Oh crap. Crap. Crap. Crap.
Pushing the fact that I’d just separated the group, I rushed forward and knelt next to Gage, staring in shock at the knife hilt sticking out of his side.
His father advanced on us, and two other Shades followed behind him.
Apollyon must have told Arthur where we were, and he had opened a portal nearby to come after us.
“Indigo, you are such a disappointment. Not as much as my son, but pretty close,” Arthur drawled as he stalked toward us.
My wings snapped from my back, and a flood of anger rushed through me. How dare he!
Gritting his teeth, Gage ripped out the dagger embedded in his side and stood as if it were nothing.
“I’mnotyour son!” he growled—an inhuman sound that made chills crawl up my back.
“You’re right. A son wouldn’t betray me like this.” Arthur threw his empty hand out and I braced myself, unsure what his powers were.
Gage stepped in front of me, and a black whip of inky dark magic flung from Arthur’s hand and wrapped around Gage’s torso, tightening like a rubber band and pinning his arms to his sides. He struggled against the restraints, looking super pissed but unfazed by the bleeding knife wound in his flank.
I sidestepped Gage and faced Arthur head on.
“Enough!” I shouted, throwing my arms forward. A shockwave blasted from my palms and slammed into all of them.
The unfamiliar Shades went down, but Arthur must have had some sort of protection field, because it didn’t even blow his hair back.
“So it’s true?” Arthur said to Gage. “Youwerebitten.”
I risked exposing myself to attack and glanced at Gage, only to stumble backward when I looked into burning yellow eyes and fangs poking into his lower lip. Black fur crawled down his neck as his cheekbones became more pronounced.
No.
“Gage?”
I knew then. I knew what Arthur was talking about. What Vera had hinted at. What Aurelia had warned me about.
I’d been so blind. Maybe I just didn’t want it to be true, but I couldn’t deny it anymore. Gage jumped in front of the hellhound that Apollyon sent to bite me, but instead it bit Gage. That bite had changed him. I didn’t know how extensively Gage had been affected except that he looked as much beast as man right now.
Those black bands. Were they forcing this change on him? Or was he doing it himself?
With one swift motion, I pulled a light weapon from my arm and slashed through Arthur’s inky black magic, careful not to cut Gage. The bands fell to the ground and Gage bolted forward like a wild animal freed from a cage.
Indigo was locked in battle with the winged Shade who had dropped on her, and one of the Shades that I’d knocked over with my power rushed to meet me as the cemetery was plunged into chaos.
Our swords clanged back and forth as the Shade tried to gut me. He wasn’t trying to knock me out or kidnap me, he was going for the kill. He lunged at me again, and in a moment of panic I spun, thrusting my sword into his chest.
He went down on his knees; mouth open in shock.
Bile rose in my throat as I realized I’d delivered a death blow.
I’d never killed anything other than a demon. The Shade on the ground in front of me was about twenty-five, with blond hair and kind eyes, and when he looked up at me I saw so much regret.
I wasn’t prepared for that. I wasn’t prepared to kill a guy. He could have been like Indigo, a lost soul with a horrible leader.
“I’m sorry,” I whimpered, reaching out to him as he tipped over.
“Tate, look out!” Gage’s beast-like voice startled me, and I spun just as Arthur’s giant sword was coming down at my head.
I didn’t have time to block his blow; my sword was still embedded in the chest of the dying Shade at my feet.
