Her skull caved in and brain matter, shards of bone, and flesh was all that was left of her head, dripping onto the already blood-soaked ground as the rain pelted down, mixing into it like a poison.
I retched, doubling over and emptying the little stomach contents I had onto the ground as the rain washed it away with how fast it beat around us. As I was puking my guts out, I was hit with a searing pain in my side that knocked me off my feet and onto the blood-soaked ground.
My palms pushed into the ground, and I threw myself back up on my feet before getting struck down again. Another sizzling pain in my gut unfurled as magic zapped me.
Blair threw a healing spell my way as I felt my skin start to stitch back together from the blow, and she threw a spell at Nightshade before disappearing into the battle again.
Nightshade squeaked and stood in front of me in a protective stance.‘I won’t let him kill you.’
“Your obsession with animals only got the animals killed. Do you need a reminder?” He snapped his fingers, and the darkness of his magic slithered toward my familiar, but Nightshade deflected it with just a wave of his paw before reciting the same incantation we did together to take out my father.
A mad giggle escaped Claude. “You really think a familiar is capable of reciting that spell without its master? For one, a familiar is not its own entity.” He shoved a hand over his head as psychotic mumbles escaped him.
I pushed up off the ground to see that Nightshade had indeed cast that spell himself.
Claude’s eyes rolled back in his head as he fell to his back.
Magic exploded around us as the necromancers realized that their coven leader had fallen at the hands of an ex-member.
They all left their fights to bring it to me and avenge their crooked master of magic.
Trixie helped me the rest of the way up, scooping me up by my armpits and setting me on my feet as Nightshade crawled up me and gave her a high five.
“Good job, little guy.” She petted behind his ear before turning her attention toward the swarm of necromancers coming our way.
Blair appeared next to us with Tabitha.
“Let's wipe out your kind.” Trixie gave me a cold grin, and I nodded.
The necromancers left were evil, and she was right. We needed to wipe them out, and once they were gone, we were one step closer to the peace that I wanted more than anything.
FORTY-TWO
Rhett
IwatchedDamienandhis parents take down a full dragon in less than thirty seconds, both horrified and impressed by their creativity.
“Your mate’s mate is really something,” my father said, standing by my side in the middle of battle.
I hadn't expected to see him on the front-lines, not when he usually stayed back, protected by the council in the Demon Capital. And I certainly didn't expect him to ask me to teach them how to kill with pheromones, something that he used to be ashamed of.
A beautiful melody slipped into our ears as a tall siren with long blonde hair and piercing blue eyes stood in front of us, singing. She must not have realized that we weren't going to fall for it because we were incubi. Incubi didn’t fall for siren melodies, even though other demons could be entranced.
“Let me try this time.” My father waved me away, and I rolled my eyes.
This was a war, not training. Not that he could understand the importance of that.
“It's too bad.” He clicked his tongue. “She's pretty.”
“Not prettier than Wren,” I grumbled under my breath, and the siren’s gaze narrowed at me as she stopped her melody.
“Why is this not working on you?” The slight whine in her voice grated on my already frayed nerves.
“Incubi, sweetie.” My father blew her kiss, and she reeled back as fear flooded her gaze. She went to step away, but my father released his pheromones.
They relaxed her until she whimpered with desire, and then her eyes rolled back in her head, and she could only moan before dying.
“That's oddly satisfying.” My father looked back at me and smiled, a smile that I had always strived to see before. A smile that showed the pride that he had for me, but I was too old to want his approval now.
