Page 44 of Heir of Broken Souls (HOBF #3)
Chapter 44
Knox
D elilah stiffens before me and stops breathing.
Following her gaze, I find out why.
Three demonic dragons fly for us. The two at the back fight Zephlyn with their razor-sharp claws and teeth as Axel and Elysia battle with the Phookas atop the monsters. It’s a creature I know all too well, one I have fought against for years. One that no matter how many times you kill, it continues to come back.
Until Delilah—the golden witch as they call her.
You can tell the moment Aurora spots Zephlyn fighting against two demonic dragons. One minute we’re watching the mermaids trap the water dragons within their mystical powers, and in the next we’re careening through the air, her feral growl and snarls slapping the sky like thunder.
Golden fire arrows whiz through the air as Delilah sends one after the other for the Phookas atop the demonic dragons.
I’ve never seen Aurora fly as fast as she does now, though perhaps Delilah is manipulating the currents of air for her. Raising my hands, I assist her, sending a pocket of air behind Aurora all the while firing my own arrows at the demons. The demons dodge my and Delilah’s magic as if it were nothing.
The sight of Elysia’s quivering hand covering her mouth as she screams, attempting to strike the demon coming for Zephlyn’s back while Axel fights at the front, has my heart clenching.
Why isn’t Axel flying?
Does he not want to leave Elysia?
A second, one moment, is all I give myself to assess the situation, before I’m planting a kiss against Delilah’s cheek and taking off. My wings unfurl, my legs bending, flying in front of Aurora as I manipulate the air around me.
The Phooka dodging Delilah’s fire arrows narrow its milky eyes on me and grins.
I mirror its smile a second before I vanish.
With my eyes on the spot behind the demonic black dragon, breathing fire as it sets its sight on Aurora, I fly through the air, through time and space, and come up behind the Phooka.
Wrapping my hands around its jaw, I twist, and with one movement snap its neck. The Phooka falls, plummeting to the ocean below, its head at an odd angle compared to the rest of its body.
Not wasting any time, I unsheathe the blade at my back when the dragon I sit atop realizes its master has fallen. It stops in the air so suddenly my hold on the blade falls as I instinctively shoot my hands out to stop myself from face planting into its hideous black scales. Grunting, I catch myself just in time before I break my nose, but the dragon arches like a cat and spins so quickly my grip on its scaled ridges slips and it whips me off like a bull.
Throwing my hands out, a pocket of shadows catches me midair, giving me leverage to right myself before pushing off and flying for the beast again. It’s forgotten about my presence entirely as it heads straight for Delilah and Aurora, blocking them from getting to Zephlyn. No doubt smelling the soul pair bond between the griffins.
Its vibrant red eyes narrow as Delilah continues to attack with fireball after fireball, only to be met with the demonic dragon’s fire trying to extinguish her power before she can do damage.
The beast is like no other dragon, coiled tight with dark magic. Twice the size of a regular dragon, its body is as black as night, its eyes a vivid red, its power thrumming through its veins. No matter that it’s double the size of a regular dragon, it’s almost three times the size of the griffins.
The factZephlyn is keeping two from killing him is no small feat and one he won’t be able to keep up, judging by the sounds of roars and grunts from Axel. The last piece of his brother. He’ll do anything to protect the griffin.
Growling under my breath, I jump through pockets of air, teleporting as fast as I can until I land on the demonic dragon’s back once more. Without giving it a moment to throw me off, I sink twin daggers into its hind.
It barely flinches.
Yanking the blades out in quick succession, I slash it, over and over and over, throwing everything I have into injuring it, hoping it moves its attention away from Delilah.
In a cry of outrage, I sheath the blades dripping with black blood and stand, not caring if I fall, knowing my wings will catch me. I run down its back and jump in the air right as it bucks, avoiding its wrath, and land atop the beast again. Flinging my arms out, I quickly wrap what I can around its neck and cover the rest with my power, creating a noose of shadows.
Screaming against the power pouring out of me, I use all my strength and pull, yanking the dragon to a gurgled stop midair. It begins to choke.
Burn it.
I send the demand down the bond, knowing that no matter how much power I use it will never truly die. Only Delilah can make them vanish.
Gods, we need to bottle her magic and send it to the front lines.
Aurora is upon us in moments, her hatred gleaming in those golden depths as she snaps her jaw around the demonic dragon’s neck, effectively breaking bones, but it’s not enough. It thrashes against my hold and Aurora’s jaw, until Delilah’s golden flames singe its scaled body.
It shrieks a death cry as golden fire burns through its skin, melting its body.
If I thought it was thrashing before, it’s bucking now.
“Let go, Aurora!” I command a second before I release my shadowed noose around its neck. She pulls back, black blood blending with her raven-colored fur.
It flings itself away and wails, shrieking and clawing at the melted skin. Then it falls.
Delilah throws golden fire after it, satisfaction sizzling down our bond as it hits the demonic dragon’s wings, effectively dooming it as it plummets from the sky, its talons clawing the air as if it can stop the inevitable.
She then sends the killing blow to its exposed underbelly.
Her power hits it directly above where its corrupted heart lies, burning the large organ as it hits the water with a large splash. Following the rolling waves, my eyes snag on the water dragons, the mermaids, and Harlow fighting against death itself.
A deadly roar rips through the sky, making my head snap behind me. A demonic dragon’s jaw is around Zephlyn’s underbelly.
The sound that escapes Aurora is like no other I’ve heard before.
She takes off like a shooting star, a ball of black fur whizzing past me as she bucks Delilah from her saddle right before she careens into the dragon, snapping her jaw down. She tears chunks of muscle and scales from the dragon until it cries out in agony, letting go of its hold on Zephlyn, but I can’t focus on the gushing blood pouring from Zephlyn or his pained whines, not as Delilah unfurls her golden wings on a scream and tries to fly. His distress makes my stomach roil, but not as much as Delilah falling.
Teleporting across the sky, I’m inches away, my hand outstretched, before a large black furball whizzes past me, catching her in its saddle.
Delilah, shocked to her core, can only gasp down at Aurora as the griffin spins to face me with such a ravenous, animalistic glint of protectiveness in her gaze it has me stumbling to a halt midair. She stares at me as if to say, Of course I was going to catch her.
It doesn’t matter, though, because suddenly Delilah is screaming my name.
“ KNOX !” she bellows, right as a blade rips open my back.