it was, my stomach dropped to my feet as Killian emerged like a dark god though the fray, launched himself onto the thing’s back, and threw the bar of his arm around the beast’s neck, wrenching it backward. The Fenrir went to its hind feet, leaving its belly exposed, and Theo and I took full advantage, hurling both fire and ice, slashing through the beast as it had sliced through me. Killian rode the thing to the ground where it died and stepped off its back lithely, his illusions disappearing before my eyes.
“No one hurts my mate.” He nodded to me before sauntering back into battle to send his magical bunnies to attack some other poor, unsuspecting soul.
Theo, water! Now! We’ve got company, Damien shouted once again, and Theo squeezed my hand before taking off at a sprint, ripping his shirt away and diving into the frigid sound. I saw the flash of his Kraken below the lapping waves and turned back to the battle.
Bodies littered the field, fallen fighters on both sides painting their blood across the battleground in a macabre masterpiece.
My Phoenix released a crying screech. All this wasted life.
She pressed under my skin, but I held her back. I had a plan, and if I let her out too soon, we’d be nothing but a flaming target, the Council’s sole focus. We needed to reserve her strength. I was saving it for Stepanov.
My flames covered my hands as I duck and wove my way across the line that had once divided us. Using all the training Killian had put me through, I slid under the legs of a Minotaur, singeing its fur and scalding its flesh. It tumbled forward, and Valleria emerged in all her glory, black wings disturbing the air as she descended and used a powerful sword to slit its throat and spill its blood across the ground. The Minotaur’s roars grew to gurgles, and the Minotaur shifted back to a man on the mud where he drew his last breath.
Valleria nodded to me, and her wings blew my hair back from my shoulders. Alongside Damien’s Gargoyle and James’ Thunderbird, she fought off the other airborne shifters. Clouds gathered overhead as my past bodyguard called the thunder and lightning, and it crackled along his wings, deadly bolts of energy that he directed through his targets on the ground. Damien’s fangs sunk into a Griffin, tearing into its wings and rendering it unable to fly. It crashed to the earth in front of me, and I jumped backward as I avoided the blow.
Nix! Watch out! Damien cried through our link, our scout from above.
At first I thought his warning was a second too late, eyeing the dead Griffin at my feet, but then hands closed around me from behind, and my nails raked into the arm across my throat as I kicked wildly when my feet left the ground.
“We meet again, pretty little bird.” Maldonado’s rancid breath sent creepy shivers down my neck. My hands heated, and I pressed my burning palms against his flexed forearms, making him release me on a hiss. The ground broke my fall, the snow extinguishing my flames. I scrambled to my feet and whirled to fight the Manananggal face-to-face.
He didn’t waste time with conversation, and his eyes glowed an eerie red, like two rubies in place of eyes, as his stomach elongated and then sickeningly split apart in a squelch that made me want to throw up.
Acid burned the back of my throat, and my Phoenix pressed forward. Together, we threw a shield of fire into place to block the razor-sharp maw that lashed at us. The searing scent of burned flesh made me gag, and I stumbled backward as Maldonado tried again and again to reach me through my flames.
“Surrender!” Maldonado’s otherworld hiss filled my ears. “Surrender and we may just spare your pathetic mates.”
“Fuck. You,” I gritted out, sweat beading on my forehead as I held the barrier, but I was weakening the longer I held the fire wall in place.
The ground rumbled and cracked apart as snakelike veins wrapped around Maldonado’s legs, capturing him and stopping his ability to move. I dropped my fire shield, my arms shaking as I backed into Hiro’s chest. At his side, Ryder’s normally golden face had drained to an icy paleness, and his eyes were leached of color, a vial dropping from the tips of his fingers to stick in the snow.
“Go!” Hiro gently pushed me away, pointing to the rapidly