That power forced Sarnessa back. She cried out, losing her hold on Nyte’s heart as her hand tore free.
Nyte gasped and sagged forward. His body and soul quaked at the echoing pain, at the near sundering that had occurred, at the sudden cessation of all that pressure and agony. Ember caught Nyte, steadying him as everything inside him shifted back into place and the burn of Sarnessa’s invasive touch eased.
“I’ll gladly feast on your heart after I take his, witch,” Sarnessa spat.
Straightening, Nyte spun toward her. The succubus lunged at him, eyes alight with fury.
“Don’t touch him!” Ember commanded. Again, her voice flooded the room with magic.
It took shape before Nyte, and he saw it glint in the air as it formed a translucent aegis standing as tall as him and twice as wide. A shield of light.
Sarnessa crashed into the barrier. It rippled with goldensparks, but did not yield to her, halting her advance dead in its tracks. She reeled backward, dazed.
Baring his fangs, Nyte raised a hand, and his shadows burst from the floor beneath Sarnessa, coiling around her body and trapping her in place. Her eyes widened, and the first hint of fear wafted from her.
She immediately softened her expression, replacing all her fury with exaggerated fear and confusion. “Nyte, please…”
He tightened his shadowy grasp upon her, dragging her down onto her knees. “Would you have stayed your hand, had I begged for mercy?”
“This hunger,” Sarnessa sobbed. “It clouds my mind and drives me to madness.”
“God, you really are the worst.” Ember stepped up beside Nyte, settling her hand on his back where Sarnessa had attacked him, his shadowy flesh having already mended itself. Her touch was soft and warm and gentle, so completely different from Sarnessa’s from moments before. It was actual caring, actual comfort.
Starling flitted over to the succubus, practically bristling. “I have heard enough of her drivel.”
She sped around Sarnessa, moving so fast that she became little more than a streak of blue-white light. Stardust rained in her wake, landing on the floor to create an unmistakable pattern—a binding circle.
The succubus gnashed her fangs and struggled to swipe her claws, but the shadows restraining her ensured she could not harm the sprite. Once the circle was complete, Starling moved to Ember, lighting upon the mortal’s shoulder.
“You know what to do, witchling,” Starling said.
The barrier of light flickered and vanished. Removing her hand from Nyte, Ember stepped forward. His heart roared inresponse to her getting closer to the succubus, but there was something in her posture, something in her movement, that kept him in place.
Clad in only a towel, with her hair hanging in shimmering silver waves, she looked gorgeous, majestic, powerful, confident, imposing…and utterly radiant. Her skin was glowing, truly glowing, with its own soft luminescence.
As Ember spoke, he realized she was reciting ancient arcane words, which flowed from her mouth with an almost mystifying musicality.
Sarnessa’s eyes darted over the floor as the stardust circle faintly glowed. She fought the shadows holding her with more desperation, but she could not break free of them. “No… No! Stop! Release me!” Her gaze rose to Ember. The fear radiating from her made her voice quaver. “What are you doing, witch?”
Starling folded her arms across her chest and grinned. “Banishing you. Suck on that, succubitch.”
With an animalistic snarl, Sarnessa thrashed, but all her fear and rage could not break the bindings. Ember’s words wove their magic around and beneath the demoness. Light erupted from the circle, intensifying even as the light she emitted grew.
His Ember had become a flame.
She was exactly the sort of radiance that should’ve blinded him, the sort that pained him, but he could not look away. Would never look away.
Sarnessa’s face contorted with desperation. She opened her mouth and released a piercing, ferocious, impotent scream. The luminescence blossomed around her and enveloped her.
Ember spoke the final word of the spell.
The mass of light collapsed inward on Sarnessa, flaring bright enough to make Nyte turn his face away and slit hiseyes. In an instant, the glare snuffed out. The succubus vanished with it. Only the arcane circle on the floor remained, its glow rapidly diminishing.
Starling zipped up into the air and twirled. “Yes! I have been waiting so long to see that bitch get hers.”
Beside Nyte, Ember staggered. He hurriedly banded an arm around her waist, drawing her body against his. She held him tight, though she regained her footing quickly enough.
The luster of her skin faded like the final embers of a fire going out.
