by Meg Xuemei X
Ashburn rasped, then half closed his glowing silver eyes. The Lure always had a stronger impact on him, either in pleasure or punishment. Lucienne twisted her torso to face him, to silently warn him that they were still on the battlefield, her people’s lives at stake.
He read her, but could do nothing about the Lure without breaking his connection to her. A mix of longing, fear, lust, and fury distorted his face. The Lure had put them in the worst possible situation.
Devourer caught on to their predicament. It charged them with all its might, determined to suck in their souls once and for all. Lucienne and Ashburn shared a look of horror. It was impossible to fight the Lure and Devourer at the same time.
Jekaterina stepped forward and laid her white, porcelain hand on their joined hands. The Lure rippled once, twice, and then, like a static that crackled, it was gone. Lucienne hadn’t time to think how Jekaterina knew about the Lure or had the power to subdue it. Drawing from Ashburn’s undivided strength, Lucienne let a renewed river of fire erupt from her.
A rampant flame whirled up like a tornado, joining Ashburn’s black lighting. Together, they pierced through the living gray mass. Lightning flashed, and a firestorm raged. They relentlessly struck the being’s dark heart. Following the assault, the other four fundamental forces all smashed into the orb of Devourer.
Thunder rolled across the sky as fire and metal descended. It was an earthquake in the sky. Ziyi screamed, as did Bayrose and many others. They threw their hands over their ears and cried in agony. Sphinxes’ warriors gritted their teeth, but held their ground and watched their queen’s back.
Rattling violently, Predator fled, but Ashburn’s black lightning caught it, pinning it in the air like a giant iron hand. Forbidden Glory moved in without hesitation, its metal cutting through the hull of the black jet.
“It can’t be!” screamed Mirrikh’s image in the hologram. “No one can beat Devourer! It’s the most advanced, ancient technology—”
Predator disintegrated. Mirrikh’s image flickered off and never returned. No one even heard his last whimpering. As the black jet and the Sealers’ symbol on its snake head shattered into pieces, the dark orb was exposed, hanging in the air.
Black lightning and red fire circled the orb, then closed in, savaging it again and again. The orb vomited the darkest mass, in a last attempt to swallow the lightning fire. But the lightning sliced the mass, and the fire roared and vacuumed it with absolute brutality.
Devourer screamed as if the whole world was in a collective labor pain.
The world’s representatives echoed its scream in the holograms, the shockwave from the Devourer reaching them across vast oceans and distant mountains. People fell to their knees, screeching as blood burst from their eyes, noses, and ears. The pain across the globe was unbearable.
The Siren’s warriors couldn’t stand it either. They screamed with the whole of Sphinxes and the world.
Jekaterina appeared untouched. Her brown eyes turned steel gray—cold and tired.
The inhuman shriek from Devourer lasted for nearly half a minute—the longest thirty seconds in human history.
Then silence. Blessed silence.
The orb of the black heart shrank to a drop of grey liquid.
The smoke and fog receded from the sky, like an old, dirty blanket being rolled away. The sun broke through. The warriors had to cover their eyes to adjust to the sudden brilliant light. The ocean returned to its sparkling blue. The forest swayed like a rhythmic poem as if it hadn’t faced near extinction. The sea birds twirled, making circular shadows on endless white sand and waves.
Only the shards of broken jets littering Sphinxes’ land and sea reminded Lucienne and her people of the battle they’d just fought.
Splash! A muddy liquid that was once Devourer dropped in front of Lucienne’s feet.
Lucienne stepped on it and twisted her torso to face Ashburn. “We won,” she whispered, her breath labored. The tears came as blood, tainted her eyelashes. Before he could wipe them off, she returned her gaze to the sky.
“Lucia,” Ashburn said, “show mercy.”
“No,” she said, a killing light still in her eyes, and flung her hands into the air again, palms toward the sky. “You came, you saw, but you’ll never conquer,” she announced. “And you won’t return.”
At the same time, Kian ordered a full-frontal attack with a battle cry.
Sphinxes’ air force, naval, and ground troops caught up with the fleeing Sealers’ and their allies, blasting the invaders from the sky, sinking them to the deep ocean, and cutting them down on the ground.
Lucienne’s fire, mixing with the earth element, went before her army. Wind fueled the fire, and materialized metal speared the remaining enemy’s fighters before fire finally incinerated them.
The Siren’s fury was terrifying to watch, but the world watched it.
Lucienne erased the whole army of the multiple nations in mere seconds.
She was Sphinxes’ most deadly weapon.
With a snap of her fingers, Lucienne cut off the live feed, and the holograms vanished. The world had seen enough. The next moments belonged to her and her people.
“The nations of the world will think a thousand times over before they come to Sphinxes again!” General Fairchild waved his hands in the air and shouted, “Sphinxes stands stronger than ever!”
“Well done, Siren,” Director Pyon said in tears amid the warriors’ roaring cheers.
“My fight is over,” Lucienne said, completely spent. But the nations wouldn’t know she’d exhausted all five fundamental forces of her Forbidden Glory. “From now on the fight is yours.”
“I’ll always fight for you,” Ashburn said gently.
“I’ll forever defend you, my Queen,” Vladimir said fiercely.
“Long live our Siren Queen!” her warriors shouted in unison, awe and pride etched on their faces.
Sphinxes, as a united new nation, had risen.
Kian looked bitterly proud and devastated. He knew what the battle had cost her. She held his gaze, trying not to show the pain burning in her every fiber. She needed to make him promise to press on and protect Sphinxes without her, but a red tide had arrived. She hadn’t an ounce of strength left to dodge it or fight it.
Lucienne collapsed.
Before the floor met her face, Vladimir and Ashburn had both caught her. Lucienne struggled to hold on to the thread of her last consciousness.
“I'll save you, Lucia,” Ashburn swore in glinting tears, “no matter the cost.”
You can’t. The Eye of Time is gone. You won’t need to go down that horrible path.
In the end, Ashburn Fury still chose her above all. He would sacrifice the world and himself to save her, just as Kian wanted. As Sphinxes would pursue. But neither her protector nor her people knew the consequences of keeping her alive.
She’d stopped the wicked wheel from spinning in order to keep them and the world safe.
No one will ever need to sacrifice for me again.
Her consciousness lingered outside her body a second longer. Ashburn held her in his arms while Vladimir pressed his forehead against hers to heal her. Their efforts were futile. Her gaze swept over Kian, Ziyi, Jekaterina, Bayrose, her cousins, and her warriors, all of whom surrounded her in a protective ring as she, alone, kept falling into an alien world of nauseating red and absolute cold.
Blood tears tainted her lashes, face, and messy hair, but she also saw a trace of a winning smile freeze on her lips.
Her people were safe.
She’d protected them, though not all of them.
She was the fabled phoenix that burned to ashes but could not return.
THE STORY CONTINUES IN . . .
BURN, ASH, BURN
LAMENTS OF ANGELS & DARK CHEMISTRY
BOOK 4
A Message from the Author
Dear Readers,
Nothing is what it appears to be.
Though packed with adventure, explosions, and r
omance, this series isn't about action or entangled love interests. At the heart of The Laments of Angels & Dark Chemistry series is the very survival of humankind.
I left clues on the mysteries of human origin, evolution, and ancient civilizations and wars throughout the first four books, but you'll only get the answers in the fifth installment.
Long ago, Earth was filled with wars between more advanced species and wars we fought among ourselves and against them. Our ancestors called the superior race "the fallen angels," who insisted they were the first Earth natives.
As humankind increased in numbers and became a new kind of predator, our conflict with the angels could no longer be settled. Human spirits could not accept the role of "inferior race." Our ancestors chose to die free than live on their knees, and so they devised a weapon and drove the angels into the space. The cost was deadly--numerous brave men and women perished, and by turning back time, destroyed all technology and every advanced civilization.
Now millions of years have passed.
Humans stand hesitantly at the threshold of a quantum evolution, but the race we exiled has found a way to wage a new war against us. They've upgraded their magical powers and technology beyond our perception. They're coming to take back Earth.
Unfortunately, the weapon our ancestors deployed has been lost to us. We don't know anything about ancient warfare or our secret history. We don't have the slightest idea that we're facing extinction.
Our only hope rests with Lucienne Lam, the last and most powerful of the Sirens, who leads her Sphinxes nation in the fight against the returning angels. She will stand with the last of us to save our planet.
In the end, only one race can have Earth. Will it be us or them?
Thanks for reading,
~ Meg
About the Author
Meg Xuemei X is an award-winning author. She grew up in a backward, southern town in China, went to college in Akron, and dropped out from Tisch School. She lives in Sherman Oaks, California.
She would love to hear from you.
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