Page 30

His soldiers marched behind him, wearing strange red camouflage uniforms and adorned in bulky black vests from Earth. They carried long, metal weapons. Modern and foreign to my world in a way that made me wary.

The Crimson Mage looked every bit the maddened, enraged fiend from his horn-head helm to the snarl etched onto his face.

Palpable power rolled off him in cold, sickening waves.

Even his cloak spilled behind him like a trail of blood.

He walked without hurry, every step measured and calculated.

His gaze swept the lawn, the castle, grazing over me like his eyes were a blade intent on cutting me down.

A flicker of something crossed his expression, and his eyes narrowed.

“You survived,” he said. The mage stopped halfway across the courtyard; head titled as he studied me like I was a freshly risen corpse. “I thought I left you as a smear in the dirt.”

Deliberate, undeterred, I descended the stairs, letting the tension stretch. Only a distant howling wind or the soft shuffling of feet broke it up.

His smile was sharp and mocking.

My glare was potent. “You seem impressed.”

His laugh was a grotesque, strangled sort of sound.

“Impressed?” The front line of his army chuckled with him. “No, not at all. Disappointed? Certainly. I much preferred you when you were bleeding out.”

A growl pulled from me, and I clenched my jaw to restrain myself. “Then you should have made sure to finish the job.”

He arched a pale red brow, blinking lazily. “Oh, I never make the same mistake twice over, beast. You can be sure of that if nothing else.”

“Neither do I.” The words burst from me like venom. “And I promised to be your death, didn’t I?”

His grin twitched, and his brows furrowed. Then his eyes found her and my heart rate spiked. The Crimson Mage’s gaze was assessing, keen, and covetous. The heat of it was visceral with rage, want, obsession.

I placed myself in his line of sight.

Astoria reached me, standing as unwavering as a pale flame, the only light in the realm that didn’t falter. I could feel her magic tightening beneath her skin—awakened, pulsing, defensive. She hadn’t spoken. Not yet. But she didn’t need to. Her presence was loud.

The man’s eyes turned to her again.

Longer this time.

I saw the moment his curiosity shifted. He took a step as if her presence drew him in the way gravity pulled flightless objects into an inevitable crash. Something malevolent passed through his expression.

“You smell like magic.” He stopped, observing her as one would a complicated equation that they were soon to solve.

A deranged beast of savagery roared in my chest and battered my ribs.

My fists clenched, and my jaw ached from gritting my teeth.

Air whooshed as my tail thrashed behind me.

I glanced down at Astoria, beholding her pale blue hair spilling over her shoulders, and the shimmery silk she wore.

Her head was high and her eyes defiant, as if daring the mage to notice her. And her gaze burned when it met mine.

I would do anything to keep her.

“Why have you come here?” I addressed the mage. My chest was tight, heart hammering as he cut his eyes to Astoria. Then back to me when a growl thundered from my chest. “Are you so eager for death?”

The Crimson Mage took a step. Chest heaving, breathing hard as if he was exerting himself, nearly salivating from the look of it. His eyes were wide and gleaming with a vulgar sense of ownership. “Do you know what she is?”

“Stay back. I’m warning you.” My fist curled around the sword at my hip.

He didn’t listen, inching closer as if magnetized. “Do you? Did you know when you were dying at my feet? Or did you think she was just a pretty little thing who’d fallen into your lap?”

I snarled, and the force of my rage quaked the ground beneath our feet. Several soldiers flinched, but the mage remained steadfast.

“An air spirit in a woman’s skin. How curious.

” He stroked his chin, a grin slashing like a wound across his face.

“You’ve hidden well, but there’s nowhere you could have gone to escape me.

I have crossed oceans and worlds to find you.

No power, no dimension, no realm so monstrous can keep you from me. ”

Astoria flinched, barely. It was enough.

“Sylph.” He smiled like a peasant finding gold. Or a madman experiencing fleeting clarity. “The last of your kind. And I should know, I’ve spent ages butchering elementals and mythical creatures. I’ve scoured Earth in search of you. And there you are. Now you’re mine.”

“She isn’t yours,” I bellowed, voice low and threatening. “And she never was.”

The Crimson Mage’s face darkened. “You think I can’t take her from you?”

Time ceased to exist. We hovered in a held breath, balancing on the cusp of destruction. Silence stifled the land and the last vestiges of night shrouded Infernus. A pocket of simmering tension, boiling toward a culmination.

“You’ll die trying,” I replied.

The man’s expression hardened, and magic crackled like pressurized static on the wind. I drew my sword.

And chaos erupted.