Page 165 of Heir of Broken Souls

Gods, I swear after this I’m chaining myself to her.

Swimming to the surface again, I find that we’re completely surrounded. Dozens of demonic hounds descend around us, fighting to retrieve Delilah.

My court are preoccupied, all of them fending off more than two hounds each, with more coming still. My gaze roams the water, coming up short of her, until I feel a tug along the bond and my head whip toward the land. There, hounds wrestle her to the ground, placing iron around her ankles and wrists.

I’m beside her in a second. Two swords in my hands, another flying for Delilah’s outstretched palm.

A feral growl of outrage leaves my lips as I meet the hounds claws to steel and push them back from her. Golden tendrils fight alongside me as Delilah burns those she can reach and fights with a sword for those she isn’t quick enough to melt.

Swinging my sword side to side, I cut a path down to the water toward the thick of it, leaving a trail of decapitated hounds for Delilah to burn. The small swell of relief I feel at finding none landing from the sky anymore is short-lived as the hounds my court kill wake with new vigor, summoned far more quickly than usual.

I spare a look upwards, just in time to see a black hole, a red sky on the other side, evaporate into thin air.

My teeth grit so hard I swear I feel my molars crack.

A fucking portal.

He knows we’re here.

We’re so close, the island beneath my feet supposedly holding the answers we seek. Gods, we’re foolish to not consider the chances of Peter summoning a portal to us.

The dark magic thrumming through his veins, the amount of it he would need to possess to be able to wield such a thing, makes me sick.

I rush back to Delilah, sending a plan down the bond between us. Her eyes flare with hope as I relay another mental order, this one to the members of my court, an extra order to Axel to take Elysia with him when I raise the signal. Her mental shields are impenetrable and have been since the day she arrived, sealed off once Delilah and I left her mind.

Wrapping my arms around Delilah, I lift us into the sky, ignoring the hounds’ feral hisses and growls as they grab at us. My court do the same, taking off.

The second they aren’t touching the water, Delilah jumps from my hands. She lifts her arms and cries out, and when she lands, her impact reverberates with a wave of golden power.

They can’t flee. They can’t fly.

Delilah stands tall and strong, her skin taking on that golden glow, as wave after wave of power burns every last one of them on the spot.

Chapter61

Knox

Ibarely have time to catch my breath—even the hounds are still melting around us—as Delilah frowns, gasping with pain.

I’m next to her shortly after, my hand slowly cupping her cheek.

“What is it?”

My gaze roams the length of her, searching, searching, searching?—

Delilah shoves her hand down the front of her leather armor, yanking out her pendant with a hiss.

“It’s burning me.”

The pendant shines its bright white light across my face, forcing me to step back.

“What’s concealed?” comes Axel’s question. Elysia heaves next to him, exhausted from the fight, but he still takes the time to explain to her what my pendant is and what it does.

She shakes her head, leaning forward slightly so the burning pendant doesn’t touch her skin. “I don’t know, nothing has changed as far as I can see. Usually, it’s revealed as I wear the necklace.”

“Perhaps you aren’t close enough?” Harlow suggests, her gaze roaming around.

“There’s too much ground to cover—” Lenox’s words are cut off by a deep rumbling.