Page 48 of Wings of Darkness (Daughter of the Seven Circles #2)

Chapter

Thirty

LUCILL E

S hadows shot out, covering the Shard Field, the creepy forest, and all the light. My stomach fluttered—not because I couldn’t see in front of my face, but because of the immediate peace I found within the wispy darkness.

“They created me with the Weaver’s Book to be a tool for torture.”

I stilled. They? Who the hell were they?

“Their goal was simple—render the sinful useless. So they made me with the ability to knock someone unconscious with a shadowball. Clean. No blood. Just silence them.”

His unnerving tone felt like a warning, meant to intimidate us.

His chilling words should’ve made my skin crawl.

I should’ve wanted to run as far and fast as I could out of his shadows.

Yet, his voice wavered the slightest bit, as if haunted by the they who created him or by his powers.

I felt no fear—only a tightening in my chest.

“But knocking the sinful unconscious wasn’t enough,” he whispered. “They demanded blood. Pain. Power. So they made me with shadows that could touch, maim, and bleed the body.”

Someone grabbed hold of my chin, tilting it up. I stared into undulating darkness, searching for a spark of gold. I tried to grab his hand, feeling an urge to soothe his ghosts and ease the drop of bitterness in his voice. But he wasn’t there, only his shadows were.

“They designed them to absorb blood, infiltrate minds, and drown them in the darkness I ruled.” His voice slid through the air like a silk-wrapped blade—nowhere and everywhere at once.

“So my victims felt the tampering of their minds as I shut off functions, burst blood vessels, and stopped their hearts.”

“Only if their shield isn’t strong enough,” Alexei said gently, as if he, too, picked up on the general’s nearly imperceptible shame.

“And they rarely are,” he uttered quietly.

“Ro—” Alexei started.

“You’ve seen the extent of our powers. Now, we’ll recreate the attack,” the general interrupted, his voice all business.

“Alexei will be Ni, and he will be attempting to get the hellion over the border of the Veil Forest. Hellion, your goal is to either escape Alexei or knock him out. Oliver can help you, but Rune will sit this one out.”

I bit my lip, holding back the questions burning on my tongue. I wanted to know more about his past, but he likely didn’t want to confide in me—nor would he welcome the consoling touch itching in my fingers. So I let it go.

“Am I only allowed to use my Glory? ”

“Yes. That’s what this training is about.”

“And your shadows?” I asked.

“Me and my shadows stay as they are, easier to protect you from Alexei’s lightning strikes,” he explained. “And easier to remove feeling from Oliver’s limbs when you misallocate your energy.”

“Excuse me?” I narrowed my eyes. “Why punish Oliver instead of me?”

“Because I’m well aware you’d risk your life without thinking,” he snapped. “This is an exercise in restraint, precision, and control. Understood?”

A shadow-hand tilted my chin up, lacking warmth and the rough texture of the general’s glove. I glared up into the wisps. “Understood.”

Warm breath tickled my cheek near my ear, spicy balsam hitting my nose.

“Good,” he whispered, his lips brushing my skin and the heat of his body warming my back. “Because you’re not fucking replaceable.” He stayed there a moment longer than necessary, his angry words hanging in the air.

My stomach fluttered at his nearness, only to be replaced by crushing guilt.

I shouldn’t be affected by his scent or love the vehemence of his words.

I shouldn’t want to press my back flush against his or feel the need to console him with my touch.

I was just a job to him. His words didn’t mean he cared about me.

He was right—I wasn’t replaceable. As the first and only Princess of Hell, he needed to keep me alive for my father.

And just because he stood close didn’t mean he was drawn to me—craving my scent like I craved his.

He most likely wanted to intimidate me. My frivolous attraction to him was shameful. Aspen was my priority .

I stepped away from the general, straightening my spine.

“Alexei!” he shouted. “Let’s begin.”

A flash of lightning split the sky. I latched onto Oliver’s arm, yanking him toward the Shard Field. The plan? I didn’t have one. I needed one.

“Do you have a plan?” I asked, bumping into the wall of icicles.

“I could try to touch him.”

“If you can catch me,” Alexei taunted from nearby.

Shit.

I dragged Oliver farther down the icy wall, cringing with each crunching footstep. A flash of lightning briefly lit our surroundings. Trees bordered the edge up ahead—cover. If we could make it there, we’d have more obstacles to hide behind.

“Beautiful, you do realize I’m taunting you, right?” Alexei called from our left, lighting up the sky. “I can hear your footsteps. I can see you.”

A bolt slammed into the path ahead, snow exploding into the air, proving his point.

I gasped, freezing in place. Glory prickled beneath my skin—a good sign.

I needed to use it. But if it surfaced, how could I stop Alexei without burning him alive?

My heart pounded as I fought for a solution. But I didn’t have one.

“Lusceler to the trees, Oli.”

“You’re going to do half my work for me? I could just kiss you.” Alexei chuckled.

Another bolt crashed to my right, shattering ice. Shards sprayed our uniforms. Before I could react, another struck inches from my boots, hurling me into Oliver .

Through the ringing in my ears, I swore I heard a low grow—from wherever Rune was—but then jagged plasma ruptured the Shard Field again.

Strike after strike hit, and Oliver flipped me over, shielding my body with his own.

I stared at his bloodied face in horror, seeing all the nicks and cuts. I touched my own and found nothing.

The general was protecting me. But not Oliver. He was Rune in this scenario.

Would the general go so far as to let Oliver get struck by lightning? Or just ice?

It was one thing to agree to the general numbing a limb, but I didn’t think… I guess that was it. I didn’t think. The general needed blood to infiltrate Oliver’s mind, so of course, he’d have to bleed somewhere.

“Roll over, Oliver,” I said, flinching with each lightning strike. I tried to push him off, but he resisted. “Oliver!”

“I’m trying to protect you! Alexei is just ahead.”

“I don’t need protection!” I shouted, gesturing to his face. “You do!”

“Fine, I suppose I can’t disagree there. But this exercise is about you getting taken. We only win if you don’t.”

“No. It’s about using my Glory. But it’s never surfaced on command, and I have no idea how to wield it without killing Alexei.”

The general had miscalculated. He didn’t realize that my skill level with Glory equated to a child’s. Did shielding Rune against Ni give him the impression I had more control? Or was this how he normally trained his Dreads?

“Well, that’s problematic. What if I scared you and?—”

Time slowed .

A bolt cracked through the sky, zigzagging toward Oliver’s back. My eyes widened. Needles pierced my skin. I didn’t think.

I threw out my hands and screamed as my Glory shredded me apart. Blinding white flames arched around us, colliding with Alexei’s lightning in a resounding boom that blasted apart every shard of ice within a ten-foot radius.

Oliver cringed from the heat, sinking closer to my body. I pushed my flames higher, expanding the sphere. Ice sizzled. My vision blurred. My arms trembled.

Sand weighed down my limbs, threatening to drag me under. I released my power, slumping into the muddy ground.

Oliver groaned and rolled off me. “That was almost as bad as the tree incident—except this time I felt like a slow-roasting squirrel.”

“Sorry,” I muttered, letting my head fall back. “But you’re okay, right?”

“Just peachy.”

The undulating darkness cleared, revealing the silver moonlight of Hell, the face of the general with Rune at his side, and Alexei’s bloody face.

My stomach dropped. “I’m sorry.”

He only grinned. “You knocked me on my ass, so I’d like to say you won, but…”

“You failed,” the general stated coldly.

I stared him dead in the eye. “I will never let harm come to those I love. I will always put them before myself. I thought you gathered that after I protected Rune.”

Alexei’s grin fell. “Lucy, I would’ve never hurt Oliver. I was about to pull the bolt back. ”

I shot him a hard look, then turned back to the general.

“How was I supposed to know how far you’d go?

I understand you don’t think I’m replaceable—but what about him?

This is Hell. Suffer or die, right? And if you can’t stand me—if it took you until today to stop calling him Nephilim , like he wasn’t a person, like you didn’t respect him—then why would I believe the General of Hell and his second gave a rat’s ass about his life? ”

My head pounded, my eyes ached to close, and I knew what I did wasn’t safe. But Oliver was all I had.

Alexei looked down, unable to hold my accusing gaze. The general, on the other hand, continued to stare at me, but his anger shifted. He no longer looked at me with disapproval. Instead, it was like he was regarding me in a new light.

“I should’ve known that was how you’d train me—scaring me into action.

Or maybe this session served only to see what I could do.

” My head flopped back, resigned. “But I don’t know how to calm or wield my Glory when I’m scared,” I admitted.

And knowing it might help, I decided to give them another piece of myself.

“There are five tally marks on my back. They started when I was five. One slice for every time I accidentally used my Glory, knowing Michael was coming. His special gifts to me—for sensing something evil and disgusting in my power. He didn’t know he was talking about my Infernus. The only one who knew was my mom.

“When I was ten, he bound my powers. Thirteen, when I broke out of my binding. And still, my mother lived in fear someone would find her miracle child if I used them.”

A tear trailed down my cheek, but my arms were too tired to move. I couldn’t even wipe it away .

Oliver took my hand and held it, which only made the ache harder to blink away. It wasn’t reliving the past that caused my tears, it was just being so tired of all the shit I constantly had to go through. And knowing it wasn’t over.

The general crouched next to me, pulled off his glove, and gently wiped my cheek. That didn’t help either. If anything, it made it worse. Alexei kneeled in the mud and grabbed a handkerchief from a pocket, handing it to the general.

“Females cry a lot around me.” He winked. “And it’s clean, I swear.”

I laughed, shooting him a grateful smile. Then Rune decided to help and licked a long line up my face. I grimaced, laughing harder.

I looked back up at the golden irises that kept flashing black, as if the general was unsettled by this entire conversation.

“General—”

“Ronen,” he interrupted, brushing away my tears and Rune’s slobber with the soft cloth.

“Ronen,” I said. “I’m behind. I’d only just begun learning to control my Infernus in Elora, while my Glory remained blocked,” I explained.

“I need more than training that throws me into the deep end.” I closed my eyes, hating to admit this aloud—to the two most skilled warriors in Hell, and to two people who had doubted me.

“I need you to teach me the basics as much as the harder lessons.”

Warm fingers brushed my cheek, and I opened my eyes to Ronen nodding, a solemn expression on his face.

“Okay,” he whispered.

“That easy? ”

Alexei squeezed my other hand. “We’ll teach you the basics of your angelic power, beautiful. Your Infernus…” He trailed off.

“My father is helping me with that.”

“Then it’s settled,” Ronen murmured, scooping me up into his arms. “And it’s time we get you and Oliver to Sam.”

I rested my head against his shoulder, catching one last glance of Alexei picking up Oliver.

“Thank you.”

“No, Lucille. Thank you.”

“For what?”

His beautiful black wings unfurled, and he launched us into the night sky.

“For existing.”