arrow sank into the dirt and missed its target entirely.
By the time I realized Naya was lunging toward Ava, my wife had already nocked another arrow and took aim, but Naya spun to the side to dodge a second attack.
Ava moved quickly, yet Naya was a moving target— and a vengeful one at that.
I tucked my wings in close to my body and spiraled downward, aiming my power at the antidemigod.
Hot, acidic venom shot out of my reptilian mouth, but Naya noticed me coming and moved aside.
The venom landed with a splat in the dirt, burning away at underbrush, but failing to do any damage to the enemy demigod.
Oberi attacked from the other side, spitting his own venom while Ava unleashed another arrow.
Naya circled above the trees, letting out an evil cackle. “Three on one, and you still can’t hit me. Some demigods you are.”
“And yet you still haven’t managed to kill us!” Ava cried. “Come get me, you vile bitch!”
Hell, no. I wouldn’t give Naya the chance.
I slammed into Naya, and my claws dug into the skin on her shoulders as I rammed through the treetops.
I drove her so far into the dirt that the ground shook.
The blow would’ve killed any mortal, but Naya was among a class of strong vampires and a demigod, and even a strike this hard wasn’t enough to kill her.
But my wyvern venom was certainly deadly enough to do the job.
Naya struggled against me as I pinned her to the ground, my teeth bared. She was powerful enough that when she pressed her wings against the forest floor, she managed to push me back a few inches. I could feel with my Earth power the long spikes at the top of her wings digging into the dirt.
I had to end her. Now.
A searing heat rose in my throat. I went to spit the venom in her face, but the venom turned back on me as she used her demigod magic on me.
The acid shot down my throat, burning away at my esophagus while I gasped for air.
I reared back on instinct, desperate to cry out in pain but unable to make a sound.
“Charlie!” Ava cried.
Fucking Naya. I was choking on my own venom.
Shift, Charlie, before she suffocates you! Oberi ordered.
I didn’t have the time to second guess it, so I did as I was told.
My wyvern scales morphed into skin, and my wings disappeared as I shrank to my normal size.
As I shifted, the magic sustaining my spell caused the venom to morph with my body, and it disappeared with the rest of my wyvern power.
I gasped a greedy breath as air returned to my lungs, though my throat burned from the aftereffects.
Naya leapt to her feet, completely unbothered by any injuries I’d managed to deliver. If my claws weren’t enough to immobilize her, I was going to have to do something else to catch her off guard.
Naya took off running, but I reacted before she could get far.
I called upon my Earth power and commanded the roots to rise upward.
The roots curled around her feet to trap her, but a moment later, the spell slipped from my grasp.
Instead, the roots turned on me, curling up my body and attempting to strangle the life from me.
My arms pinned to my sides, and try as I might, I couldn’t regain control.
I changed tactics and whipped up a powerful windstorm to knock Naya on her ass.
Intense winds swirled around her, but she blasted my spell back.
The powerful winds I’d conjured hit me with enough force that the roots holding me snapped.
I went flying backward and landed hard against the forest floor.
The air was knocked out of my lungs, while the sounds of battle continued on around me.
Mere seconds had passed, and Oberi and Ava were still in pursuit of the succubus.
While I was left momentarily dazed, Oberi surged forward.
Ava shot another arrow. Though Naya tried to jump out of the way, Ava hit her target.
The arrow sliced through Naya’s wing, causing her flight to falter.
She let out a pained scream that echoed off the battlefield.
“I’ve had enough!” Naya sneered. “I’ve had my fun with you. It’s time you fucking die!”
Not today, Oberi said as he kicked off the ground, rising to the skies and taking Ava with him.
“Is that so?” Ava shot back. “You’re going to have to catch me first!”
Naya flapped her wings, but her injury impeded her flight, and she couldn’t get past the top of the treetops with a hole in her wing. Branches broke as she tumbled back to the ground.
In the second that followed, I realized what we had to do.
I’d been trying to beat Naya with the strength it took to defeat all our other enemies, but Naya was no ordinary foe.
She could turn every spell I threw at her back on me.
To defeat her, I had to follow Ava’s lead and forego magic all together.
Succubi could only be killed by a stake through the heart, or by being burned alive. If we were going to defeat Naya for good, we had to resort to brute force.
Naya’s sneers turned to rageful screams. “You might’ve fucked up my wing, but I can still use magic, unlike you!”
The sound of Oberi’s flapping wings halted, and I realized what Naya was doing. She was turning Oberi’s flight magic against him— the power that helped keep a massive beast like him in the skies.
Oberi panicked, letting out a roar as he went tumbling downward into the forest. I’d barely found my bearings when I heard the sound of trees snapping.
The entire Earth rumbled as Oberi crash-landed not far from here, causing a mini-earthquake.
Ava and Oberi had fallen into the woods, and who knew if they’d survived the collision into the ground?
Oberi! I cried, but my Familiar failed to respond.
Unadulterated rage consumed me, causing me to unintentionally siphon power from all those around me, including Naya. Her succubus superspeed and strength flooded into me, and I didn’t waste a second. If Naya was going to turn our powers around on us, then I was going to turn hers against her.
Naya had her back to me as she watched Oberi smash into the trees from afar. The stupid bitch left me an opening, one she wouldn’t live long enough to regret.
I raced forward so fast I couldn’t keep track of the battle around me.
I reached her in a split-second and jumped her from behind before she could react.
My hands clamped around her wings, and in one swift motion, I tore them from her back.
Satisfaction filled me as sinew ripped apart and bones snapped. Naya let out a blood-curdling cry.
Naya whirled to face me, but it was already too late. My hands curled around the base of the long spike at the top of her dismembered wing, and I thrust it forward— straight into her heart.
“I told you once before if you tried to hurt Ava, I’d kill you,” I snarled. “You should’ve heeded my warning.”
A squelching sound filled the forest at the same moment Naya’s screams died in her throat. She gave a gurgle, then a cough that sprayed blood all over my face.
“You’ll… never… win,” she rasped, tone vengeful as she rasped a dying cry. “The Warden… will come… for you.”
Then she fell into a heap at my feet.
I expected to ride a great high of victory when Naya died, but all I felt was relief.
She’d been a thorn in our sides since the day we’d arrived at the Institute, and she’d fucked with us far too many times.
I should’ve been overjoyed to take her life, but I was merely pleased there was one less person in the world who wanted Ava dead.
Now I had to go deal with the rest of these fuckers.
Naya was nothing to me now that she was gone, so I didn’t bother sticking around. I tossed her wings aside and took off through the forest, dodging rogue spells and falling trees to get to the crash site. I still hadn’t heard anything from Oberi, which couldn’t be a good sign.
As I came upon the crash site, my heart leapt to my throat. I skidded to a stop. A familiar voice filled a clearing, and all the relief I’d felt moments ago morphed into dread.
“Look who I’ve found. A pretty princess to be my plaything.”
Deuce.
We’d defeated the vampire’s team in the Darke Games, but I hadn’t managed to beat him since.
At the Institute, Deuce had been even more of a nuisance than Naya.
Naya had tried to poison Ava’s drink from Commissary to mess with her meds, but Deuce had straight-up assaulted Ava by yanking her out of her chair and throwing her to the ground.
I thought I’d gotten rid of him by getting him sentenced to Cellblock 9, until he’d sicced his gang on us and come back even stronger.
He’d won every time I faced him in the ring, and had kicked our asses whenever we’d faced the antidemigods since busting out of the Institute.