An Isle of Mirrors (A Shade of Vampire #88) - Bella Forrest Page 0,71
erupted. This one was stronger than the last. So strong, in fact, that it made my ears hurt. I felt blood trickling down my neck as I fell face first into the warm leaves on the ground.
“Thayen…” Astra cried out. It was followed by the thud of another body collapsing.
Isabelle’s copy wiggled in my arms, but weakness spread through me, and I feared I might not be able to hold on to her much longer. I heard Jericho’s tortured howl and the rushing footsteps from yards away, getting louder.
But I had lost control over myself. My head hurt beyond belief. Sweat burst through my skin and drenched my clothes, swiftly followed by shuddering chills as darkness wrapped its arms around me. I knew nothing of what would come next. I only knew I couldn’t change the outcome. Not in this state.
Astra
(Daughter of Phoenix and Viola)
The blackness that had taken over my eyes dissipated, and the image came back into focus. For a second, I wasn’t sure where I was or what had happened, but my senses were fired up and pumping adrenaline through my veins, forcing me to sit up and pay attention.
The high-pitched sound persisted, louder than earlier, and despite the crippling pain, I was too angry to give in. I’d come too far to let these bastards take me. No, this had to end. I had to do something. Dafne and Soph were both on the ground, writhing and moaning in agony. Thayen was out cold, and Isabelle’s clone was trying to get out from under him. At least he’d pinned her down during his fall. Jericho roared and shook his head in a bid to stop the pain from buckling his hind legs, while his father’s clone was thrashing, still fighting the flames that had melted off parts of his scaly armor. Thayen had been on point with his advice—the clones weren’t all perfect. The fire fae and the fire dragons who were supposed to be immune to flames were anything but.
Boots thudded dangerously close, the high-pitched sound amplified by their vicinity. I forced myself to look behind us, just in time to spot a couple of familiar clones emerging from the redwoods. Jovi and Anjani. Others would join them in a matter of minutes, but it was the cubic object in Anjani’s clone’s hands that caught my eye. That was the source of the sound. I could see the air rippling around it. Whatever that thing was, it had been designed to torture us.
“I’ve had about enough of this crap!” I muttered, my throat burning as I raised a trembling hand. Jericho shifted back into his humanoid body and scrambled into his half-torched robe, grunting from the pain. I had a feeling he was taking it better than in his dragon form for some unknown reason.
The succubus’s copy laughed as she fiddled with the control, increasing the high-pitched sound’s volume to the point where I couldn’t focus anymore, the pain so sharp it sliced through my brain. With one last push, one final drop of energy I had left, I sent out a barrier. It smacked into her, and she fell back. The cube hit the ground with a clang, and the sound stopped. Jovi’s double rushed to grab it and aim it at us again, but Stan and Ollie appeared in front of him.
He stilled, realizing what was about to happen. The ghouls pounced and tore him apart, limb from limb. He screamed, and then it was quiet, but Stan and Ollie weren’t done. I looked away as they did the same to Anjani’s copy, blood spraying outward as they disemboweled her on the spot. I managed to pull myself back up.
“Thayen, wake up!” I shouted.
Voices murmured through the surrounding forest. The clones were coming, and there were more of them than I could even count. Jericho grabbed Isabelle’s clone just as she wormed out from under Thayen, and Dafne rushed to get the vampire back on his feet. He blinked and shook his head as he came to, and I gripped him by the shoulders, giving him a shake for good measure.
“You with us?” I asked.
Thayen nodded. “I think so… What happened?”
I pointed to the bloody pile of body parts that Stan and Ollie had left behind. “They happened. It was that device,” I said. One of the ghouls grabbed the cube and brought it over, but Soph took it and smashed it into the ground.