Page 143 of Princess of Bael

Then a tug on my consciousness sent me spinning in a new direction.Ezra.I swam toward him, searching for his presence.Our link.

I grabbed onto the bond and yanked myself through time and space, my soul weeping at the loss of our connection.

Imbalance, I realized after a beat.The battle has started.

We’d lost time.

Somewhere along the way, the inevitable had shifted. And my soul was being ripped apart in the process.

Except, no. I wasn’t alone. I felt Ezra’s energy searching for mine, his power a blade that lashed at my senses, demanding I pay attention.

I reached for him.

And everything stilled.

The sensation of falling. The pain in my abdomen. The dizziness in my mind.

Gone.

For a blink in time.

Until an explosion erupted and sent me spiraling again. Only this time, I could see.Earth. Sky. Clouds. Wings.

Ezra’s arms locked around me in the next breath, his rage at whatever had just occurred washing over me in a blaze of furious energy. “Shadows,” he hissed.

I blurrily glanced over his shoulder to see the Shadow demons in question. My brow furrowed. “How?”

But he didn’t answer. Probably because he couldn’t hear me over the roar of the wind.

I felt weak. Depleted. On the verge of death.

Ezra pressed my lips to his neck, and I bit down on instinct, taking the energy I needed to regain my focus and strength. Something had interrupted our descent.Shadows.

But that wasn’t possible.

Unless Ezra had teleported us directly into a trap.

How?I marveled, dizzy from the sensation of tumbling through the sky. Ezra’s arms were bands beneath my back and legs, cradling me against his chest. I could barely lift my hand to touch him.

Black, I thought, frowning at my skin.My hand is black again.

I shuddered, trying to pull more power into me, but the Shadow demons had sucked the life out of my veins, leaving me a shell of a being no stronger than a human.

My brow furrowed, some link flaring in my mind between the sensation of now and the one I’d felt when battling the inferno.

A connection that had me glancing back up at the Shadow demons chasing us.

The cuff fed off my energy like a Shadow demon,I thought.Ezra. I think whoever is doing this is siphoning energy from Shadow demons.

Which would also explain why Evangeline had been left in the Shadow realm.

Ezra’s feet touched the ground, where he set me down, his wings flaring as he turned to face the demons coming straight for us. He didn’t hesitate, his swords appearing as he created a blinding light that cascaded around us like a circular shield.

I closed my eyes, the brightness making me whimper.

An explosion of power followed, the heat of it a welcome impact against my chilled skin.

I shuddered at the impact, my limbs still weak from their assault. However, a hum of energy began to trickle through my veins. It came from Ezra’s blood but morphed inside me into an inferno of power that chased the darkness from my limbs.