AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The shadow she’d summoned to protect her spread to form black wings at her back. She no longer looked like the innocent who had stepped into the clearing moments before, but like a black angel of death. She was smiling at him, soft and wicked. “The Star was always meant to be mine,” she declared. “Destiny is never thwarted, vampire.”
Sirus managed to stand. The moment he did, dread pooled deep inside him. His senses had been overcome with pain, but he felt something else, only faintly. The presence of color through the gray.
No. It couldn’t be. Gwendolyn was far from here. In the Veil.
The High Priestess’s smile widened. “I thought to kill you quickly,” she went on. “But now I think I will make you bear witness to my ascension.”
Adrenaline and fear flooded him. He didn’t understand why Gwendolyn had returned, but he would keep Nestra distracted for as long as possible. Desperate, he prayed. To the gods. To anyone who might be able to hear his thoughts. To Rath and the others.
Protect her.
Chapter Nineteen
Gwen dashed into a copse of evergreens as a flash of violet filled the sky. She looked up to see the cascade of magick and was surprised when she slammed into something solid on the other side. Gwen stumbled back, falling into the snow, and snarled a curse from the shock. Her mouth clamped shut when what she smashed into turned to face her.
His wide, cream-and-brown wings arched at his back. His skin was sun-kissed-brown and his blond hair cropped tight to his head. He looked a lot like the man who had attacked her in her apartment back in New York. He was a zephyr. Sweaty, dirty, a bit bloody, and, given the look on his face, very pissed.
Gwen’s heart thrummed with fear as she shuffled up to her feet. He snatched her from behind the moment she tried to run.
“Little witch, trying to help your friends?” the zephyr snarled, sending spittle spraying across the side of her face.
“Let me go!” she demanded. He grabbed her throat and squeezed.
“Don’t speak to me, witch!” He held up his sword as she struggled to draw in air. “I’ll cut out your tongue and feed it to the crows.”
Gwen hadn’t precisely mastered the techniques Niah and Sirus had tried to teach her in training, but she was quick, and he was fatigued; otherwise, it might not have worked. All at once, she pushed her hips back, stepped to the side, and threw back her elbow. There was a crunch, and her elbow filled with pain at the same moment she gasped down a relieving breath of air. She managed to get free, only to trip over a root hidden in the snow.
The paladin snarled with rage. Gwen spun onto her back just as he lifted his sword over her. Blood was pouring from his nose. “You bitch! I’ll make you pay for?—”
There was a sickening thunk. Her attacker’s scrunched face went lax, and he lowered his sword to his side. When he spun around, Gwen saw the knife lodged in his back, right between his wings. Several more thunks followed. With the last one, he fell sideways to the ground, like a downed tree, revealing Niah just beyond where he’d stood, her eyes black. She looked livid.
“What are you doing here?” she seethed.
Gwen shot up, the venom in the vampire’s voice making her take a step back. With the shock of everything and the crushing weight of her adrenaline, Gwen was only able to sputter nonsense at first.
“Sirus,” she finally managed to blurt. “Where is he? What’s happening?”
“The zephyr High Priestess came for you.” Niah bent down to pull her knives from the zephyr’s body at her feet. “You shouldn’t have come back. Sirus can take care of himself,” she told Gwen as she wiped the blood from the blades on her pants before returning them to her harness. “Let’s go. We need to get you far away from here.”
Gwen didn’t budge. “I’m not going to leave,” she snapped. “I have too?—”
“You should not have come back here,” the vampire repeated angrily. “If you get hurt or captured—he would never forgive me. Or himself.”
What her words implied cut Gwen to her core. She swallowed the lump in her throat. “And if something happens to him? I’m just supposed to not give a shit? To hide and run away?” she snapped again, her emotions boiling over. Tears began to form, and she looked away sharply. “I saw it, Niah. In a vision. He’s in trouble, and I can’t just run,” she added with a desperate heaviness.
Gwen looked up, and the vampire’s expression was not empathetic but set and cold. “Yes,” Niah declared. “You can. He would want it. If it kept you safe.”
Gwen shook her head. No. Anger roiled inside her—anger at herself. Niah’s arm was bleeding badly, though she ignored it. Who knew where the others were—if they were okay.
“If you get hurt, Gwen—it will destroy him,” Niah pressed, her tone softening a fraction. “You cannot fight them. This isn’t practice. These are real soldiers. We can help Sirus, but right now we need to find Levian. She can get you out of here. Take you somewhere?—”
“No,” Gwen stated clearly. All she could see was Sirus’s face coated in blood. Like it’d been in her dream when he’d faced the dark creature for her. “I can’t just run, Niah. I know it doesn’t make any sense, but I know that if I leave, he—” She grimaced, unable to say it out loud. “But if I stay, there’s a chance—I was always meant to be here,” she elaborated. “With him. I can feel it.”
All those dreams and visions. They had all led her to this place. To this moment. She knew it deep in her bones.
Niah was silent for several long seconds as she eyed Gwen down. Then she cursed and let out a deep sigh. “I won’t let you get yourself killed or captured, Gwen. I know you love him and want to help him, but…” She shook her head. “There are greater stakes here.”
Gwen knew the stakes. She might get hurt, or worse, but she was tired of being afraid. Tired of running. “I am not a child, Niah,” she snapped. She willed her magick forward until her hands glowed with dark blue fire. Her skin sizzled, and her body hummed. The forest around her rustled with acknowledgement. It sensed her power and encouraged her. “And I’m not helpless. I’m going to find him,” she told the vampire. “Whether you help me or not.”
