Fused in Fire (Fire and Ice Trilogy Book 3)

by K. F. Breene

  The vulture traveled beyond us for another hundred feet or so before tilting, turning like it was approaching a dead end. It headed back toward the trees at an angle.

  “Maybe it’s leaving,” I whispered.

  Once it reached the tree line, it curved again, doubling back. It was scouting the area, looking for enemies. There could be no other explanation.

  Feeling like the hunted, my power pulsed. Rage welled up. Then, strangely enough, love surged inside me, too, and the emotions swirled around each other. My magic mimicked it, more blended now than it had ever been. More balanced.

  That did not mean I was in control of it. Not by a long shot.

  “It has to go away,” I whispered, half begging. “It has to go away, or I will kill it.”

  Easy, mon coeur. Patience. It did not see us. The spells are working. It will move on. Even with bad vision, it only needs a couple sweeps to see all. We simply must wait.

  Sweat beaded on my brow. I chewed on my lip.

  The vulture passed to our left, looking down on the great expanse of empty space. It circled a tree that was a bit larger than the others, as though trying to see every nook and cranny before moving on. Trying to find stowaways.

  It acted like it was the most deadly thing in this part of the kingdom.

  It wasn’t. I wanted to prove it.

  I squeezed my eyes shut as my power pumped higher. Round and round it rotated, begging me to do something. To assert my will. Prove my dominance.

  My skin felt too tight. My blood throbbed in my veins.

  At the same time, the rush of rage, paired with the deep ache of love, felt so good. So raw. I felt Darius deep down. Felt my sword pushing against my back. The weight of my gun. I cherished the memories of my mother. My gratitude and loyalty to Callie and Dizzy. Fire. Ice.

  The purple film in front of us melted away, disintegrating before my eyes. My power pushed out around us, tearing down the other spells. Burning through our cover.

  The vulture, passing to our right toward the distant trees, issued a loud screech. It pumped its wings, gaining speed. For one brief moment I thought it would head away. Thought it hadn’t noticed. But instead, it folded up its wings and dove straight for us with an avian-type battle cry.

  This bird wasn’t here to seek and report. It was here to attack.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Fight.

  That one thought from Darius was enough to break my dam of control.

  I stepped away from the tree like a commander joining the field of battle. I thrust a hand into the air. Air encircled the bird, the distance not a problem. Power roared through me, so sweet it cut. So pure it lifted me up.

  Literally.

  I rose into the sky and clenched my fist. The vulture screamed, stopping mid-air.

  Another flew out over the trees, pumping its wings frantically, spreading its clawed feet to strike. Its speed was amazing.

  I ripped the first bird out of the sky and catapulted it down for Darius to deal with. The moment I released it, it turned for me, not able to see Darius. It hopped forward, ready to beat its wings and elevate enough to use its mighty claws.

  Without delay, Darius was on it, attacking it from behind with his own claws out.

  When I spun around to face its friend, the giant bird was twenty feet away and closing fast.

  “Hells bells, they do move fast.” I ripped up my hands. The bird lifted its feet to score me. I batted it away with air before enclosing it in a firestorm. My energy, low to begin with, felt the drain.

  We must go. Now! Darius grabbed my arm and pulled, dragging me back to the ground.

  “Why are they attacking us?” I said, spinning and running behind him. “Do you think word has spread about me?”

  It was diving before it could be sure of who you were. No, it wasn’t you specifically. I can only guess that we are on the doorstep of another sect, and they do not want visitors.

  When I saw my new pouch-wearing demon friend, we’d have words.

  We didn’t get any closer to the horizon, but suddenly the light clicked off and our surroundings changed drastically.

  Darius skidded to a stop so quickly I hit his back. My eyes went wide, my stomach flip-flopped, and my lungs burned, suddenly dry of air.

  We stood on a bluff overlooking the middle of the Dark Kingdom. I’d expected a few things, but nothing like this.

  Nothing like this.

  A castle a la Beauty and the Beast rose up in the distance, large and majestic with pointy spires and various towers. Green swathed its base, dotted with color from what I could only assume were roses or other flowers. The air around it twinkled with fairy lights and the sky was dark and filled with a milky way of stars.

  “Gorgeous,” I said in a strangely raspy voice. It must’ve been the lack of air. “It has to be another illusion, though, right? Because it’s hazy and seems much too close.”

  The bluff on which we stood seemed to be offering the wayward traveler, or someone returning from a long journey, all the wonder and majesty that was my father’s home.

  I blinked away the image, not allowing myself to be seduced by the loveliness. This wasn’t why I was here, and like so many other things in this place, it was an illusion.

  Ready? Darius thought, looking at me.

  “Yeah.” The wide path in front of us led down the hill and disappeared around a bend. A hedge rose up, and razor-sharp spikes gleamed within it. “That doesn’t look friendly.”

  No. Let’s try not to be noticed.

  Easy for him to say. He was still virtually invisible.

  We took off and drifted to the opposite side of the spike-infested hedge, moving toward another bend up ahead. The castle’s image dissipated. I was happy for it. I needed to keep my wits.

  Darius crouched at the intersection up ahead, looking in both directions. I joined him, staying low and as small as possible. The path had formed a T, and I knew we had to go left for our destination.

  He tensed to rise and I grabbed his shoulder to keep him put, hearing shuffling from the very direction we needed to go. He’d already hesitated, though, hearing it as well.

  It didn’t take long to see what was making the sound. A group of four demons crept along, huge creatures with thick, corded muscles. Insects traveled their bodies, disappearing into cracks and coming out elsewhere, like they were eating through rotting flesh. Two held large spears, and the others sported claws.

  I felt their power pulsing, strong and cold, aching through my body in the most delicious of ways. These demons were packing some serious power. Serious power. And I was dragging like a college kid at the end of a week-long bender.

  My hand was still on Darius’s shoulder, and now I squeezed, worried. If I felt their power so clearly, would they be able to feel mine? It was only somewhat masked by my suit. If they looked our way, my only hope was that Darius’s suit would mostly block me from view. Otherwise, it was on like Donkey Kong, and they’d have a helluva lot more control with their magic than I did with mine.

  The beings paused on the path, rigid.

  I braced, ready to grab my sword, when a new feeling washed over me. Spicy sweet, prickling my skin and eliciting a moan of delight. Fire magic. Raw and pure; just as powerful as the demons we could see, but much more familiar. I couldn’t see them, but I could feel them, another group of extremely powerful demons in the vicinity.

  Darius wouldn’t know a second set of demons were afoot. I thought as hard as I could. We’re about to witness a battle. We need to get to cover.

  At least I did.

  He didn’t move or indicate he’d “heard” me.

  A group of three demons surged out from the path on the right. As they ran, spears burst from the hedge, preceding them in an advance attack. The spears didn’t land.

  Invisible hands swatted them away, icy power filling the air and bolstering my own magic. I could almost see the complex weave the demons used curling through the air.

  A d
emon from the right shot a ball of fire at the original crew. It rolled and boiled along the path. The ice demons couldn’t defuse it in time, and it sliced through one of them, chopping through a limb and singeing the side of its body.

  A snake slithered from around the wounded demon’s side before biting near the wound. The wound began to stitch together. Another slithered out of its leg, heading up to the shoulder. I watched in awe for a moment as the dang thing worked on growing the arm back! Holy crap. That snake wasn’t such a bad find after all.

  Ice magic rose up as solidified air, but the fire cut it down quickly. These demons were clearly on the same power level but with opposing magic, and they knew exactly how to use it on each other.

  I watched in fascination, my need to hide utterly forgotten.

  The two groups crashed into each other. A demon jabbed a spear forward with blinding speed. Its target angled just enough to miss it. The first retaliated with an attack of slashing claws. The would-be victim dodged. The aggressor created a sort of knife with ice. Fire burrowed through, breaking it apart.

  Darius’s hands were on me, shoving me away.

  I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the battle as another demon got its spear in its opponent and ripped it from side to side, not giving the snakes and also insects enough time to stitch it back together. Fire blistered the skin of yet another demon. Growls and grunts punctuated each new wound.

  More fire-powered demons ran from the right, lending backup.

  Go! Go! Go! Darius bodily lifted me and ran, pushing through the non-spiked hedge on our left and cutting through green grass stippled with wild daisies. It was a stark contrast to the vicious fight on the path.

  “What are we walking into?” I asked, seeing magic rise up over the hedge as the demons continued to rip each other apart. “Is this one of the violent sects?”

  I was led to believe the inner kingdom was one of outward peace and political maneuvering. If they need to fight each other, they take it to one of the sects on the outskirts, like the circus sect.

  “Clearly things have changed since Ja was running around this place.”

  Clearly. Though I can’t imagine Lucifer would allow his inner kingdom to crumble from this type of fighting. They are practically on his doorstep. He has to notice.

  “Maybe he is refusing to pick sides and letting them sort it out?”

  Possibly. I couldn’t say. Regardless, we will use the distraction.

  “We also have someone to blame the deaths on.”

  Exactly. We must get into the sect, find the leaders, and destroy them. From them, we can determine how many know your secret. As I’ve said, if this species is like most others, the leaders will not have trusted just anyone with the information. Foot soldiers will only get directions, not the reasons behind those directions. You will simply be a half human to most of them, not Lucifer’s child.

  Good, because these sects were huge, and there was no way Darius and I could take out an entire one on our own. I didn’t even know if we could take out the leaders.

  Darius pushed me, silently urging me to get running. We cut across the meadow, knowing from the map that the leftward path would wind away. Soon we were out in the open, the daisies and wild flowers not doing much to hide us. In the distance, stone buildings rose up over a metal fence with pointed tops and something resembling barbed wire twisting through the spikes. Everything was spikes here. They loved spearing people, clearly.

  On the other side of the fence was a hedge of bushes with long briars ready to prick anyone who made it over. As if in an attempt to soften the buildings and perimeter, ivy sporadically crawled up the stone, dotted with bright pink flowers.

  A roar sounded above us. I flinched and looked up.

  Huge wings beat at the sky, attached to a dragon with shimmering, multicolored blue scales. It wasn’t Clown Demon, but it didn’t matter. It took a dive for us anyway.

  “Darius, put distance between us!”

  He didn’t argue. He broke left, putting on the jets.

  Thanks to the bond, I was faster than I’d ever been.

  Unfortunately, I wasn’t as fast as a dragon.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  It opened its mouth and issued a stream of blistering fire, scorching the ground in a strip before rolling over me. I cocooned my body in ice magic, keeping the fire from burning away anything not fire proof.

  I reached the fence and stared at all the deterrents that kept us from going over. I healed quickly, sure, but if I vaulted over the fence at this harried pace, I’d get torn up enough to make myself vulnerable for a while. I couldn’t afford that.

  The dragon turned with incredible speed, agile when in the air. It made another pass, raking me with fire and setting the briars ablaze.

  I glanced at Darius, not sure what to do. Which way to go.

  Before I could yell the question, another dragon shape drifted over the stone buildings in front of me. Red but with a pink shimmer, another great beast moved through the air. These creatures clearly did not need light to set off the glimmer in their disco-ball bodies.

  Its roar was deafening, deep chested and a little raspy. It pumped its wings as the dragon that had been plaguing me with burst after burst of ineffective fire rose into the sky.

  Darius was next to me a moment later, putting a small vial to my lips. This will help with your energy. We must hurry.

  The unicorn blood slipped past my lips and exploded in my taste buds. Joy and adrenaline pumped through my middle and blossomed, filling up my life force and heightening my senses. Power pulsed within me, giving me the same skin-too-tight feeling I’d had earlier, but this time it was even more acute. There was a pounding sensation—as if all that magic was ready to erupt. I felt powerful. Indestructible.

  With tingling limbs, I turned to Darius. “What about you?”

  He pulled me closer and bit into my neck. I moaned and dropped my head back. His serum mixed with the unicorn blood, creating an indescribable feeling of euphoria.

  The dragons above crashed into each other, gouging with their feet and biting. They tumbled through the air and toward the ground before they broke apart, beating at the sky with their wings and roaring at each other.

  Darius pulled away from my neck. A droplet of blood dribbled down his chin, and he wiped it away with the back of his hand.

  The pink dragon blasted us with an unexpected stream of fire, mid-battle with the other dragon but retaining the presence of mind to notice us at what were probably the gates of its sect. The blue dragon used the distraction to its benefit and flew forward with claws out.

  I covered us with a hasty shield of ice magic. My magic coated Darius’s suit and immediately unraveled the spells. I’d exposed him.

  “I’m sorry, I just reacted,” I said, pushing him along the fence. “But that fire would’ve scorched you. It was a hundred times hotter than the one at the gates.

  “I understand, thank you. Come on, if we can get out of view, we can get over.”

  We ran around the corner of the fence and staggered to a stop. Up the way, a horde of twenty or so demons climbed or carefully worked their way over the defenses, dropping down into the briars and wading their way out. They were sneaking in the back of their enemy’s stronghold while their cohorts created a diversion at the front.

  A horrible screech announced the end of the dragon battle. I looked back in time to see the blue dragon do the flying equivalent of limping away. The pink dragon watched it for a moment, not following. A moment later, it swung our way, looking along the fence.

  The land was wild, but the brush and trees had been cleared for a good hundred feet leading up to the gate. We’d never make it.

  Darius pushed us away from the enemy demons and back around the corner. It’s coming. Cover us with your magic.

  I did as he said, seeing the pink, shimmering beast soar through the sky. The fire came as expected, washing over us but not doing any damage. The dragon saw the enemy a moment late
r and sounded a trumpet-like call, beating its wings for speed and taking off after the demons that were already across the fence.

  “There’ll be a battle here in no time. Let’s get moving,” I said. We chose a spot and started to climb. Metal ripped at my suit and tore my skin.

  While they do have defenses, these sects don’t have the added security like the others at the outer reaches of the kingdom. No gorges or traps with spikes. They have merely a fence and some cleared land.

  The trumpet call boomed above us.

  “And a dragon. Don’t forget about the dragon.”

  Yes, but… Darius flinched as a metal burr from the barbed wire nicked his leg. Blood welled up. One dragon can’t replace some of the things we’ve seen. He threw his leg over the spikes at the top of the fence and slipped. A point cut into the inside of his leg. He grunted and scrambled to get a better hold.

  “You okay?” I asked as fire rained down. The dragon wasn’t getting the hint that fire didn’t hurt us. I wondered about the fire demons. Were they basically fire proof, too? Because if so, what was the point of using a dragon against them?

  These defenses speak of a violent species in a not as violent area.

  “What’s your point?” I grimaced as the spike at the top of the fence scraped my leg. Searing pain vibrated through me.

  Two things. One, if they don’t usually fight, what is causing this? And two, when will Lucifer put a stop to it?

  The dragon passed by again, dropping quickly from the sky. Its feet reached for me, intent on grabbing me and forcing me off the fence.

  I punched it with air, knocking it off its flight path. It screeched and rose again, hovering over me for a moment before sounding the trumpet.

  “It probably has no idea what I am.” I threw my other leg over the top of the fence. “This is going to hurt.” I dropped down into the middle of the bushes. Briars dug into me, scratching and tearing. Darius joined me a moment later, grunting as he made his way out.

  We have to get cover.