Blood and gore glistened in the dim light of my body. The screams of the dragoniles hummed deliciously over my skin—wild beasts, the lot of us.
I’d left one alive, hadn’t I? He’d escaped while I’d been fighting the last angel. An injured one had run from the rookery, his arms and shattered wing hanging off him. The hunter in me wanted to chase him down, to finish him off, but I’d probably lost my chance.
I glanced at the doorway—waiting for more angels to come through—hoping for more angels to arrive. I needed more to kill.
For just a moment I faltered, horrified at my own thoughts. Free from the risk of death, some of the feral rage began to slowly seep out of my body. It cast a silver glow around the dragoniles, one of them circling the air protectively above me. Drakon.
Footsteps pounded in the hallway outside the rookery, and I readied my sword, my eyes on the hallway.
Before anyone had a chance to arrive, a figure rushed into the room in a blaze of silver light. A silhouette of dark wings spread over the hall, and my feral bloodlust exploded once again.
Kill. Dominate. Devour. A bestial growl rose from my throat, mingling with the wild symphony of dragonile shrieks. My canines lengthened, and I rushed for the angel, sword ready to slash through flesh—
His hand shot out, grabbing my wrist.
My heart began to slow at the feel of soothing, myrrh-scented magic.
In the silvered light glowing from my body, I looked up into a pair of stunning, gray eyes that faded to a midnight blue around the edges. I couldn’t remember who he was, just that he was the most beautiful man I’d ever seen.
He squeezed my wrist harder, until I dropped the sword.
“Well, well, well,” the angel purred. “This is interesting.”
Feral Ruby still didn’t quite have the power of speech, and another snarl escaped my throat, my lip curling.
He searched my face, like he was trying to interpret primitive scratches clawed into a tree. “Ruby.” His voice wrapped around me like silk, and his grip softened on my wrist until it almost felt good. “Not your enemy.”
Some of the battle fury raging through my nerves began to go quiet. The battle drum pounding in my ears began to still.
“Not an enemy,” I repeated.
Footsteps echoed off the walls and ceiling, and I turned to see the two demons—the male and the female. Couldn’t remember their names.
The male’s mouth dropped open, and leathery wings spread out behind him. “This is the Bringer of Light?”
The female folded her arms, and her eyes blazed. “Is it just me, or is she covered in blood and ash, and surrounded by dead bodies?”
The large male nodded. “I’d honestly expected something a little more...civilized.”
The demoness’s hair writhed around her head, and she pointed at the fallen one. “Is that a dead demon?”
The beautiful angel searched my eyes, his expression probing. Gently, he ran a thumb over my wrist, and his soothing magic wrapped around me, pulling the fear, the violence from me.
Adonis. I breathed in his smell, and my gaze roamed over his broken wing, the place where I’d healed him.
“Are you in there, Ruby?” he asked softly. “Are you hurt?”
I nodded, finally remembering how to speak. “Yeah. It’s me.” My voice sounded too quiet, too tame for what had just happened. “I’m not hurt.”
Slowly, the bloodlust drained from me completely, and Adonis released his grip on my wrist.
I looked down at my body, at the glowing silver light. It illuminated the stark spatters of blood all over my dress, although it was starting to dim.
Vaguely, I was aware of how I looked to Adonis, of the horror he must have felt at my appearance. Feral, bestial, covered in the blood of angels.
Why did I care what he thought, anyway?
I took a step away from him, surveying the damage, and swallowed hard. “So, you probably want me to explain this.”
Tanit licked her fangs. “We slaughtered the angels outside. Or rather, Adonis did most of the work, while we watched on—”
“I killed plenty,” Kur interjected.
“And then we heard the dragoniles calling us,” added Adonis.
“How many angels were there?” I asked.
“Twenty,” said Adonis. “It may take a while for the Heavenly Host to even notice that they’ve failed to return.”
“The angels weren’t coming here for me,” I began. “They were here to check on you, Adonis. They want to know why your curse hasn’t taken hold, even after the apocalypse has started.”
Adonis stroked his fingertips across his chest. “Little messenger angels. Well, they’re all dead now, so I don’t imagine the message will get through.”
Tanit nudged the dead demon with her foot. “Can we get back to what the fuck happened in here?”
I surveyed the carnage around me. “Oh. The bodies. Well, the fallen one over there was the first to arrive, and he said he could smell the magic of the light bringing.” I looked down at the incandescent light that radiated from my body. “It just sort of came out when I panicked. And I used his demonic transformation process to kill him.”
Adonis’s eyes flashed with a cold light. “How exactly did he come to fall?”
I curled my lip. “Weird torture fetish. I indulged it a bit until he lost control.”
Adonis’s eyes flashed with anger, and the air seemed to thin around us.
“Four other angels followed,” I continued. “They could all smell my light magic. And then I went a bit feral, and slaughtered them in a brutal bloodbath. So that about sums it up.”
Kur smiled at me, his dark eyes glinting. “Oh, I like her.”
“You killed all of them?” asked Adonis.
I shook my head. “One of them got away, but I’m not sure he’ll live. His arms and one of his wings were in tatters.”
Dark magic whirled around Adonis. “Seems the magic of the Old Gods still fills your body. That’s the good news. The bad news is that we now have another problem on our hands. We’re racing against Johnny’s recovery, and against discovery by the Heavenly Host.”
I looked down at my body, at the silver light pooling from my skin.
Adonis nodded at the demon’s body. “You’ve glossed over a thing or two. What do you mean, a torture fetish?”
Somehow, it felt undignified to go into it, but I supposed it was stupid to cling on to dignity when coated with a sticky mixture of blood and ash. “He wanted me to kneel on the ground, pull off the top of my dress, and cut myself on his sword. He really wasn’t a very nice angel.”
Adonis’s gray eyes darkened, and his wings spread out behind him.
Kur scrubbed his hand over his mouth. “Oh, this will be interesting.”
Violence glinted in Adonis’s eyes. “He will suffer a painful death.”
I blinked. “Pretty sure he’s dead already.”
“He isn’t.” Adonis’s voice was pure ice. “I’d know.”
Dark tendrils of his magic spread out around the room, and a claw-sharp filament of magic caressed my cheek.
As his power roiled around us, the demon on the floor began to twitch and moan. Slowly, he pushed himself up to his knees, his black eyes landing on me. He roared, the sound echoing off the hall. Just as he began to run for me, Adonis cut his wrist through the air. With that one sudden motion, he severed the demon’s body in half at the waist.
The creature unleashed a half-strangled scream, refusing to die.
I closed my eyes, trying to block out the last of his shrieks as he bled out on the floor.
Glad I wasn’t the only ruthless killer in here.
“Now he’s dead,” Adonis said quietly.
The stench of blood curled into my nose, sickly sweet. Dark, unwelcome memories prodded at the depths of my mind. An old memory—brutal, monstrous teeth sinking into a pale arm, blood staining the pavement—
My eyes snapped open again, and I took a deep, sh
aky breath. “Well. This night turned out well, didn’t it?” I smeared some of the blood off my arms, watching as it dripped onto the floor.
The sound of the dragoniles screeching still echoed wildly around us.
“You may want to wash the blood off.” Among the chaos of reptilian screams, Adonis’s voice sounded oddly soothing.
“Brilliant idea.” I was already heading for the door. “I need to get away from that horrific screaming.”
Tanit’s lips curled. “What’s the matter, little flower? Can’t handle a little blood?”
“Leave her alone, Tanit,” said Adonis.
Kur waved at the carnage all over the floor. “Doesn’t look like she’s afraid of a bit of blood. We could have used her at the Battle of Plataea. She could have fended off half the Greeks where they’d trapped us.”
Ignoring them, I crossed over the blood-slicked floor to the doorway, my entire body shaking. “Bath time for Ruby.”
“Don’t take too long,” Kur cautioned. “We need to leave here as soon as we can in case that surviving angel manages to pass along a message.”
Ten minutes ago, when I’d been feral, a strange sort of calm had quieted my mind. But now, dark memories roiled just below the surface, and a lick of dread danced up my spine.
The Heavenly Host might be coming for me. As archangels, they wouldn’t be quite so easy to kill—at least, not without the Stones of Zahar.
I had no idea what might happen now, only that there was no going back.
Chapter 21
In Adonis’s bathtub, I scrubbed a bar of soap over my skin. It smelled faintly of anemones, and formed a pink foam over my forearms. It felt good to clean the stench of death off myself.
We had two ticking time bombs on our hands now—Johnny, and the injured angel who could be limping his way back to the celestial realm.
In the bath, some of the battle fury began to seep out of my body, and the shaking in my legs went still. But when I closed my eyes, my mind flashed with images of the fight—the angelic sword slicing into flesh, through bones. When I’d fought the angels, I’d wanted more death, more blood. I’d wanted to hear the crush of bones under my sword’s steel, to feel the hot rush of their blood in my mouth.
Adonis seemed strangely fascinated by the fae, but he also thought we were savage beasts, driven by the worst, basest impulses. That we worshipped a lack of control. After he’d seen me dripping with angelic blood and gore, I doubt his opinion had changed on that front.
Reddened suds dripped off my arm. Maybe the Old Gods were sparking something in me—a complete rebellion at the presence of angels on earth. They didn’t belong here—not the horsemen, nor the angels. The earth belonged to the gods of nature, not these nightmarish, heavenly creatures.
I rinsed off the pink, bloody foam in the bathwater. My jaw clenched as a dim memory flickered in my mind—sharp, bestial teeth ripping into flesh. As I ran the soap over my legs, my mind whirled with images of blood that turned to something darker—blood dripping down a pale arm, streaming over the pavement. Dragons, maybe. I was remembering a dragon attack.
No wonder Drakon unnerved me.
I clamped down hard on the unwelcome memory, gripping the soap so hard my fingernails dug into it.
This was no time to lose myself in haunting memories—I might have an angelic horde coming for me. I rose from the warm bathwater, letting the suds drip off my skin. As I unplugged the drain, goose bumps rose over my body.
The shock of the cold castle air pulled me from my dark thoughts, and I stepped from the bath. I grabbed a towel and dried myself off.
In the stone alcove, I had a fresh set of clothes laid out, courtesy of Tanit—a wool dress that looked like it would fall just below my ass, and wool stockings that would reach up to mid-thigh. And apart from the boots, that was it. I’d asked for something warm, and that was what she’d brought me. At least she’d found something made of thick material.
Freshly dried, and smelling of anemones, I pulled on the woolen stockings, the fabric rough against my bare skin. The dark dress hugged my body, sleeves reaching down to my wrists. I pulled on the thigh-high boots, then slipped my sheathed knife into one of them—the leather loops making a perfect holster. I’d reapplied the Devil’s Bane poison to its blade.
My heels clacked over the floor as I crossed into Adonis’s room.
Tanit and Kur sat on the edge of the bed.
Tanit leaned back. “Oh, the feral one is here. Ruby, did you manage to civilize yourself in there with a bit of soap?”
Adonis paced the stony floor. His sword—Ninkasi—hung over his back, ready for battle. His icy gaze met mine. “Tell us about the angel who got away. How bad were his injuries?”
I closed my eyes, shuddering as I remembered the flashes of savagery from our battle. “I think I cut into both of his arms, but I didn’t take them off completely. I don’t think he can use them. I sliced into one of his wings. He’d have a damn hard time flying, and if he were human, he’d bleed out. I’m not sure how mortal angels heal.”
Adonis stroked his chin. “Drakon and I followed his trail of blood while you were bathing. It ends just at the edge of the cliff face. Either he plunged to his death in the ocean—or he managed to fly off to report what he saw.”
Tanit’s eyes burned into me. “He was half dead, his arms hanging off, wings severed, and you let him get away? Why?”
My jaw tightened. “It was four against one. And I started with a knife against their swords. I think I managed fairly well, to be honest.”
Tanit rose from the bed, her predatory eyes locked on me. “I don’t think the numbers were the problem, though, were they? Did you feel mercy for that angel fucker?” She laced the word mercy with disdain.
I shook my head. “No. Not mercy.”
Adonis’s midnight wings spread out wider as he assumed more command over the room. “This is hardly the time to nitpick a battle.”
Tanit’s dark eyes shone. “We’re going all the way to France to search for the Stones of Zahar, just to hand them over to someone who can’t handle the bloodshed.”
Adonis raised his hand to silence her. “That’s enough.”
I sucked in a deep breath. “I can handle the bloodshed. I just go a little crazy when my fae side takes over, and it’s hard to think clearly.”
“I thoroughly approve of your crazy side,” said Kur in his deep, rumbling voice.
Tanit wasn’t letting this go. “It’s not the craziness that I object to.” She took another step closer. “With the Stones of Zahar, you’ll be wielding an overwhelming power. You’ll need to be able to control it, which means you can’t be afraid of it. You can’t be afraid of killing people.”
“She’ll be fine,” said Adonis sharply. He handed me a leather bag, stuffed with Tanit’s clothing. “Or at least, she’s our best option.”
“A ringing endorsement. Is someone going to tell me how we can get to this castle?”
“We’ll be flying,” said Tanit. “Only, you don’t have wings like we all do, so Kur will have to carry you.”
Adonis shot them an irritated glare. “I’ll carry her.”
“With that shattered wing of yours?” Tanit protested.
Adonis ran his fingertips over his feathers. “It’s nearly healed.”
“Don’t worry,” said Kur. “If he drops you, I’ll do my best to catch you.”
High above the rocky landscape, Adonis pulled me in close. The February winds whipped over my skin, chilling me, and I nestled my head in closer to Adonis’s warmth.
His heart pounded through his clothing, and his wings rhythmically beat the air. One of his arms was wrapped around my lower back, the other beneath my knees. His large hand curled around my thigh, practically encircling it. I clutched my little bag of clothes.
Something about his smell and the feel of his magic soothed my muscles, washing away all the violent images that had burned in my skull earlier.
A vault of stars arched over u
s, and my red hair whipped into my face. I brushed it out of my eyes. Stretching out far below us lay the vast, darkened wasteland of the post-apocalyptic UK. Every now and then, flashes of bonfires pierced the darkness, a few cities punctuated by flickering candles in windows. Those were probably the demon enclaves, since they now felt free to roam over the land unperturbed. Vampire cities, valkyrie havens, shifter dens…
I shot a nervous glance at Adonis’s injured wing. “Do you really think it was a good idea to take me instead of Kur?”
Our gazes met. “Do you now that most women would give their right arm to fly with me?”
“Do you usually require that kind of a sacrifice?”
He ignored my comment.
A burst of flame punctuated the darkness, and my gaze flicked to Drakon. He soared above us, occasionally belching fire.
“Why did you want to take me instead of Kur? You’ve told me that you hate feral fae. And you’ve just seen a feral fae at her worst. Half naked, covered in blood and gore. Why insist on sticking close to me?”
“You don’t seem like the other feral fae I’ve known. Violent, yes, but I can hardly object to that.” His voice was smooth as a lover’s caress. “Maybe I like it a little.”
Was that a spark of warmth I felt in my chest? No—of course it wasn’t. I didn’t care what he thought.
“I wasn’t raised among the fae. My parents taught me some of the old fae ways, but not the brutal parts, I guess.” I tried to ignore the fact that the brutality just seemed to come naturally to me. “My mother taught me to carve weapons from trees, to live off what the forest provided us.”
“What did they do?”
“They were spies among the Order. Their work was dangerous, and my mother made sure I’d be able to look after Hazel if anything happened to them.” That was my job, my destiny. “Except…”
“Except we came into your world, and the dragon-shifters, too.”
“You know, none of the tree carving or berry picking came in very handy when faced with a hundred-foot-tall reptile.” I didn’t tell him how completely powerless I’d felt, but given the way he pulled me closer to his hard, masculine body, I thought he could sense it. “And I just want to get back to that old dream—the one about living in the forest off berries and venison. That probably sounds stupid to someone whose goal is to be worshipped by celestial angels.”
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