Page 173 of Wicked Bonds

“I’ve got Adriel,” her father announced. “Caro will find me once she finishes rousing Blake.”

Rousing Blake?Stas thought.

But she didn’t have a minute to ask what that meant because Leek had fired off a series of those grenade-like wards again.

Stas soared through the air, catching the majority and throwing them into the ocean. A few escaped her, causing another fiery explosion, but the Hydraians handled the aftermath.

We need a way to bring them down, Stas gritted out as she continued playing a game of interference.The Hydraian gifts are useless against them.

Fire would work on them if they were corporeal, Issac replied.

How do we make them—

A net came soaring toward her, the strands humming with power. She ducked, the edge of the ethereal fabric stroking her wing and drawing a gasp from her throat.

Stark had never shown herthattrick.

And the scream of a Hydraian on the beach told her it worked on everything that moved, not just a Seraphim in an angelic state.

I’ll handle it, Issac said as Stas began to turn toward the poor immortal trapped beneath the energy. It probably resembled an invisible fire to him.

London, Stas recalled, the Hydraian only a few hundred years old with the ability to control air.Can you show him the strands?

Already working on it, love,Issac replied, his mental voice exhausted.Focus on the orbs.

Stas glanced back at Leek, noting the incoming firepower, and leapt for the sky again to catch his spheres.

Only, these were different.

They didn’t wait to explode, they fired the second she touched one, slamming her into the ground. She misted to the ocean before another could touch her, Issac’s concerned shout in her mind.

I’m okay, she wheezed, the impact of the initial orb having set her body on fire.

But the water cooled her immediately, dispelling the burn as her immortality kicked into overdrive to heal her.

Stark went way too easy on me, she muttered to herself, attempting to ruffle out her feathers as another glowing ball sailed toward her.

Her eyes widened, and she misted just in time for it to miss.

Leek flew above her, his expression bored. “You should have taken Adriel’s offer.” A flat statement, followed by another energy net that she barely escaped.

At least he was focused on her and not the Hydraians on the beach. That left three for them to handle via Issac’s visual assistance, and one very skilled warrior for her to play a game of hide-and-seek with.

She misted above him into the clouds. Then disappeared to reappear at his right.

Where an orb was already waiting for her.

It hit her square in the abdomen, sending her crashing into the ocean on a gasp of pain. The energy ball morphed into a boulder, shoving her down to the sand below the surface and trapping her beneath the water.

On her back.

Her heart fluttered, nightmares crashing through her mind of being chained beneath the waves.

Screaming in agony.

Dying over and over again.

Unable to escape.