I blinked, and it took me a moment to register Darian stood beside me, his feet braced, and his brow furrowed with strain. My siren brother sang loudly, his tenor voice mixing perfectly with that of the other sirens. As their chorus of voices rang out, their power crackling in the air, Darian’s power redirected their magic, making it twist and turn, and miss us entirely.
The sirens of the House of Saceris sang louder, but Darian’s notes didn’t fail. Sweat dripped down his temple and dampened his silver hair.
“He won’t be able to hold them for long!” Asher barked. “The sirens had their chance to join us. Raine, you need to do this now!”
This time my mate didn’t hesitate. Raine lifted her head and opened her maw, letting the fire pour from her, but as the flames speared across the battlefield, King Adrien stepped in front of the sirens. Raine’s fire pushed him back, but he leaned forward, bracing against the impact until the fire stopped. Smoke filled the air, but the stone king remained standing.
“Her fire didn’t hurt him,” Kenric shouted as the smoke cleared. “How are we supposed to kill that thing?”
“We do it quickly,” I replied. Darian’s head was bowed as he sang, his veins bulging at the side of his neck.
Asher cried out as he surged forward, striding over the ashen remains of outliers, and I followed along with the rebels and the fae. Two armies, two enemies, converged, and Warrick let loose the other Katakin monsters under his control.
The wraiths from the House of Faren disappeared from Warrick’s side and appeared beside us as we ran, attacking us with their blades, their movements jerky like undead warriors returned from the afterlife. They weren’t as strong under Warrick’s control, but they were still formidable. I jumped over the sword that swiped at my legs and drove my blade toward the wraith’s face only to find they had disappeared again.
Members of the Taratun council and House of Nesarin joined the fight, along with the monsters from the lower houses under Warrick’s control. I turned my head to see Perene punch her fist through the chest of a fae, her black claws dripping with blood. The other vampires tore through throats, but I didn’t stop running. Vasken, Lyr and her mates went for King Adrien, Vasken and Lyr sprinting in their shifted forms and eating up the distance between them and the giant. The stone king lashed out with his large arms, but his movements were slow, and they darted around his legs.
Dean shot out his hand, vines springing from the ground and wrapping around the king’s ankles, and fae joined him, using their earth magic to create more vines. The king tripped, falling to the ground, and the vines crawled over him like snakes, wrapping around his arms and torso. With a bellow, the king broke his arms free, but the vines speared into his open mouth, coming out of his ears. The king continued to cry out and thrash, but Raine flapped her massive wings, landing on top of him and prying his mouth open with her taloned feet. With a roar, fire burst from her, pouring down King Adrien’s throat until he fell silent.
The sirens from the House of Saceris continued to sing, their song becoming louder as Darian strained to hold them back, and a group of water fae lifted their arms. The ground trembled, pebbles bouncing up off the dirt, and water exploded from the earth. The huge wave crashed into the sirens, washing them away and sweeping them hundreds of yards back.
Asher yanked his ax from the body of an outlier as we ran.
Warrick remained on his beast, and the outlier snorted and stomped at the soldiers on the ground.
Raine moved forward, and Kade and his wolves ran beside her, howling and growling. I took to the sky, flying near her head, and Garan and the gargoyles joined me.
“You will not take this from me!” Warrick screamed as Raine clashed with Warrick’s outlier, the two beasts biting and clawing at each other. The gargoyles aimed their arrows, targeting the outlier’s two heads and aiming for its eyes, and the wolves attacked the beast’s legs. One of the outlier’s heads stretched up and its jaws closed over Garan’s body.Fuck!The beast flicked its head, throwing Garan to the ground a moment before my swords severed the beast’s head and Asher’s axes cut into its side. I peered at where Garan remained unmoving amongst the other fallen soldiers. The outlier stomped and screeched, and Raine’s teeth closed over its neck, tearing off its remaining head.
As the outlier fell, Warrick took to the sky, his eyes crazed as he watched the defeat of his army. “Years of work!” he raged. “I’m doing this for Katakin, and you’re all so blind you side with the fae!”
“You were doing this for yourself!” I shouted, taking aim and spearing my sword through the air. It sliced through Warrick’s right wing, and he cried out as he fell from the sky.
Dropping to the ground we stalked closer, surrounding Warrick as a group. I stepped forward and Asher and Darian joined me. Raine and Kade shifted back to their human forms and strode beside us. Leaning down, my mate grabbed a blade from a fallen soldier, and the tightness in my chest eased at her close proximity. Despite being in her human form, thick scales covered her naked body like armor.
Warrick shrunk back, scrambling away from us.
“You killed her,” Asher spat as he hefted his axes, his thick arms coated with sweat and blood. “All these years, it had been you.”
Warrick smiled cruelly at the demon, like hearing Asher’s words gave him a sense of satisfaction. “Ah, so you finally figured it out.”
“What’s he talking about?” Raine asked, her expression filled with concern.
“Why don’t you tell them?” Asher replied, a murderous gleam in his eyes.
Warrick shrugged nonchalantly. “Asher’s mother was an incredible empath even before the curse, and once she turned into a demon that sense was amplified. I was only trying to help.”
“Help?” Asher clenched his jaw. “You tried to turn her. She never lost her mind.”
Warrick sighed heavily. “Yes, it was all going well if I do say so. Her mind was easy to manipulate, but I hadn’t managed to perfect my serum yet. She kept fighting me, and I could only seem to control her for short bursts.” Warrick frowned. “And after her, I couldn’t get anything to work on any other monsters, so I decided tocreatemonsters who would be perfectly primed to accept the serum and succumb to my will.”
“That’s barbaric,” Raine said in horror.
“It was brilliant,” Warrick countered, “but I have to thank you most of all,newblood.Combining your mixed blood to that of Asher’s mother allowed me to finally create a serum that would overpower the minds of the Katakin monsters. It wasn’t quite right when I tested it on the House of Silat, but as you can see, my experiment was a success.”
“No,” Raine whispered, her face paling.
“It doesn’t matter how you managed to do it,” I said, hating that look on Raine’s face. Guilt softened her eyes, but she had nothing to do with the fact that my father was the only true monster left in Katakin. “Your outliers are defeated, and without you, the infected Katakin monsters will be freed.”
