Chapter 26

Pucker

The death squad, wearing visors and armed to the teeth, besieged Barbie and the princes.

"What is this?" Ethel screamed at the druid.

The squad of mixed species, some with scales and others with horns, was led by two giant angels, or fallen angels. Who could tell? They were mercenaries now.

I wasn't much as a dead man, but I was determined to defend Barbie from the force that had come to take her with all I had.

"They're the Legion of the Brotherhood!" the druid pronounced proudly. "This is but a section of the Brotherhood."

"Angels and demons?" Louis growled, his fangs flashing. "Are you fucking kidding me?"

"So, the myth is true," Cade mused.

Rowan nodded. "The secret force of the Brotherhood exists."

Among the princes, Rowan and Cade were pretty much an encyclopedia on all things regarding spells, runes, artifacts, and magic.

"Of course," said the druid while Ethel's mouth still hung open as if she couldn't believe her eyes and ears. "The Brotherhood has existed since before the five kingdoms. Now step away, princes. We'll take Barbie off your hands. We're the good guys. We do this to preserve the realm. Stop me, and there'll be bloodshed!"

Silas and Louis snarled at the same time, baring their fangs. The two princes didn't care for each other, but they had more in common than they'd admit.

"You'll not take her, dick!" Silas said murderously.

"Surrender yourself to justice, druid!" Louis called.

The druid laughed coldly. "Take the girl!"

Louis zoomed toward the druid, his claws out and fangs showing, no mercy in his eyes. His killing strike, however, didn't land on the druid, as our foe turned to smoke and vanished from where he had been. A second later, the druid appeared behind the vampire prince.

"Watch out!" Cade shouted, flicking his wand. A shield materialized behind the vampire prince just as the druid tossed a potion at Louis. The potion ate a hole in the mage's shield, but it bought time for Louis to dash out of range.

Louis nodded a thank you to Cade and lunged at the druid, but his opponent turned to smoke again. He growled as his claws swatted at empty space. Then Rowan and Cade were up, one conjuring a web of thorned vines to trap the smoke, the other tossing dark spells at the fading smoke.

"Fucking coward!" Louis spat.

The druid wouldn't engage directly with the powerful princes, since I'd destroyed his supposedly unbreakable shield—the crystal ball. He popped up a dozen yards away with his army between him and the princes. The left sleeve and a corner of his robe frayed away where he stood. Cade's spells had grazed him after all.

Silas had engaged in a fight against three cult brothers, one sword against three. When they broke apart, all four of them were bleeding. A beastly growl tore out of Silas's throat as he shifted to his warrior form—half-wolf and half-man—and added two feet to his formidable height.

The shifter prince leapt into the air, his broad blade finding purchase and swiping a cult brother's head clean off, but another cult brother shot an arrow into his thigh. Silas roared in rage and pain, throwing his hand up, and a stream of water forced its way into the archer's mouth, not stopping until he was down.

The rest of the princes formed a protective triangle around Barbie, watching each other's backs while guarding her as waves of cult brothers charged them. There were too many, dozens of them. Surprisingly, Headmistress Ethel joined the princes, tossing her wind and fire at the legion to try to push them back.

Rowan's lethal, thorny vines shot out from the ground and burst from the walls, but too many students got in the way. Some students, mostly first-years, ran like headless chickens, trying to duck the magical fire, water, vines, arrows, and spells that flew everywhere. There were casualties, of course, the innocent caught in the crossfire.

"Get the bride candidates out of here, Lady Ethel!" Rowan shouted. "That's your duty!"

Headmistress Ethel darted to clear a path and led the students out. America rushed to assist her. The death squad didn't stop them, as the bad guys were only interested in Barbie.

Amid the chaos and clamor, quite a few students fell and were trampled by the other students as they all shoved forward to flee toward the exit. Cade let his spells fly toward the windows and shattered them to create more exits for the students to get out.

A group of candidates from Barbie's underdog cult rushed to join the princes' team instead of fleeing, tossing fire, wind, and water at the Brotherhood members. I was proud of them.

The princes' guards, including our chaos house warriors, hadn't been allowed to enter Skyward when the trial started. And now they couldn't get to us through the exodus of the candidates. The bridge was packed with panicked students trying to get to the safety of the other end. Some students fell off the bridge as a result. The warriors at the end of the bridge were yelling for the candidates to be calm and hurry the fuck up. They were anxious to get to us and join the fight.

Jinx, one of Barbie's friends, got hit in the shoulder and cried out in pain. Bea flew to her side to tend to her. I appreciated their bravery and loyalty, but they weren't ready to fight against the death squad, who were all professional killers.

Get my friends out, Pucker! Barbie said weakly in my head as soon as she stopped thrashing around in a violent fit. Tell them to leave me. Send them to safety.

I related Barbie's urgent message.

"Let us be part of this fight!" said Drusilla, the half-vampire. "We won't abandon Barbie. She's the voice and hope of the underdogs."

They won't leave. They're loyal to you, and they need this,I told Barbie. If you want to protect them, fight the Seed of Heaven and get up!

I'm trying, she whimpered, beads of blood dotting her forehead, pain filling her eyes.

Try harder!

The druid had disabled Barbie first so she couldn't join the princes in the battle and tilt the odds in our favor.

I held her hand for moral support. She was fighting to stay conscious. If she blacked out, it'd be game over for her.

I needed to go get Killian. No one could reach him faster than I, yet it wasn't in me to just leave my mistress while she was mortally wounded. I was terrified that once I was gone, I'd never see her again. I knew a goddess wouldn't perish like a mortal or even an immortal, but when you cared for someone so much, you didn't follow all the facts and cold logic.

The battle raged on in the hall. The two sides hurled offensive magic at each other. Blades flashed. Claws sank into flesh. Screams of pain met battle cries.

Cade brandished his wand, chanting rapidly. Where the spells from his wand landed, fireballs exploded and flesh burned. Silas, in his formidable warrior form, led with his long claws, his sword a sidekick. He was very much into tearing out throats and beheading his opponents as he leapt into the enemy ranks, ignoring the silver arrow still buried in his thigh. Actually, he had a new one piercing his shoulder.

Rowan and Cade fought near Barbie to safeguard her. Louis charged into the enemy's ranks to thin the herd. He was missing an ear and had a long gash across his forearm.

Fire, smoke, fallen beams, broken glass, and blood were everywhere. There were heavy casualties on both sides.

"First the kidnapping, then this. Why do they want Barbie so much?" Rowan asked, his thorny vines piercing the heart of a cult brother.

"Why do we all want her in our houses, Rowan?" Cade answered. "Her power calls to everyone."

Louis retreated to join Cade and Rowan, cursing. A second later, Silas also returned after he'd dealt with a half-demon, half-shifter. The princes fought back-to-back, with Barbie in the center, guarded by Cami, Bea, and me. Drusilla, Jinx, and the other geeks fought between the princes as the first defense.

The enemies' numbers were too many.

"Barbie could be the answer to our—" Louis uttered.

She could be a mate to only one of them.

The princes didn't finish their discussion as Cami shouted in urgency, "Barbie can't hold on any longer. We need to get her to the healers!"

"Let's fight our way out!" Silas growled.

Cami carried Barbie over her shoulder, Jinx, Bea, and me guarding their backs. Cade and Louis led the retreat, Cade deploying spells and fire and Louis using a blade and wind to clear a path. Silas and Rowan brought up the rear. The shifter prince's strong water shot into the ranks of our pursuers while the fae prince wove the thorned vines as a barricade between us and the enemies.

Fortunately, the students had mostly exited Skyward and crossed the bridge. The warriors from five houses poured into Skyward as our reinforcements.

Just as I was about to zip toward the chaos kingdom's court to find Killian—I hadn't visited the kingdom for two centuries—a company of cult brothers, with the druid and two winged dark angels in the lead, blocked the middle of the bridge, cutting off our retreat.

We were boxed in by the Legion of the Brotherhood.

The dark angels took off and dove toward Barbie, who was half-conscious on Cami's shoulder, blood dripping from her nostrils. Bea begged Barbie to stay with us. While all the geeks stuck with Barbie and fought bravely, I could still feel fear pulsing off them.

All four princes hurled their strong magic at the winged angels, but it wasn't enough, since our enemies came at us from all directions, overwhelming us with their numbers.

I hovered above Barbie, trying to shield her, as if that would help. The dark angels could pass through me easily, even if I had more juice to go solid.

Rowan sent his vines high into the sky to trap the angels. He got only one of them, and I cheered. But then a third winged being appeared, slashing clean of the fae prince's thorned vines with a flaming blade.

With a battle cry, Silas charged into the ranks of the legion that pursued us, a lone wolf snapping his teeth. He wheeled, his blade piercing the visor of an enemy solider while he booted away another foe.

Blood dripped from his blade as he yanked it out of the soldier's face. A female bear shifter appeared by her prince's side, roaring as she hammered her axe into a cult brother's chest before he could put his spear into the base of Silas's spine.

"Go. Go! Bring Barbie to safety. I'll hold them back!" Silas shouted.

The shifter prince already had three arrows in his flesh. He was determined to sacrifice himself to preserve Barbie.

And just two months ago, he'd backhanded Barbie for her attitude in his house.

Two more shifters in their wolf forms dashed to their prince's aid. Rock and Archer joined their ranks as well, wielding their swords in a lethal dance. Together, they gave their all to push back the waves of enemy soldiers to give Barbie a chance to escape.

Cade and Louis fought hard in front of the group on the bridge. Both princes were wounded, their royal uniforms tattered and bloody.

Louis leapt up, his longsword cutting down a dark angel before it could snatch Barbie. A female dark angel shot a flaming arrow into Louis's chest, pinning him to the ground.

"No! No!" Cade roared, sending spells to vanquish the flame on the arrow before it burned the vampire prince to a crisp. He crouched beside Louis, chanting, and yanked the arrow out of Louis's chest.

Louis bellowed in agony.

"Hang in there, brother!" Cade shouted. "You hear me?"

Three vampire warriors, one of them Barbie's nemesis—Gunther—took the front position along with two chaos warriors and one fae. One of the vamps was soon cut down by the druid's spells, which also shot into a chaos warrior's chest, the impact throwing him off the bridge.

Fuck, we were on the losing side! Soon, Barbie would be taken, and there wasn't a damn thing we could do.

No!I refused to accept defeat.

I'll be back!I sent a thought to Barbie, not sure if she could hear me while she was fighting the biggest battle of her life to stay conscious.

I zoomed toward the chaos kingdom in a streak of light, praying I'd find Killian.

Maybe he could save the day if it wasn't already too late.