Chapter 51
Igrit my teeth, throwing my arms into a cross—one atop the other—blocking Granmanmi’s blow. I checked my shield, careful to make sure the Talons were still protected.
The Farasee Order made a big mistake when they put me in a trial against Hèlborns and Stareaters. It only proved I could hold my shields and stay alive even with the worst odds.
Satisfied the shield was secure, I danced backwards, summoned starbolts, and began blasting them at Granmanmi.
I threw ten. Four landed true. Two jutted out of one of her wings. The third was stuck out of her chest. The fourth had caught her in the thigh.
Unfazed, Granmanmi spiraled. Turned the length of her arms into whips. Then she snapped them my way.
I dodged, flipping into the air.
I flew in zig zags around the dais, avoiding getting whipped, while throwing bolt after bolt. The angels in the arena watched Granmanmi and I go at it with rapt silence. I noticed even the Talons followed our bloody flight patterns, watching to see who’d be the last one flying.
Twisting my body, I lunged at Granmanmi, launching into a forward assault. Her eyes flashed as she charged, speeding to collide with me head on. At the last moment, I jerked, twisting beneath. I grabbed on to a pair of her wings with my own, twisting us together in a whirlwind spiral.
Granmanmi shrieked as I spun us both uncontrollably. Then I wrenched her wings, yanking them from their sockets, before thrusting us both into the glass. I slapped her body into the dais with full force while bracing my fall with my wings as a cushion.
Blood trickled onto the glass. I couldn’t tell if it was hers or mine. It didn’t matter right now. I flew up from the dais. And she didn’t. I floated back to the Talons, pouring more starfire into their shield while waiting for Granmanmi to counter.
While I kept my eyes on her, I didn’t see her inching her ethèr—starlit cords lined with galactic fire—beneath me.
“Safah, look out!” Ivyana screamed.
I looked down.
It was too late.
Granmanmi’s cords snagged around my ankles and yanked. Before I could fight back, I was jerked across the dais like a sack of bones, as she slammed me into the glass, face first. Then she slammed me again. And again.
The sharp pain in my nose, my shoulder, and rib cage told me exactly what she’d broken. Blood gushed out. I had no time to think about it. Granmanmi yanked me into the air and slapped me down. Hard.
The splintered glass shattered.
Shards exploded into my face, cutting across my skin.
“STARLING!” Quazar screamed out loud.
Golden blood trickled into my eyes. Down my lips. My head throbbed with a pulsing ache. In the haze, I turned to look out at the crowd. Many of the angels had flown to their feet, watching on, horrified. They assumed this would come to an end. They were naive and sorely mistaken.
Pain searing through my body, I shot to my feet, flying like a rod into the air. I spiraled, grabbing hold of Granmanmi’s whip mid-spin, and yanked on it with all my might.
Granmanmi jerked, her bleeding wing leaking a trail of blood behind her. As she raised her hand for another strike, I swiped my wings ramming them into her chest.
I thought of the many times Manmi dragged me into our training chamber and attacked me from all directions, relentlessly, forcing me to defend myself against a barrage. I channeled that training now.
Granmanmi was several millennia old, but she still fought as if she hadn’t seen her first five hundred cycles. I whipped out my wings again. Granmanmi dodged, kicking out. Her foot caught the back of my knee, popping the joint.
“You will obey the Order,” she seethed. “Safah Eloise, you will stop this now. You’re my Granfifi. I will not continue this with you.”
“No,” I snarled, rushing her, head first.
I threw all the strength I could into the collision, pushing her body back with my head, throwing her across the long dais. Before Granmanmi regained her footing, I jerked, shoving a wing talon straight into her ribs, cutting her clean open.
Granmanmi screamed.
I wasn’t done.
I whipped around, shot into the air, then jerked down, my foot colliding into her sternum, cracking it. Blood poured out. I wanted to care. I couldn’t. She’d shed enough innocent blood for my tastes. It was her turn to bleed in the name of Temple Efysis.
I whipped my arms around myself, swung my legs, and spun, a lyrical move that placed me in a position to completely blast my Granmanmi with a barrage of starfire.
“Enough.”
The hardened voice did nothing to make me relent. I wouldn’t stop until they did. I pulled on the now thrashing pool of starfire bubbling up inside of me, demanding I erupt with the power. With vengeance.
“I said, enough.”
Granmanmi didn’t fyuse back.
Neither did I.
She rolled to her feet, glaring at me. Shock and anger colored her mauve eyes as she made a silent vow to repay me for this dawn. We were two starry elementals ready to set this entire colosseum on fire with our wrath.
“As your Empràr, I said enough. You will stop this. Now.”
I didn’t bother turning to Empràr Zadkias. He was a pompous, babbling idiot who took all his orders from the Farasee Order.
I wasn’t backing down until every Talon was removed from their shackles and set free, cleared of these bogus accusations being used to end their lives. The Empràr could do nothing of consequence to me. Not an Anathelle.
But the Farasee Order? They could ruin me. I would stand my ground to the very end.
“Your rebellion is so rotting sexy,” Quazar purred.
I blinked, unable to hide the flush coloring my cheeks.
Granmanmi caught the change. Her eyes narrowed at me before they slid to Quazar, then slid back to me.
“Disgusting,” she whispered.
“What?” I whispered back. “Trust? Friendship? Love? You tell me which of these unsettles you so much Granmanmi, since I can’t tell.”
“Mark my words, Granfifi”—her eyes blazed—“I will undo the damage Cassandrel did to your mind.”
“Papi taught me to be an angel who loved the Infinite. Who loved truth. And who would sacrifice herself for it. I’d say he did a rotting good job, with Manmi, raising me.”
“You sound pathetic.”
“You sound defeated,” I shot back. “Call off the Scourgers.”
Granmanmi smiled at me.
“No.”
Then I found myself surrounded by the Scourgers.
Rot.
She’d distracted me while the Scourgers drew near without me noticing. Before I could react, the Scourgers body-slammed me with a dark power that sent me sprawling across the dais, leaving me breathless. My ears rang like bells. I blinked back stars, instantly dumbstruck.
Catching me off guard, my shield around the Talons wavered. As a reflex, I pulled on my starfire, reassuring their shield again. The Scourgers may be able to get to me, but I would enter the Ellelights before they touched the Talons.
I screamed as Scourger Lilithine and two others launched their Dragontails at my body. I’d never been beaten like this while fyused. The sensation was infinitely worse.
“SAFAH!” Quazar screamed.
His voice was a broken, feral thing.
I could see confusion coloring the faces of many angels as they watched the Fallen Prince thrashing in his chains, trying to break free so he could get to me.
I tried drawing a shield around myself.
I failed.
“Drop the shield around the Fallen, Granfifi, and the Scourgers will yield.”
“No. Remember Granmanmi, you taught us to be holy, to whatever end.”
I whimpered. Blood spewed out of my mouth as the Scourgers tore into my body violently. Tears trickled from my eyes, but when I looked at the stone platform, the Talons were still shielded. They wouldn’t be touched. That was assurance enough. That’s all that mattered to me.
My wounds grew as my body looked like a gushing river of golden stars. Only the river was my blood and the stars were my fading spirit. Screams of rage broke out over the angels.
“Stop this!”
“She is the Anathelle fifi.”
“This is sacrilege!”
“Make them stop! She’s dying!”
A cacophony of wrath exploded. Then there were roars.
They sounded like dragons.
Very angry dragons.
My vision faded as the Scourgers mercilessly beat me, refusing to stop until commanded by Granmanmi to do so. She hovered over me, open wounds making her golden blood stain her ivory robes. Even with her bruises she looked regal. Undefeated. Triumphant.
“Do not yield, Starling. Not even in the darkness. Not even when the Ellelights tempt you to come home.”
“I love you, Princeling. Even if it was only for a few twinights, it was enough,” I whispered to Quazar as I faded out of consciousness and entered a bottomless dark.