Page 30 of Heir of Broken Souls

It’s time, the ethereal voice whispers in my mind. I haven’t heard this voice in months—not since the day Annie and Eleanor died. But as quickly as it comes, it disappears again.

Without an ounce of time to spare to analyze what the ethereal voice meant, my gaze locks on a group of demonic hounds terrorizing the streets. I send a mental message to Aurora and as she drops low, her claws slicing the necks of the nearest Phookas, I launch myself off her back, my arms splayed on either side.

My shadow makes them turn, and with the red blood of Azalea’s citizens dripping from their mouths, I grit my teeth and strike.

Dragging the steel of my sword across the necks of two hounds as I land, I roll into a crouch to break my fall, taking their heads with me. I can’t allow myself to feel the satisfaction of their unseeing gaze because within moments I’m surrounded.

My blade swings, cutting limbs, necks, and hearts. Golden flame encases my entire body, never burning me but snapping at my enemies in their vulnerable spots.

Please don’t sweep me away, I beg my magic, praying it’ll listen to my mental commands.

When I slice a Phooka’s neck with my blade, a hound tries to impale me at my open side but my golden magic is there, melting the black leather skin of the hound’s arm. It shrieks, tearing itself away as I move on to the next. My arms never stop swinging as I cut a path toward the city, toward the demonic dragons at the front fighting Nolan and his men.

Knox is beside me in an instant, his own shield of fiery shadows dancing along his skin and leathers. Within moments our bodies move in sync, one of us arcing high while the other swipes low. The bond surges between us, thriving on the way our souls speak to one another, joining us together as we make death fear us.

Until I pause at a sound that separates itself from the rest.

Without looking at me, Knox turns to the hounds launching at our backs, his swords swinging before his balls of fire and shadows finish the job.What is it?he asks mind to mind.

I cock my head, my eyes narrowing as a demon lunges from the side. I shift at the last second, and it flies straight into Knox’s hands, who rips its head from its body with one fluid motion. In the same breath, I bring my blade down and stab another hound, melting its heart in its chest with my golden flames.

The sound rings again. A child’s scream. There are many of them, but this one is different.

Without missing a beat, Knox dips into my mind to hear what I did, while I kill the three demons that try to pounce on him all at once with golden daggers.

It could be a trap.However, as he says it, I can feel that he doesn’t believe it.

Knox’s mouth opens to argue again, but he stops short. I throw up a golden shield of protection, instantly worried about what he sees, but when I follow his wide gaze over my shoulder, all I find are the slayed demonic creatures lying motionless behind us. I’m about to snap that we need to focus on the scream, on the hounds literally pounding on my shield, but?—

They’remotionless.

Are they…dead?

“It’s those you killed with your magic.”

Knox’s words have me snapping to face him. “You think…?”

The scream pulls my focus back to where it belongs. But something deep within my sternum niggles at me to turn back to those reviving. To face the demons that are being summoned back to their bodies. The twitching is normal, expected even. So what does this mean?

My magic has been begging me to give in, to hand over my trust fully, and for gods know what reason, my entire being is urging me to in this moment.

So I turn. I’m stunned as an involuntary cry falls from my lips as my magic rises with a vengeance. A wave of golden flames pulses from my body, a tsunami of death. It flows down the streets, between the buildings, stopping the resurrecting hounds in their tracks. They never open their eyes again, for they are swept into the depths of my golden flames, taken to the sea. Their bodies melt into nothing but a decaying black puddle.

Knox whistles, his eyes taking on a dark glint of awe and appreciation as he assesses me.Perhaps we have a fighting chance after all.

I shake with the monumental victory, the sudden change in my power, the potential this holds for the future. But when the child cries out again, I don’t think, I just move, the mystery of my magic put aside.

My boots splash in puddles of blood as I avoid stepping on fallen citizens. My heart pangs painfully at their unmoving bodies lying discarded amongst the rubble of their once beautiful city. The farther we run, the more Knox’s brows furrow.

“What is it? Is it Nolan? Can he not hold them back?” I ask, my voice taking on a desperate plea.

Knox doesn’t utter a single word but he doesn’t have to with our bond. I can feel everything coursing through his heart, the rapid beat of it.

What has him so terrified?

When another cry rings out, this one different than the others, Knox takes off without warning, practically throwing himself down the steep hills. The way his feet glide along the ruined cobblestone makes me presume he’s using air magic to propel him faster. So much so I have to use my own magic to keep up with him, and it isn’t until he comes to a screeching halt do I understand his urgency.

In a dark alcove off the side of the main street, Knox pants and clutches his chest, his ashen face full of horror.