Chapter 99

The battle between Dragons had raged wildly, the odds weighing against us as we'd fought for our lives in the hidden depths of the storm clouds. Finally, with a lash of deadly fire magic timed with a crack of Dante's lightning, we'd burned our final adversary from the inside out.

Dante bellowed in victory, his roar echoed by the heavens as thunder crashed within the cloud he had created and we sped through it at a furious speed.

I healed us both again, exhaustion weighing in my limbs as I caught my breath and turned my mind back to the war at large.

"Get lower!" I called over the booming thunder, lightning illuminating countless silhouettes within the cloud for a brief moment. "We need to find Orion!"

All throughout our fight with the Dragons, my bond with Lance had pulled at me, the sight of what lay around him merging with my own vision, his need for help and unending pain urging me to get to him with a fierce desperation.

Dante tucked his wings and plummeted, lightning spearing from his jaws and striking a Harpy through the chest, sending him spiralling to his death. We broke free of the clouds, and I sucked in a sharp breath as I took in the new layout of the battlefield below.

Our army had been decimated, the entire right flank reduced to nothing but corpses and smouldering fires, the remainder of our ranks forced to group together to the west of the basin while Lionel spread his warriors out and looked to surround them. Lavinia was wreaking havoc on all those pushed her way, her shadows a plague that was growing more virulent by the second.

Panic for Seth filled my heart even as my gaze fell on a new force which was charging into the fight precisely where our army needed them most. I took in the blaze of Phoenix fire which flared at the front of what looked like an army of moving statues and yet moved with the fluidity of Fae. A golden glimmer seemed to cling to the fresh ranks of warriors and their war cries rose above the rest, echoing off of the mountaintops like a cry of justice.

There was something poetically deadly about that oncoming storm of warriors and my gut twisted as I looked down at Tory, wondering what cost such magic must have required as I remembered the insane plan she had whispered to our inner circle as a desperate, last resort.

"She's called the dead back to fight for us," I said, awe claiming the place of the fear which had threatened to choke me as I watched that impossible army crash into Lionel's forces and tear great holes in their ranks at once.

But I couldn't sit staring at this impossibility any longer and I forced my mind back onto the urgent need to locate Orion, sending another trail of golden flames towards the point where I sensed him to be through our bond.

A howl pierced the air, taken up by a resounding chorus as we dropped low over the battlefield and I gasped, hunting for Seth among the masses. Instead, I found Rosalie Oscura in her stunning silver Wolf form leading her pack our way. They tore through Fae and Nymph alike, Dante scoring a path of destruction through our enemies with a blast of lightning to aid them.

A flutter of movement caught my eye and I turned my head, blinking in surprise as the tiny sky-blue sayer dragon soared past me on its wings, heading through the sky at a casual pace like there wasn't a war being waged right ahead of it. As I stared after the little creature, it slipped into the centre of a herd of Lionel's Griffins who were in formation, chasing after a pale pink Pegasus who I was almost certain was Sofia.

The Griffins closed in on her and I yelled out to Dante, drawing his focus to her, but before he could summon his lightning, the sayer dragon released a pulse of light which flashed across the entire sky and forced a beat of unnatural silence into existence.

I blinked, trying to clear my eyes from the effects of the bright flare and by the time I could see clearly again, I found the entire herd of Griffins all tumbling from the sky, completely immobile as if they'd been paralysed.

They crashed down on top of their own army, death unfolding all around them and Sofia made it safely back into the clouds. The sayer dragon was gone, but I found myself endlessly grateful that the little beast was on our side of this.

I fixed my focus back on my hunt, the glimmering golden thread guiding us lower until I was able to see the crumpled figures on the ground clearly.

As we made it to the spot where I knew Orion was waiting for me, I leapt off of Dante, landing on a platform of earth that I created to catch me and shooting across it to find my sanguis frater.

I spotted him lying there, broken and clinging to life, still trying to claw his way back towards the battling Fae who were only fifty feet away from crushing him and threw myself down beside him. I gripped his face between my hands and poured healing magic into him so fast that my head spun from it.

Rosalie and her pack swarmed around us, chasing the enemy back and ripping through their forces with brutal efficiency.

She did a circle of our area then came racing back to us, shifting as she moved to stand over me.

"Is he dead?" she asked, concern written into her features, though she didn't seem to care that she was butt naked and covered in blood.

"I just look it," Orion growled, shoving himself up as his broken bones finally fused back together.

"Good. Because your girl would have been pissed at me if you'd died on my watch, stronzo." Rosalie grinned then turned and took a running jump onto Dante's back as he swept past again.

I watched as they sped away into the sky, Rosalie growing solid stone armour across her body as she prepared to enter the fight in Fae form and the two of them looking like a pair of warriors from some kind of Faery tale.

"She's…got a point," Orion muttered and the two of us locked eyes as we decided what to do next.

"Lavinia," I said.

"Yes," he agreed, his eyes turning to her shadowy form far out into the battle. "She's made it to the western line," he said darkly. "And she's left a fucking massacre in her wake."

"Have you seen Seth?" I asked in a low voice while trying to shove the part of me which was panicking down into a little box in the back of my skull. If I gave into it then I would be as good as dead out here.

"No," Orion replied, his gaze darting past me as if he were hunting for a sign of the white Wolf. "Is he alright?"

"The right flank has been destroyed," I breathed. "He…I couldn't see him anywhere." I cleared my throat, forcing that fear away. It wouldn't help and if he was still alive and I let my fear over him get me killed then he would be so fucking pissed at me.

"The entire right flank?" Orion asked in horror, and I nodded.

"But Tory's plan worked. She was taking their place with an army of the dead several thousand strong."

Neither of us mentioned that those numbers didn't come close to equalling what we'd lost. Besides, dead warriors had to count for more. Didn't they?

We exchanged a look in which our doubts hung, but neither of us gave voice to them. It didn't matter anyway. We would keep fighting until this ended.

I offered him my wrist, letting him sink his teeth into my skin and he drew out enough magic to keep him going until he could get what he needed from some enemy bastard. Then I took hold of his arm, the rush of my pulse making it hard to restrain myself and a groan rolling up my throat as I drew his blood between my lips.

The flood of forbidden magic drove into me again, sending a ripple of power through my chest. I exhaled heavily as I released him and we shot across the battlefield once more, heading for the stain of shadows which marked Lavinia's position in this fight.

It was as if time slowed around us, the rush of being able to slice through our enemies faster than the wind making a wild exhilaration blaze through me. This feeling was insane, like immortality, the power of a fucking god. We were unending, unpredictable and utterly unstoppable.

I cut a Nymph clean in half with a blast of earth magic then fell upon another and another, ending their lives before they could even try to defend themselves.

More and more of our enemies fell before us, their blood staining our lips, their power filling our reserves and not one of them was able to raise their weapons against us before death found them.

With this power came the cost of its end though and each time the exhaustion struck it was harsher, immobilising my limbs for long moments which I didn't have.

Orion dropped down to kneel just far enough away to make reaching him impossible, the exhaustion hitting him too. I cursed as I dug my fingers into the dirt, trying to force my vision to focus.

I cast a shield of rock to cover me with the last scraps of my energy and I panted beneath it, the taste of so much blood on my tongue that I was almost sick with it. I'd torn out more throats than I could count, stolen more magic from more sources than I had ever mixed in my life and my insides were rioting with the clash of unfamiliar power. But above it all, the desire to reunite with Orion and taste his blood again consumed me. It was a thing of its own, this coven magic, a dark and twisted temptation which had me drunk on the raw power of it and constantly craving more.

It was no wonder it had been forbidden; no wonder the Vampires in the Blood Ages were feared the way they had been. And no wonder that the other Fae had all banded together and discussed the possibility of killing all of our kind just to keep this kind of power from existing at all.

I managed to blink away the worst of it, my hands no longer trembling, and I focused on Orion as I drew my earth magic to me once again. I had to get to him. I just had to get to him and we would be fine.

The earth swallowed me, hurling me along beneath the ground before spitting me out precisely where I knew Orion would be.

He cursed as I erupted into the dome of air he was using to shield himself then lunged at me, his teeth sinking into my throat without another word.

I grabbed his wrist and bit him too, not caring that I was flat on my back and surrounded by corpses, simply needing another taste of this power, another rush of that magic.

Our eyes met as we released each other, and I licked his blood from my lips.

"This is dangerous," he said, and I nodded because no matter how fucking amazing it was, I could tell that was true plainly enough.

"Never again. Just today," I swore and the look we exchanged told of how difficult it was going to be for us to resist this temptation and keep to that vow.

A blaze of red and blue flames tore overhead and we both looked up just as Darcy collided with a Dragon in the sky above us, the gigantic beast hurling her out of the air and sending her flying towards the western flank of our army, closer to Lavinia.

"Blue," Orion gritted out in concern as the Dragon chased her down to the ground.

"Come on," I began, shoving to my feet within Orion's dome of air magic, but a bellowing roar made me jerk around before we could leave.

An enormous beast was charging towards us, jagged pincers and flailing limbs cutting through our army in droves. The monster looked to be made out of stone, every sword, spear or shot of magic aimed its way simply glancing off and falling uselessly to the ground while the Fae who tried to fight it were shredded by the beast.

A howl drew my attention to a warrior with long, half braided hair who was racing towards the monster with a spear clutched in his fist and unsurmountable hatred etched into every piece of his expression. Relief enveloped me as fast as fear took me captive again.

"Seth," I took a step towards him then stopped, looking to Orion who was glancing between Seth and the direction Darcy had fallen.

"You go after your guy, I'm going after my girl," he said.

"We might not see each other again," I replied tightly, and he nodded, stepping forward and tugging me into a tight embrace. It was brief and full of despair, but as we parted, I could see this was it now. We were teetering on the edge of oblivion, and there was only one person each of us should have been with in the face of our demise.

"Take care, brother," I said, our hands clasping before his shield evaporated.

"And you, sanguis frater," he said, emotion blazing in his eyes, then we shot away in opposite directions, toward wholly different fates. But ones which might just lead us back together at the door of death.