Page 194 of Heir of Broken Souls

Chapter71

Delilah

At Knox’s command, his court leap through the portal with a roar. They go in swinging with magic and swords. Screaming a war cry of agony and torture from their souls.

I move to follow, but Knox stops me. Before I can protest, he silences me with a kiss so passionate my knees threaten to buckle. But as quickly as it started, it stops, and he tears his lips from mine with a heave.

Dropping his head to mine, he whispers gutturally, “I’ll always find you, in this life or the next.”

“Forever and always,” I whisper. “As one.”

“As one.” He opens his mouth, but before he can utter the words that will curse him, I kiss him and give him a push.

The moment his boots touch the ground, his arms are swinging. Black tendrils leak in all directions, wrapping around the necks of Phookas, demonic hounds, and other creatures I can’t dare to look at for too long. Some are met with suffocation, others a broken neck, and those who slip through his shadowed power are met with the mighty warrior of Knox Holloway and his steel. He’s a whirlwind of power and grace as he enacts his revenge upon his enemies. There is no mercy as he makes their blood spill.

I’m about to jump through and relinquish my golden power upon them so they don’t rise again for round two when something stops me.

There are Fae among the demonic lines, fighting through glazed, milky eyes.

My jaw drops as my heart somersaults.

The Fae from the in-between fight alongside him…as his puppets.

My heart pinches painfully at the thought of Nolan having to stop his mother and sister from killing him, but I have to shake the thoughts away before I get lost down that path.

I turn to the griffins at my back, waiting for their command.

“Join your steel and lunge with a roar, and weave your golden fate.

And so the scales shall devour their dark souls.”

I repeat this part of my prophecy, but this time consider my theory on it.

I didn’t tell anyone my thoughts, not after I’ve put hope in their eyes too many times only to rip it away. If we lose this, I don’t want to be responsible for the heart-crushing reality.

Even Knox…I didn’t want to break his heart if this doesn’t work.

Without explanation, I dip my head and the griffins launch, Zephlyn first and then Aurora, into the skies of the war raging on.

Then I take a deep breath and leap into the battle of the millennia—into the battle of my destiny.

* * *

The portal behind me is swept away in shadows before it can end up in the wrong hands. And before the hounds around me that lie dead can rise, I click my finger and watch as they ignite into golden flames, never to return to these lands.

My magic thrives here, humming its anticipation as it continues to pour from my hands.

I don’t need to touch the twin dragon pommel swords at my back, or the daggers at my hips. I don’t need a blade in my hand when I can simply snap and the demonic creatures fall.

Trailing behind Knox and his destruction, I burn those he kills and plow through the few who manage to slip through his grasp. My power is hungry for revenge, greedy for the destruction of the demons.

Zephlyn dropping from the sky sends my heart racing, but he only plucks Elysia from the ground and turns them both invisible. One of the rarer griffins to possess such a power. I’d give anything for Aurora to?—

A smirk grazes my lips. I forgot my own power once again.

Finding Aurora fighting amongst the demonic dragons and griffins alike, I can’t help but grin devilishly as she suddenly disappears from view. The dragon, with its mouth exposed and jaws unhinged, stops short, where it was about to snap at her hind legs. Gratitude sizzles along our bond as I keep Aurora invisible without so much as a thought.

As the dragon blinks its confusion, its neck suddenly snaps, cracking at an odd angle. Its eyes go unseeing a moment before its throat is suddenly ripped out, and then it plummets.