roared in grief and rage. Before I could lunge at another enemy, one of them impaled the flesh beneath my left shoulder blade. I screamed and whirled around, then plunged Netherbane into the olive-skinned Dawn Fae’s cheek. His long sword dropped from his lifeless fingers. The Dawn Fae’s blood spurted onto the front of my T-shirt, while my own blood, damp and sticky, gushed down my back.
As I surveyed the battlefield quickly, only Drake, a Night Fae, and a Summer Fae still stood. The three Fae formed a protective ring around me with enemies all around us, eager to surge forward and deal the final blows.
Two Dawn Fae shoved a gagged Detective Dallas out of the warehouse. He staggered, his shocked eyes taking in the carnage on the field before they landed on me, guilt and apprehension spluttering in them. At that moment, I believed he registered that he wouldn’t live through the day. He rammed his shoulder into a Fae, trying to break free and run, but a blade went through his gut and he fell in a heap with a muffled scream.
The enemy horde closed in on us, their armor tainted with my Fae guards’ blood. Sunlight glinted off their bloody blades, and the colorful native trees waved in the wind in exhaustion.
My vines were also too weak to defend us and attack the enemies as I was soaked in blood.
I didn’t have long.
“Capture or kill, Captain Fallon?” a Dawn Fae asked several yards away.
“Capture her first,” Fallon said. He bore a similar sinister look to the leading Dawn knight slaughtered by Rydstrom. “If it proves difficult, we slay her and take her head to Her Majesty.” He flashed a sadistic grin. “When we return to the court, we can all play with her squirming brothers.”
Ice clogged my lungs.
They’d gone after my family. The Dawn Queen and the Winter King had pulled the Night King and the Summer King to the fairyland and sent two forces to divide my family and me while attacking us with their maximum assaulting power.
I’d left my siblings in a vulnerable situation. I had left them to danger. I’d been endangering them this whole time while I had a bounty on my head. I’d calculated wrong. Rydstrom would have gotten them to safety tonight, but it was too late now.
My siblings…
Ice coalesced into fire. A storm of rage and grief twirled inside me, threatening to rip me apart.
No, I’d rip my enemies apart before I went down.
I threw up my hands and roared bloodcurdlingly. “Burn with me! Burn them! Burn!”
Shadow fire poured out of my mouth and surged toward my enemies like a flood of black blood. Everything it touched turned to ash. Even the supposedly untouchable troll broke apart into a cluster of rocks before my flame melted the rocks and the black wind swept away piles of dirt.
The last dying scream wrenched the daylight until deathly silence swallowed all.
Only then did my shadow fire recede and fade like the last spark of embers.
The entire acre was turned to scorched, blackened land.
So much power. Only it came too late.
The surviving Fae turned to me, their bloodshot eyes filled with fear and awe and grief.
I stumbled, the corner of my eyes catching a flash of wind and brilliant sunbeam.
Then I was in the arms of Baron and Rydstrom as I sank to the ground. They roared in fury, calling my name.
“She shouldn’t have used this much power before her Turning. She could have died,” Rydstrom cursed in a hoarse voice. “If we were too late getting to her, I’ll never forgive myself.”
“We were late,” Baron said, his face a mask of rage. “We failed our mate and now she’s bleeding everywhere.”
I blinked at them, realizing that my eyes had started bleeding too. It hurt so much, and my every bone still burned. I might have toasted myself along with my foes. But they were dust now, and I was still here.
“Heal her, Summer King,” Rydstrom demanded. “You have my permission to drain my power for my mate. Take anything you need.”
Death would be a mercy when living hurt so much.
“My mate, I’m here. I’m so sorry,” Baron whispered, pressing his palm over my chest as a ray of sunbeam trickled into my being, then more energy of summer and night poured into me.
“No,” I whispered in broken breathing. “Take me home ….please. They went for….my family.”
“You’re in no shape to teleport, love—”
Even if I wasn’t wounded, it was a great risk to teleport