Page 73 of Heir of Broken Souls (HOBF #3)

Chapter 73

Delilah

B efore she can attack me, I wrap my wrist around hers and teleport us. If she can mask herself as Knox, I don’t trust her or her companions to not pull another stunt like before and slip between my grasp.

I refuse to lose her this time.

Her eyes flicker with an emotion I can’t decipher as we land in a clearing littered with bodies. Unfortunately, I can’t spare them a glance now, to grieve at the destruction Peter Maloone and his army have left in their wake. Every ounce of me stays primed and ready to fight against her.

Hazel, now in her own body once more, cocks her head, seemingly bored.

“You weren't with Elysia when she received the last part of the prophecy, were you?”

The question makes me narrow my eyes, but I refuse to take the bait. I refuse to let her distract me so she can drag this out. I’ve learned my lesson.

I lunge, but I come to a halt when she pulls out an object from her pocket. Light reflects off it, a golden hue blinking over my face.

My stomach drops.

It can’t be.

The golden egg ornament sits within her grasp, the one I saw not an hour ago in the prison world.

“I’m sorry for what needs to happen,” she says suddenly, and I’m surprised that she appears honest . “But she’s worth it.”

“Luna?” I ask. “She’s dead,” I spit, trying to bide my time as my brain wracks for a plan. Nothing good can come of how Hazel was in the prison world with us. How she even did so undetected has my stomach bottoming out. How she escaped the castle going up in flames.

“I can get her back!” she bellows, her outburst startling me.

“No, you can’t,” I say forcefully. “She will never be the same and to do that to a child is a fucking travesty.”

I move to take a step forward, watching as her hand tightens on the golden egg.

What is it?

Her mouth opens, her neck flushing red as anger seeps into her gaze, but before she can speak, before she can so much as blink, I’m teleporting once more, appearing behind her. I waste no time in dragging my blade across her neck, feeling the blood?—

My blade drags through nothing but black shadows.

A growl of frustration leaves my lips as a laugh fills the air around me.

My head snaps upwards, my eyes landing on Hazel as she frolics across the clearing, her smile filled to the brim with satisfaction. She throws a dagger in the air and catches it, repeating the action as she purrs, “You’ll have to be faster next time, and believe me when I say I will do everything to get Luna back.” She points her dagger at me. “Including spilling your blood.”

“Why do you need my blood, Hazel?”

She cocks her head. “You truly don’t know, do you?”

I don’t let her words get the better of me. It’s all a game. She’s goading me.

A dagger made of my golden power flies, careening through the air and across the clearing. It sizzles through her hair, nipping the tender skin of her neck. My eyes flare as she screams, smacking a hand to her neck as black oily blood oozes out of her.

I’ve seen enough.

Marching across the clearing, satisfaction hums through my bloodstream as she lifts those eyes to mine and finally drops the mask. No longer is there a coy, bashful Fae taunting me. In her wake stands a monster wanting to destroy me.

“You fucking witch,” she hisses.

Reaching behind my back as I stalk for her, I unsheathe the twin dragon blades, clocking her wide eyes as I spit, “It’s golden witch.” Without taking my hands off the blades I launch another golden dagger, this one for her thigh. “At least get the insult right.”

She bites her lip as her hands tremble. She won’t let me see her pain. I don’t know what it says about me but I can’t wait to tackle the challenge of making her scream in pain.

“Why do you need my blood,” I ask again.

Shadows form in her hands.

“Fucking wretch,” she spits as she flicks her wrists, blast after blast of dark magic screaming for me. “Unfortunately, your disgusting blood is necessary.”

“My disgusting blood?’ I say incredulously, dodging the darkness that comes for me. Then a golden shield snaps into place, and the darkness simply bounces off with a sizzle, dissipating within seconds.

A scream of frustration leaves her lips a second before she charges for me, her hand never letting go of that golden egg.

Her free hand is suddenly clutching a blade and right as she lunges with it outstretched, I teleport behind her, not at all surprised when she anticipates the move and spins. Our swords clash, the sound of steel reverberating through the clearing.

She shouldn’t be this skilled in combat. I should know, I taught her myself…

“Another lie sliding into place?” she taunts.

This only further proves I should kill her.

“Adding another nail in the coffin,” I spit as I lunge, nicking her side.

The black blood that pools along the left side of her stomach doesn’t seem to faze her. It doesn’t even slow her down, but I can see the small fleck of golden power trying to catch. Unlike the demonic creatures earlier, she doesn’t go up in flames.

The work of the dark magic thrumming through her veins is somehow more powerful. A simple cut won’t take her down. I’ll have to dismember her.

She grins wickedly. “How’s Ace doing?” she asks suddenly, making me stumble.

It costs me.

The blade in her hand slices along my abdomen, arcing up toward my heart. A blast of golden light explodes from the cut, shoving her and the blade in her hand across the clearing. My magic pours from me without abandon, filling the clearing and the trees.

Ignoring the pain ripping through me, I take the opportunity over her stunned and blinded form on the grass among the mutilated bodies and pounce. Shoving her to the ground, I pin her wrists above her head as I sit on her chest and push a golden dagger into her throat, until blinding pain slices into my wrists.

Hazel has manipulated her body, changing her nails to grow the length of a demonic hound’s. She claws and maims my hands until I can’t help but yelp in pain and free her from my grasp.

She lifts her blade, aiming for my heart. Spinning to the side, I dodge it just in time. Her blade meets grass and not my heart.

A groan of frustration rises in her chest as she comes for me again and again and again, her hand never once dropping the ornament she’s clutching with a death grip. Her darkness and my golden power dance around each other, and I narrow my eyes. Before I can think better of it, I pounce. My leg comes up, my feet kicking out and making direct contact with her hand. The golden ornament goes flying and with it such a rageful scream from Hazel I can’t help but instinctively clap my hands over my ears.

She lifts her hand and to my astonishment, the golden ornament draws back into her awaiting hand. Using my moment of shock, she reaches out with her blade and slices down my forearm, making blood gush from the wound.

Her smile is serpentine as I try and spin away from another attack, but instead of a blade meeting my skin again, she brings the ornament to my arm. Sick satisfaction fills her blue eyes as my blood pools over the golden egg.

Shadows come at me in all directions. I’m blinded by it, choking on it, as she cocoons me in her darkness of corruption. She’s quick, too quick.

Her lips begin to move, a language rolling off her tongue I’ve never heard before and to my horror, the blood on the ornament turns black. I try with all my might to move, to tear away from her touch and to get that heinous golden ornament away from my blood, but my magic is frozen. Whatever is in her hands is powerful, containing something ancient and wicked.

Suddenly I’m up and against a tree, danglingly by a rope of dark shadow magic wrapped around my neck.

Blind panic infiltrates my system, overriding my magic as I thrash wildly. But no matter how much I claw at the shadows, all I’m successful at is scratching my own skin and kicking the tree bark at my back.

“Finally,” Hazel breathes, taking in a deep pull of air. The veins along her arms protrude, turning from blue to black.

My eyes widen in horror as her eyes darken, now wholly black.

“I command thee, God of Death, release the Fae in your grasp. I command her to return, I command?—”

The babble from this psychotic woman falls on deaf ears as I take in the chaos before me. As I struggle for air.

Hazel’s hands reach out. “Bring her back to me! I command her life to be returned, her life force to be full, her magic to be renewed.”

“You’re so fucking stupid!” I snap. “She will never be the same! You are condemning her to a body that will never be whole or pure?—”

Hazel’s head snaps down, her black eyes turning blue. “She is mine. She doesn’t belong to the God of Death.”

I gurgle, choking on my words. Why isn’t my magic helping?

“It’s a shame, honestly,” she says slowly as she struts toward me. “A travesty that you will die, not knowing your full potential.” A slow smile spreads across her lips. “Although it’s wonderful for?—”

A blade pierces through her back and out of her chest, the tip of it protruding with black blood. Her words stop entirely.

Black blood pools in her mouth as the hold she has on me drops, as Axel stands behind her with the blade through her rotted heart. “It’s about time you stopped talking.”

Catching myself before I drop to the ground on my ass, I quickly rise, breathing in deep gulps of air.

He rounds her form, a sinister smile curving his lips. The second her eyes lock on his, his hand snaps out, wrapping around her throat. He lifts her with little to no effort, his knuckles turning white as her face turns red.

He brings her close to his face, rage contorting every feature.

“I’m going to enjoy every second of this.” His eyes flare. “Mark my words, Hazel, this will be the most painful moment of your life, and nothing fills me with more joy than to be the one to do it.”

He slaps the golden egg out of her hand like it’s nothing but a pesky fly, and her eyes fill with horror as he brings a dagger up to her face and carves .

She screams out with such agony I’m stunned speechless. I can’t even do anything until he finishes, pulling the dagger away, smiling at the words he carved into her face.

Ace.

“So you’ll die knowing who this was for,” he spits before shoving his dagger into her chest and pushing down. He flings the dagger away as Hazel chokes on black blood, and before I realize what he’s doing, Axel shoves his hand into her chest and wraps it around her heart.

He grins. “Still pumping I see. Very interesting.”

His entire being vibrates with the anger brimming in his body.

Axel doesn’t make the mistake I did.

He doesn’t hesitate and he doesn’t pause.

“I hope you burn in hell for eternity,” he whispers so dangerously low his voice is death incarnate. “But mark my words, if you don’t, I’ll hunt you down in the afterlife and torture you until Death himself condemns me to hell.”

And with his words he rips his hand from her chest, taking her heart with him.

Hazel’s body sags, her eyes now unseeing as her head drops.

Black blood pools from the various wounds along her body and despite the heart in his hand, he drops her body to the ground only to pick up a blade with his free hand.

He strikes, over and over, screaming with such hatred and rage. His swings never stopping.

Rushing for him, I place a hand on his shoulder, scrambling backwards as he turns his animalistic eyes on me.

“She’s gone,” I say.

My words finally penetrate. His head snaps back to her body and down to the rotten heart in his hands. Then he heaves. Despite the burning in my throat, I move toward him again, not knowing what to do or say now.

But I don’t need to.

“I have waited months for this,” he declares hoarsely. “So why does it not feel as good as I thought it would?”

His shoulders drop with such heavy defeat, I forget the pain in my throat and the bodies lying around us. Even Hazel’s fades into nothing.

He shakes his head, silver lining his eyes. “It didn’t bring him back.”

My heart stops. “We knew it wouldn’t,” I answer softly.

He sobs in earnest, clutching his chest. “But it should have made me feel better. Her death should have made the ache in my heart hurt less, so tell me why all I feel is pain.”

“Because revenge is best served slowly,” a voice booms across the clearing, sobering us both. “Haven’t you learned anything from me, Delilah?”

The twin dragon swords are in my hands, Hazel’s death and betrayal forgotten, as Axel and I turn to face Peter, grinning from ear to ear. He beholds Hazel lying at our feet, her blood dripping from Axel’s hands.

“I feel I should thank you for cleaning up my mess,” he tsks. “She was a pesky little thing, always demanding such abominations.” He gestures at me. “Quite like you, she was a dreamer. What a pity. At least now she will be reunited with whoever she sold her soul for.” He cocks his head. “What was her name? Lilly? Lucy?”

“Luna,” I find myself spitting.

“Ah, yes, that’s the one.” His eyes spark as they narrow on my blades. “I see you found the keys to the portal. How was the trip?”

“Sweltering,” I respond, taking a slow step forward over Hazel’s body. “Someone burned the castle down.”

A muscle ticks in his jaw.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” I say sweetly. “Should have known it was yours. It had been invested with rodents with how disgustingly dark it was.”

He flashes me a thin smile. “Not to worry, my new home is much larger.”

I don’t take the bait. After all, I learned to never rise to his disgusting words.

I lift my blades and pray Axel is paying attention as I point my finger to the left. I need a distraction. I need time and a moment where Peter takes his eyes off me for just one second.

I know the blades will kill him. The prophecy hasn’t failed us so far, and I know that it will ring true when I bring these blades together and slice his heart in two.

But I need to find the right moment. I only have one shot at this.

I tug on Aurora’s bond, hoping and praying she comes to me and that the invisibility magic holds.

He paces around the clearing, never taking those beady eyes off me and the dragon swords in my palms. “There was this one estate I saw from the sky. It piqued my interest. Perhaps you know it? A large white building along the sea cliffs, with a horse and griffin pastur?—”

His words die as a golden dagger sinks into the ground at his feet.

“I’d rather die than see you in Knox’s estate.”

The corner of his lips lift. “Well, that is the plan.” He taps his lip. “Not yet, though, I still have use for you. But after that…perhaps I’ll frame those golden wings of yours as a trophy for all I’ve accomplished.”

The spot between my shoulder blades seems to pulse in fury, right along with my magic that is pacing like a wild animal beneath my skin. I continue to coax it, breathing in and out through my nose.

Not yet.

Cannot pounce just yet.

Leaves crunch, twigs snap, and a grunt roars out as Peter’s beady eyes slide behind me.

I don’t need to turn to know Axel has his attention, nor do I need to look. I run. Not away but to him, with golden tendrils swarming my entire body, my dragon swords leading the charge.

Peter lifts his hand and Axel’s scream fills the clearing before a deafening thunk rings out. My chest constricts at the sound of pain wailing from him but I can’t look, not when the fate of everyone’s lives hangs within my hands.

I push my feet as fast I can go. I’m only a couple steps away before—dark shadows snap for me. But they just bounce off my magic and gilded skin.

The dark magic can’t touch me, and by the widening of his eyes, he only just realized.

Lifting my hands, I swarm him with power.

A bright ball of golden power slams directly into his chest. Satisfaction fills my heart as he goes flying, careening through the air until his own shadows rise for combat.

The majority of it sizzles and melts from a mere touch of my magic, but he has so much power behind him that it doesn’t matter. He continues to push his dark magic against mine, forcing me to halt as he gets to his feet.

He screams a war cry and the next wave of his power pushes me backwards, my feet sliding through the mud. My magic protests within me, rising without my consent, swarming him like a tornado of destruction. He wraps himself in his own shadows, mirroring my defense.

My magic alone could only kill him if he was in his true form. I need to get close enough to use the twin dragon swords against his heart.

It’s the only way.

The swarm of black and gold colors in our magic dance before me, ironically the colors of the human court, growing larger with every passing second.

“Cease your power!” he screams over the roar of the magic.

“ Never .”

A scream of agony tears through the field.

I don’t lower my shields or drop my power but my head snaps to the side. Axel, suspended by shadows, has an arrow through his shoulder.

“Drop it or I send another for his heart!”

“No!” Axel screams. “Don’t listen to him, Delilah! Keep fighting!”

Gods, where is Aurora?

Where is anyone?

Tears well in my eyes because as much as my heart cries for Axel, I know he is right, I can’t stop this. He’s only shooting arrows his way because he can’t keep this up.

Gritting my teeth, I lock away any and all distractions.

Throwing up a golden shield around Axel costs me a tiny slither of my power, but there is still no end in sight to its flow.

For which no dark magic can escape, the golden tendrils it can create.

The prophecy chants within my mind like a war drum as I continue to fight back.

As I weaponize the pain he has caused against my battered heart.

As I use the strength he thought he broke but instead built.

As I utilize the sheer force of my determination to see him suffer.

I scream, and allow my magic to entirely consume me. The transformation is quicker than the first time, far less painful.

As my wings explode from my back and my fingers glow a golden hue, the magic flowing from my palm pours and pours and pours. It pushes the dark magic back so much I hear him scream.

Another arrow flies for Axel but I can’t look. I can’t be distracted, not as with every step I take toward him the easier it is. My wings start to flap, my feet slowly lifting off the forest floor as the names of my loved ones he has taken ring through my mind.

Easton.

Annie.

Eleanor.

Ace.

Me.

Because he took me, too.

He stole my soul; he held me captive and broke me down day by day with his fists and his words. He has done everything in his power to utterly crush me, and this is my revenge. This is my vengeance against the monster that tried to destroy me from the inside out.

I am standing and I am fighting.

He has not broken me.

“You do not have power over me,” I declare as my wings take me to him.

I find Peter within a swirl of his own darkness, stewing with hatred. This close, his power parts for my golden one. His neck flushes crimson, a vein pulsing along his forehead.

I land in front of him, placing the twin dragon swords across his neck as my golden magic latches onto his wrists and ankles, keeping him captive. The way fury fills his eyes is like no other. It is a wine I want to get drunk on every day, a power that floods my veins.

It is a look I capture within my mind to never forget. It is the look of defeat in my enemy’s gaze.

Where the blades meet his skin, black blood spills, and small golden ambers spark within the cut, making him cry out in pain.

“I hope this hurts,” I whisper, seconds before I drag the blade across his neck, the dragons glowing gold as the sword begins to light with?—

“If you kill me, you’ll never find Knox!” he screeches.

The blades stop moving entirely. My canines flare.

“You’re lying!”

I run along the bridge of my mind, not waiting for his answer. I call for him, only to find his mind sealed tight, shrouded in shadows. The bond is flooded with tightness and pain.

How could I not feel this before?

How could I not feel the agony of him?

What type of magic did he use against him?

Peter flicks his fingers in my grasp, summoning a portal that swirls behind his shoulder as dozens—no, hundreds —of demonic hounds flank me with blades. The sight makes my stomach turn but my magic remains fighting for me when my heart no longer can.

Peter heaves, clutching his neck as he uses dark magic to heal the cut, but I note it doesn’t fully heal. A faint golden scarslices across his neck now, the mark of the golden witch.

Axel cries out from somewhere behind me, still pinned to the tree as we look through the portal the dark lord has created.

Through it, Knox kneels, with his arms and ankles chained in iron. Surrounded by a horde of demonic creatures, they whip, cut, strike, and slash his battered body within the iron that leaves him utterly helpless.

Tears spring into my eyes.

My heart stops beating.

My chest constricts.

My knees buckle.

A scream tears from my lungs.

My magic rises instinctively as it feels my pain but Peter bares his teeth. “You so much as move an inch and I’ll have his head rolling.”

Slamming my magic down, commanding it to cease, pain and panic trap me in a vise.

I can’t breathe. I can’t think. I cannot function as the love of my life is beaten.

“Stop!” I scream. “Stop it!”

Tears are streaming down my face, my heart is splitting in two, and I do the only thing I can think of in this moment of despair.

Before I drop my golden power, I make one last move. I vanquish the only thing that can kill Peter when he isn’t in his true form. Wherever Aurora is, wherever she is flying, I call upon my magic and teleport the twin swords to her, taking them from my grasp. Then I placate myself and kneel before the dark lord and plead.

“Take me instead.”

Axel screams behind me, but I don’t take my eyes off Knox, not as his head hangs limply. He isn’t moving. Another demonic hound strikes him with a whip.

“Stop this!” I scream. “Take me! Take me instead. You want me, not him, so take me!”

I’ve turned feral. I can hear it in my voice, the utter panic and mania entering.

I have just doomed us all, but none of this is worth it if he is gone.

None of it.

I’d rather be sent to the depths of hell. I would rather float through the endless pit of the universe than leave him in the demonic creatures’ clutches.

I am surrounded by hundreds of hounds, Zephlyn is nowhere to be found, his promise to keep Knox safe broken, and I am at Peter’s mercy…and he knows it. Peter steps forward, his eyes gleaming with such delight I can’t help but sob as I lay my forehead on the muddied and bloodied forest ground and beg.

“Take me instead of him, please,” I sob. “I don’t care what you do to me so long as you let him live.”

“You would really give your life for his?” he asks suddenly.

“ Yes !” I scream with such fury spit flies from me.

Axel is still crying, screaming at the top of his lungs, but all I can hear is my erratic heartbeat and the sound of Knox’s unconscious body being whipped to a bloody pulp.

“Take me.”

He steps back, assessing me, before he grins, devilishly wide. I just gave him what he wanted most in this world, what he has hunted down for months.

The golden witch.

Shadows wrap around my arms and iron suddenly encases my hands, feet, and mouth.

He leans forward, the putrid stench of his breath wafting over me. “You just sentenced them all to ruin.”

A sob tears from my throat and tears fall freely down my cheeks.

I know, and it’s the most selfish choice I’ve ever made in my entire life.

He turns and whistles. “Bring him to me!”

My breath hitches as Knox is unhooked from the chains and dragged across the field, through the portal, and dumped at Peter’s feet. He kicks him before using his shadows to hold him upright.

He won’t wake.

Why won’t he wake?

Peter cocks his head. “How unfortunate.”

I frown as he continues to study Knox, until he moves forward, a dagger suddenly in his hand.

Then he stabs Knox in the chest.

Knox awakes with a startle. Pain engulfs him, his eyes flaring wide to witness me scream behind the iron mask Peter places over me.

He rises with a dark chuckle and whispers in my ear, “First rule of war, Delilah: never trust your enemies.”

Peter flicks another dagger at Knox, this time striking his heart.

“ No !” I shriek. “We had a deal! You promised! Him for me!”

He chuckles. “I never promised such a thing.”

Zephlyn lands behind Knox, his eyes flying to me. “You promised you’d keep him safe! You promised me!” I scream at him.

Axel is suddenly sprinting toward Knox. I almost miss the tear that falls from Knox’s eye as they flutter shut, and then his body slumps.

Peter Maloone’s dark chuckle penetrates through my cries as he wraps his hand around my bicep and takes me away in iron shackles.