Archangel's War (Guild Hunter #12) - Nalini Singh Page 0,187
battlefield came another massive bolt of energy, this one holding the poignant beauty of the sea aurora.
Alexander fired at Lijuan at the same time, the silver of his wings brilliant in the blasts of energy lighting up the sky.
Raphael shot more wildfire at Lijuan, even as beside him, Elena used her crossbow to take down a flyer who’d come at them. He wanted to tell her to go back to a rooftop where it was safer, but no place was safe in war. And if this was the end, then they’d go into it side by side.
Then Lijuan managed the impossible and broke away from the combined attack.
Alexander fired after her.
Lijuan made an unpredictable move to the left.
Elena moved at the same instant to shoot out the wings of one of Lijuan’s generals who was raising his hand to fire at them.
The bolt of Alexander’s silver energy came straight at Elena.
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Elena!” Raphael smashed into her, and the bolt hit him while the two of them were connected . . . but there was no pain. It bounced off him and as it did so, it changed form to become wildfire. White-gold and blue. Midnight and dawn.
Lijuan avoided that blow to rain down her own violence at him.
Even as he blocked it, Raphael’s mind was racing. But it was his consort who yelled, “A mirror that’s a channel! Tell everyone to throw their power at us!”
Raphael reached for his consort’s hand. “Hover,” he told her, knowing it would make them targets. But he also knew their people would protect them to the end. “Ready?”
“Always,” she said, as if they weren’t about to put their lives on the line.
Fire at me, Raphael told the surviving archangels. Do not hesitate! Fire at me!
It was Alexander who obeyed first, the metallic brightness of his wings flashing in the distance as he fired directly at Raphael. Then came Favashi, Titus, and Aegaeon. Cassandra and the sea aurora angel fired at the same time. Their combined power was a huge and old thing, and it stunned with its force. But Raphael and Elena stood firm under the barrage, and the mirror they became together bounced all the energy toward Lijuan.
It became wildfire that engulfed her. So much wildfire that it filled her mouth, lit her eyes, became her skin, burned in her hair. But still she didn’t die. They hit her with more and more, as around them, her troops slammed obsidian rain at the archangels to try to take them down, and Raphael’s people fought back with blood and fury.
He saw Jason eliminate a proxy, Aodhan another, Galen a third before he took a sword blow to the chest that made him stagger and fall. Jason came to his aid and a bloody Andreas took up Galen’s fight.
Battle raged.
In the center of the vortex of power, Lijuan was an eerie mass of wildfire. Throwing back her head, she screamed, and wildfire erupted from her mouth to scar the sky. That was when two of Lijuan’s troops managed to slam into Aegaeon. Illium’s father had been in the process of firing more energy at Raphael. It went wide.
The vicious power of an Ancient punched into Elena before Raphael could shove her out of the way.
ELENA!
He would never have a clear memory of the moments that followed. There was too much power in the air, too much fear in his heart. He just felt energy flow violently into his body from hers. He threw the power at Lijuan almost instinctively, though his eyes were searching for Elena through the blaze of light around her.
I’m right here, Archangel. A little breathless but that was definitely his hunter’s voice. Her fingers tightened on his.
Heart thundering as the other archangels stopped firing, the sudden change in pressure causing his ears to pop, he turned to see the new ball of wildfire he’d thrown crash over Lijuan. It spread over her as with the others . . . but this wildfire was different. It had a verdant green heart so brilliant it was the kiss of spring, the lush grass under your feet, the rustle of a tree in full bloom.
That green speared into Lijuan’s mouth, her eyes, leached through to her cells. Leaves erupted over her skin, only to curl up and die. Her hair turned into vines that blackened and fell away. More leaves erupted on her face before being destroyed.
But underneath it all, her skin was steadily going green.