Page 121 of Daman

A mix between a laugh and a cry rushed from my lips as I pulled Warrin closer, pressing my face against his neck. I trembled from relief. He’d come back to me.

“Bellamy! Daman!”Gray said through our mind link.“Where are you? We can’t hold them off much longer.”

“We have to go,” I said, sitting up. Wet trickled down my neck, and I wiped at it.

Guilt swam in Warrin’s eyes as he looked at the blood on my fingertips. “Daman, I—”

“No time for that.” I pushed to my feet and held out a hand to help him up. He took it. “You can make it up to me later. For now, we have to kick some ass.” I hooked my arms around him. “Hold on tight, Commander. We’re going for a ride.”

Chapter Twenty

Warrin

The fog had cleared enough that I could see the stars again as Daman carried me above the treetops. Cold air pushed against my face and swept through my hair.

“Are you afraid I’ll drop you?” he whispered against my temple, arms snug around me.

“No.” And it was the truth. “I’m used to being the one in control when I fly.”

“What was it you said to me the first time I rode on your back? You’ve never seen the sky like this. There’s beauty in submission, in putting yourself in someone else’s hands.”

I swallowed hard. “I nearly killed you. Maybe youshoulddrop me.”

“Never.” Daman grazed his lips across my ear. “I love you too much for that.”

My mind was still a little fuzzy from being in the hypnotic trance, but I remembered feeling like a stranger in my own body. I’d known my actions were wrong but couldn’t do anything to stop them. The memory of Asa’s teeth sinking into my neck made my flesh crawl.

Daman nuzzled the bite mark, one that was made directly over the mark he’d left, as if Asa did it to spite him. “I hate his mark on you.”

“I hate it too. When this is over, you should bite me again.”Take away all signs of him.

“I will.” He softly kissed my throat before focusing ahead.

When we arrived in the clearing, the bodies were the first thing I saw. Dead wolves and a mangled corpse that looked like it might’ve been Alexander. My gut coiled. It was my responsibility to protect my men… and I’d failed. I searched for the others.

Ivan and Efrem faced off with shades. They had cuts and a few bites but looked to be unharmed beyond that.

“Daman!” Gray exclaimed, fighting off three demons. His small body was weighed down with exhaustion. Lycus, in his wolf form, bit one of the shades in two before chomping off the head of another.

“Who’s that?” I asked, spotting an angel locked into combat with Gusion. His black wings told me he was Fallen.

“Belphegor.” Daman tightened the grip on his sword.

Phoenix and Castor clashed, swords clanking, while Kyo fought another Nephilim. More shades burst through the trees, attacking the wolves. I’d thought we had killed most of them earlier, but the burned creatures kept materializing out of nowhere.

“The dead zone,” Bellamy said, surveying the area. Trees grew in spirals around the clearing, but nothing grew inside of the circle where the battle waged. “Kyo blabbed earlier about it being some kind of portal, right? Asa must be using it to summon shades from the underworld.”

“That means he’s expending a lot of energy,” Daman pointed out. “He won’t be able to keep it up forever.”

“He doesn’t need forever.” I nodded to the two fallen angels fighting across the field. “Gusion is weakening.”

Daman stormed into the fray, sword at the ready and black wings gliding on air. I charged in after him, slicing through shades left and right, their burning bodies turning to ash. Bellamy flew over the top of us and crashed into Asa, who had been standing in front of the largest tree circling the clearing, eyes glowing, as if he’d been about to summon more demons.

Adrenaline took over, and I cleared my mind of everything except for the mission.

Daman’s sword clashed with Belphegor’s midair, and the two of them moved so quickly they looked like black blurs across the snow. I shot ice from my fingertips, freezing a shade that had lunged toward Gray. He shattered it with his sword and nodded to me before helping Kyo with the other Nephilim.

Two deep gashes covered Gusion’s chest, and I rushed to his side as he lost his strength and stumbled. He’d been stabbed in the ribs too. I was no physician, but my experience on the battlefield told me it was life-threatening. He needed a healer right away.