And no one would make him bleed but me.
Ripping my arm back, I launched a dagger at the beast’s back end. It bounced against its armor-like flesh, skittering across the ground, but I was already running. I leapt over its lashing tail, swiping my knife up off the ground as I landed in a squat.
The creature rounded on me, forgetting Lancaster.
I ducked another vicious swipe of its paw, ignoring the fae as he chastised me for rushing into this fight. The shadow beastpressed me back into the wall, and I allowed it, needing to be close to get my dagger beneath its chin.
It snapped its jaw, spit flying and red eyes glowing bright. I was numb to the pounding of my heart, to the way the bond with Lancaster riled in my chest. Jumping into his path seemed to awaken the need to defend him. To claim him as mine.
Because dammit it wasn’t only physical, this need for him. The damn arrogant fae had wrapped himself around my soul.
“Bounty!” Lancaster roared as he rushed to heal his wounds, the pure distress in his voice breaking through that numbness in my heart.
“Santorina!” Mora called, but I wasn’t fleeing as the beast pressed closer.
I had spent so long feeling weak, not being able to defend myself or those I’d cared about. Until Lancaster came into my life and held that dagger to my neck, I hadn’t felt the call to be able to guard myself. He’d woken that instinct within me, and I’d spent months honing it to protect not only myself but also those I loved.
I wouldn’t let it fail me now. I wouldn’t sit by and let him fight my battles just because I was human.
So, when the beast lunged at me, I didn’t shrink away.
I charged right back.
Lancaster screamed in agony. Mora was running now, too.
I met the eyes of my mate and tried to send a message of adoration and gratitude down this bond written by the gods, then I shut it down. Because I didn’t want him to feel what came next. Didn’t want him to feel the pain as the shadowed nemaxese sank a claw between my ribs.
But I did let him feel the satisfaction as my blade stabbed clean into the underside of its throat.
And right as the beast fell, as my vision blurred against the white-hot slice to my side, and a wave of white mist laced with gold tackled the city, I let him feel the drowning pride.
Chapter Seventy-Three
Ophelia
The barrier Artalehad put around Xenovia all those years ago fell like a collision of planets in the sky. Cataclysmic and life-altering, the magic of the Goddess shattered, and Echnid’s white mist pummeled the Soulguider capital stronger than any sandstorm.
It stung my eyes and scratched at my skin, purring along my being like a familiar mythical creature itself, whisperinghelloandgoodbyeandwe are here for youall at once. I clung to Sapphire, cupping my wings around us to fend off the might of the god’s magic, and my warrior horse clung to the skies where she belonged.
Magic ravaged the city and the desert with the force of torrential winds. The one place we were supposed to be fortified from this threat.The loss was the twist of a knife in my heart.
But instead of blood,furyerupted.
A blast of shimmering gold seraph magic—pure and not streaked with the colors of any Angel—exploded around Sapphire and me. It expanded and compounded, soaring out over the desert, tangling with and devouring Echnid’s magic.
I pushed back, back, back, forcing away the mist—the mist that went on for miles into the night.
How long had Echnid been saving this explosion of power? How far did it reach?
My seraph and myth magic tangled among his as I roared and dug up power from the depths of my soul. Gold cascaded around us, spanning to the furthest reaches, stretching my entire spirit and sense of self until I was wrung out and exhausted.
And through it all, as I panted over the force of the magic, I found the milky eyes of the Warrior God. He stood in the dunes just beyond Xenovia, his white robe and hair billowing around his sturdy frame.
Power ebbed off him. It shoved through my own magic, the two warring in the skies above the desert and washing over the city below. White mist pried at my being, trying to reinstate his influence over me.
My body is my own.
My mind is my own.
