Page 15 of Wings of Lies (Daughter of the Seven Circles #1)

Chapter

Twelve

BLOODHOUND AND RUNE

R une watched from a distance, blending in with the shadows of the trees and giving me a clear view of the scene through her eyes. The Nephilim listened. Good, he’d be pleased to hear.

The female knelt frozen on all fours before Marcus and his soldiers. Her eyes widened in horror and surprise as she stared at them.

“Well, well, well. You actually did it.” The female flinched at Marcus’s sickly satisfied words. “Over the phone, you sounded almost unsure. I’m shocked.”

The confusion in the female’s eyes revealed that she hadn’t yet grasped that the Nephilim had betrayed her.

We told him to call Marcus and arrange this deal.

Despite his vehement protests, the Nephilim didn’t have a choice.

Although, I thought he might find a way around our demands. Good thing he didn’t .

“My mom, Oliver!” the female cried, turning to face the guilty Nephilim standing in front of the Earth portal. “How could you do this to me?”

Marcus laughed as the female clutched her neck, heaving. The Nephilim took a giant step toward her.

“Lucy—I?—”

“How could you hand me back to them ?” she interrupted him, tears streaming down her face.

“Lucy, you don’t understand,” The Nephilim urged.

“Don’t call me that! You’re one sick bastard, using a story about your sister to garner sympathy and hide your guilt about stabbing me in the back!” she screamed, and Rune growled.

Quiet, Rune. They can’t know you’re there.

“Lucille, please. I had no choice!”

The Nephilim better keep our deal to himself.

“Well, this has been splendid, but the time for pleasantries is over. Leave while you still can, boy,” Marcus drawled and snapped his fingers down, “Emile, Jemihal, seize her.”

“Show me proof of my sister, bastard!” The Nephilim screamed in Marcus’s face, distracting him enough for the female to scramble up and lusceler.

Marcus’s soldiers slammed her into the ground before she could breach their circle. Rune’s anger shot through our mind link.

Don’t you dare, I snapped at her.

She dug her claws into the ground, forcing herself to stay, sending me a feeling akin to a glare. As young as she was, I wasn’t surprised by her attitude. But it made it difficult to control her, especially when I wasn’t with her and only had our connection to stop her defiant temperament .

“Let go of me!” The female squirmed and kicked beneath Marcus’s soldiers until purple flames burst from her skin and attacked. Ice devoured the two holding her, crawling down their throats and freezing them solid.

“She just killed them,” Marcus’s soldiers yelled.

Was that why he wanted her?

By the astonishment in her expression, she hadn’t meant to. She stood, ready to escape again, and swayed.

“Get the cuffs on her!” Marcus called out. “It shouldn’t be hard now. She’s drained.”

“Did you hear what I said, scumbag?” The Nephilim seethed.

“When are you ever going to learn? Your sister is dead. There’s no getting her back,” Marcus said—blunt, disinterested, straight to the point.

“The hell she is!” he yelled.

A couple more soldiers strode from the formation with a pair of cuffs and knocked the swaying female down.

“No,” she shrieked, flailing about to escape their hold.

Rune stepped out from behind the trees.

Rune! Do not engage.

Rune paused, but not because of my command. The queen’s pet had portaled in with the Searcher and two Cambion Demons.

“I killed the female myself. She screamed in agony as her flesh bubbled and fluids burst. Her blue beauties popped with all the heat,” Marcus laughed with manic glee.

The Nephilim screamed, and his eyes flashed green as he swung at Marcus. I didn’t know what power he had, but regardless, Marcus dodged his swing and kneed the Nephilim in the groin and then the face, knocking him out cold .

Marcus laughed, unaware of the onlookers. “He never learns.” He moved to the squirming female. “Knock her out if you can’t get a damned pair of cuffs on a weak, useless female.”

One of his soldiers took out an axe and bashed the blunt end into her head. She stilled, Rune growled, and the pet bellowed. “Marcus!”

Marcus jerked his attention to the Tenebrous portal. “Prince—wh— what are you doing here?”

“The queen sent me.” He strode forward, blue eyes enflamed.

“Why?” Marcus asked.

“She sensed someone coming through the portal.”

“Sensed?” Marcus asked, taking a few steps closer to the Earth portal.

The pet took in Marcus’s retreating steps, the female cuffed on the ground, and the circle of soldiers that gave the queen’s pet a wide berth. Blue flames erupted on the pet’s hands, and Marcus took another step back.

“Yes, sensed. She spelled the portal. So she was surprised to sense her second-in-command come through the Earth portal when he was supposed to be in Deava. You defied a direct order from your queen. Care to explain?” The blue flames in the pet’s hands formed into balls, and he bounced them as he waited for an answer.

Marcus turned and fled, sprinting to the Earth portal.

Blue flames shot from the pet’s hands, reducing the soldiers to ash and raging toward Marcus. They destroyed the Tenebrous portal along the way and missed Marcus’s feet by inches.

Why’d the pet do that? That was the way back to their kingdom.

The Searcher and Cambion demons were cuffing the female’s arms and didn’t notice what happened .

The pet approached them, extinguishing his flames, and took the female from the Searcher.

“My flames destroyed our way home in attempts to kill the traitor. We’ll have to go the long way,” he said. The Searcher glanced at the portal, and then they walked into the woods together.

Follow Rune, and don’t get caught. I’ll check back in later. If anything happens to the female or they’re not headed in the right direction, signal to me. Do not intervene.