Her talons spear through Haldi’s neck, the golden tips protruding on my side as Haldi’s eyes widen with shock.
The angel drops her sword to the ground, a final breath whispers through her lips, and within seconds, she’s gone.
Taniya shoves Haldi’s body to the side and reaches down to drag me back into the shade. I gasp for breath, my hand trembling when I reach up to my forehead, sensing the burn that remains from the moonlight.
Around me, the onslaught of angels has slowed, many of them retreating and regrouping, leaving their fallen brethren behind while my demon wolves feast on the energy that remains.
My lips part with a low cry as I take in the carnage. “It didn’t have to be this way. I never wanted this!”
Anger at the angels’ choice to fight gives me enough strength to rise to my feet, leaving the sword on the ground because I just can’t carry it any longer. Taniya and Koda hurry to help me stand. Blood oozes from cuts on their arms, legs, and faces. Like me, they’re pale and I sense the strength in their arms fading despite their determination to assist me.
While my wolves ward off the angels on our left, Malia wards them off on our right, but my focus is quickly drawn to the center of the clearing, where the fight between Roman and Jareth continues.
I gasp to see Jareth’s fist clamped around Roman’s neck, elevating him off the ground. With a savage punch to Roman’s torso with his other hand, Jareth knocks Roman back with enough force to rip out Roman’s throat if he were any other demon.
Roman thumps Jareth’s arm, forcing Jareth to release him. He hits the ground and rolls backward, pausing on all fours as he spits blood.
He’s breathing heavily and his arms are visibly shaking. He has survived the moonlight for far longer than I thought possible, but his strength is sapped—I can sense it—and that knowledge fills me with more fear than I felt for myself when Haldi attacked me.
A sob rises to my throat.This fucking world!I can’t let it beat us.
In the distance, Jareth leaps upward, gaining air, both of his fists raised, plummeting down toward Roman, preparing to break his back.
I don’t think.
With a scream, I wrench myself out of Taniya’s hold and run straight into the light.
CHAPTERTHIRTY-ONE
Aflurry of black wings cuts across the air ahead of me and Adriel appears right beside Roman.
The angel beats his wings, just once, launching himself upward to meet Jareth midair, his fist colliding with Jareth’s face and knocking my father across the clearing.
It happens so fast that I barely have time to blink, let alone scream.
I’m existing on borrowed time as I skid to a stop at Roman’s side. Moonlight beats down on me and my breathing is shallow, but not quite so shallow as Roman’s. He’s bleeding from a cut across his forehead and dark-purple blood drips to the ground from it.
Adriel hovers in the air above us, his wings beating up a storm that billows around me. When he moves forward and to the right, he blocks out the moon, giving us a small reprieve from its light.
He glances down, and I brace for his attack, but instead, he says, “Get Lord Rune to the shadows. I’ll bring Jareth. Be ready to travel.”
As I stare in surprise, Adriel reaches down and at first, I don’t understand what he’s holding out to me until I make out the shape of Angelus Lux.
“Take it,” he says.
I’m so shocked that I stare up at him for a full second before I accept the weapon he’s offering. I’m sure I must be hallucinating. Is Adriel—an archangel—really helping us?
“You don’t want us dead?” I ask.
His focus flickers back to Malia. “No.”
There isn’t time for more.
Jareth charges back at Adriel and the angel spins to meet him. My father’s face is bleeding and one of his shoulders appears dislocated—the one Adriel hit.
Adriel launches himself at Jareth, gaining speed as he plows into the demon with a roar. The collision between them is as shocking as it was between Roman and Jareth, the air thudding with the impact of their bodies.
Without the brief shade that Adriel was providing, the moonlight streams across us once more and it’s increasingly difficult to breathe.
