Chapter Fifty-Eight
CHAPTER
FIFTY-EIGHT
Severin couldn’t breathe.
The angel army hovered before him, wings fanned out in a silent decree of dominance.
Wrath burned through him until his blood was molten, every nerve aching to reach for them.
To tear those pretty white wings from their backs and see how Divine they were then.
Miasma bled from his skin like a beast tearing free, eager for the hunt.
The Soldiers regarded him with the lazy contempt of predators who had never tasted defeat, certain their victory would be quick and forgettable.
Severin knew the feeling well. He’d worn that expression himself, time and time again.
Whatever message Yuri had sent to the angels, it’d worked. More than a dozen had arrived, filling the room with such an intense light that Severin had to squint to see anything.
Even if they believed the fight would be easy, they were taking no chances.
A dark pleasure curled through him, turning his smile slick.
At last, the bastards had stepped out of hiding.
Several townsfolk had fainted at the angels’ arrival. Those still conscious stumbled back, ducking under tables or trembling as they huddled into corners.
The king hadn’t been the only one to drink. All along the room, mortals collapsed, choking on half-formed cries as their bodies began to writhe. Their ragged breaths and desperate panting rose together in a discordant chorus Severin let swell in his chest.
A young noblewoman screamed as black-veined wings tore through her shoulders. Farther down, a servant’s jaw cracked and lengthened while the woman beside him gripped the table’s edge, pupils blown wide, sweat beading on her brow as claws split her nail beds.
One of the younger angels, his hair only just beginning to silver, noticed them. His gaze sharpened as he reached for the quiver on his back. A shimmering bow formed in his grip, and he nocked the arrow and leveled it at the woman.
Severin’s heart raced faster. He stood frozen, making no move to stop the kill.
But Aurelie did.
She was in motion before the bowstring loosed, vaulting forward with a burst of speed Severin hadn’t realized she was capable of. She threw herself between the angel and his target, and the arrow struck deep into her shoulder. Aurelie staggered back with a cry, knees buckling.
Severin, too, hissed through the pain. His fingers clamped over his shoulder, teeth gritted against the burn.
He hadn’t even noticed the vesper perched on Yuri’s shoulder until Vex shot forward, her glow stuttering. Aurelie ripped the arrow free, and Vex pressed her tiny hands against her to try to stanch the bleeding.
Meanwhile, the young angel never lowered his bow. He had another arrow nocked, a deep line carved between his brows as he stared regretfully at Aurelie.
“Stop!” Yuri cried out. “Lower your weapon, Lori!”
Another angel’s gaze swept across Severin, pausing on the arm he clutched tight. Recognition lit her eyes, and the demon swallowed his curse.
“Aim for the girl, Lori,” that angel cried out. “They’re bonded!”
Lori’s eyes went wide. “I’m sorry,” he told Yuri, the bow quivering in his grasp. “I didn’t realize—”
Severin cut off the angel’s air. He was relying on Lori to be young and untrained on how to slip from such magic, and sure enough his hand flew to his throat, panic flashing as he struggled to breathe.
“Lori!” Yuri raced toward him when the young Soldier fell from the sky. He dropped to his knees, searching for injuries. It didn’t take long before he whirled on Severin.
“Release your hold on him!”
“Or what?” His blood hummed at the sight of Yuri’s fear, wrath soaking deep into his bones. “Who is the boy to you?”
“I’ve trained him since the day he became a Soldier.” Yuri stood, his eyes pleading. “Please, Severin.”
“So you care for him, then,” he noted, satisfaction growing by the minute. He tightened his hold until Lori couldn’t even rasp. Several angels closed in, wings bristling.
“This wasn’t our plan,” Aurelie hissed. Blood stained the arm of her dress, and Severin’s frustration stirred at the sight of it. “It doesn’t need to be like this.”
“She’s right,” Yuri hurried to add. “With this cure, we can be on the same side.”
Severin stilled, the words needling into him.
The same side? Yuri wanted to be on the same side?
Suddenly he was laughing.
“You still don’t see it, do you? After all this time, you’re still fucking oblivious.” The laughter vanished as quickly as it had come, and his voice was cold when he spoke again. “This is the path you chose, Yuriel. We’ll never be on the same side again.”
The angel’s eyes narrowed, his attention sharpening on Severin.
But then a new voice cleaved through the air. “Release him.”
For a single, stunned instant, Severin nearly obeyed. The voice had caught him off guard, and he dodged just in time to avoid the executioner’s blade that came for his spine.
As he twisted, turning to face the newcomer, the demon grinned.
Finally.
Xadriel, the commander of the angel army, stood before them in the flesh.
Severin’s breathing slowed as he fought to steady himself, staring into the bastard’s face. His vision bled at the edges, his world turning red.
“I was hoping you’d make an appearance,” he managed, unable to keep the heat from his voice. “Glad you could make it for the show.”
“I would have been here sooner,” Xadriel replied, not so much as glancing at the angel suffocating behind him, “but there was a demon camp that needed exterminating. I thought it best to handle myself.”
The red in his vision pulsed, consuming everything.
Veritas.
His people.
He tried to keep his rage hidden, but there was no stopping the fury that unspooled within him, blurring everything until Xadriel was all he could see.
Xadriel, who had slaughtered them.
Xadriel, who had taken everything from him.
But never again.
Today, it ended for good.
Xadriel struck like lightning, but Severin was already moving. He leaped, wings snapping open. Hatred flooded his marrow, gripping his body like a puppeteer’s strings. His claws lengthened, incisors splitting his gums and growing sharper with each breath.
He shuddered from the rush, surrendering to it completely as a snarl ripped from his chest, guttural and feral.
The last of his restraint shattered, and Severin became Wrath.