releasing everything I’d been afraid of inside of me. I didn’t care what sort of damage I caused. I wanted to damage. My hair whipped around my face in the tempest that the white light of my power and the darkness within me had created. He took a swing at me, but my senses were spinning so fast that I sidestepped his blow and smashed my fist into his face. His jaw made a sickening tearing sound and whirled loose, flinging free and out of sight. I threw my power into his body, knocking the wind from his chest and the feet out from under him. His back hit the floor and I leaped on top of him. I beat his face and shredded his skin with my nails. When his body turned to stone, I still tore at him, dragging my nails across rock until they were bloodied and broken. Dust soaked thickly into the blood splattered across my face and clothes, filling my lungs until I was choking on it.
Hands grabbed me and looped around my waist and tried to pull me back. I shrieked and thrashed, fighting off the hands and clawing the air wildly to get back to the reaper’s remains. A horrible, snarling animal noise tore from my throat—a sound that couldn’t possibly have been my own voice.
“Ellie!” the owner of the hands shouted uselessly. “Ellie, stop!” The voice was warped and distant, as if I were underwater and he was shouting at me from somewhere above the surface.
The fury cloaked my vision like a whiteout. I swung a wild fist and connected with soft tissue. My attacker grunted and his grip loosened, allowing me to break free and get back to pounding at the pile of stone near my mother’s corpse.
His hands found me again. He grabbed my shoulders roughly and jerked me around with an angry, exhausted groan. I clawed at his face and arms, drawing blood. Another intruder knelt beside my mother and touched her neck. I screeched and launched myself at him to protect her body, but the first set of hands grabbed me again, yanking me back. I hit the cold, broken-up floor, flailing my limbs and power into my attacker’s body. He swore and pushed through the blows, battered and bloody.
“Ellie, please stop fighting me!” His hands gripped my wrists and pinned me to the floor. “It’s me! It’s me, Ellie. Stop!”
I thrashed against him and let out a bloodcurdling scream until my ears rang.
“Her eyes!” he roared, turning back to the other intruder. “They’re solid white. It’s happened again. Nathaniel! I need you now! Put her out before she kills us both!”
I shrieked, and my power erupted again. An explosion of white light filled the house, blinding me and rocketing into my attacker’s body. He flew off me and crashed through the far wall as the light swallowed us all and slammed into the walls around us. The house shook and groaned. He crumpled to the ground and I was on my feet in a blur. A form appeared beside me. I only saw a flash of copper eyes.
“Sleep.”
And I slipped into oblivion.
PART TWO
The Mortal Archangel
19
I WOKE UP SCREAMING.
I sat straight up and threw out my arms in rage. Someone shoved my chest and slammed me back into the bed. He pinned me down, but he couldn’t hold me forever. I broke free and struck him in the face, ripping his lip open. I flew off the bed and made a dash for the door as he screamed my name and grabbed at me, his fingers only tagging my clothes. I was too fast and too wild. Then he screamed someone else’s name, and another attacker appeared in the room. Two pairs of arms took strong hold of me and dragged me across the room.
That word slithered through my brain again: “Sleep.”
My body went slack against their grip, and I fell into dark memories of lives past and blood spilled upon ancient ground.
Before me lay a valley littered with the dead. Snow settled on the bodies as I walked among them, blood staining the ground black, the stench of carrion flooding my senses. Torn and soiled red cloth lay draped over dull metal and frostbitten skin. The Romans should never have come here to Britain. The massacre was devastating, and the reapers had already descended to feed. Every single man fallen in battle was already burning in Hell. My Guardian and I were too late.
The bitter wind blew