Chapter 53

53

Z uriel whipped his head to the side, drawing my attention. “What is it?” I asked, heart thudding in my chest from the panicked expression drawn on his normally stoic face.

“The healers are in trouble,” was his strained reply, and he twisted in the air, heading to the narrow, harrowing pass where we’d stashed them.

“Wait! I’m coming with you,” I called out, stopping him midair.

Ruslan pulled up beside me, his large, black wings buffeting the air around us. “You two go, I will continue searching. I can contact you if I find anything.”

“Stay safe,” I pleaded, searching my mate’s smoky gray eyes. There was a weariness there, one that I felt in my bones. We’d been fighting nearly nonstop for the better part of a day, and I was exhausted. Ruslan was exhausted. And if I was being honest, I needed a break from all the death and despair hanging in the air like a fine mist. My emotions were a wreck, and I was struggling more and more to maintain my mental barrier when it was constantly battered with agony.

The grief of others also sapped at the hatred I needed to fuel this darkness, and that was my priority in all of this.

“Get some rest,” Ruslan hummed, kissing my forehead swiftly before backing away.

“Have I ever told you that you take such good care of me?” I spoke into his mind.

“I’ll never tire of hearing you say it, mate.”

Zuriel had already taken off, and I followed him, flapping my wings to catch up. I kept my eyes straight forward, tracking his movements, not wanting to look down at the distant ground or the gore that littered it.

It didn’t take us long to traverse the distance, and as we crested the ridge, I frowned.

Nothing looked amiss.

“Zuriel–” I started, but he held up a closed fist. I snapped my mouth shut, wondering what he knew that I did not. Slowly, we started to descend, the ground growing closer and the promise of food, water, and a seat increasing.

We landed lightly, but Zuriel was tense in a way I’d never seen before.

“What is it, cousin?” I reached out to him, trying to understand the tight set of his shoulders.

“There is no movement, no sound. It's like everyone here vanished.”

“Then we need to search these tents. What did you sense before?”

“Terror. There are no fighters back here, and no one should have seen the healers. They would have to know…”

We crept forward, slipping into a tent with its flaps tied back. No one was there, but half-empty jars were knocked askew. A trail of blood led us into the next tent, and the one after that, until we came to one lined with healing beds.

Each male on them looked like his neck had been broken, their faces purple and contorted with pain. Among them, scattered on the floor, were the healers, in similar states of death.

“Oh fuck,” I whispered, hand covering my mouth as I stared at them, frozen in horror.

“Izidora!” Zuriel’s voice was laced with panic, and the yank on my hand tore me back to reality. With a strong grip on my arm, he hauled me from the tent, racing toward the open space beyond, his head whipping in every direction.

A low, sinister laugh sent chills skittering across my skin. I felt eyes on me, and I jerked myself free from Zuriel, spinning around and searching for the voice. White fire immediately filled my palms, ready to strike at a moment's notice.

“Show yourself!” Zuriel shouted, and the hairs on the back of my neck rose.

Ten paces away, Kazimir emerged from seemingly nowhere, striding toward us with malice in his steps. His eyes were completely black, like when he’d kidnapped me and directed a knife toward my heart.

“We found Kazimir,” I shot down the bond toward Ruslan. Rage, so hot that it nearly burned me up, exploded through my veins, and I hurled a ball of white fire at him.

With another perverse laugh, he blocked my attack with a shield of silver, scattering the flames in all directions. Hatred flared like a wildfire, and I drank every drop of magic the extreme emotion allowed me and channeled it into my next attack.

This was exactly what I had practiced for.

With a snarl, I launched myself at his mind, trying to force him to still so that Zuriel and I could kill him.

Kazimir’s mind was like a black hole, filled with nothing but twisted ideas and unprocessed rage. Those black ropes he’d bound me with before caged his mind in a tight weave, forcing me to focus more intently to slip past them. I was only half-conscious of his proximity as I worked my way inside his mind, absently circling with Zuriel by my side.

With a sharp flick of his wrist, Kazimir tossed his binding magic in our direction. Zuriel anticipated his move – whether by reading Kazimir’s mind or drawing on two millennia of training – and threw up a shield of magic around us. The dark ropes fizzled out on impact.

“When I’m through killing your mate, I’m going to chain you to my bed and fuck you until you bear me a child, Izidora,” Kazimir grunted, drawing his sword and dropping into his fighting stance.

I scoffed, my hatred rising again and fueling my attack on his mind. A tendril of my magic slipped through, and smothered any sort of celebration I would have otherwise taken at the accomplishment. He couldn’t know my next move, not until it was too late. “You won’t walk away from this encounter alive,” I hissed, fingers curling into my palms.

He cocked his head, the total blackout of his eyes unnerving. “The Fates favor me, Izidora. They want me to win.”

Zuriel took a half step forward, drawing Kazimir’s attention away from me long enough to slip another tendril past the barrier of his mind. The crystal flared to life inside me, filling with black smoke as every last bit of hatred and rage from years and years of abuse melded together.

With a furious scream, I flung my arms wide, fueling my magic as Zuriel leaped forward to engage him in combat. A flurry of white tendrils assaulted Kazimir’s mind as I forced his movements to slow, but the binding magic rebelled against me, yanking on bits of my own and sucking them into its endless void.

The clash of blades rang in my ears, and I tried to keep Zuriel between me and Kazimir so I could focus on the delicate balance of preventing my magic from tangling with his.

But Kazimir battled us on two fronts, seemingly empowered by his dark gift and able to handle a mental and physical attack simultaneously. Gritting my teeth, I pushed harder.

With his free hand, Kazimir tossed another sinister rope in my direction, and once again, Zuriel blocked it.

“C’mon, Angel, is that the best you can do?” Kazimir taunted, flinging another round at both of us. “You’ve lived for millennia. You should be able to fight circles around me.”

Zuriel remained cool, his icy blue eyes hard and focused on the challenge before him.

Kazimir tsked. “Not even going to dignify a king with a response? How classless you are.”

Still, Zuriel said nothing. In a flurry of movement, he drove forward, pummeling Kazimir backward and toward the precarious edge of the cliff. The ravine beyond was thousands of feet deep and raged with an angry river, still flowing despite the freezing temperatures around us. Kazimir dug his heel in and fought back, sweat pouring from his temples as he did so. My white magic thrashed with his, and no matter how much force I put into it, I was still falling short of my goal.

I was so focused on my task that I didn’t realize Kazimir had fallen backward until his arms began pinwheeling, and our connection was broken when he fell out of sight. I rushed toward Zuriel, my breath catching in my throat.

But Kazimir burst from beneath the ledge a moment later. His black wings unfurled and flapped furiously as he towered over us.

I tried to slide to a stop, but it was too late.

A black rope that spelled my death flew toward me, aimed straight for my neck. Time slowed to a crawl, the scream tearing from my throat sounding disjointed as I watched with horror as the binding magic drew closer. White magic rose from my fingers like the breaking dawn, too slow to defend me.

Somehow, in the space of a heartbeat, I managed to say three last words to Ruslan.

“I love you.”

“I’m coming, don’t you fucking give up on me,” Ruslan snarled back.

My eyes screwed shut, and I sucked in a breath, prepared to die. It was, after all, what I deserved, wasn’t it? Why else would my life have been filled with so much pain?

The choked sound that hit my ears didn’t come from me. Wrenching my eyes open, a flash of white hair flooded my vision before I was knocked backward, and a heavy male body landed on top of me.

“Zuriel!” I screamed, trying to wiggle out from beneath him. His hands scrambled at his neck, his gasps weakening and growing fainter.

“No!” I screeched, finally free, and my nails clawed along with Zuriel’s at his neck.

Kazimir laughed, a crazed sound that I knew would haunt me for what remained of my life. “Come with me willingly, and he can live.”

“Zuriel,” I sobbed, looking between my cousin and the male I’d loved first. But there was nothing left of the Kazimir who’d rescued me in this sinister shell.

“You motherfucker!” I screamed, a blast of white energy magic bursting from me that was so intense it knocked Kazimir’s smug face from the sky. His concentration broken, the rope disappeared from around Zuriel’s neck, and he sucked down ragged breaths, pushing upright to grab his sword immediately.

“You’re hurt,” I pleaded with my cousin, but he shook his head.

Kazimir rose again, like a disease that couldn’t be eradicated. He yanked two daggers from sheaths on his thighs, his sword discarded like he didn’t need it to defend himself.

A ring of purple bruises was already forming around Zuriel’s neck, and I hastily unsheathed my swords, ready to fight alongside my cousin.

I needed to kill Kazimir and end this fucking war.

The roar of an enormous black Dragon tore our attention away from the tense moment, and that was all Zuriel needed to fling himself forward at Kazimir.

“Zuriel, no!” I screamed, realizing what Kazimir had intended to do a moment before my cousin did.

A choked sound escaped the Angel’s chest as one dagger went under his ribs, and the other came down on his shoulder. Kazimir ripped them out simultaneously, and Zuriel collapsed at his feet.

Without a care for myself, I raced forward, toward the last remaining family member I had – the only one I’d ever known. My heart was shattering, fracturing in a way I didn’t know was possible after all the abuse I had experienced. I didn’t think there was anything else that could break me, but watching my cousin bleed out did.

The sun was blotted out above me, and black fire spewed overhead, narrowly missing my hair as I flung myself over Zuriel’s body.

Kazimir shot into the sky, disappearing entirely as Ruslan snapped his maw at the place he had occupied. Wind from strong wings buffeted me, whipping the loose strands of my hair about as Ruslan raced away in pursuit of my cousin’s killer.

“Zuriel,” I whimpered, holding him so tightly I wondered if it was him or myself I was trying to hold together.

“Izidora,” he moaned, his chest jerking.

With a start, I realized I was crushing him. White magic filled my palms, and I pressed them to his bloodstained skin.

I would heal him, and then I wouldn’t lose him.

His firm grip stopped me, yanking my hand away with more strength than a dying male should have. “Don’t,” he whispered, his melodic voice as ragged as his breathing.

“But I can’t lose you,” I sobbed, my vision blurring.

He winced as he tried to pick his head up to look at me, then thought better of it. “I never told you… I lost my wife during the war between the Angels and Demons.”

In that moment, I dropped away every barrier I’d erected to protect me. I needed to experience these last moments with my cousin without a filter on them. His sadness slammed into me, nearly stealing my breath. A new cascade of tears fell from my eyes, dripping too loudly on his wheezing chest.

“She is the one who spoke the prophecy,” he managed to say in a rush.

I gasped, inching closer to my dying cousin. “Zuriel, why didn’t–”

“Because, that day, she spoke of another… that predicted this. I had to be here, to die for you, in order to save the world.” His icy blue eyes pleaded with me to understand, but I couldn’t, wouldn’t believe this.

I was drowning in grief – mine, Zuriel’s, that of everyone around me.

“You lived without her for two thousand years?” I whimpered, cupping his face.

He nodded, then winced at the pain. “I want to go to her now. So, please, let me go, Izidora.”

A sob wracked my chest, but I nodded, gripping his hands tightly. They were cold, so cold. I held them over my heart, the one that was shredding into a million pieces, as his eyes, so full of life and love for me, grew cloudy. “Thank you for everything, Zuriel. Go to your wife. I love you.”

“Love you… cousin.” With one last slow blink, my cousin joined his love in whatever waited for us beyond this life.

A scream tore from my throat, ripping it raw and bloody as my grief swept over me like a tidal wave, crashing through every piece of me until it had shattered my soul along with my bones. I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t process that I’d never hear his voice again, never learn mind magic with him again, never hear all the secrets he kept in his head. I didn’t ask enough questions about our family. I didn’t know enough about him. How would I even find distant relations if I didn’t know our real family name?

Everything heaved with pain, and each breath was like a thousand stabs to the chest. “Zuriel, Zuriel, Zuriel,” I chanted over and over and over, as if saying his name could bring him back to me.

I didn’t know how long I sprawled across his body, but it wasn’t until a roar tore through my grief that I remembered I was on a battlefield and my mate chased a maniac through the skies.

Sucking in a serrated breath, I rose from the ashes of my pain, rolled my shoulders back, and told myself that I was an insidious bloom. That I had the power to bring males to their knees. That I was a survivor.

And survivors were the most dangerous ones of them all.