Page 223 of Claimed By Fangs and Darkness

Idris stood at my other side, wiping sweat from his forehead. “Evie. Gods.”

Fighting looked like dancing, if I let my vision grow unfocused. It reminded me of the mortal club that played revolutionary music, the bodies moving in a wild yet synchronistic rhythm. Like mycelium under the forest floor in perfect, reciprocal harmony.

Born continued to fall to the earth, consumed by my vengeful storm. I was high on the power in a way I hadn’t expected. It rushed up and down my spine, pooling at my core. I raised my hands, and a cyclone formed.

I pointed.

My friends stared, slack-jawed, as the shadowed winds slammed into hundreds of born rushing toward us down Fourth Avenue.

Bodies flew in every direction.

“Hey, careful,” Kylo whispered. “Don’t let it carry much further or you risk a block of mortals.”

I nodded. “Okay, thank you.”

“What. The. Fuck,” Clarke said, finding us again after he’d earned his own impressive collection of kills.

Vesper grinned. “Now I see what all that fuss was about.” She winked at me.

I slowly released an exhale, and my cyclone dispersed back into a gentle wind. I was a tad woozy, but not even close to finished.

“They blocked my magick for too long. I had some shit that needed to be released,” I said with a shrug. I caught my breath as I decided what facet of my power to wield next.

“Once you’re depleted, you’re depleted,” Kylo warned me like a sexy professor. “Remember to pace yourself.”

“Kylo, sky!” someone yelled.

Kylo leaped in front of me, throwing out a shield of shadow as fire rushed toward us from a nearby rooftop.

I glanced at Idris. He was calm and focused, using his shadows and earth magick with ease.

When he suddenly winced, my brows furrowed in concern. “You okay?”

Idris glanced down at his palms. “I don’t know…”

We were cut off by the collapse of a nearby building, sending our group scrambling out of the way. Kylo grabbed me into his arms and moved me in fractions of a second. The distraction allowed born who’d survived my cyclone to rush toward us. Firebirds swarmed above.

I understood why this fleet had made it over the mountains and why Kylo had been so incredibly cautious about provoking Earle. The sheer numbers alone were daunting, but when poisons and specialty weapons from Valentin were added into the mix, it was clear that Earle’s tactic was to crush us as quickly as possible. He wasn’t worried about overextending or being cautious. He wanted us wiped from the earth before the revolution even had a chance to spark.

My clan had numbers too. Not comparable to the royal army, but we were notnothing.

The air had been knocked from my lungs when Kylo finally set me down. We’d been pushed onto Fourth Avenue, opposite from where my cyclone had rampaged. The intersection was filled with dust and smoke, but I could make out flashes of magick and bodies beyond.

“Idris?” I called, having lost sight of him in the commotion.

I whipped around, relieved to see my brother with Blade, Harmony, Vesper, Clarke, and other fighters. So many dead bodies were strewn around us making it frighteningly easy to become desensitized.

The Evie of a year ago wouldn’t have believed this was where we now stood.

Further down the street, turned and born were entangled in battle. Shadows crawled along the cobblestone, working together as if independently of their hosts. Hekate’s magick had come alive, lending power to the downtrodden as we bravely faced our oppressors.

The screeching firebirds dove onto roofs on either side of us, boxing us in. Harmony wielded shields the moment blood onyx weapons rained down on us.

“Take out the witch by any means necessary.”

The command from above had Kylo trembling with power and rage, a growl leaving his throat as he stood in front of me. Idris’s face held similar sentiments, but at the sight of him wincing, my stomach dropped with concern.

He stared at his palms again.