Page 40 of Shadows Ascend (Remnant Archives #2)
T he woman's brows rose high on her head, ignoring the fact that I commanded a very fiery, irritated dragon behind me, along with a monstrous black panther that was clearly checking out my ass.
"I have no kin," she simply stated.
Shadows licked up my arms. "Consider our fathers…distant relatives." It was a hunch but the death god did say to trust my instincts…
Fire lit in her eyes and she stepped another foot forward threateningly, stopping when a golden hand from her angel companion fell on her shoulder.
I kept my reaction neutral, but I immediately took a dislike to him, how in the goddess was an angel in the Vagari anyway? My eyes subtly shifted to the other male whose jaw was clenching hard, flanking her opposite side.
Despite his red skin and great horns, he was remarkably handsome. Shoulder length black hair was pulled halfway back from his scowling face and his great wings were far more impressive than the irritatingly bright feathers of his companion.
A companion that he obviously loathed, the darkened expression on his face growing with every whispered breath the angel made when he leaned into his leader.
When the fire in her eyes died out, she responded back to him, muttering under her breath
"She asks if he has ever seen creatures like me before," Emon translated smugly.
I grinned inwardly, "Sometimes it pays off to have a shifter soulmate."
"Sometimes…" he growled back.
"Have I told you that I love you today?" I added facetiously.
I could hear Emon's panther chuff quietly, still watching the female and her companion whisper conspiringly towards each other.
"If I could lie, I'd tell you no, so that you'd be forced to say it over and over again, like you were last night," he growled low and I shivered.
" The last few hours of silence was the worst kind of torture.
You know I love to have anything spill from those delectable lips…
anger, love, the cry of my name…anything but that fucking silence," he paused.
"The angel cannot be trusted. He is suggesting we are a danger and that she should kill us. "
Wings snapped outward before tucking back in, startling all of us.
"For fucks sake, my queen do not listen to that feather brained idiot ,” the one with fierce horns and deep red skinned growled.
“They are fae. Powerful ones. I can fucking smell it on them.
" Something swished fiercely behind him in his outburst.
My eyes widened. It was a tail! One that was tapered black at the end, same color as his curling horns, and it was flicking back and forth like a sharp whip on his very large muscular body.
Realization dawned on me and I cursed my father to the darkest depths of Sheol. "Demons. They are demons," I called to Emon.
He hissed. "And one angel, fucking goddess, Shea did say this realm was shared, which means the Vagari is also—"
"Hell," I finished for him. "And this must be Lucifer’s—"
"Offspring. Fuck," Emon spat and I nodded, fully agreeing with his sentiment.
The female's hand shot up to stop the irritated demon towering over her. "Calm yourself Zazion." She frowned at us and her voice was laced with condescension. " Fae …as in tiny little winged creatures with fairy dust flitting around getting humans trapped in dancing rings."
I twirled the shadows around me, before curling them over my hand and arm. Bowing mockingly, I smiled. "A common misconception…the fae don't flit."
Emon's panther snorted.
"Fae." She tapped her finger to her red lips, deep in thought before a slow sultry smile spread across her face. "Ah yes, I remember now." Snapping her fingers, instant fire circled around us and from it, heavy chains sprouted, snapping outwards like poisonous snakes.
The fire drake roared, his instinct to protect me, his queen, strong as he breathed his own vicious fire down upon the unsuspecting army. Demons cried out, breaking their lines and sending them into chaos.
Dodging the chains whipping around us, one grazed the bare skin of my leg and I felt a familiar searing pain that caused my stomach to seize.
" Iron! " I hissed at Emon who leapt away only to hiss as the fire closed in on him. Charging the shadows, I doused the flames, blanketing them in darkness and opening a path for him to bolt through. " Go !" I roared inwardly to him.
My soulmate did not hesitate, escaping right before another iron chain wrapped itself around my leg, sending me crashing to the ground.
I hissed through the goddess forsaken metal burrowing into my flesh and the sudden immense void of my shadow power being gone…again.
"Remnant!" Emon roared in my head, I could just make out his gold eyes flashing back at me even as he ran at full pace far from here.
The shadows masking my daughter on top of him unraveling, her eyes locking with mine, clutching her pookah tightly to her chest with one arm, and her spear with the other.
Subtly, I shook my head towards her. "Don't stop. Don't come back. I'll find you," I commanded.
"Little umbra—" Emon's voice felt strained, our connection quieting the further he went, the more the iron bore into me.
"Trust me shifter."
"Lucifer's cock!" the female cried and slashed her hand down. "I don't have time for this! Zazion. Hunt down that monster of a cat, send the hell hounds after him if you have to. I can't have the realm of Wrath gaining the upper hand with power like that!"
Hesitating, the handsome red demon gave me one final thoughtful look before stretching out his leathered wings, monstrous compared to his frame before he snapped his tail down and thrusted up into the air.
I watched as he banked immediately towards the blurring panther in the distance.
I narrowed my eyes on him, the way he just looked at me…
I snapped up when a sharp wail cut off the firedrake’s inferno that was still raging upon the demon army and watched with veiled horror as it thudded to the ground, huffing out its final breath in a smokey plume. A singular orange eye locked onto mine, his final thoughts so easy to see.
Remorse for not being able to protect me.
Slowly my eyes trailed up from the fallen firedrake and stared coldly at the angel who yanked his spear from the beast’s heart, swiping back his auburn hair with an air of annoyance and arrogance.
Despite the sickening nausea from the irons and the rising panic the searing metal created, I rose against them and held the male’s gaze while my flesh burned. "You just made a very grave mistake."
Angry violet eyes suddenly bored into mine, shielding her gloating companion. "I don't respond well to threats, fae. Especially ones made to my angel," she sneered.
I stepped forward against the chains and didn’t flinch when it burned so hot my leg split open, the trail of my blood trickling down my thigh cooling compared to continuous burns. "Nor do I, demon."
She snarled holding my gaze a moment longer before the most gorgeous wings unfurled from her back. Red feathers covered the tops and crest while they slowly faded into black leathered wings on the bottom. "I don't have time for this. The centurion mating frenzy is now out of control thanks to you."
My brows rose. A mating frenzy?
Snapping her fingers, several fierce demons with varying degrees of horns, tails, and wings circled around me. "Place her in more irons and drag her back to our camp," she commanded before swooping her wings downward and launching into the sky with her angel following after her.
I turned to watch them but was forcibly yanked back by more chains lashing across my wrists.
Snarling, I rounded on the new group of demons, rolling towards one that had a rather pretty and sharp sword on his hip.
Wrenching it from his side, I stood again, holding it high over my head, slowly turning in a circle studying every single one that moved in closer.
My hair whipped across my face and I breathed in deep, feeling the deadly calm the weight of a sword in my hand brought me. Cocking a brow at the stunned demons, I grinned darkly. "Who wants to play first?"