Fire scoured the ground around us, kept off us by my hastily thrown-up magic. Bodies writhed and creatures screamed. Blood splattered my face from the side. Still we pushed on, tearing a path forward. More dragons flew overhead now, intermingled with the elves’ flying troops, trying to fight them back.
Tatsu, her back empty, opened her mighty jaws and crunched a sylph between her teeth. Faeries around them flittered away. I didn’t know if they’d decided to battle someone else, or if they’d (wisely) decided they’d rather not give their lives for the elves.
“So why the hell am I?” I said as I spotted Lucifer in his demon form, hovering near the back of the elves. He was going for the most powerful of them. Other demons flew around him, creating a sort of circle. A protective ring, maybe? He likely knew tricks with which to combat the elves, and I had taken out his biggest threat.
Yeah, real great decision-making, dummy, I thought to myself as a sword made it past Darius and licked the side of my leg with blinding agony. I grunted and staggered, nearly falling. That one had sliced deeply. Dang it.
Darius stabbed through the chest of the enemy. The ugly creature with a flat face and protruding mouth shrieked and shuddered as he ripped it down and away from me.
Are you okay? he thought.
“Good.” I wasn’t—it hurt something awful. I had to pay more attention to keep moving.
Limping now, I felt Emery and Penny’s spell float into the air like fog. It drifted slowly, aiming for Lucifer and his band of merry men.
“Still can’t feel them,” Penny yelled from behind me.
She meant the elves, who had to be just beyond this line of enemy.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a vampire hiss before dropping. He convulsed on the ground as the vampire behind him stepped forward, picking up where he’d left off.
A dragon flew overhead, bearing down with fire. I covered us as two centaurs went down from Cahal and the vampires’ combined efforts. I smashed a third with air, allowing the dragon’s fire to help keep it down. Behind them, the roiling and surging group of elves focused on Lucifer and the dragons. Mostly undamaged, most standing, it was clear they were doing just fine at keeping my dad at bay. We had a chance at stopping him before he did the kind of thing he couldn’t walk back from.
Someone hit me from behind. Penny shouted, and the burst of magic she’d been sending out shot wide. It hit a dragon and clamped its wings to its sides. The beautiful purple and black body crashed down to the ground.
“No! Oh no!” Penny surged that way, but a vampire stepped in her path. “Move, Marie,” she shouted.
The dragon roared and fire blasted into the air. Wings beat and then the dragon tramped through the crowd, knocking people over as it tried to get back in the air.
Marie in monster form recoiled and dropped Penny, who was done with being saved or stopped and had clearly hit her with a spell. Once on the ground, Penny charged toward the dragon, cutting down the creatures who were trying to chop at it with weapons and stab its eyes.
“Follow her,” I yelled, altering course, blinding agony vibrating up my thigh each time I stepped on that leg. Heal already, leg.
Emery caught up to Penny quickly, as did Cahal, detouring from my father to cleave a path toward the dragon.
“I didn’t mean to, sorry,” Penny yelled. The dragon stopped in its thrashing, its great head turning her way as she and Emery shot out rapid-fire spells at its attackers. I covered the far side in fire. A demon appeared at the dragon’s rump, slinging air and also a weapon, not powerful enough to just use its magic. Another appeared beside it, and it was clear they’d followed us toward the elves. We were running out of time.
The dragon bellowed and flapped its wings, rising into the air, and demons surged into the hole it left behind. The dragon turned and blasted the area in front of Penny with fire, repaying her for her help.
I let my magic pulse as the demons rushed toward and around us, reaching into them as a group, thankful for their limited power level. They felt my magic and slowed their movement. They turned their gazes toward me in confusion. I willed them to slow further, to allow us to go first. They pushed against the directive, shaking with the effort. Lucifer must’ve already had his hooks in them.
“Damn it,” I said, kicking a downed body. Pain coiled around me, hard to shake off. I winced and clutched the wound briefly, willing myself to heal faster. My leather pants bulged with the slit, and gooey wetness slid down my leg. That wasn’t great. I wished I’d thought to bring duct tape so I could patch up holes in thighs.
Closer now, we moved into the throng of elves. The dragon Penny had hurt then helped blast the closest elves with fire, doing us a favor, and the demons fought in front of us, letting us surge in behind them.
“Got the elf magic,” Penny said, magic welling around her. “Now, what do I do with it?”
Emery shot out another nulling spell, their earlier spell still drifting closer to Lucifer. Almost there. He was clearly trying to fill the gap in time until the original spell actually hit.
The recent spell hit one demon and splashed against another to its right. Clearly the fog was needed to get around the demons and to my father. The two affected demons looked at their hands, then glanced around wildly before their wings froze up, the Penny-borrowed elves’ magic taking hold. They dropped to the ground in convulsions.
Dragons swooped in with fire, probably to keep the elves from attacking the fallen bodies. Lucifer looked at the hole I’d created. A moment later he dipped his gaze, seeing me on the ground. The fog reached him. Lights out went his magic.
He didn’t look away from me, even as the demons around him started to convulse. He tensed; I could see it. The pain of the elves’ magic was digging into him, it must be, but he was ignoring it, resisting. Probably doing a much better job than I was at fighting the effects of this blasted leg.
The thing felt like it was leeching the heat out of me, taking my energy with it. My magic thrummed to compensate, fueling me, but it felt strangely heavy and cumbersome. I was a little woozy, probably from blood loss.
I took a deep breath and pushed on, determined. The pain would die down shortly. I’d survived worse.
The demons around Lucifer fell. His wings beat fast but shallow now, then faltered. The dragons bellowed as they tried to help the fallen among the surging elves, but their efforts weren’t enough to save everyone. If Lucifer fell, they’d kill him. Shit.
“Penny, hit those elves with their own magic,” I yelled, pushing at the demons rushing in front of me, throwing fire to either side of us, drawing the notice of the closest elves. I needed them to split their forces.
“On it!”
I needed to tear down Penny’s spell and then shove Lucifer away before he could magically stop me.
I sent off fire at Penny’s spell, layered it with air, and then started picking it apart. I was an old pro at it by now, but it still took a second. A second Lucifer might not have.
Nineteen
Penny put everything she had into the magic she’d shoplifted from the elves, sweeping it over them as Emery shot spells. Cahal’s crimson-coated sword flashed, slicing into one elf after another, hacking them down. He jerked but then stepped forward, fighting their magic, it seemed.
That was when Penny felt it: a hot stab of agony ripping through her middle. Oh yeah, those dirty slug monkeys were coming at them now. If they’d just chill for a second, they’d figure out her group were actually here to help them. A fat lot of good it was doing at the moment.
Penny pushed through the pain as Reagan worked at her spell.
“Almost…” Reagan said, the words almost drowned out by the shouting and hissing around them. And then she took a step back and her face closed down in concentration. “That bastard is quick,” she said through her teeth, staggering into Darius beside her. She cried out and reached down for her thigh.
Dawning understanding prickled Penny and then fear welled up. She let go of her
magic, of the spells, and turned toward her friend. Reagan never admitted she was in pain. She never gave in to it, not without throwing out some horrible violence to compensate for it.
Darius couldn’t help right her, too busy making mincemeat of an elf in front of them. Penny grabbed her upper arm to hold her steady and ducked around, slipping between her and one of the vampires to do it. She sucked in a breath.
Blood was seeping out of a nearly foot-long gash, gushing down her leg and pooling on the ground. She healed fast, but the wound was deep—with the exercise she was doing, she’d bleed too much before her body could close it up.
“I don’t know how to heal,” Penny said, looking around frantically. “You have to stop fighting, Reagan. Hover into the air. Hover out of here and get on Archion. Lucifer will let you. If you don’t, you’ll bleed out.”
“I’ll be fine,” she said in a gruff tone, back on her feet, her hands moving through the air, one shining a deep crimson from where she’d grabbed her thigh. Her spine curved, her energy clearly drained.
“How bad?” Darius said, and though the words were jumbled through his big teeth, Penny understood him perfectly.
“Very. If she doesn’t get help, she’ll die,” she said, desperation and terror clawing at her. “She will die!”
“I won’t—”
Penny doused her in a nulling spell. The currents of Lucifer’s magic hit Reagan like a punch in the face, snapping her head back. Clearly her father was taking a second out of his busy schedule to play a little game of chicken, one that would cost valuable lives on all sides. That dangling ball sac obviously didn’t give a horse’s dong about anyone but his fun.
Demons rushed around them, going straight for the elves. They didn’t bother their crew, though, so right now Penny didn’t care.
Using a spell to carry her words, she yelled to Lucifer, “She’s hurt badly. If you are going to take her, take her now.”
“No!” Reagan shoved Penny off, unraveling her spell. She’d gotten really quick at it, unfortunately. “I am not leaving. We’ll finish this.”
“You tried. You failed,” Penny told her. “It was always a long shot.”
“No.” Reagan sent her magic at Lucifer. Three of the downed demons that had been flying with him rose into the sky. Dragons swooped down around them, lighting the world on fire. Demons rushed in, joining the fray. From the direction they were coming, they weren’t going through the shifters, mages, and fae to get here—they were going around. At least that would spare some people. It wouldn’t spare the elves, though. That battle was clearly lost, and maybe the world with it. Penny wondered what that would mean for the Brink. Reagan had had the right idea—there needed to be balance, and Lucifer controlling two worlds probably wasn’t it.
Not like they could do anything about it, though. Someone stronger would have to take up the fight.
“You’re hurt, and if you don’t get help, you’ll die. Is that what you want?” Penny asked with tears in her eyes, nulling Reagan again. The demons shoved by them, apparently not realizing the heir was in the mix. Hate filled the magic in the air.
“Hurry,” she yelled at Lucifer as Reagan threw off her arm again. “Stop fighting me, Reagan.”
“I can’t go,” Reagan said. “I doubt he’ll spare enough dragons to save very many people. I can probably take a couple of you, but what about the others? What about Roger and Callie and Dizzy? I will not leave this battlefield while they are still on it. I will not leave them to die without doing everything I can to save them.”
Penny’s heart broke. She knew the truth of those words. But damn it, Reagan had already risked so much to help them. The shifters, mages, and fae had a chance—they had powers and abilities of their own and might still walk away. Maybe Penny and Emery and the others, too, if the demons let them fight their way out. But if Reagan didn’t go now, she wouldn’t have a chance at all. Penny was no nurse, but that much was obvious. If Reagan didn’t get help, she would very soon be beyond it.
Lucifer appeared above them, looking down. He reached a hand out, and Penny ripped her spell away so he could grab Reagan. He might have to wrestle her magically, but it seemed he was adept at that. He was more experienced. He’d get her out of there.
He’d save her.
“Go,” Penny said, looking at her friend for what was maybe the last time. This time, though, Penny wouldn’t have anything to regret. She wouldn’t be the one looking back as she escaped. This time, she was the motherfucking savior.
Twenty
Horrible fear drenched Lucifer as he pulled his daughter up from the throng of people fighting with her. Fighting for her. Her face was incredibly pale and bloodless. Her energy had flagged, and while she was still fighting his hold and his magic with skill, her power had greatly diminished. Blood dripped from her leg in a nearly solid line as he pulled her up.
“What have you done?” he said, pushing higher with her, turning her so he could look at her leg. “Stop fighting my magic, Reagan. You’re hurt.”
“I’ll live. Put me back.”
Tatsu soared near them, looking on. A lick of pain crept up his spine. The miserable elves were not smart enough to know when they were beaten.
She is dying, Tatsu said, each syllable jackhammering into Lucifer. I can feel the slide of her being toward the never. Her will is strong, and she is using her magic like a crutch, but her energy is all but sapped. Once that is gone, she’ll lose the grip on her magic and fade with it. Did you not feel this when you were battling her?
That sounded like an accusation, and Lucifer bit out a response before he could help it.
No, I didn’t fucking notice! I am in the middle of a battle, being attacked from all angles.
But that wasn’t totally true. He’d been too puffed up with pride in her to notice. She’d used her resources to strip away his protections and gain the upper hand. She could’ve killed him, most likely. He’d half wondered if she planned to try. But then she’d helped him recover.
His hands shook as he looked at her face, her eyes drooping and her pupils dilated.
The whole time, she had been mortally wounded. Even now, she did not want to leave her friends—her people—preferring dying beside them to escape.
But why hadn’t she known she was this close?
“The vampire,” he said softly, remembering how their kind bonded. They drained their intended nearly dry and then filled them up again. And if that huge gap in her thigh wasn’t gushing blood, that might yet work. She had allowed herself to ignore the warning signs in order to stay with the battle, though. She’d ignored the pain, too, having survived worse.
He wondered if the human mages down on the battlefield, surrounded by the unicorns to keep them from harm, would have field dressings. He knew humans used such things in battle. Or maybe he could find someone who had a snake…
It would take too long to find any of those things with the battle raging.
Make sure her people are not touched, he told Tatsu. Get Archion here. He needs to fly her to the Underworld. She’ll be stronger there.
She won’t make it.
She will.
She won’t be able to hold on, Lucifer. Feel her magic—it is seeping from her. Her light is going out. Have you forgotten the feeling of an immortal slipping into eternal darkness?
No…
His eyes stung, covered in moisture now. His heart ached in a way he’d never felt before. A way that dug down into the very middle of him and bled pain. He hadn’t known her long, but she was his flesh and blood. His perfect heir. A joy to know and a pleasure to have around. In such a short time, he had grown to love her like no other heir before her. He’d grown to love her as his daughter. He could not lose her.
She needs to be healed immediately, Tatsu thought. You know there is a way.
Lucifer’s jaw ached with how hard he was suddenly clenching it.
No, he thought. Anything but that. There was no way he’d go to those kinds of extrem
es. He’d promised himself he would never again ask for anything from them.
Then say goodbye, Tatsu thought with great sadness. It pulled at her, and him with her.
He screamed, pushing higher into the sky. Archion flew closer, seeing Reagan in his arms. The dragon roared, the sound cutting through Lucifer, filled with misery. Lucifer knew how he felt.
How could he have let this happen? How could he have let her so close to the battle—actually into the battle? He’d planned to keep her at arm’s length, letting her get her feet wet in safety while he clinched their victory. He’d intended to compromise so she didn’t resent him. But he’d let her go too far, and look what had happened now.
He’d done this. He had caused this. The blame could rest at no one else’s feet.
Her breathing turned shallow, and her lips curved into a smile, her eyes mostly closed. “My bad. I think you might be right.” She let out a small sigh. “Please save my friends. Please save their people. The worlds need balance, Dad. The Realm needs their own leadership, just like the Underworld needs you. That leadership needs to be expanded to include representation for all who live here, but the people who are of this place need to rule it. You know that is right. Please do what is right.” She sucked in breath, one arm dangling lifelessly over his forearm. “Can you bring Darius up here, please? I’d like to say goodbye.”
Misery tore through his chest and filled every inch of his person. She had planned to marry that vampire. Sire offspring, like a traditional sort of family. Lucifer had never had that sort of nuclear arrangement, but he’d be damned, again, before he let anyone take it from her.
He couldn’t let this be the end. He would do what needed to be done, no matter what it cost him.
He tilted his head back and looked into the sky. Drawing on the age-old magic that he’d been born with, blessed with, he summoned them. The healers. The bringers of light and goodness.
Battle With Fire Page 19