Holy shit.
“It’s going to kill her.” Amari, who had been trying to stop Val from interfering, now seemed to have reconsidered. His fear had shot up higher than anyone’s.
I reached for him to soothe him, but he moved away. “No, it’s not. This is supposed to happen. If we stop it now?—”
Amari shifted to something that was hard to describe. Part demon, part panther, part stone. Wings erupted from his back, leathery and powerful, and his face elongated into something between a panther and a demon.
“Amari, no!” Val attempted to grab him, but he was already too far away.
I didn’t think, just moved. My wings snapped wide, and I shot toward him, intercepting him mid-flight. We collided, and my bones rattled as we tumbled through the air in a tangle of wings.
His stone fingers closed around my throat.
I drove my fist into his jaw. The impact sent pain shooting up my arm, but his grip loosened enough for me to wrench free. We hit the ground, rolling, each trying to pin the other.
His wings beat, lifting us both off the ground. His singlehand grabbed my wing and wrenched it downward, and agony shot through the joint.
“V-v-vacants are coming!” Kage’s voice cut through the chaos, high and terrified.
Amari let go of my wing, and before he could stop me, I flew toward Samara, who was now in a crumpled heap on the ground, the lightning now receding.
I didn’t need to see the vacants to know they were moving closer. There was so much wrongness in the air that my stomach churned and bile rose in my throat.
I scooped her up and launched into the sky, my wing screaming at me in protest. Her head lolled, and then her eyes opened slowly, confusion radiating off her.
She looked down. “It’s Taylor! Let me go!” She tried to twist in my arms, the movement making my wings falter.
Not a fucking chance.
Her brother or not, I wasn’t dropping her into a horde of light-drained demons who’d tear her apart before she could blink.
The forest below seethed with movement. The vacants converged on the clearing like a spreading infection.
Could they shift and fly?
I wasn’t going to risk Samara to find out. I quickly calculated where we were in relation to Earth before I landed in an empty field.
I set Samara down in the grass, steadying her when she swayed. “Don’t move.”
I didn’t wait for her response, and I went through the barrier and back to Inferna.
A hell serpent circled overhead, its scales gleaming like obsidian in the darkness. Wings that looked too large for its body beat with enough force to knock over a child. A giant sat on its back, one hand gripping a spike protruding from the creature’s neck.
The serpent banked, heading toward the forest. Its mouth opened, revealing rows of teeth that could shred through steel. The roar that emerged ripped through the air, followed by a wave of flame that engulfed the trees just beyond the clearing.
Vacants screamed with high, inhuman sounds that made the hair on my arms stand on end.
A figure stood in the center of the clearing where Samara had been, perfectly still amid the carnage. That had to be Taylor.
Val, Amari, and Nico were running toward the other side of the clearing. Nico shifted mid-run, his squirrel form darting into the forest with a speed that would have been impressive if I wasn’t concerned about what the hell was waiting in those trees. Val wrapped his arms around Amari’s torso, and Amari leapt into the sky.
The hell serpent had circled and was opening its mouth to send more fire.
They were right in its path.
I dove, my hand closing around the edge of Amari’s wing just as another wave of fire lit up the sky behind us. The heat scorched my wings as I pulled us through the barrier.
I lost my grip on Amari right before we hit the ground, and my shoulder took most of the impact. Amari wrapped his wings tightly around Val before they hit the ground, leaving a small crater.
