Page 78 of Wings of Darkness (Daughter of the Seven Circles #2)

Chapter

Fifty-Tw o

LUCILLE

W eeks ago, Oliver had asked me what would happen if I had to choose who to save.

I never answered him. But I’d had an answer.

A horrific, guilt-destroying answer that ate at me every time I dream-walked to my mom.

That was before I knew about Aspen’s deceit.

And I wished I could say it made a difference.

But it didn’t. The foreign urgency boiling my blood influenced my thoughts, and the Infernus raging in my ears.

But this choice wasn’t just about Aspen or my mom. Oliver, who’d stood loyal and at my side these past months—who’d turned from a betrayer to a brother and best friend—was in danger. So was Alexei, whom I’d grown fond of, and MJ, whose ferocity I admired.

And… Ronen .

The male who had me prying the skin from my muscles to reach.

The mere thought of the breath leaving his lungs rattled something unfathomable and absolute inside me.

A force louder than the urgency screaming at me about Aspen.

I would rip the rest of my skin from my body.

I would feel the throbbing pain and the blood that oozed down my arms a thousand times over if only it’d save the male who reminded me of home.

And yet, if I chose them, I lost my mom.

Because no one told me I’d been killing her.

Terror burned through me, hotter than the blue fire shielding my body. Terror for my choices. Terror for the scene unfolding before me.

Aspen and Alexei thrashed midair. Red smoke circled their necks, slowly squeezing the life from them.

Below their feet, a flaming blue sphere caged MJ and Oliver. Lilith slammed her power against it, drawing curses from Oliver’s lips.

Rune lay unmoving at the base of the stone slab, her fur streaked with blisters and bloody fluids—an agonizing patchwork beneath drifting wisps of shadow.

Above her, in another fire sphere, lay Ronen on his back.

His eyes were closed, blood soaking his sleeves and drawn across his face, as if Lilith had attempted a ritual on him.

Aspen was resisting Lilith’s control. He was helping us.

But how long could that last?

Flickers of blue fire fought against the acid-eating smoke wrapped around their necks, keeping Alexei and Aspen barely conscious, barely fighting.

Alexei lifted his burned wings, pain twisting his face as he strained to fly away from Lilith’s hold.

His choked scream cracked the air—then came a crash like the sky splitting open.

Water slammed into MJ and Oliver’s protective sphere.

Scalding steam erupted in a violent hiss, drowning their screams. The white haze swallowed Aspen’s and Alexei’s jerking bodies.

But not before their neck muscles pulled taut, their faces blistered, and their teeth bared in raw agony.

All the while, Lilith laughed, acting untouchable.

Aspen dropped all our fire-spheres, weakened, leaving us exposed to her will.

I knew what I had to do. All my training, practicing, and learning had led me to this.

“Lilith, darling,” I stated, removing my Ember Metal bracelet, “you’re in for a fucking treat.”

I pushed myself off the marble and flung out my hands, throwing my Glory and Hellfire at her shield. Black and white fire met red—and consumed it.

She released Aspen and Alexei as she failed to reinforce her protection, and they dropped to the ground. Alexei cried out as he landed on his wounded wings, and Aspen heaved as if the air had been knocked out of him.

I wrapped my flames around my body and luscelered through the gaping hole in her barrier.

She struck with her lightning, hitting my legs.

It tickled. It should’ve burned. But my flames absorbed her attack the moment it touched me.

A stronger bolt hit my pelvis, pushing me back, then my legs again. She wanted to immobilize me.

She wanted my blood, not my death. Not yet.

I stepped through the rest of her barrier, conjured a fireball, then hurled it at Lilith’s face, knowing full well it wouldn’t connect. I stumbled with the effort. It wasn’t faked, but it did play into my plan.

She sidestepped, sneering, “Cute trick.”

My protective flames sputtered and died, leaving me exposed. She smiled. My face fell. I backed up like I could escape her, and a thick vine whipped out, snaring my throat. She yanked me forward like a rag doll. I sagged against her, clutching at her dress while drowning in her confident air.

“So much power,” she purred, her sharp nail tracing my jawline, “but no finesse. No strength.”

Her arrogance was her downfall.

I dropped my fake fear and shrugged. “Who needs finesse—when you can play to your opponent’s expectations?”

She leaned back as if trying to reassess the situation, and in doing so, loosened the chain I’d pinched between my burning fingers.

The Ember Metal jangled, falling from her neck.

I surged upward, smashing my forehead into her nose with a sickening crack.

She reeled, and I snatched the feather from her cleavage.

Purple flames burst from my hand, flash-freezing it. “Oliver and MJ!” I screamed, then threw it toward them with everything I had, right as lightning jolted through the vine digging into my throat. My scream tore free, cut short as I fell to my knees, spasming, choking.

Oliver caught it as the doors to the hall slammed open, revealing a demon horde. Half were Cambion Demons, and the other half were souls with black veins crossing through their grotesque scars—the demon infection.

Lilith was their creator. We’d suspected it. But with a group of them here, in her kingdom and under her command, it confirmed it.

“Finally.” Lilith gestured to my friends. “Kill them, retrieve my feather, and capture the prince.”

The demons charged the four of them, and Lilith yanked on my neck, forcing me to meet her heated gaze .

“You think that was smart? You think your friends can remove that feather from my castle without my demons killing them? You’ll listen to your friends die one by one. Give up before you murder your mom.”

I gathered my saliva and spat at her.

Her nostrils flared, and she electrocuted me, shocking my gathering power. My body spasmed, but my mind stayed sharp, waiting for the moment to strike.

“You probably shouldn’t have said that, darling.” That was what I’d wanted to say, but my teeth were clenched so tightly, my words wouldn’t come.

An explosion rattled the ground, along with excited shouts somewhere to the left.

“Yes! Throw, then shield!” Oliver shouted.

Another explosion rocked the hall, shaking loose bits of stone from the vaulted ceiling, threatening to pull my attention from the ruby-hilted knife appearing in Lilith’s hand as she stood over me. She tightened the hold on my leash.

“Let’s begin where we left off,” Lilith purred, “and I’ll be one step closer to avenging my coven.”

She plunged her knife toward my chest. I could’ve stopped it.

But as shockwaves continued to disrupt my powers, I needed the blade to finish this.

Taking a lesson from Oliver, I moved at the last second and let it sink into my shoulder—then ripped it from the searing wound and sliced it through her vine, releasing me from her hold.

She conjured more, but it was too late.

“Never surrender,” I whispered, and unleashed my Hellfire and Glory .

It was like my mom stood here—coaxing me, steadying me, giving me strength for what came next.

I infused my soul with her unwavering love.

Her laughter. Her soothing touch. Her annoying jazz music.

Her ridiculous chicken obsession that had made her giggle.

The steel in her spine. All our trainings.

All our nights wishing to the stars. I wove every memory of us into my heart as I pushed my power at Lilith.

My combined flames slammed into her quick smoke barrier.

She held me back for a second before I destroyed her shield.

She erected it again, reinforcing it while throwing water, lighting, vines—all her stolen powers—at me.

But Hellfire and Glory were a bottomless void of destructive power.

They burned hot and fast—hot and torturously.

After breaking through again, Lilith smirked. I’d expected fear revealing the whites of her double-ringed irises, not a smug smile. She raised her hand, and a masculine groan sounded behind me.

My heart stilled.

Ronen.

Her powers flew over my shoulder toward him, and something inside me snapped.

A feral, merciless harbinger of death ruptured from my chest. It pulled every ounce of Hellfire and Glory from my core and poured out of me.

Ravaging black flames, eradicating white flames—they swarmed Ronen and Rune, burning away her attack.

Pins and needles climbed up my legs and torso, and still I called more.

Divine Wasting pushed behind my eyes, threatening to close them, and for one moment, I thought Lilith would win. I thought she’d take them away from me .

Then—a jolt.

Energy swept through my limbs, sweet and euphoric.

It filled every inch of me, healing my wounds, giving strength to my muscles and life to my soul.

It was like I’d been living with half a working body, and now the other half had come back to life.

I shoved that energy into my flames, and it burned through Lilith’s power and sank into her skin like an unavoidable infernal parasite.

She shrieked, and I thought she’d burn immediately. But my powers had other plans.

Her flesh ruptured, spilling hissing blood and black ash into the air.

She fell to her knees, screaming and clawing at her neck.

Her flesh oozed from multiple gashes as my flames ate her from the inside out.

Water shot from her hand, blasting into the fiery cuts.

My flames hissed softly, then grew in size, dancing in her water and mocking her attempt to extinguish them.

Her eyes melted, hollowing into charred craters.

Feces and some other unnameable scent filled the air, making me gag.

Her screams turned into wet gasps, then nothing, as her dress dissolved, revealing organ mush pushing through her burst stomach.

My flames consumed the gory mess and every inch of stone where her blood or skin touched, until there was nothing left of her. They devoured every minuscule bit.

I leashed my addictive song and humming Glory. I stared at the corroded stone, the only evidence of Lilith’s death. The ground trembled with explosions. Fissures cracked through the hall. Shouts rang out. And yet I couldn’t lift my eyes .

Warm, calloused hands cupped my face, and golden eyes filled my gaze. “Lucille, are you okay?”

She was dead.

I opened my mouth to tell him, but nothing came out. My ears rang. My heart faltered. My knees buckled.

She was dead.

“Lucille!” Ronen cried, Aspen echoing him.

Ronen caught my body, his shadows diving into my nose.

“Is she okay?” Aspen asked next to us, his face and clothing smeared with blood and ichor.

She was dead.

“As much as she can be,” Ronen replied, scooping me into his arms.

Another explosion rocked the ground, and Ronen stumbled. Aspen’s hand gripped his shoulder. A breathless silence stifled the air—possessive, territorial. It wrapped around me in a dominating cocoon.

Aspen stepped back, easing the tension. “The floor is about to cave in. We need to go.”

“Grab my Soulhound, Prince,” Ronen barked, then limped forward.

She was dead.

That was all I could think. All I could feel. The power energizing my core smothered me in grief. I wanted to claw my way to the center and rip it out. I didn’t want it. I didn’t want to feel her energy.

Ronen pulled me tighter against his chest, as if he could feel my agony .

My mom was ? —

A scream caught in my throat.

Oliver.

The haze of the Cambion explosion lifted to reveal his body twisted in the rubble, unmoving.

“Oliver,” I cried out. I squirmed out of Ronen’s arms, stumbling over the shifting ground. MJ made it to him before I did, feeling for his pulse.

“Is he alive?” I choked out, collapsing next to them.

MJ didn’t answer me fast enough. I reached out, placing two fingers at his neck, and dropped my head to his chest, the tears I’d been holding back flowing free.

Shoes thudded nearby. “Is he dead?”

“No,” MJ answered Alexei. “He’s not dead.”

Ronen kneeled next to me. “We need to go now. I can carry him. Can you walk?”

I hesitated to move.

Ronen grabbed my chin, his fingers tingling against my skin, forcing me to gaze into his uncompromising eyes.

“I will get him out. But I need you to answer me, Hellion. I know you’re in a lot of pain, but I need to know you can get yourself out. Or I’ll have MJ carry you.”

All I could do was nod and stand on wobbly legs—or no. That was the ground shaking. Ronen picked him up, and we limped, shuffled, and somewhat jogged out of Lilith’s crumbling sacrificial room.