Page 10 of Heir of Broken Souls (HOBF #3)

Chapter 10

Delilah

W ith Aurora healed, she stands behind my back, every fiber of her being vibrating with a fury so palpable it seems to electrify the air around us. Now that the shield is down, the sound comes rushing in, dousing my senses with screams, steel hitting steel, and the undeniable stench of death.

My gaze lands on Knox, only a few paces in front of me cutting down those that were trying to break the protective shield. Once I’m back in view, the demonic creatures snap their heads in my direction and sneer.

Knox snarls low and viciously as he sends his shadows for the demonic creatures that rush me. His flying shadows snap their necks and others thrash, their sharp claws pawing at their necks as he steals the air from them. All the while, he cuts a path of blood and gore to get to me.

Those who escape the destruction of his hands and power pounce at the opportunity to capture me. Their short-sightedness costs them.

The griffins unleash themselves.

My body is a whirlwind of golden flame and steel.

Meeting the hounds halfway I go in swinging, the dragon pommel sword in one hand and my golden flames in the other as it demands to join me. With a whirl of steel and hatred, Knox fights perpendicular to me. We’re a dance of death, leading our way to one another.

Where one hand swings my dragon sword, decapitating the hounds’ heads, the other shoves into their chests, yanking out their rotted hearts. Aurora and Zephlyn protect my flank, snapping their razor-sharp teeth, until we meet up with Knox in the middle. Fury hardens his face as we behold his estate drenched in blood, his men fighting against the plague of dark magic, and the fallen bodies, pure souls lying beside reviving demons.

In the middle of the courtyard, Harlow transforms before my eyes from her small half-witch, half-Fae form to the very beasts they unleashed upon this crested hill. A dragon.

I’ve seen her take on a dragon form before, but never like this. She’s larger, sturdier, stronger. She’s indestructible. With scales as black as those thrumming with dark magic, she meets the demonic creatures as if she were death reincarnated.

Where she walks others fall.

And those that rush in from the sides are met with not only my and Knox’s blades but Lenox’s too as he joins the fold, pushing the demonic pests toward the cliffside where they no doubt flew in from. Though that begs the question, how did they get past Knox’s wards?

The thought is there and gone as sharp nails wrap around my wrist from my exposed side. A demonic hound snuck past Aurora and Zephlyn’s claws.

A slithering snake-like tongue darts out of its mouth, the rotting smell emanating from it making me instinctively recoil with a look of horror and disgust. The gleam in its gaze is one I have seen before over the passing weeks.

They’re always cocky and arrogant when they shouldn’t be.

I swipe a dagger from my thigh and strike, thrusting the blade into its eye socket. As it rips its hand away and roars in agony I twist the hilt, summoning as much pain as possible and black blood gushes from the socket.

“Fucking golden witch!” it spits, blindly clawing for me.

Ripping the hilt away, I raise my now free arm holding my dragon pommel sword and swing, arcing the blade high in the sky and careening it down in one fluid motion, cutting the hound in two right down to its clavicle.

The move silences its incessant high-pitched shrieking.

I go to remove the blade, only for a pair of familiar thick arms to wrap around my waist and pull, tugging me into the air.

Hold on, Angel , Knox calls down our bond.

Sucking in a sharp breath, I take in the scene before me. What was once Knox’s beautiful estate now lies in tatters, drenched in black and red, littered with mangled body parts of not only our enemies but also our fallen.

The demons that were left in one piece have begun to twitch, their revival starting. The remainder of Knox’s guards swing their blades with vigor, lobbing off their limbs, while others light a bonfire. They begin the satisfying task of throwing the demons into the raging fire, trying to prolong their summoning. The stench that reaches the sky from the black billowy smoke is like no other.

“What are you doing? They need help!”

Knox throws me in the air and Aurora catches me. A grunt flies from deep within my chest as I land on her back, Knox holding me from behind. “Was that really necessary?” I groan.

“They’ve infiltrated the docks!” Lenox bellows. Zephlyn and Harlow, still in her black-scaled dragon form, have already peeled away, flying down the hill.

It only takes a moment for Lenox’s words to process, why we’re abandoning the estate.

It was the distraction. The true target was the city of Azalea.

Darkness storms the once colorful and joyous city, now filled with terror and shrill, petrified screams. The sense of déjà vu hits. It’s as if I’m watching my vision come to life. The thought and sight is such an unsettling feeling I have to turn my head to the side and swallow down bile.

Knox’s voice is a hollow whisper but he projects it to the others. “Nolan is down by the front lines, leading the army we had stationed in case this was Peter’s plan.”

Harlow opens her jaw and roars, fire spitting from her mouth. Lenox turns to me, emotion fierce in his amber eyes, stunning me once more. The hatred we all feel simmering in our blood from all Peter has taken and done to us rises to a devastating high.

With that, Aurora plummets to the battle below, and with the limited time we have, I hold Knox’s arms to me, soaking in the warmth of his front pressed to my back.

“Please come back to me,” he says gutturally.

“So long as you do, I always will,” I whisper truthfully.

He plants a gentle kiss on top of my head, his lips lingering as we descend. “Make them pay, Angel,” he whispers.

As if the command was for my magic, not for me, it stirs, thrashing wildly within my veins. It anticipates its release, along with something else—something ancient and dangerously wicked and cruel.

A heady sensation fills me, a warmth washing over my body. The feeling isn’t new but I still dread it all the same because of how little I understand about it.

It’s time , the ethereal voice whispers in my mind. I haven’t heard this voice in months—not since the day Annie and Eleanor died. But as quickly as it comes, it disappears again.

Without an ounce of time to spare to analyze what the ethereal voice meant, my gaze locks on a group of demonic hounds terrorizing the streets. I send a mental message to Aurora and as she drops low, her claws slicing the necks of the nearest Phookas, I launch myself off her back, my arms splayed on either side.

My shadow makes them turn, and with the red blood of Azalea’s citizens dripping from their mouths, I grit my teeth and strike.

Dragging the steel of my sword across the necks of two hounds as I land, I roll into a crouch to break my fall, taking their heads with me. I can’t allow myself to feel the satisfaction of their unseeing gaze because within moments I’m surrounded.

My blade swings, cutting limbs, necks, and hearts. Golden flame encases my entire body, never burning me but snapping at my enemies in their vulnerable spots.

Please don’t sweep me away , I beg my magic, praying it’ll listen to my mental commands.

When I slice a Phooka’s neck with my blade, a hound tries to impale me at my open side but my golden magic is there, melting the black leather skin of the hound’s arm. It shrieks, tearing itself away as I move on to the next. My arms never stop swinging as I cut a path toward the city, toward the demonic dragons at the front fighting Nolan and his men.

Knox is beside me in an instant, his own shield of fiery shadows dancing along his skin and leathers. Within moments our bodies move in sync, one of us arcing high while the other swipes low. The bond surges between us, thriving on the way our souls speak to one another, joining us together as we make death fear us.

Until I pause at a sound that separates itself from the rest.

Without looking at me, Knox turns to the hounds launching at our backs, his swords swinging before his balls of fire and shadows finish the job. What is it? he asks mind to mind.

I cock my head, my eyes narrowing as a demon lunges from the side. I shift at the last second, and it flies straight into Knox’s hands, who rips its head from its body with one fluid motion. In the same breath, I bring my blade down and stab another hound, melting its heart in its chest with my golden flames.

The sound rings again. A child’s scream. There are many of them, but this one is different.

Without missing a beat, Knox dips into my mind to hear what I did, while I kill the three demons that try to pounce on him all at once with golden daggers.

It could be a trap. However, as he says it, I can feel that he doesn’t believe it.

Knox’s mouth opens to argue again, but he stops short. I throw up a golden shield of protection, instantly worried about what he sees, but when I follow his wide gaze over my shoulder, all I find are the slayed demonic creatures lying motionless behind us. I’m about to snap that we need to focus on the scream, on the hounds literally pounding on my shield, but?—

They’re motionless .

Are they…dead?

“It’s those you killed with your magic.”

Knox’s words have me snapping to face him. “You think…?”

The scream pulls my focus back to where it belongs. But something deep within my sternum niggles at me to turn back to those reviving. To face the demons that are being summoned back to their bodies. The twitching is normal, expected even. So what does this mean?

My magic has been begging me to give in, to hand over my trust fully, and for gods know what reason, my entire being is urging me to in this moment.

So I turn. I’m stunned as an involuntary cry falls from my lips as my magic rises with a vengeance. A wave of golden flames pulses from my body, a tsunami of death. It flows down the streets, between the buildings, stopping the resurrecting hounds in their tracks. They never open their eyes again, for they are swept into the depths of my golden flames, taken to the sea. Their bodies melt into nothing but a decaying black puddle.

Knox whistles, his eyes taking on a dark glint of awe and appreciation as he assesses me. Perhaps we have a fighting chance after all.

I shake with the monumental victory, the sudden change in my power, the potential this holds for the future. But when the child cries out again, I don’t think, I just move, the mystery of my magic put aside.

My boots splash in puddles of blood as I avoid stepping on fallen citizens. My heart pangs painfully at their unmoving bodies lying discarded amongst the rubble of their once beautiful city. The farther we run, the more Knox’s brows furrow.

“What is it? Is it Nolan? Can he not hold them back?” I ask, my voice taking on a desperate plea.

Knox doesn’t utter a single word but he doesn’t have to with our bond. I can feel everything coursing through his heart, the rapid beat of it.

What has him so terrified?

When another cry rings out, this one different than the others, Knox takes off without warning, practically throwing himself down the steep hills. The way his feet glide along the ruined cobblestone makes me presume he’s using air magic to propel him faster. So much so I have to use my own magic to keep up with him, and it isn’t until he comes to a screeching halt do I understand his urgency.

In a dark alcove off the side of the main street, Knox pants and clutches his chest, his ashen face full of horror.

Following his gaze, I find a quaint restaurant, one Knox took me to in my early weeks within Azalea. A restaurant that holds memories and sentimental value of his past and long-gone parents. And huddled on the steps, clutching a terrified little girl as four demonic hounds surround them, is the old woman.

Mia.

No sooner does the name burst down the bond from his mind, he’s gone.

The tense, scared man reappears in front of Mia and the little girl, and a feral roar erupts from the depths of his belly as he brings his sword down in a mighty fluid motion, decapitating the hounds immediately. The blow ricochets for miles, across the ruined streets and along the sea.

Their heads go rolling as his chest heaves from the exertion.

His eyes snap to mine, a demand lying within their depths. Without needing words, my magic rises to the occasion, humming and purring against my skin as I allow it to strike the hounds. Their black leathery bodies burst into golden flames, melting into nothing but a black tar-like substance gliding down the cracks of the cobblestone street.

“Mia,” Knox breathes, kneeling before the old woman and the scared child. Offering his hand, he helps her stand. “What happened?”

Mia looks down at the child before turning wide, pleading eyes to Knox. He nods, and Mia’s eyes grow glassy and blank, unseeing as Knox looks through her mind. Whatever he finds makes him take a step back, as if needing to put physical distance between what he sees. The child remains silent in Mia’s arms, save for the tears rolling down her chubby cheeks. Her hair is covered in crimson blood, with only a few errant strands still her natural blonde color. The sight makes my chest ache uncomfortably.

As Knox slowly turns to a brutalized man and woman lying in a heap a few feet away, Mia spins the child by her shoulders away from the sight. It doesn’t take much to imagine how they must feel, seeing their loved ones slain before their eyes.

“Where can they go? We haven’t secured the city yet,” I say softly.

Knox sighs heavily, and I can see it lying on the surface. The desperation he feels, the agony at not being able to save his people. The guilt of not keeping them safe. The weight of the deaths stacking upon his shoulders.

He’s close to breaking.

“There are people who still need you,” I say softly, willing my words to breathe strength into his battered heart. “Your city, your people—they need you, Knox. There is still hope.”

Whether that’s a lie or not, I don’t care, not in this moment. Knox is already standing precariously close to the edge of a cliff, and I’m not sure anything but his dead people resurrecting can bring him back.

His sapphire eyes lock on mine, drinking in their fill of me before he swallows thickly and nods, his eyes hardening resolutely with his decision. Becoming who he needs to be right now—their king.

He looks over Mia and the child. I do the same, surprised to see only minor cuts and scrapes. “The city isn’t safe. Nowhere is safe yet, not even my home.” His head lifts, searching within the torn and bloody restaurant. A flash of sadness strikes his features before he locks it down again, deep within the bond. “Is there a personal bunker or cellar you know of in the area?”

Mia stutters, her eyes roving the streets, “Y-yes! The Morrisons two streets away. I dare say that’s where they’re hiding as well.” She lowers her voice and covers the child’s ears, no matter what little use the motion is to a Fae. “A family friend of Bella here.”

Bella.

As if putting a name to the face of the little girl who just lost her entire world makes it all the more real, I snap my jaw closed and grit my teeth until the sheen of tears recedes.

Knox dips his head. “We’ll take you there before returning to the front lines.”

“What happens if we lose?” Mia whispers.

My head rears back at the possibility. As if her words light a fire under me, I usher her down the stairs, putting a steadying hand on her back. “We need to hurry.”

Knox doesn’t say a word or answer her question and Mia, knowing Knox as well as she does, doesn’t push the notion further.

Two streets later, we round a corner to a house with thankfully minimal damage. Knox waits, making sure Mia gets into the cellar around the back safely, verifying his identity to a terrified family within.

The woman bursts into tears at seeing Bella. Her head cranes around Knox helping Mia down the short flight of stairs, looking for Bella’s parents, and when she comes up short I watch something within her break.

It’s silent. It dries up her tears and straightens her spine as she holds Bella to her chest.

She snaps her palm down on Knox’s forearm as he turns to leave. “End this,” she hisses.

Knox’s eyes flash, the bond pulling tight with his flood of emotions. He swallows audibly before saying, “I’m trying.”

“Try harder,” she says, her tone harsh but soft, pleading. “Before we all perish into nothing but a distant memory.”

I take a step forward, anger boiling my blood at her words and the audacity to put such a thing on his already heavy shoulders, but he throws an arm out, stopping me. The mating bond between us grows taut as fierce protection slams into me, screaming at me to protect him from her words. Already, the guilt and fear of failure are drowning him, but he simply shakes his head and leaves, sealing the cellar with a protection spell.

“She had no right,” I hiss under my breath.

“Actually, she had every right,” he says solemnly, rounding the house.

Grunting my disagreement, I open my mouth to try and talk sense into him when a dark shadow descends, landing in front of us with a sickening thump.

The scream that tears from my throat is raw and full of shock as I gaze upon a demonic dragon struggling to rise again. The puncture wounds in its neck seep black blood onto the street.

Its head lolls to the side, beady red eyes locking on me, and as if a shark scenting blood, it scrambles to its feet like it was never injured. It jerks, moving to attack, when a black ball of fur suddenly dives onto its neck, locking its jaw around its black scales with a roar so familiar my gaze snaps upwards.

I raise my hands and scream, “Now, Aurora!”

At the command she rips herself away, taking a large chunk of the dragon’s flesh with her, but it doesn’t care, its sights set on me. It lunges, and then bursts into golden flames. True fear shines in its red eyes a moment before it crumbles.

It doesn’t move again.

Aurora rounds the flames with no worry or care, as if she knows my magic would never harm her, and nudges Knox and me with her head, seemingly hurrying us. My chest tightens, my heart dropping as Knox dives into Aurora’s mind, and a whine full of loss tears from his lips as he says, “They’re about to take the city.”