1. ~Xavier~

1

~Xavier~

A whirlwind of golden fury swirled all around.

I could barely see a thing through it with how blindingly bright it was.

Angel magic unleashed in all its glory.

Her glory.

Instinctively, I moved to get up, to assist—once I could see past it.

But the pain in my throat where Constantine had grabbed me pulled me up short.

It wasn’t just the red-raw sensation of somebody trying to choke me out futilely—I couldn’t be choked out. The only way to knock me out temporarily was to break my neck.

I’d wondered why he hadn’t gone that route.

It would have been easy enough for him to accomplish with his speed and strength that eclipsed mine.

And now I knew.

He’d purposely chosen to do it that way to do… whatever it was to me.

To just incapacitate me with this odd pain, a pain that, as these thoughts swirled around, started to spread through my body?

No. There were more effective ways to do that. Especially for somebody of his prowess.

What had he done to me?

What was happening?

I couldn’t worry about it now. I didn’t know what was going on beyond the blinding gold surrounding me entirely and preventing me from seeing—or even hearing clearly from the wildness akin to that of a tornado tearing around me—a fucking thing. All I did know was that I hadn’t seen Constantine fall. I had heard him screaming initially and he’d been forced to release me and Talon, but that was all.

He could attack again at any moment.

I fought past the odd pain and went to call my power, but as I flipped my palms down, nothing but sparks came into being.

I tried again and the same thing happened.

Had he muted my magic by infecting me with something when he’d touched me?

Damnation. The only things that could impact somebody’s magic in this way were celestial magic or black magic.

If that shit—the latter—was in my system… hell… I hated to think what it could do to me.

Especially with my struggle with the dark.

I forced myself forward, stumbling from the violence of the magical gold tornado.

The pain inundating me and tearing through my entire being all too quickly became too much, and then I was dropping to my knees and crying out against it.

Keep moving. Don’t let it win.

I ended up clawing at the rough ground to push onward.

Somehow, against all rhyme and reason, I managed to make it into a clearing.

I blinked several times to adjust to the brightness, because it was every fucking where, and then I managed to make out Alena there facing off with Constantine.

The army of acolytes that had been flanking him was now down, all of them in a massive heap and passed out over by the broken gates that the bastard had felled.

He was actually on his knees streaming his red fire in her direction.

Gone was the black magic he’d been using for the most part.

And there Alena was, a partially translucent round shield up, grimacing as she fought to hold his magic back.

If he was close to overpowering her, why was he on his knees?

I strained to peer closer, really wishing my vision wasn’t currently compromised.

It took me a moment, but then I managed to see his free hand down by his side, sparks of gold engulfing what was left of a red flame he’d clearly been trying to conjure.

I frowned.

They seemed to be attacking it.

Not just that, but… destroying it?

Bit by bit, I watched it happen.

A cry of indignation from Alena had me darting my gaze to her and then I saw her push forward with her gold stream and the same thing start to happen to Constantine’s other red flame.

Holy. Fucking. Hell.

This was unprecedented.

It was insane, was what it was.

I couldn’t believe what I was actually seeing.

The ability to do what she was shouldn’t exist.

“So very special, darling princess,” I heard Constantine say.

In the next split-second, a burst of red magic erupted—but not from him.

Somebody teleported into the fray, hidden beneath a heavy hooded cloak and they thrust a Hellborn at where Alena and Constantine’s magical streams met.

They both cried out as it blew them back and their magic sputtered out.

I yelled as Alena landed painfully on her back, choking.

And then the hooded figure wrapped their free arm around Constantine, swept their magic around the acolytes, and they all disappeared in a cloud of teleportation.

I pushed off the ground and tried to go to Alena, but the exertion in my current state proved too much.

I stumbled and hit the ground, rasping.

White wings filled my vision a moment before blackness took me.