“He wishes,” she snorted.
“I heard that!” Hannes half-heartedly protested behind me.
“Not really.” She paused on the other side of the door, seemingly weighing her answer. “I mean, we have similar invincibility, but the Eisen Ritter is stronger because our powers aren’t inherited. We aren’t born,” she added when confusion graced my expression. “We are created by the Moon Goddess herself and sent here to protect our royal charge. I guess you can say we are…otherworldly bodyguards.Hence the ultimate invincibility.”
Interesting…
“That’s so cool!”
“Agreed,”I conceded, suddenly feeling an eerie shift in the air. Every single hair in my body stood on end.
“Natalia!”Star warned, saying my name for the first time just as Hannes burst into the Beast behind me.
14
“Ifeel it,”I assured Star at the same time the door to the plane slammed shut.
Zelin had felt the shift too.
The sound of racing hearts and bones breaking reached my ears before I whirled to see about fifty men and women running toward us—half shifting into black wolves, but I’d never seen any of them in my life.
I realized then why Isis had stayed in Rosu Castle. There was no danger there anymore because danger would always follow me.
This was an attack, and they’d known we would come here. They’d been waiting for us.
“Not today, you fucking assholes!” I raged, blue fire erupting along my arms as I lunged forward.
“Natalia, don’t!” André shouted, but it was too late, I had already reached the first one… so had the Beast.
Furry body parts began flying from his clawed hands as I grabbed my wannabe Vampir attacker by the throat and tossed him backward. His screeches cracked the air as myEternal Blazeconsumed him, and I moved on to the next.
They were going to regret this. I was no longer the impressionable, innocent, hybrid girl who couldn’t even shift into her wolf without hurting herself. I was far, far more.
A huge wolf jumped toward me, claws first, but I arched my body backward to let him fly over me and then spun, catching him by the tail. A ragged cry tore from him as I yanked him back with my enhanced strength, and the fire rushed over his dark fur, making him glow blue before obliterating him.
Dante’s shadows drifted past me while I engaged the next asshole, and the silver gleam of a weapon caught my attention. Startled, I turned to find Zelin twirling a sword in the air and slicing through more Vampiri than I could count.
“She has a sword?!”
Apparently, she did. Badass.
A group of Vampir suddenly jumped on her from the other side of the plane, and alarm coursed through me. They were more than she could handle, and they all wore power bands.
“No!” Before I could reason, a wave of fire exploded out of me, swallowing them all… even Zelin.
“Don’t kill her!”Star screamed, but I feared it was too late.
Heart thundering in my ears, I watched the fire sweep over them one by one, turning the Vampiri to ashes on contact. When it reached Zelin, her gaze connected with mine, widening in shock.
The flames rushed over her instantly, and horror gripped as they engulfed her whole… just to sweep over her and to the other side, sputtering into nothing. As if there was nothing there to burn.
“That was so fucking cool,” she gasped, glancing down at the mounds of ash all around her before she slipped the sword back into the sheath I hadn’t noticed on her back.
“You are not hurt?” I asked, frozen in place while fear still chilled my veins.
Zelin chuckled. “I’m an Iron Knight, remember?” Patting my shoulder as she passed by me, she walked back to the plane.
It was then I realized it was all over. Hannes, Dante, and André had eradicated the rest of our ambush, but I couldn’t seem to move. All I could see was the wave of my fire going over Zelin, and how differently this could have ended.
