Page 32 of Heir of Broken Souls

“She had no right,” I hiss under my breath.

“Actually, she had every right,” he says solemnly, rounding the house.

Grunting my disagreement, I open my mouth to try and talk sense into him when a dark shadow descends, landing in front of us with a sickening thump.

The scream that tears from my throat is raw and full of shock as I gaze upon a demonic dragon struggling to rise again. The puncture wounds in its neck seep black blood onto the street.

Its head lolls to the side, beady red eyes locking on me, and as if a shark scenting blood, it scrambles to its feet like it was never injured. It jerks, moving to attack, when a black ball of fur suddenly dives onto its neck, locking its jaw around its black scales with a roar so familiar my gaze snaps upwards.

I raise my hands and scream, “Now, Aurora!”

At the command she rips herself away, taking a large chunk of the dragon’s flesh with her, but it doesn’t care, its sights set on me. It lunges, and then bursts into golden flames. True fear shines in its red eyes a moment before it crumbles.

It doesn’t move again.

Aurora rounds the flames with no worry or care, as if she knows my magic would never harm her, and nudges Knox and me with her head, seemingly hurrying us. My chest tightens, my heart dropping as Knox dives into Aurora’s mind, and a whine full of loss tears from his lips as he says, “They’re about to take the city.”

Chapter11

Delilah

Aurora’s wings expand to their full width as she soars over the ruined houses and buildings splattered with blood. The moment we clear a particularly large building Aurora stutters for a moment, her shock giving way to the mass of darkness pushing our army back and into the surrounding forest.

They’ve almost cleared it.

“Go, Aurora, go!” I shout over the bellowing wind.

Knox stiffens behind me, his hands tensing on my waist. I turn, planting a quick kiss on his cheek, bringing him back from his wide-eyed horror, and push him. “Go! You’ll get there faster, go!”

Knox pauses for a moment, just a second, as he drinks in the sight of me.

“Wherever you go, I go,” I promise. “Now hurry!”

Without a backward glance, Knox takes off, his magnificent black wings unfurling as he hurtles through the sky until he lands at the front lines beside Nolan. His blade swings from side to side, his fire and shadows unleashing chaos and carnage to push the demonic creatures back.

But then, something strange happens.

The sea of black awakensall at once. Thousands of creatures run for the front lines with renewed vigor and vengeance for those who slayed them. No matter how powerful Knox’s magic is, his warriors and his army will never kill enough since they never truly die. I tremble from the despair, the rising dead rushing for Knox and his men, but blanch entirely when my eyes snag on another Fae joining the fight.

My body freezes atop Aurora.

My gaze has landed on no ordinary Fae. It has landed on a warrior, one that I haven’t seen sober in weeks.

Rushing for the demons is Axel, with such hate in his gaze my heart plummets. He wails with grief, trying to right a wrong that can never be fixed.

Axel swings with a sword that brings tears to my eyes. In his palm lies not his personal sword, but Ace’s.

A sob flies from my throat, shocking me. I haven’t dared to allow myself to cry in weeks for fear of it drowning me in the current of everything I have lost.

But Axel, in his disheveled state, goes down with a demonic hound claw embedded in his gut. Even from high in the sky, I hear his scream of agony.

No one is beside Axel, no one is even close to him, otherwise preoccupied in the battle. They don’t see him fall to the legion of demonic hounds—and not rise again.

Leaning forward, I clutch Aurora’s hair so tightly in my grasp she whines in pain, forcing me to clutch my aching chest instead as I scream for Knox, foranyone.

“No, no,NO!” I bellow. The sound travels, across the skies, across the seas, the battlefield. “NO, please!”

Knox whips his head upwards at the sound, but I can’t look at him, not as I desperately search for a dark, tattooed twin, the face that has haunted us all whenever he deigned to show.