Kaelis's lips twisted into a sneer. "Stupid beast. You know that she can't fight what she is any more than you can."
Around them, the clearing erupted into chaos. Felix, Eiran, and the others had torn out of the bonds and threw themselvesat the fae raiders that poured from the shadows of the Mistwood. Blades rang against claws, and the air filled with snarls and screams.
"Eiran! Protect Delphi!" Tenebrys roared, not daring to take his eyes off Kaelis. Through their bond, he could feel her—terrified, furious, and burning with magic that was almost bursting from her skin.
Kaelis smiled, all sharp teeth and cruelty. "So protective of what's mine."
Tenebrys knew he was being provoked, but it didn't matter. His vision went red. He charged, a blur of muscle and rage, his claws extended to tear that smug face apart. Kaelis met him head-on, the daggers singing as they deflected blow after blow. The fae lord was too fast, his movements a deadly dance that had taken centuries to perfect.
They clashed again and again, circling each other like the predators they were. Tenebrys's strength was greater, but Kaelis had speed and a thousand years of killing whenever he wished. Every time Tenebrys thought he had an opening, the fae lord slipped away like smoke.
A spike of sharp, metallic fear shot through the mate bond, so sudden and visceral that Tenebrys faltered. He could smell the dark flowers and copper of Delphi's blood. She was hurt.
Tenebrys's concentration shattered, and he stumbled.
Kaelis struck, swift as the wind. The dagger plunged into Tenebrys's side, sliding along the edge of his bone chest plate where it met flesh and ribs.
Pain exploded through him, white-hot and blinding. He stumbled back, his hand pressing against the wound, feeling the slick heat of his own blood.
"Predictable," Kaelis purred, advancing with both daggers raised. "Your weakness has always been your soft heart, Beast King. It's why I killed your kind so easily and will do so again.You don't have the power to protect this weak world from me. You never did."
Tenebrys's vision swam. He tried to brace himself, to summon the strength to fight back. He needed to buy himself time to let his shifter healing close the wound up enough to stop bleeding. Kaelis knew better than to give him that chance. He closed in, the daggers angled for his throat, for his heart, for the killing blow he had been denied thirty years ago.
Delphi, I'm sorry, Tenebrys thought distantly.
A high, feminine, and feral roar of pure fury tore through the clearing.
Delphi attacked Kaelis like a wildcat, her small body slamming into his side with enough force to knock him off balance. The beautiful little claws she had grown when they mated slashed across his perfect face, opening four deep gouges from temple to jaw.
"Die you fucking asshole!" she screamed, slamming her bloody palm into the wound on Kaelis's face. He shook her off with a shout of fury. She rolled to her feet and snarled at him in challenge.
"What did…" Kaelis stammered. He screamed, a sound of shock and agony, and stumbled backward, his hands flying to his face as delphinium flowers erupted from the wounds, blue and deadly, their poisonous roots burrowing into his flesh.
Tenebrys could only stare, his pain forgotten. His fierce, defiant, beautiful mate stood between him and certain death, her body trembling with rage and power she barely understood.
Kaelis tore at the flowers sprouting from his face, ripping them free with wet, sickening sounds. His blood dripped onto the ground, hissing and smoking where it stained the earth black.
"You little bitch," he hissed, his voice distorted by the damage. "Do you have any idea what you've done?"
Delphi didn't answer. She was drowning in her magic, purple and blue flames wreathing her, dancing across her skin without burning. Her feet left the ground, her body rising into the air as if lifted by invisible hands. Her red hair whipped around her face and horns, eyes glowing with an inner light that was both terrifying and breathtaking.
"Fire kills disease. It purifies all that is rotten," Delphi said, her voice sounding primal and furious. Her hands shot out, and her flames exploded from them.
Tenebrys threw himself to the ground as the inferno roared over him. Instead of burning, the witch fire passed through him like a benediction, warm and cleansing, and where it touched, his wounds began to close. He gasped, feeling the poison that Kaelis's blade had carried burning away to nothing.
Beyond the circle of protection, the fae raiders shrieked as the flames consumed them, their bodies turning to ash in seconds. The Mistwood itself seemed to recoil in fear, the twisted trees groaning and the ground buckling.
Tenebrys stared in wonder as the sickness that had been dormant in the soil for decades bubbled up, black and viscous, drawn to the surface by Delphi's power. The witch fire burned it away, turning the noxious poison to dust.
"My love," Tenebrys whispered, his hand resting on his chest in utter wonder and awe. "My mate."
Kaelis, still clutching his ruined face, stared at Delphi in horror. He ripped the last of the flowers from his skin and looked at the inferno circling him like a cobra about to strike.
"One last plague to kill," Delphi said, fire coiling around the finger she pointed at Kaelis.
Kaelis's magic flared up, a black wall shielding him from the flame long enough to let his dagger fly.
Narcisse didn't even have time to scream. The blade buried itself in his chest, and he crumpled to the ground, his eyes wide with shock.
