Page 53 of Lady of Starfire (Lady of Darkness #5)

“Those terms were not agreed to,” Eliza interjected.

“I do not deal with low-level grunts,” he sneered.

Eliza only smirked, memorizing every line of his face. She would be the one to send him to the After.

“You do not get to come to my lands and disrespect the family of my sovereign,” Arianna said. Solid and unflinching. Fierce and demanding. That was who the Beta had always been. She took another step towards the seraphs, Shifters beginning to slink into view. Feline and lupine. Fangs and claws.

“Where is your Alpha?” the male retorted.

Arianna went utterly still, and Eliza realized in that moment, she may have to relinquish the male’s death to the Beta.

Until a spear came flying out of nowhere.

It pierced the seraph right between the eyes.

The male stumbled, dropping to a knee. Before he raised his hand to reach for the spear, Eliza had his wings alight with flames.

Sariah and Ilyas stalked forward in their Shifter forms, while Stellan appeared in his human form, armor in place that matched his sister’s and a feral rage emanating off him.

He held another spear in his hand, and his opposite hand had claws.

The look on his face said they were done talking. Bloodshed it would be then.

The flames that had started on the seraph’s wings were suddenly out, his body twitching on the ground. He would heal. They healed faster than the Fae.

“There are wind wielders here,” Ashtine gasped, her lilt tight and strained. “Several of them. They are working against my power.”

“Shit,” Eliza cursed. The unit had kept their own element of surprise. They’d let some of their own fall to keep them from knowing what gifts they had. “Cut off their wings. Keep them grounded. We get them down and bleeding, then we end them all at once.”

There was murmured agreement. Soft golden flashes of light had the Alpha and Beta shifting. A sleek black and white tiger stood next to Jamahl, and a massive lion standing between the jaguar and wolf roared his challenge.

Eliza twirled her sword in her hand, the bow and quiver discarded. She locked eyes with Sawyer. “They do not get near her.”

Sawyer nodded.

The Shifters attacked.

Blood sprayed.

If a seraph made it past a Shifter, they met Eliza.

Not one made it to Sawyer.

Sounds of battle filled the air. The snarls of animals.

The bellows of men. The clanging of metal and steel.

It was a song that filled her veins as Eliza fought with blade and fire.

She felt the winds suck the air from her flames over and over.

That was fine. If they stayed focused on her fire, they weren’t focusing on the others plunging blades through chests and sinking fangs into limbs.

Her sword had just sliced across an abdomen, warm blood splattering across her arms and leathers when Sawyer’s warning cry reached her.

She whirled to find a handful of seraphs that had gotten airborne and were circling around to come for Ashtine from behind.

Maliq was snarling, his teeth bared as the winged beings landed feet away.

Eliza raced for them, but a gust of wind slammed into her, knocking her onto her back.

She hit the ground hard, the air forced from her chest, but a moment later there was more oxygen finding its way into her lungs.

She rolled, pushing onto her hands and knees, and found Ashtine with one hand extended towards her. The other had water pouring from it, a wall of ice forming between her and the seraphs as Sawyer added his own water, freezing it at the same time.

Eliza was on her feet with the next breath she sucked in.

She sheathed her spirit sword, pulling a dagger from her side instead.

Flinging out a hand, fire flared, melting a small portion of the wall.

Big enough for her to get through, but too small for the seraphs.

She let a ball of flame grow in her palm, then she looked back over her shoulder at Ashtine.

The princess nodded, her face already paling from the exertion of using so much power at once.

With a mighty surge of wind magic, the flames in Eliza’s palm exploded through the hole she had melted.

She heard the cries of the seraphs as she clamored through. A rope of fire wrapped around the neck of the nearest one. Eliza yanked, forcing him to his knees while her dagger went across his throat. On this side of the ice wall, she found herself facing seven other seraphs alone.

Shaping her flames into knives, she launched them at the seraphs.

One after another. A knife of steel followed each one.

The first four found their targets. By the fifth, they’d caught on, but that was fine.

She wasn’t aiming to take them down. She wanted to know what magic they possessed, what she was up against. Two shielded with water.

One created a shield of sand. Three had wind. And the last?

Eliza swallowed her cry of surprise as her hands were wrenched behind her back.

Shit.

Shit, fuck, shit.

This one had the power to move things with his mind, just like Scarlett and Callan had said Veda had.

She was being forced to her knees a moment later, but fire still flared around them, forcing them to split their focus.

She set wings and clothing alight. While the other seraphs were combating her magic, she sent flames winding around the one who was holding her to the ground.

He sneered at her, a victorious smirk lifting on his lips.

Until those flames went up his nose. His mouth opened on a silent scream, and her fire went down his throat. Her invisible bindings released, and Eliza was on her feet in the next moment. Her spirit sword was burning as she plunged it into his gut with a vicious snarl.

She was panting and sweating, her magic starting to wane, but she turned to face the other seraphs who were already recovering from her onslaught. Sucking in a deep breath, she hefted her sword up again.

And then sagged in relief as they all went up in black flames.

She knew those flames, and while she could have held her own, she was really fucking glad when she felt him land behind her.

“Make sure that one is dead,” she said between gasping breaths, pointing to the one who had forced her to her knees.

“As you wish, Milady,” came his taunting drawl.

She finally turned to look at him and almost went to her knees again.

His black wings were out and splayed wide, the talons at the end sharp and deadly.

Brown hair was a mess from flying, falling into his glowing sapphire eyes that raked over her, pausing at the blood splatters.

His nostrils flared as he scented whether it was her blood.

Then the corner of his mouth tipped up in a taunt, and he spat black flames onto the seraph she had pointed to.

With a growl, she flipped him off before swiping up a few of her knives and shoving them into sheaths. She tossed fire at the wall of ice, a signal to Sawyer that it could come down, and moments later, water was rushing across the sand, turning it into a muddy mess.

The battle still raged, but there were more seraphs bleeding than Shifters. Razik looked her over one more time, before he was back in the sky to combat the few seraphs that had been able to get airborne and were raining arrows on their company.

Eliza rejoined the fighting, conserving her magic and feeling confident leaving Sawyer and Maliq to guard Ashtine.

Until Maliq let out a piercing howl that ripped through the sounds of battle.

Instinctively, her attention went to the sky, where two griffins were approaching, flying fast and hard.

They were still airborne when the females on their backs leapt into the fray.

Eliza immediately recognized one as Arantxa.

The dark-skinned Witch was the High Witch’s Second.

The Witch rolled when she hit the sand, two daggers flying as she flipped to her feet then drew her swords.

The other was Talwyn Semiria.

Leathers in place, hair braided back, and the same impassive mask she always wore, Talwyn drew her blade and fought alongside the Witch.

The female may not have a drop of magic in her veins anymore, but she had trained with weapons longer than she had trained with power.

She was as deadly as the Witch beside her, even if she was no longer as quick or graceful.

Having Razik in the sky aided them to the point where there were only a few seraphs left when a male voice boomed across the din of the fighting.

“Stand down!”

The seraphs instantly stilled, weapons dropping to their sides. The Shifters all began looking around in confusion, Eliza doing the same. Razik landed beside her a moment later, an arm gripping her elbow. She saw why at the same moment an agonized cry came from Talwyn.

“Ashtine!”

Maliq was on his belly, whining softly. Sawyer was beside the spirit animal on his knees, gaze pinned on the Wind Princess.

Because there was a dagger at her throat and one poised at her rounded belly.

And Death’s Shadow was holding both of the blades.

A seraph stood next to Nuri, and this one Eliza recognized. Mordecai. The commander of the seraph forces. “Do not move,” he snarled at Sawyer and the wolf.

Eliza tightened her grip on her sword, preparing to start swinging once more. Mordecai’s grey eyes slid over her in a way that had Razik growling low and tugging her back into his chest. But the seraph walked right past them, his grey wings shifting slightly as he moved.

There were three seraphs left alive. Stellan, Ilyas, and Sariah were near one. Arianna and Jamahl, along with a mountain cat shifter, were near another. The third still had his blade in the chest of a female on the ground, shifted back to her human form when death had claimed her.