Page 60 of Heir of Broken Souls (HOBF #3)

Chapter 60

Knox

T here’s a fucking demonic hound with its disgusting leathery black claws wrapped around Delilah’s ankle, pulling her down below the surface of the water.

Nothing can stop me right now.

I send a pocket of air around her mouth and quickly teleport myself not behind but in front of the hound. I want it to see me, and it does, its eyes widening, just as I ram my blade through its chest.

Black blood oozes from the gash as I yank it out. I reach forward, snapping its neck for good measure.

Its claw drops away from Delilah’s ankle as she comes to, her eyes fluttering open before instinct takes hold and she eviscerates the hound in a golden ball of fire, ensuring it can’t be summoned back to these lands again.

Wrapping my hand around hers, I tug us to the surface. We breach the water with deep gasps, only to be met with the sound of manic cackling, high-pitched screams, and the unmistakable cries of battle.

Before I can truly get my bearings, Delilah is plucked from the water by claws so quickly I can’t even hear the scream she lets out as another hound dives for me, taking me below the water.

My shadows are useless below the water, but my water magic isn’t. I lift my dagger and stab it down into its leathery shoulder, and when it opens its mouth to scream, I pour water down its throat, invading its lungs. It chokes, blubbering and jerking as it drowns.

I don’t have Delilah’s golden magic, but I twist its neck before it sinks to the bottom of the water. We’ll just have to deal with it later when it’s summoned once more.

But I just need to see her, need to know where she was taken.

Gods, I swear after this I’m chaining myself to her.

Swimming to the surface again, I find that we’re completely surrounded. Dozens of demonic hounds descend around us, fighting to retrieve Delilah.

My court are preoccupied, all of them fending off more than two hounds each, with more coming still. My gaze roams the water, coming up short of her, until I feel a tug along the bond and my head whip toward the land. There, hounds wrestle her to the ground, placing iron around her ankles and wrists.

I’m beside her in a second. Two swords in my hands, another flying for Delilah’s outstretched palm.

A feral growl of outrage leaves my lips as I meet the hounds claws to steel and push them back from her. Golden tendrils fight alongside me as Delilah burns those she can reach and fights with a sword for those she isn’t quick enough to melt.

Swinging my sword side to side, I cut a path down to the water toward the thick of it, leaving a trail of decapitated hounds for Delilah to burn. The small swell of relief I feel at finding none landing from the sky anymore is short-lived as the hounds my court kill wake with new vigor, summoned far more quickly than usual.

I spare a look upwards, just in time to see a black hole, a red sky on the other side, evaporate into thin air.

My teeth grit so hard I swear I feel my molars crack.

A fucking portal.

He knows we’re here.

We’re so close, the island beneath my feet supposedly holding the answers we seek. Gods, we’re foolish to not consider the chances of Peter summoning a portal to us.

The dark magic thrumming through his veins, the amount of it he would need to possess to be able to wield such a thing, makes me sick.

I rush back to Delilah, sending a plan down the bond between us. Her eyes flare with hope as I relay another mental order, this one to the members of my court, an extra order to Axel to take Elysia with him when I raise the signal. Her mental shields are impenetrable and have been since the day she arrived, sealed off once Delilah and I left her mind.

Wrapping my arms around Delilah, I lift us into the sky, ignoring the hounds’ feral hisses and growls as they grab at us. My court do the same, taking off.

The second they aren’t touching the water, Delilah jumps from my hands. She lifts her arms and cries out, and when she lands, her impact reverberates with a wave of golden power.

They can’t flee. They can’t fly.

Delilah stands tall and strong, her skin taking on that golden glow, as wave after wave of power burns every last one of them on the spot.