City of War (Chronicles of Arcana Book 4)

by Debbie Cassidy

Up, dammit. Wila, get up.

  Her claw swiped at me, and I rolled just in time to avoid being shred in two. No. No. I couldn’t do this, I—

  You fucking can. It was Seb’s voice, but the sentiment came from all my mates as they channeled their strength into my limbs along with their conviction and confidence.

  I ducked to avoid another swipe, and then released my dragon. Pain ripped through me as my body erupted in scales, and my vision tunneled and sharpened. My jaw cracked and reformed and the ground rushed away from me, but I was still no match for Elora’s size. She was huge—a full dragon—and I was a hybrid, smaller and compact.

  She opened her maw and set forth a slew of flame; it hit me full force, skimming off my scales but doing no harm. The crowd was going wild as she attacked again and again. Her tail whipped round and smashed into me, sending me flying across the arena in an arc that ended in an ember-spitting slide across the hard-packed earth.

  I stood and cracked my neck and braced myself as Elora rushed toward me again.

  My turn. Seb’s power rushed down my arms and out through my fingertips, a magnetic force calling on the air to harden into a wall. Elora slammed into the barrier with an Oomf.

  Take that, bitch.

  She reared back and tried again and slammed into the same barrier made of air, sending shockwaves up my arms. She wasn’t backing down. It was time to abandon defensive tactics and go on the attack. Holding the barrier with one arm, I built an air hammer with my mind and brought it down with my free arm. It knocked her off her feet and sent her flying backward.

  She was up too fast, but this time she didn’t rush me. Instead, she looked up into the arena, at five Draconi males who were on the edge of their seats. Her mates? They looked pale. A menacing growl bubbled up her throat and then one of them stood up and vanished into the bleachers.

  She turned her attention back to me, her body morphing, growing smaller, part dragon, part female.

  “What are you?” she asked.

  My mouth was filled with teeth so there was no answering her.

  Hold your ground, Wila. She’s thrown off balance. We have this. Next we can use the earth to—

  The door between us slammed shut.

  Seb? Seb?

  His power still lingered in my limbs, but it was residual, and fading rapidly. Movement to my left showed that Elora’s mate had returned. He sat down and inclined his head with a smirk on his lips. Elora’s laughter echoed around the arena. Wait ... She’d done something. No, she’d had her mate do something to lock Seb out of the arena.

  Her laughter cut off. “No weapons, no potions, no outside magic.”

  No, this couldn’t be happening. Seb was my ether-kindred. He was a part of me. He wasn’t just some random magical being. He was mine.

  Wila ...

  Seb? He sounded far away, distant and fading fast.

  Trying .... block ... fight ...

  I let go of my dragon a fraction, whimpering as my jaw snapped back into place. “What did you do?”

  We circled each other.

  “Reinforced the wards on the arena, and just as well I did. You’ll be taking your secret to the grave.”

  What did she mean? Had she realized what I was? My heart was pounding ten to the dozen because this whole thing had hinged on Seb, it had relied on his power running through me.

  “Now, how about we end this?” She opened her mouth to blast me with crimson flame, and I curled in on myself, scales erupting to protect me from the worst of the blast. My dragon roared, eager to fight. It was time to let it off the leash. Abandoning myself to instinct, I launched myself at the Draconi liege. We met in a clash of scales and talons, and the next few minutes were a blur of swipe and stab, evade, punch, and roll. Jets of flame flew—my gold to her crimson. She was untiring, fast, and experienced, but I countered and defended blow after blow.

  All the while, my heart sank lower and lower because Seb’s power was gone. I was alone, I was ... My gaze snagged on the five males. Her mates. They sat with their eyes closed.

  They were channeling. They were fighting for her, with her.

  Just like my mates could do for me. But I’d dropped the ball when the door had slammed on Seb. I’d abandoned the connection with my guys. I had to get it back. I had to—

  Fire shot through my abdomen, and the world stood still. Elora’s horrific face was a sneer, too close, too intimate.

  “How does it feel to die?” Her breath was hot and rancid on my face.

  I dropped my chin to look down, to stare at her hand buried in my abdomen. My words were drowned by the blood bubbling up my throat, and then my feet left the ground and the world rushed away, darkening at the edges. The crowd was a cacophony of commotion, whoops, and screams. But the pain was all-encompassing, scrambling my thoughts. What had I just ... what could I ...

  “—see what happens when you go up against the might of the Draconi.” Elora’s voice was distorted as she paraded me around the arena suspended in the air like a limp rat. “Even her outside magic couldn’t save her.”

  A flash of gold, a familiar face, and desperate blue eyes. Noir. Yes. My mates. The eager burn of the connections blended into the fire racing through my wound. I just had to reach out, reach out and open myself.

  Tay slammed into my mind. His troll power rushed through my veins and my head whipped up.

  “—tried to show us the Draconi were weak, that we—”

  “Not the Draconi. You.” I kicked out, catching her in the chest and propelling myself out of her grip. Her talons slid out of my body, and I hit the ground, coming up hot. I rushed her rugby-style, hitting her lower abdomen and taking her with me all the way to the arena wall. Her body smashed into stone, and her cry was a symphony to my ears.

  Tay’s power allowed me to swing her over my head and slam her into the ground like a child throwing a tantrum with a stuffed toy. Back and forth she went until Tay’s power ebbed, leaving me weak. I stumbled away from her, using the wall to stay upright as she slowly pulled herself to her feet, her face a question mark.

  I didn’t know. I didn’t know how this was possible, how Tay’s troll power could be mine, even for a moment, but something new was rushing into my limbs now—blue fire, laced with electricity. Valance and Noir, working together, except my legs couldn’t hold me up, except that the blood was rushing out of my wound too fast.

  Elora stalked toward me, and my hand came up as if of its own volition. Arcane power shot out and hit her in the chest, throwing her back far enough to give me a reprieve. Just one moment, just ...

  My knees gave. I slid down the wall, arse kissing dirt, breath coming short and shallow. The wound should heal. It should be healing, but it wasn’t. Instead, it burned like wildfire. Valance, Noir, and Tay clamored inside me, urging me to act, to move, but my limbs were lead.

  Elora came to a standstill in front of me. “You’re probably wondering why you aren’t healing,” she said casually. “I’m sure you’ve come across the toxin before. I believe your people call it Subzero?” She crouched so we were eye to eye. “I could let you just slip away and die. But where would the fun be in that?” She glanced up at the cheering crowd. “I did promise my people a show, after all.”

  “Wila! Wila!”

  Noir? No, stay back. Just ... Oh, God, don’t let them hurt him. Don’t ...

  Elora grabbed my hair and yanked my head back with one hand. “Just so you know, after I’ve finished here, I’m going to go fuck your kindred’s brains out.”

  My pulse skipped a beat and rage bloomed hot and potent in my solar plexus.

  “Yes, I suspected you were bound somehow, but your little power display just proved it to me. You’re something new, an abomination with Draconi blood. You shouldn’t exist.” She raised an index finger sporting a wicked sharp talon. “Goodbye, Miss Bastion.”

  She pulled back her hand to slash, and I opened my mouth and screamed; the sound was pure fury, potent and primal and complete. Elora flinched bu
t didn’t falter as her talon arched toward my neck.

  Gil, Trev, my friends, my guys ... Seb ... Sorry, so sorry ...

  A crack of lightning filled the air and then Elora was whipped away from me, suspended in the arena in a ball of light. She kicked and flailed as Seb stepped around her. His face was a mask of fury, and his body vibrated with rage. He walked toward me and lifted me off the ground, holding me tight against his chest, pushing his ether heat into my limbs. The fire in my stomach intensified, tearing scream after scream from my throat as he purged the poison from my body.

  “Wila! Let go of me! Get the fuck off me!” Noir’s bellow was a constant.

  Seb kissed my brow and then glanced up into the bleachers. Someone screamed, a bloodcurdling sound, and then Noir was by my side, his hands grasping to take me. Seb handed me over.

  “I’m sorry, Wila.” Noir cradled me. “I’m so sorry. They blocked my magic.”

  But he’d helped me, he’d channeled his magic into me, and now Seb’s power was filling me, healing me. “I can stand.”

  Noir set me on my feet. The arena was silent. All eyes on us, on what we might do.

  Elora’s words, her demands, were swallowed by the ether surrounding her like viscous honey.

  Sebastian raised his hand, his intention clear on his beautiful face. He meant to end this, to end it now, and there was no doubt in my mind that he could. That he could snuff her out like a candle. But if he did that before the truth was out then there would be chaos. The treaty, signed by Elora, would be worth nothing and Arcana would be fair game. There would be war, and war was exactly what we were trying to avoid.

  “Stop!” I grabbed his bicep. “We can’t.”

  “Oh, yes, we can.”

  I grabbed his face. “Look at me, babe. We really can’t.”

  He exhaled through his nostrils and dropped his hand. “She almost killed you.”

  “But you saved me just like you said you would.”

  Something dark crossed his features, and he clenched his jaw, swallowing hard. “I almost didn’t.”

  There’d be time for recriminations later. Right now, we had a boon to collect. “Let her speak.”

  Seb snapped his fingers, and Elora’s scream of rage filled the arena.

  I walked up to her suspended form. “Do you surrender?”

  Her eyes blazed. “You forfeit. You cheated.”

  I glanced at Seb. “Oh, him? He just happens to be my ether-kindred. He’s a part of me, not an outside influence. You were right, Elora. I am an abomination. I’m the best of both worlds. I’m Shedim, and I’m Draconi, and Seb and I are irrevocably connected. There can be no me without him and no him without me. The rest was courtesy of my mates. So, do you surrender, or would you prefer to die?”

  Her eyes scanned the arena and the silent, waiting faces of her people. “You win.” She snapped out the words.

  Seb released her, and she hit the ground in a neat crouch. She stood slowly and regally dusted off her clothes. “I suppose you want your boon?”

  This was it. “Yes.”

  She arched a brow. “Do I even need to guess?”

  “Give me Azren.”

  Her smile sent a chill down my spine. She glanced up at her mates, and once again, one of them got up and disappeared into the bleachers. She stared at her fingernails, unperturbed.

  “What are your people going to say about your loss?” Seb asked.

  She shrugged. “I’m sure they will marvel at my prowess. And it wasn’t so much a loss as a concession. You do have two males in the ring with you, while I ...” She spread out her arms. “I stand alone. The advantage was yours.”

  The desire to argue was a hand on the back of my neck, but I shrugged it off. I was about to get what I wanted, so why push?

  I leaned into Noir. “Get ready to get us out of here.”

  He stepped closer, his arm brushing mine.

  A door hidden in the wall of the far side of the arena opened and Azren stepped through it. My breath caught at the sight of him. He looked gaunt and bedraggled and his hands and feet were linked by shackles, but he was alive, and he was here.

  He locked onto me, his expression twisted and confused. His eyes scanned the crowd and then two guards appeared behind him, propelling him forward.

  Elora held out her arms to him. “Come, Azren. It looks like it’s time for me to let you go. Your kindred has won your freedom.”

  His gaze snapped back to me.

  Elora placed a hand on his shoulder and circled him so she was standing directly behind him. “Are you glad to see her, Azren?”

  Azren’s mouth worked, and when he spoke his voice was dry and hoarse. “Yes.”

  “I bet you’re already fantasizing about burying your cock inside her.”

  But Azren was scanning my face, drinking me in, his beautiful jade eyes gleaming with so many unsaid words. I needed to hold him, to inhale him, to—

  His head whipped back and his throat opened up under Elora’s talon. The sudden silence was filled only with a wet gurgle as his body attempted to breathe, to function. My legs were locked as my mind short-circuited on what I was seeing. Blood, so much blood, and someone screaming ... Was that me? And then Azren was in my arms, cradled in my arms, and he was looking at me, gazing into my eyes as the light in his died. He was—

  The world fragmented.

  19

  We materialized in the lounge to blood and pain and Azren lying limp in my arms. My heart was being torn from my chest, and the scream in my head was merely a whimper.

  Seb shoved me aside, and strong arms gathered me up. Tay’s scent wrapped around me, holding me together even as every atom of me wanted to shatter. Seb pressed a hand to Azren’s neck and knit the wound. But Azren didn’t move. He didn’t draw a breath.

  Azren was dead.

  He was gone.

  Seb’s head whipped up, and his eyes locked on me. “Can you feel him? Wila!”

  What? What was he saying? His words were drowned out by the buzzing in my ears.

  “Dammit! Wila, can you feel him? Is the connection still there?”

  “Wila?” Tay said. “Your kindred bond with Azren. Is it still there? Can you feel it?”

  Our bond. Our connection.

  My mind was suddenly sharp and focused. I closed my eyes and reached out to Azren, calling his name into the darkness. Our kindred bond worked differently to my connections with my mates; there was no thread connecting us, just an awareness of his presence if I reached for it, like opening a doorway. The doorway was still there, glowing softly, and beyond was silver gloom.

  Azren?

  He didn’t answer, but I could feel him. He was there, just out of reach. My eyes snapped open.

  “I can feel him. He’s still there.”

  “Then we can get him back.”

  Get him back? Bring him back? “How?”

  “You’re his kindred, you can guide him back,” Seb said. “But we have to catch him before he slips from limbo into the home for Shedim souls. You need to focus. Can you do that, Wila? Can you come with me?” He held out his hand.

  Valance watched me from the doorway, his hands fists at his sides, his gaze on my bloody torso. The wound had healed but my clothes were torn and soaked, evidence of what had happened.

  “Did you kill her?” he asked.

  “No. Not yet.” My gaze flitted back to Azren’s prone form. She’s done this, she’s taken him from me. A strange numbness threatened to close over my heart.

  “No,” Valance said. “Don’t shut off the pain. Use it. Go get Azren back and let’s end this.”

  I extricated myself from Tay’s arms, tearing my gaze from Azren’s body, and took Seb’s hand. “Let’s go.”

  He tugged me into his embrace and filled my mind with light. The world was rainbows and glitter as the ether opened up to us and the lounge and my mates faded away.

  “Wila, which way?” Seb asked.

  I hugged him close and closed my eyes, calli
ng to Azren. Silence greeted me, heavy and ominous, and then Azren’s sweet, fresh aroma tickled my senses. I latched on to it and opened my eyes.

  His scent was all around me now, how could I have missed it? And there, pressed into the ether, were his footprints—glittering gold imprints against the silver and pink world we were floating in.

  “This way.” I grabbed Seb’s hand and kicked off, swimming along the trail. Azren’s presence grew stronger, and my stomach fluttered. Close, he was so close. “We’re catching up.”

  “Good. Keep going,” Seb instructed.

  His footprints grew deeper, darker and then the ether parted before us and a gray archway rose up out of it. This was it. Azren was through that arch.

  Seb pulled back on my hand. “I can’t go through the arch with you, but we’re still connected. Just ... don’t stay too long.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Certain places beyond the ether are designed for rebirth and new beginnings; their purpose is to purify, and that includes memories.”

  “You mean Azren may have forgotten me?”

  “It’s possible, and there’s a risk that you could forget too, so you have to act fast. Hold on to my voice in your head. Can you do that?”

  I nodded. “I’ll be back.” He released my hand and the arch pulled me in and under.

  I knew this meadow, it was the same green grass, the same azure sky that Azren had last spoken to me under. How could this be? Hills rolled endlessly in the distance and watching it all was my kindred. His back was to me, hands on hips as he surveyed the land.

  “Azren?”

  He turned his head slightly, his brows coming down in query. “Who’s there?”

  Young blades of grass tickled and pricked my bare feet as I walked over to him. “It’s Wila. I’ve come to bring you home?”

  He studied my face for a long beat. “You look familiar.”

  Oh, shit. Okay, I could do this. “That’s because I’m your kindred.”

  He reached up to touch my face lightly. “I was about to break my fast. Would you like to join me?”

  He indicated the ground, where a picnic blanket and a simple meal of bread, cheese, and what looked like wine was laid out.