Before I could defend myself, the hounds lunged. Large, feral teeth clamped down on my arms, legs, and wings. A shrill scream exploded from the back of my throat. Fire burned down the length of my arms. My wings twitched in agony. Blood poured from the open wounds, leaving me heady. I tumbled into a pool of golden blood. I became dizzy. This wasn’t good at all.
“NAHOMIE!”Tassarion bellowed.
His voice carried over the cacophony in the ballroom.
“Consider this my gift to you,RoiTassarion.”
The Hallowed sounded cruel. Vindictive.
He had a sneer in his voice that made me shiver.
“Your bride for mine.” I watched in horror as the bloodhounds twitched, as if they were possessed, their eyes darkening from crimson to obsidian as they glared at me. “My beloved took her life after I wasn’t able to console her from the grief of Jacques’s death.”
Who in the living stars was Jacques? And what in all the realms did he have to do with me?
The Hallowed lowered a gaze of profound hatred on me, his shoulders trembling with uncontrollable rage.
“You forget you’re not the only Soul Bender on this island,” the angel sneered. “You may bend the living. But I bend thedead.”
The bloodhounds twitched again. Then they attacked.
I jerked to the side, avoiding the first wave of possessed hounds.
But I was too late, too wounded, to avoid the next.
Sharp incisors sank into my skin, tearing through my limbs as the bloodhounds got a hold of me and shook me violently in their maws. My throat was going raw from screaming at the top of my lungs. Tears stained my cheeks as I sobbed.
Then I did the hard thing.
I wrenched my body away from the grasp of the bloodhounds, tearing even more of myfyusedskin. The stinging pain of torn, ethereal flesh was infinitely worse than if I’d been bitten with my Seraphim skin. This Mortent knew how to bleed Seraphim and well.
Through blurred vision, I found his eyes through the slits of his mask. I recognized him as the angel who’d watched me earlier with profound hatred.
“You will suffer for this,” Tassarion snarled, more beastly than king. He was surrounded by boneravens, bloodhounds, and masked angels who turned on him. Turned on us. A quick glance found every gargoyle also surrounded; Obsidian trapped worst of all.
I had to do something.
Pushing beyond my pain, beyond the gushing blood, while the angel continued fuming at Tassarion, I disappeared entirely into blackfire. I blended into the darkness. Became one with the twinight. I was terror and ruin, and I was ready to unleash hèls on these intruders. The moment I was completely invisible, I lunged for the male. I could easily rip him to shreds with my fire.Especially one on one. But this one, I would deal with by hand. Since he ambushed us, I would return the favor.
I drew my hand back and crushed my fist into his jaw, instantly breaking bone. He bellowed at the blow. Before he could double over, I brought up a sharp knee into his groin. As he screamed, I rammed my knee into his stomach, audibly breaking his ribs before clawing at his eyes with my nails. Then I ripped through his wings with my talons.
The angel bled out fast. I brutalized him blow for blow, battering him to a pulp.
He looked much older than most of the angels in attendance and slightly fragile.
But I didn’t give a rot.
Whoever he was, he had betrayed us. Brought boneravens and bloodhounds to our home. It was only the mercy of the Infinite that these hounds weren’t here with the Ivory Rain. Each one had to die before they escaped to tell the tale. It wouldn’t be long before their masters tracked them down to Mortevain. How this male had gotten his hands on bloodhounds was beyond me. Either way, he was going to die for it.
I drew back my wings, ready to clap them against the male’s frame, when my muscles contracted, twisting in my limbs. I screeched, tumbling in the air, crippled over in pain. The muscles in my arms, legs, and stomach twisted like knots, leaving me shaking with agony. A darkmajikhad gripped my body, breaking me limb for limb. My screams echoed across the ballroom.
“MARCÈLLIAN!” Tassarion thundered, his voice rumbling through the ballroom. “Take your hands offmywife.”
Tassarion lunged with a speed that mesmerized me. Curled in a fetal position, I watched his titan of a body move with the grace of a spiderwraith.
Marcèllian.
The angel Tassarion called Unka. Who sat on Roi Tazzias’s Ministeri. The reason I would never meet my Everthorn Manmi and Papi. The reason for Tassarion’s capture. Torture.The one who betrayed my wingmate and all of Mortevain Island to the Fallen.
