A massive, glowering man spotted me, and he snarled in disgust, approaching me with the promise of death in his eyes. I recognized him immediately. He’d come with King Tariq when Cyrus and Zerlina were betrothed. Tariq’s commander. The same commander Harpina’s friend Tesha had been brutalized by. He’d tortured her, taking her arm, her eye, and her sister’s life.
In short, this was a man I’d absolutely love killing.
I smiled slowly, which clearly enraged him. He rushed me, bellowing his rage. I ducked under his swing, knowing his size and strength were going to be too much for me. I danced around him instead. I sliced at the back of his legs, making him growl. He turned quickly, and I bent backward to avoid the intended swipe across my chest.
He barreled down on me, and I was forced to roll quickly out of the way as what would have surely been a killing blow came down. He shouted, and I watched as his hand became a paw, his arms slowly overtaken by fur until a large brown bear was before me. I swallowed slightly, reminding myself that I could do this.
I was fierce. I was strong. I was AsteriafuckingEarendel. The blood of gods ran through my veins, and I was more powerful than any of these bastards.
I would never again be at the mercy ofanyone.Let alone an abusive prick of a man.
I’d had quite enough of that for one lifetime.
I twirled my blade tauntingly, circling him casually. He was already so angry that he’d shifted, if I could just get him sloppy enough…
I jumped upward, my wings ripping out and pushing up quickly. Just barely missing two meaty bear paws grabbing me by the neck. He managed to grab my foot, however, dragging me back down. I jabbed my sword down before panic could take hold, feeling it sink slowly into the top of his head. Only my wings saved me as he dropped, stopping me from going down with him.
Instead, I gently lowered myself to the cobblestone, tearing my bloody sword from his head. I smiled, watching the blood pour out. They say head wounds bleed the most, and from the amount spilling out, I knew that must be true.
It was a beautiful sight.
“Back in the game, girl!” Harpina appeared out of nowhere, stabbing a man who’d been sneaking up on me. I sighed, my wings disappearing as I gave her a quick nod.
I wasn’t used to the insanity of this battle quite yet. The one in Day wasn’t anything like this madness. Men were fighting over every inch of Evenfall. The organized assault lasted all of a few minutes before it devolved into chaos.
The thought gave me a chill up my spine, but I shook myself. We were doing well. Our forces were slowly beginning to overtake them. I nearly smiled, but a shout escaped my lips, and I hissed instead, turning my head to see a dagger embedded in my shoulder. The pain was so intense it burned like the fires of Tartarus, and I could feel myself quickly weakening. A man with long, dark hair in nickel-plated armor with the Pegasus of Dusk on it smiled cruelly, pulling the dagger out only to go for another blow.
I looked briefly at the wound and then the dagger.Iron. It had to be.
A loud growl broke the man’s concentration on me. I looked to the left to see Calix stalking toward us. The rage on his face was plain to see, and his sword was gripped tight in hands now tipped with sharp claws. He looked like an avenging warrior god, like Anann himself come to seek revenge.
The iron dagger shook in the soldier’s hand, and I couldn’t blame him. Even as relief at my mate’s presence filled me, the pain in my shoulder was incredibly distracting. Thanks to my Fae healing, itwasgetting better with the iron now removed, but it was so achingly slow.
The soldier crumpled before me, shaking his head as howls of pain filled the air. I could feel the steady energy flowing from Calix to him. The pain of Tartarus funneled from the depth of the abyss and straight into this man who dared to hurt me.
“Stand. Up,” Calix growled at the quivering creature before us, his fangs long and sharp. The man moaned in pain but forced himself to his feet despite it. He wavered in meeting Calix’s eyes, and the fear on his face once he did nearly made me feel bad for him.
But seriously,fuck this guy, I thought, holding my aching shoulder as my body fought to heal the wound.
Darkness spilled from Calix, slithering over the ground and over the man’s boots. The soldier shook as the shadows moved up his body, inching up to his face. As they did, they entered his body wherever they could, filling his mouth, his nose, his ears, even his eyes. I watched in stunned shock, having never seen his shadows do this before.
His screams were muffled by the shadows, but plain, nonetheless. Suddenly, the man’s form seemed to almost buckle inward, before it exploded outward in a shock of shadow and blood and bone. Calix’s shadows had destroyed him from the inside out, and pieces of the man rained down around us in a dark mist.
Calix’s eyes met mine, rage and fear overtaking the bond as those eyes filled with green, blue, and pink, joining the purple until his orbs were all Aurora. He grabbed me by the hair, pulling my lips to his in a fierce collision. My own hands snaked into his hair, holding him tightly, ignoring the blood streaking his silver locks as our tongues fought for dominance.
I pulled back with a gasp for air, and Calix immediately stiffened, swearing under his breath. I looked up, finding that in our distraction, the enemy forces had noticed us and were taking advantage of the situation. They were barreling straight for us, too great in number for any two normal people.
But we were hardly normal.
We both gripped our swords, our eyes meeting as the thought passed between us. Matching smirks formed as we both summoned our magic, building it and building it. Starlight and darkness formed around us, increasing in density until they began to swirl into one another. Our magics began to spin faster and faster, until a tornado of starlight and darkness surrounded us. The soldiers approaching us seemed to hesitate finally, but we sent the cyclone of starlit night straight for them.
It tore through their ranks, decimating the men as it ripped through flesh and bone, until many fell to the ground, dead. A cheer rose up from our forces, and I couldn’t help the smile that formed on my lips. Even as I panted from the exertion of magic.
The cheer quieted as something began to be rolled out from the palace. I growled as I spotted Cyrus at the helm of a wooden-framed contraption. His wavy shoulder-length dark hair left down and brushed the nickel plate of his armor. He wore a long cape affixed to his shoulders, bright pink to match his feathers, with Dusk’s sigil in charcoal grey in the middle of it. Grey embroidery also surrounded the edges in an intricate design, studded with grey gems I was sure had come straight from Gemaria.
Calix stiffened beside me, and his tension bled into my own. Cyrus’s pink feathered wings flung out, his cape falling between them as they brought him into the sky. He looked over the battle below with a cruel smirk.
As our eyes met, his eyes flared with something I couldn’t place before he smirked widely. Calix flew upward before I could do anything, heading straight for Cyrus. Cyrus’s head snapped to him, a cruel sneer taking over his face.
