“Roman,” I rasp. “You need to get up. I’m not strong enough to carry you.”
He’s groggy as he pushes up from the ground, making it as far as his knees before I slip my arm around him. It would be hard enough to hold him upright in his usual form, let alone when he’s allowed his pure demon to surface. Thankfully, as he rises to his feet, his skin transforms and his body resumes its former shape and size. Which is still fucking large. I brace to support his weight, and we make it several steps that way.
Adriel is true to his word and beats Jareth toward the shadows, where my sisters and wolves are waiting. Their anxious faces fill me with renewed dread as I realize that, on either side of us, the angels have regrouped and are prowling toward my pack once more. We fought off the first wave, but I’m not sure if we’ll survive the second attack.
Before I can take another step, a rush of wind beats against my back, and fire burns across my spine as searing agony strikes through me. The blaze crosses Roman’s shoulders, he stumbles, and we both go down, landing hard on our hands and knees.
Galvin swoops overhead, his hands outstretched, his power blazing. I catch sight of his clear, green eyes; his pale skin; and the bruises already forming on his face and arms from the blast of Malia’s magic earlier.
“Fucking coward,” I scream. Attacking us from behind.
He soars higher, looking down on us, his power gathering again. No doubt for another attack.
Panicked, I judge the distance to the shade where my wolves snarl and gnash their teeth. Taniya and Koda pace with them. Each of them edges up to the light, as if they’re preparing to make a run toward us, but Galvin blasts his power across their path, forcing them back.
The pale-skinned angel laughs as he floats overhead. “They won’t reach you before I kill them, Nova.” He tips his head back, basking in the moonlight before he swoops down toward me, taunting me. “Put your head down, Nova. Go to sleep.”
Roman is heavy against me, but his chest rumbles and I’m sure he growled, “Fuck you,” at the angel.
My wolves howl again, and Galvin lifts back into the air, blasting his power across their path once more. Their eyes appear much brighter now that they’ve consumed angel energy, which gives me hope that they can fight off the second wave of angels, but Galvin won’t let them get to me, and it’s making them increasingly agitated.
A glance to my right tells me that Adriel is still fighting Jareth with all his strength—pushing him toward the shade—but he can’t help us, either.
“We can do this.” I gasp, holding hard to Roman, who nods.
The shade is only ten paces away. Only ten paces. I tell myself it’s nothing. I can fucking do this.
Gripping Angelus Lux with one hand, I drag myself forward on all fours, pulling Roman with me. Then he’s pulling me, his blood dripping to the grass as we struggle forward together.
All the while, the moonlight burns down on us and Galvin watches on, his smile growing, his confidence apparently so great that he doesn’t try to take Angelus Lux from us.
“Give up, Nova,” he calls, and his taunt reminds me so much of Esta that bile rises into the back of my throat and a silent scream grows in my mind. I won’t give up. I fucking won’t.
I’m suddenly aware of new footfalls racing toward me and I brace for another attack when I realize that it’s Koda.
He plows right through the blast of Galvin’s power, roaring with pain as he throws himself across the ground. His fierce, cobalt-blue eyes meet mine as his hand closes around my arm.
My mouth is so dry, I can hardly speak. “Koda? What…?”
The moonlight burns across his face, visibly draining him as he lies in the grass. His eyes lose their sheen and turn pale. Paler with every second.
Dying with every second.
“Give them hell, Nova,” he whispers, a small smile on his lips.
I take a new breath as the power of bliss races through me, the last of Koda’s energy that he’s giving me. It soothes my pain and strikes through my heart, allowing me to breathe for that crucial second, giving me the strength to find one last kernel of power within me.
My sisters are screaming, my wolves are howling, and above us, Galvin prepares to swoop, flames burning around his palms that he finally seems ready to release.
I drop Angelus Lux to the ground, freeing up my hands.
With a scream, I jolt up onto my knees, my back arching as I release the nightmares inside me, the very last of my energy. With it, I send out my fear of losing everything. My life. My family. My love.
A powerful ripple of fear blasts across the space around me, carrying with it nightmare images of the three worlds tearing apart, the implosion that the angels don’t want to face.
The dark ripple knocks into Galvin, propelling him backward, his screams drowned in the storm of darkness that pours out of me. The legion of angels that was creeping toward my sisters is thrown backward, feathers ripped from their wings and swords torn from their hands as their bodies disappear through the trees. Some of them attempt to take to the air, trying to escape, while others are swept up before they have the chance to move.
My power doesn’t discriminate.
