Chapter 2

TWO

COLLINS

The blood drained from her face. She staggered back. The breath rushed from her lips, and her eyes went wild. She shook her head. “ No. ”

Bash cackled, and for the first time, he sounded just like his mother. “ Yes . And I enjoyed every second of it.”

She screamed and magic flashed in her eyes. Her long white-blonde hair whipped around her face. The flaming canopy trembled above her and rained burning ash down on us. Roots exploded up from the asphalt, sending huge chunks flying in all different directions. She rose up on a root, her entire body trembling with rage. Her aura pulsed with a white-hot rage.

“I should’ve drowned you the moment you drew your first breath.”

I gasped. My pulse quickened. She was a monster, I knew that, but it hurt my heart to hear his mother say that to him . . . to know what she’d done to him his whole life. It filled me with a fury I’d never felt before. Pieces of the pavement broke off and hovered around my hands that were pressed to the ground.

"Too late for that now, Mother.”

Stellan dropped to his knees and slid behind a fallen neon sign. To my right, a huge cluster of red umbrellas from that restaurant at the Paris Hotel cloaked Ellie’s presence, but I sensed the intensity of her aura like it was right next to me. Nickel hovered behind some palm fronds above Ellie—her Nephilim protector through and through. It made me think of my Nephilim protectors. My heart hurt thinking about my mother, but I trusted Zuriel. He was an angel after all. But then there was Jada, the warrior I hadn’t even gotten a chance to meet for real. We had to rescue her before it was too late. Focus, Collins. You can’t do anything for them right now. You have to survive this first.

Spiked vines rose like giant tentacles from the ground beside her. Tephine twirled her wrists and the vines slithered across the ground toward him. “Your last breath shall be mine.”

“Come and take it then,” Bash said with a snarl. He threw his hands up and a black dome dropped down on top of her.

Silver magic flashed behind that neon sign, and huge pieces of metal flew over to where Weston was crouched behind the column. "Stay down, Wes! Just let us handle this!”

Weston groaned but made no move to get up and join the fight.

Shylock lowered to just above the black dome, his golden and purple wings flapping to keep him up. Both his hands were stretched wide. Sage-green magic pooled in his palms. “It’s not going to hold. Be ready!”

Savina’s red magic coiled around her hands like she was dying to get in there. “He has emotional manipulation. It’ll buy us a few more moments, but not long.”

Tephine’s aura had not dimmed in the slightest. In fact it was growing bigger and stronger with every second Bash had her in the dark. She wasn’t afraid of his magic. She was waiting. And she was furious. The ground shook beneath us like an earthquake. Streaks of light shone through Bash’s dome. She was breaking free.

I rolled to the balls of my feet. My stomach tightened into knots. I gripped the car in front of me so hard my knuckles were white. If we can’t kill her, then what’s our end game here? What are we doing with her?

Bash had one hand out to the front, trying to hold his mother in his dome of darkness. The other was thrown to the side. His fingers flexed. The muscles in his arms pulsed and twitched. “ PORTAL COMING,” he whisper-shouted through clenched teeth, like he didn’t have more strength than that.

“Portal coming. There’s a portal here. We just need to force her back through it,” Savina said in a rush. “Bash has a plan for that, clearly, but we have to contain her in order to force her through.”

My eyes widened. “Hog-tie her like I did Cleo?”

The ground erupted beneath us, throwing us backwards into the air. My wings popped out instantly, catching me mid-flip and holding me off the ground. I threw my hands out and caught Savina and Maren by the backs of their shirts just before they face-planted on the asphalt. Cars rolled over us and slammed into the Paris Hotel wall. Glass shattered everywhere.

I spun around and gasped. Only one truck stood between us and Tephine. Bash’s dome of darkness was gone. She just stood there with her hands at her sides and her eyes closed, almost as if she was sleeping. A soft, sage-green mist hovered around her body. I frowned and looked up and found Shylock hovering in the air twenty feet above her, blasting his magic right on her. My eyes widened. He was controlling her emotions, and it was working. Savina had said it wouldn’t hold her long.

Bash was on his knees a little farther away than he’d been a minute ago. His arm was stretched out to the side and trembling, his fingers pulsing with magic along his skin. He was trying to draw the portal to us. I didn’t understand how that was possible. I just prayed he succeeded.

Tephine’s eyes flew open. Pale-blue, almost-white eyes glowed with rage. I felt it in her aura. It was growing stronger by the millisecond. She glared at her son for a moment, then looked up. Her eyes narrowed into little slits.

“SHYLOCK MO?—”

A vine as thick as my arm shot straight up from the ground and coiled around his neck before I even got my warning out. Shylock gasped. His face turned bright red. He gripped the vine and pulled, but it didn’t budge. He pulled a dagger off his hip and sliced at it, but Tephine just cackled beneath him, keeping the vine strong and sturdy. His lips were turning blue, and his wings were fluttering.

“ Ellie! ” I screamed. “Now!”

Purple lightning streaked across the street and slammed right into Tephine’s chest. She hissed and stumbled backwards. I pushed my magic out and grabbed hold of that vine. RELEASE HIM! Shylock plummeted toward the ground. I cursed and sent the vine to catch him when silver magic suddenly wrapped around his body. I sighed and dropped my hands. But Tephine shrieked and flicked her arm to the side, ripping a palm tree out of the ground. It shot like a torpedo straight for Stellan. I cursed and pushed the tree, but my strength was fading. The tree slammed right into Stellan. He bellowed as blood splashed in an arc and he crashed to the ground.

His silver magic vanished around Shylock. I tried to catch him. Ellie tried to catch him. But it happened all too fast. Shylock slammed into the asphalt with a thud and crunch. Weston screamed and dove out from his protective barrier toward his twin, but Tephine sent a wall of thorns crashing into his chest.

“ Stellan. GET UP!” Savina whispered. Red magic billowed around her.

“He’s alive,” Maren said without much force, like she wasn’t sure she believed it.

Ellie roared and lightning filled the air. Bolt after bolt slammed into Tephine. Purple flames swallowed her whole. I couldn’t see Tephine anymore, but her laughter grew louder and louder. My pulse skipped beats. Ellie kept hitting her. Lightning. Fire. Wind like a tornado. Sweat dripped down Ellie’s temples— no, wait, those are tears. Her purple gaze darted to where Stellan was crumpled, unmoving, beneath that palm tree. Ellie screamed and her voice cracked.

Nickel swooped down and grabbed Shylock, then flew him over to Weston and dragged him back behind the steel barrier. Nickel looked across the street to us with wide hazel eyes. “Did she get stronger ?”

“ Stellan! He’s not moving yet, ” Savina whispered, her eyes glistening. “Maren?—”

“I’ll go to him.” Maren took off running before I could stop her.

“Collins. Cover her .” Savina gripped my arm and squeezed. “Please.”

I threw my hands up and plucked two dozen palm trees out of the ground, then pushed them over to make a wall between Stellan and Tephine. Maren was fast. Faster than I expected. She was behind that wall in a matter of seconds.

“How is she still alive?” Savina said with a growl.

“Because it’s not touching her.” I heard myself say. Savina scowled and her gaze snapped to me. I shrugged. “She must have a wall of vines or something keeping it from touching her.”

“Can you remove it fro?—”

Tephine shot straight up into the sky, her wings twinkling in the neon lights. She cackled and threw her arms wide. “That’s not going to cut it anymore.”

Ellie’s lightning struck her in the face, but Tephine barely flinched.

“Little thing, your power comes from the earth.” Tephine grinned. “Nothing from the earth can hurt me now.”

What does that mean?

“I don’t like that,” Savina said under her breath.

A wall of solid black stretched all the way across the street, blocking out everything to our right as far as the eye could see. Bash was still on his knees. Sweat rolled down his neck. His hair was disheveled and tangled. That one hand twitched and throbbed like he was losing strength. He snarled at his mother. “Go ahead, take your shot in the dark.”

“ Tsk, tsk, tsk. ” Tephine smiled and shook her head. “Go ahead, summon the portal just like I taught you. Drain yourself of your strength. I won’t even stop you. But you’ll have to overpower me to get me through?—”

I threw my magic at her as hard as possible. A wall of turquoise slammed into her, pushing her all the way across the street. Ellie’s lightning and purple flames wrapped with my magic. I sent everything I had at her. I had no idea what that even meant or what I was doing. Trees and dirt and plants flew in from every direction. We had to do something. Weston’s aura was pulsing with panic and pain. Shylock’s normally vibrant sage-green aura was a grayish-blue. Bash’s aura was crackling like a bomb about to explode, and I was terrified what it would take in the process.

But Stellan’s aura had my heart constricting. It was fading. It was too weak. I could barely even feel it. He was a Royal. His aura was usually as bold as Bash’s or his sister’s. The Realm Royals were crazy powerful, but right now his aura was weaker than Maren’s.

“ Ellie, go to him! NOW!” I screamed. “GET HIM OUTTA HERE NOW!”

Savina gasped beside me.

Ellie didn’t even look at me. She didn’t hesitate. She shot into the sky in a purple tornado and flew right over my wall of trees. I knew the moment she landed beside her soulmate because his aura flared for a few seconds before fading again. God, if he dies, I will never forgive myself.

Without Ellie’s magic helping me, Tephine had regained some traction. She was pushing through my magic like she was walking through five feet of snow—slowly, but steadily gaining. She wasn’t even looking at me. Her attention was on her son. She threw her left hand out and it pulsed. The air shimmered around her fingers. Her and Bash were in some kind of tug-o-war for the portal. I didn’t understand how that worked. I thought there were set portals in specific locations. I was definitely missing information they had. All I could do was throw my magic at her and hope it helped. I didn’t have crystals to work with, and the desert wasn’t supplying enough nature. My confidence in my magic was fading by the second.

Tephine roared like a lion and a wall taller of thorns than me shot right at Bash. My heart leapt into my throat. I pushed at the thorns to make them go around him, but I wasn’t fast enough. I wasn’t strong enough. I watched in horrifying slow-motion as foot-long thorns pierced his stomach, left shoulder, and left bicep, pinning him to a palm tree. His wings twitched. Thick green vines wrapped around him like a snake. He bellowed as bones crunched. Sand burst from the ground like a tidal wave. In the blink of an eye, Bash was buried.

I panicked and tackled her. I tackled Queen Tephine.

I could not have even said how I got to her so fast. One second I was behind that truck, the next I was on top of her as her back slid across the pavement. Her eyes widened. She snarled and flipped me over. I hooked my legs around her waist. Bash’s aura was weakening. She was killing him. I didn’t know how, but it didn’t matter. His aura was suffocating.

NOOOO. I pressed my hand to that diamond on Tephine’s chest and screamed in my mind. FREE BASH! FREE BASH! FREE BASH! Light exploded beneath my palm. That mountain of sand exploded, raining down on me and Tephine. Bash dropped to his knees, free of her tricks. Thorns were still embedded in his body and blood ran down his skin, but he was breathing.

And then Tephine’s hand wrapped around my throat and squeezed. Her strength was unlike anything I’d ever felt. It felt like metal coiled around my neck. And I was too weak to fight back. I’d just given everything I had to save Stellan and Bash . . . leaving nothing for myself.

Suddenly, bright red magic slammed into Tephine’s face.