Chapter 22

  Though all I wanted to do was crumble into a ball on the seat, I couldn’t. My eyes kept drifting toward the TV. Velos had told me he wasn’t a complete monster. He’d given me the TV as a distraction. But as I found the remote underneath the seat and turned it on, I realized it was something else. It only had one channel: the news.

  Mythos really was going to hell. Fires had started everywhere. They must be from more assassinations. Large buildings had been attacked downtown. And something was going on in the magic district. No journalists had reached it yet. People were sending in footage of a massive attack somewhere near the three towers, though. It looked like a ground battle you’d get in a war.

  My brain stopped working, my nervous system withering. I couldn’t do anything but sit there and stare.

  The tears stopped crying themselves. They refused to come out anymore. It was a waste of precious energy I should use to escape. Because the city needed me. But no matter how hard I tried to rock up to my feet, it didn’t matter.

  Say I did it. Say I even broke through the door. This weak, I’d never reach the magic district. I’d certainly never save anybody.

  “You must be able to do something,” I whispered, my voice becoming a tortured mess in my constricted throat. But there was no point. Velos had resealed my magic. This time I didn’t think I’d ever get free. I tried pushing and pulling against it like I had in the past, a thankless task. So I pulled my knees up, hugging them, propped on the metal chair, my wings now useless behind me. It turned out I must need a lot of energy to move them. I couldn’t even twitch and fold them around myself.

  As I bent my head against my knees, everything seemed lost. One little memory rose. Jace. Reaching that hand out to me after he’d found me in Karen’s office. The moment we met. I might have locked eyes on him earlier. I’d certainly read about him. But that wasn’t the freaking point. That moment in Karen’s office was when our magic had attuned to one another.

  These were literally the only thoughts that could stop the tears. As I sucked in a heavy breath, my eyes pressed harder closed.

  What had transpired the second Jace locked his eyes on me? I could be making this up, but even at the time, I’d felt an odd tingle, an almost firecracker-like race of force. It’d started in my heart and spread out like an explosion.

  With nothing else to do, I recreated it now, forcing my mind into the task. It felt Herculean, but I was glad to distract myself from my growing fatigue. It kept begging me to sleep. Maybe I could wake up in a week.

  I wouldn’t let myself do that. I focused on that sense. Until I swear I felt it. Until it was growing right there in my chest. It might only be the barest flicker for now, but it would morph into something more.

  For the first time since being dragged here, my eyes dried completely. I no longer thought of Velos’s treachery, nor the mysterious Engelos King waiting for me. Everything became about me and Jace. Something was occurring the more I concentrated on him. The memory of when our magics met was like a portal. The more I ventured through it, the further it took me.

  The television was still on. I didn’t let the screams and sirens intrude. Everything, and I mean everything, became Jace. From his scent, to his size, to his desire, to his power. That last equation stilled me, then grabbed my heart and squeezed.

  In a gasp, I opened my mouth. I didn’t mean to, but my foot jumped out from underneath me, slamming into one of the chair legs. It was a light move, but I snapped the hard metal in half. The chair wobbled precariously, and if it weren’t for my wings, I would’ve face-planted. I gave them a little flap, and I rose.

  Then I flew. It was hardly the same as soaring high above the clouds, but it was a start. It proved my strength had returned.

  Wait. Not mine.

  Staring at one of my hands, I grabbed the broken chair leg, brought it toward my face, and bent it in half. It was an act of incredible strength. For an Engelos, maybe. Certainly not for a shifter.

  “Oh my God…. This is Jace’s power. I’ve aligned better,” I hissed.

  I almost couldn’t believe the words. But I couldn’t deny what I was seeing. Velos might have sealed my powers away, but he had no idea I had aligned with Jace. I didn’t think there was any kind of magic that could stop the force in my fingertips now. Even the King Engelos couldn’t thrust it back.

  Knowing there was no time like the present, I raced over to the door. “This better work,” I muttered. Then I shoved my shoulder into it as hard as possible. It was a little too strong. A crack shook right through the spell and the wood, and both shattered. Sparks and shards blasted through the corridor, some of them fizzling and embedding in the opposite wall.

  It was incredible, and for a few short seconds I stared at it, mouth agape.

  Then I realized it wouldn’t take long for someone to come check on me. There were probably security cameras in this area. I imagined the only reason Velos didn’t have guards stationed outside my door was because he didn’t think I’d actually escape. He could put them to better use overcoming the city anyway.

  I raced forward, heart in my mouth, but fortunately, Jace’s strength was in my fingers. It was a hell of a gift.

  There were no stairs – something that became quickly apparent. No problem. My strength had made it to my wings. Reaching the long, barren elevator shaft, I flapped them, and I rose up them in a rush. It was just as I heard some kind of alarm. There was the sound of footfalls, but it never reached me.

  I burst out of the glass windows at the front of the building. Who even knew what district I was in. The night was dark, not helped by the fact a blackout had rolled over the city, or at least half of it.

  As I soared up into the air, I realized there was electricity close to downtown. But the magic district itself was dark as hell.

  My heart pounded in my throat as I stared across at the spot sending plumes of smoke into the night air. Knowing I couldn’t waste another second, I shot toward it.

  I wanted to soar as high as possible, but I knew the wisdom of keeping low. It’d be harder for any Engelos to track me. Now it made perfect sense as to why there were so many Engelos under the King’s command. Velos worked for them. He would’ve been able to freely twist his people toward the King’s cause.

  That made me think of who the hell Velos’s counterpart was. Unless he was lying – which I doubted – Velos wasn’t the King. So out there in the city was an Engelos even more powerful than him. That prospect threatened to freeze my organs, crack my cells in two, and halt every freaking thought in my brain. But even if it did, my wings would keep beating.

  They now vibrated with Jace’s force. It helped me cross town quickly.

  I hugged the tops of buildings, preferring laneways where possible. It was easy enough to dodge traffic. There was barely any left. I guess the city had realized there was no coming back from this. People were likely fleeing in the opposite direction.

  The air was thick with the occasional siren. They echoed from vastly different locations around the city, proving the police had already been spread thin. There was nobody to fight the war raging in the magic district, apart from the people on the ground.

  I came sweeping past the main banking district. The fight had spilled out here. Smoking, burning cars choked the streets. Most of the lampposts had been bent in two, as if a giant had used them as toothpicks. One of the smaller banks was destroyed, the facade at the front having crumbled like an overcooked chicken. I hoped like hell nobody was inside.

  Soon, I reached the edge of the magic district. The difference was immediately visible. There were giant, foot-wide cracks in the road. I could see right through them to the magical subway beneath. Every single car on the street was destroyed, just mangled carcasses ravaged by flames and smoke.

  Most of the buildings were gone, too, though the fires hadn’t completely gutted their structures. The air was so cloying and acrid, I could barely breathe. But at least I could flap my wings to drive the air away from my face. It always came flooding back in. As did the fear and indecision. What the hell was I meant to do?

  The answer was obvious: find Jace. I’d only escaped by aligning with him. If I could reach him, touch him, and tell him what was going on, my body assured me everything would get better. This wasn’t some empty belief. It was driven on by pure biology, hormones, pheromones, and magic.

  So far I hadn’t been spotted, but as I flapped down one of the streets, I knew something locked onto me. I heard the flutter of wings – then something buzzed me from the side.

  My instincts helped, and I rolled through the air, quickly facing my attacker. He wore a long cowl, like the King Engelos. But make no mistake, this was a small-time attacker.

  He hissed, tried to get lucky, and went for my wings. He assumed I’d be weak. Nobody could account for Jace’s aligned strength. Even me. It shocked the socks off me as I slammed my fist into the side of the Engelos’s face and sent him spiraling. He twisted like a children’s toy and slammed into a shop’s front, further damaging it. Fire had gutted it, and he trashed the facade, smashed through the remaining plate glass window, and crunched through shelves that once held potions. Most had exploded, but a lot of the hot, jittering glass remained. It cut the Engelos from head to foot, critically slicing through a lot of his feathers, making it impossible for him to take flight again.

  I floated there outside the building, heart hammering, brain trying to catch up to what I did. Then my hand squeezed into a fist involuntarily, and I realized I was running out of time.

  “Jace,” I chanted out loud. “Get to Jace.”

  Fortunately, I was getting better at orienting. I quickly realized how to get to the boulevard where his office was. Something told me a war zone would be waiting for me, even worse than this one, because Jace would have put up a fight.

  As I flew, tears filled my eyes, and it wasn’t the acrid smoke. Karen better be okay. Everything I knew about the Kings confirmed she wouldn’t be.

  Sure enough, by the time I reached the right street, it was to the sight of true warfare. Magic zipped across from one end to another, the powerful kind of bolts that can tear trees up by their roots. And speaking of that, none of the gorgeous elms that once lined the median strip remained anymore. A few of the blasted-apart trunks remained. The shards of wood reminded me of broken bones jutting out of dirt like skeletal hands rising from the grave.

  The stench was even worse. It filled my nostrils, almost overpowering my shifter smell.

  It made so much sense now. My sense of smell had been even better than Kelsey’s because Jace’s was better than Kelsey’s. He specifically told me he’d trained most of his life to ensure his sense of smell was the greatest it could be. Now I was more thankful than ever for my mate’s attention to detail because it helped me track who was who. I couldn’t tell from the magic bolts zipping across the street where the good guys were located. But scent placed them to my left.

  They’d been forced away from Jace’s office, which stood roughly in the middle of the street. And that was no hyperbole. It actually stood. Remarkably, the beautiful building hadn’t been destroyed yet. It surely might be soon. A huge fire started somewhere near the back. Plumes of flame reached up high, cracking like whips. But something almost immediately doused them. Then more bolts of magic sliced across the street.

  I flapped my wings, soaring up high momentarily. Then I shot down, trying to make as chaotic a target of myself as possible. By now, Velos would absolutely know I’d escaped and surely know where I’d go. I needed to make as much of a difference in the time I had left.

  I flapped toward where I knew the enemy was located. Breathing in again, it was unmistakable. They were not the same wolves. A lot of them were vampires. And they smelled as if they’d spent too much time underground. It made it atrociously easy to track them.

  I circled around the carcass of a clinic I’d been treated in, what… several hours ago? It wasn’t even that. Now the whole thing was a husk. But the internal walls still stood, and the Kings’ soldiers were within. Until I came abruptly flapping around the side of the building and slammed into it. Though I shouldn’t take Jace’s super-strength for granted, I had to appreciate this was a gift from a full Alpha. Sure enough, it was easy to slam into the side of the building and cause it to collapse. With no warning, the whole thing flattened like a pancake.

  There were screams from the front of the building. I didn’t think I’d killed the vamps. They’d use their magic to protect themselves. But it certainly meant they had to concentrate on surviving rather than attacking. It would give Jace’s werewolves a chance to even the score.

  Flying back up into the air, I smelled again. There were more enemy vampires on the opposite side of the street, two buildings down from Jace’s office. I came in the front this time, not even thinking, throwing my senses forward and following them. It led me right through the broken facade of a mansion. It was old-school, with sandstone walls, patterned carpet, and wrought-iron windows. Or at least it once had been. Now most of the outside walls were trashed. But a magical shield had been erected inside. Vampires were arrayed behind it, crackling weapons in their hands. They were all pointed directly at me.

  This was one of the most dangerous moments in my life. But I took a leaf out of Velos’s book. My wings reflexively flapped. It blasted air toward the shields. One flickered dangerously. It must’ve copped a direct hit from a werewolf. The thrust of my wings was enough to upset it. It toppled, allowing me entry.

  Darting quickly, I spun left, dodging what was essentially a magical rocket launcher. A hot, white blast of force sizzled over my shoulder, a centimeter away from my ear. It sure burned the skin, but it couldn’t kill me.

  I squeezed in past the shield and got my first vampire. Though my natural instinct was to rip the guy’s magic out, I still couldn’t. Velos’s seal simply wouldn’t let me. But nothing could stop me from slamming my fist into the guy’s stomach. He’d gone for my throat. But as my fist smashed into his gut, it forced him back. He ploughed into the opposite wall, traveling through it headfirst. Then he crashed into the kitchen beyond. There was a distinctive noise of him striking something resonant and metal.

  Three other vampires tried to launch at me, though they were far more circumspect. Now I was behind their shields, they were less likely to use their rocket launchers. Even if it was a successful hit and they got me right in the chest, the resulting explosion would take them out too.

  It took time to switch to the guns in their holsters. And I didn’t give them one single second. Flapping my wings again and spinning in a circle, I caught them and shoved them all through the front wall. Several of them crashed into the remaining shields, taking them down. And just like that, I dealt with them.

  Who knew what was happening with the battle outside, but it sounded less frenetic. Judging by the scent on the wind, there were still plenty of enemies around.

  If Jace really had trained to get this sense of smell, then he was a freaking genius. I’d never heard stories of wolves being able to track so much information like this. It gave me the immediate advantage because I didn’t have to waste time looking for my enemies. I knew exactly where they were.

  Soaring up into the air again, I flew through the back of the building, making it around to the rear of the block. There was one mansion backing up onto Jace’s. A battle raged inside. My hearing was enough to establish that. The air was thick with shouts, some of them high-pitched like vampires, others low growls like wolves.

  I crashed right through the window of the parlor, struck a vampire on the chest, and yanked him out the now-cracked window. He fell onto the garden, rolled, snapped up to his feet, went to launch at me, then copped my wing in the middle of his face. It cracked right through his jaw. He spat blood all over the grass.

  Somebody used a rocket launcher on the wall beside me. It smashed through, and instinct alone saw me close my wings in front of my body. They were once fragile but also strong, and far stronger than my actual skin. It protected me, meaning I wasn’t torn through, even as flames leaped around.

  It did push me through another wall into a kitchen. It was massive, industrial in size, and filled with stainless steel benches. It achingly reminded me of what I lost in the original compound. But this one was half on fire.

  Several vampires were standing on top of stainless steel benches, the equivalent of magical machine guns in their hands. They didn’t just rely on weapons, though. The guy at the front had strong magic of his own. He laced every single bullet with it. His hand pulsed with blue as it tightened around the trigger.

  A snarl shot across his lips, as if he enjoyed every single throbbing shot.

  Several wolves were pinned down behind a turned-over fridge. It was solid, something that looked like it came from the freaking fifties. But the huge metal contraption couldn’t take much more punishment. As those blue magical bullets sliced into it, everything bent, buckling with the sound of aching metal fatigue. The three massive wolves crouched behind it were simply too big anyway. One guy stupidly ducked his head out, and a bullet sliced across his shoulder, almost nicking a major vein in his throat. It spun him around, and he fell from cover.

  The vamp with the machine gun went to shoot him in half, but I got there first. It was easy to flap my wings and make every vampire on the bench fly off. It was like using a waterjet on simple dirt. They soon struck the nearby cookers, toppling one over. One particularly tall guy struck a range hood, turning it on. His face smashed against a burner plate, and the exhaust fan tried to suck his long hair up.

  One of the wolves went to attack, but his friend yanked him back. They looked at me momentarily. There was no time for anything but a brief moment of stunned awe.

  Then I flew right through the door into the rest of the building. There was a reason this particular area was hotly contested. Right behind Jace’s office, it was the easiest way to access the block. This mansion also had a great vantage. Get up on the roof, and you’d be able to take potshots through Jace’s windows.

 

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