Dark light bursts around us a second before the light magic would reach us.
I can’t see exactly where Emil’s dark power is coming from—his hands most likely—but it forms a shield against which my father’s light magic can only spread outward, never making it through.
My father’s shouted threats are garbled but becoming clearer as his healing power seems to be repairing his jaw. “I’ll tear you apart, Daughter! I’ll rip the flesh from your?—”
A second burst of dark light completely obscures my father’s form, blocking him from view.
Within the dark shield, the transportation mist storms around me faster than before, spinning in dizzying ribbons within the cocoon, and pressing in on my chest, plastering me against Emil.
His head remains bent to mine and finally, his voice sounds in my ear. Not the growl of a dragon or a wolf or even the snarl of a warlock or a demon. He sounds almost human, and the sheer simplicity of the baritone of his voice chills me to my bones.
“You should have killed me,” he whispers.
A violent shiver racks my body.
Emil’s transportation magic has already taken hold of me, and now I’m at his mercy.
CHAPTER FOUR
Emil’s magic is a savage tug, angry and uncontrolled, nothing like the smoothness of our more recent travels.
His energy compresses my chest so tightly that I can’t breathe. My heart thuds in my chest, a powerful rush of blood pounding in my ears as I brace to find out where he has chosen to take me.
To my shock, the swirling mist parts to reveal the alley at the side of the church where I left my pack only a short time ago.
The moon is high in the night sky, but even without it, the streetlights filter across the space, making everything within it clearly visible.
Only five paces away, Anarchy and her three brothers are engaged in a savage battle with one of my father’s most loyal soldiers: the vampire named Gad.
Gad is incredibly fast, moving from one place to another in mere blinks, but Anarchy and her brothers are keeping him constrained. For now.
My half-brother, Lucian, is poised farther behind them, his wings spread, guarding the open end of the alley in such a way that he must be the backstop in case Gad gets away. We don’t want him calling for reinforcements.
Only a short distance behind the fight with Gad, the fire jotunn called Jonah, with whom I have a fragile truce, is fighting another of my father’s soldiers—the berserker woman known as Valki.
She has multiple piercings and her tank top is stretched to near bursting now that her muscles are pumped up. Usually, she wears a solid metal wire wrapped around her arm. It looks like jewelry but doubles as a weapon that can wind around someone’s head and rip it off.
It looks like she may have tried that approach on Jonah, but he must have burned the metal to ash, given the smudgy, black ring of dust currently decorating his neck.
The remainder of my father’s guards lie unconscious at intervals along the alley. Many of them are propped up in sitting positions against the wall opposite the church.
Judging by their steady heartbeats, which sound in my sensitive hearing, they’re all alive.
We didn’t come here to kill my father’s followers. Not even Gad or Valki. Given how neatly some of the guards have been placed with their legs tucked out of the way of being trampled, my family has taken my wishes seriously.
My father believes I will slaughter other creatures of the dark, and I’m hellbent on proving him wrong.
Of course, the fight would be much easier without that limitation.
Jonah has the ability to turn any living creature into ash within the space of seconds. Instead, he’s continuing to go toe to toe with Valki in a fight that makes me wince.
Likewise, Anarchy and her brothers have stayed in their dark elf forms. Their bodies are strong and lithe, their pointed ears hidden beneath their gorgeous, lilac hair.
If they shifted into their shadow panther forms, they could maul Gad to death within seconds. As it is, Gad appears to be giving as many bruises as he’s receiving.
It’s lucky we’re in the alley because this kind of fight would draw a lot of attention from human passersby.
Emil and I have arrived in the same physical positions we were in when we left the catacomb—still kneeling on the ground. We’re located at the back end of the alley and we’re facing it side-on so I can see the entire alleyway, including the street in the distance.
