Page 224 of Claimed By Fangs and Darkness

“Idris!”

Idris dodged a poisoned arrow, but it had been close. Why the hell was he so distracted?

My protectiveness triggered more power flowing through the crown of my head. It seemed like it had only taken seconds for born to swarm the crossroads we’d just left and for the battle down the street to suddenly be on top of us.

My friends danced with fluid grace. Blade’s razor-sharp shadows ricocheted through the chaos, finding borns’ skulls with easy precision. Vesper made an art form out of her fire magick, creating gorgeous snakes of orange and red flame to consume born fighters.

From behind Kylo, I wielded my own shadows. My mother’s last words were correct: Iwasa plague on this world.

My poisonous, bloodthirsty darkness rotted entire groups of born instantly. Hekate was speaking through me, delivering a message to the born: You will no longer harm my children without consequence. This world is for the living.

My love for this city poured out of me in a devastating mix of grief and reverence. These streets were once filled with artists and students and grumpy elder locals, helping and learning from one another. They’d been filled with lovers’ quarrels, music and laughter, the low rumble of my wagon rolling along the cobblestone on my way to Celeste’s.

When I inhaled, I imagined the scents of fresh baked goods from my favorite café on campus, books in the library, and flowers and herbs intermingling inside witchy shops.

Now the streets smelled like blood and death and anger that had festered for too long. I mourned the city I loved. But I knew that from the rubble, we would rebuild.

Together.

The scream that tore through me shattered glass and lifted pieces of the destroyed buildings off the ground. With a tilt of my head and the wave of my hands, I sent a storm of brokenness toward the born on rooftops, delivering deaths by a thousand cuts.

They just kept coming. As soon as I caught my breath, more born arrived, pressing closer and closer until Idris was fighting a couple of them mere feet from me.

“They’re not even bothering with the rest of the city, are they?” I asked Kylo in horror. “They’re only focusing onus.”

He was still keeping born away from me with his deathly shadows as he shielded my body with his. “Kill the shepherd and the sheep will scatter.”

Born had slipped through the cracks of our bubble, forcing Kylo and me to fight back-to-back. If I was focused on killing born right in front of me, I couldn’t wield my magick on the greater numbers surrounding us from above.

“Fuck!” I heard Blade yell from somewhere nearby.

Blood onyx rained from the sky.

I realized in horror that no one had a free hand to shield us. I quickly cut down the group of demons beelining for me and raised my fist in the air. A ripple of darkness created a dome above our heads, blocking most of the poison.

“Harmony!” Kylo yelled.

I hadn’t been quick enough. Harmony’s arms were peeling, the poison seeping into her skin. Born surrounded her.

Idris dropped his bloody dagger, his body shaking as if with a violent fever.

Hundreds of born rushed toward us from the intersection.

The protective dome I’d erected wobbled, an impossible choice presenting itself. I had less than two seconds to decide whether to shield us from blood onyx, stop the rush of born from overwhelming us, save Harmony, or protect Idris.

I screamed.

At the sound of my voice, Idris’s hands shot out. He stopped trembling. His palms crackled with bright golden radiance. His pupils disappeared, his eyes pure white.

One hand lifted to the sky. The other palm faced the ensuing born.

Blinding power burst from him with a boom that surely injured my eardrums. The sound was deafening. The force of the explosion sent everyone flying, including Idris himself.

I watched from the ground as skin and sinew melted off bone. Hundreds of born perished in an instant.

Blade managed to kill the born who’d been too distracted by the explosion to finish Harmony off. He pulled her behind him protectively as she recovered from the poison.

Idris had shattered my shield, but he’d also annihilated the born who’d surrounded us from above.