All of the Fallen Ephilohim had their seven-layer wings spread, curling over the grounds with their bright white and silver-black currents; though Layla saw how Heathren and Insinio’s were three times the size of their fellows. The obsidian-light wings of those two were massive as they flowed with truly tremendous magic tonight, far more than Layla had ever seen from them.
As Layla watched Heathren, now seeming as if he’d never been injured from whatever had harmed him days ago, she also spied Luke. Standing with his eyes closed and his hands spread like the Ephilohim, Luke was dressed in black Intercessoria armor tonight rather than one of Amalia’s outfits. Breathing slowly, Luke was deep in trance; and through the ether, Layla felt how deeply he focused, melding his energies almost entirely with the Ephilohim. As Layla watched, Luke suddenly stilled, his body shimmering like he might flash out and become discorporate. But then he brightened, a surge of mist suddenly flowing out from him and rushing up as his whitenullax-drake manifested in the air around him and devoured the Ephilohim’s etheric network.
Spreading Luke’s magic through the entire sky.
“Fuck.” Dusk breathed as the rest of the Bind watched. “That’s one helluva Storm Dragon right there.”
“I don’t even know if Luke qualifies as a Storm Dragon, Dusk.” Rhennic spoke with awe now behind them. “Not with a power that can twist so easily through an Archangel’s like that. Luke’s a Dragon… but like Hunter, he’s his own anomaly.”
“Just like the rest of us in the Bind.” Adrian spoke as a small smile curled his lips. Shaking his head, Adrian’s smile had peace in it for Luke at last as he nodded them up the steps of the grand dais where Reginald and the Madame waited. As the Bind ascended the gilded platform, Layla felt an enormous sweep of Rake’s magic turn all heads. Moving in at Rake’s surge, their allies gathered through the gardens, flowing down the steps of the ballroom to watch the solstice ceremony begin. As they crowded in, quieting in the evening’s hush, Reginald raised his hands. Silence eased through the night now as talk and music was ended, only fountains still burbling all around. Lifting a golden eyebrow at the party, Reginald unfurled his Siren’s magic in a vast wave.
Opening his oceanic splendor and bringing his words to every ear.
“Friends of the Red Letter Hotel Paris.” Reginald began in a soothing voice that still managed to slice the night. “Tonight is a celebration of defiance, as much as it is one of love. As we join together to celebrate the life-giving abundance of the summer solstice for Litha, we also come together to oppose one who would take that abundance from us. Many of you have heard his name as Hunter, a Royal Dragon Bind with a tyrannical desire to rule us all. Tonight, we shall not only go to war when his battle comes—”
But Reginald got no further as a tremendous rift suddenly ripped through the sky above the Hotel.
And Hunter’s Royal Dragon Binds arrived.
Hunter’s rift seared through the sky with a terrible sound as it manifested, screaming into Layla’s ears like a thousand harpies shrieking for the end of the world. As their allies heaved back with startled roars, some clapping hands to their ears while others surged up into their shifted beasts, that sound was matched by a new portal racing through the far edge of the gardens, and another one that rushed out suddenly in the water of the massive fountain at the end of the grand promenade. As those three enormous portals opened, thousands of Storm Dragons, Desert Dragons, and Phoenix came hurtling down from the sky, as Crystal Dragons and Ice Dragons vaulted up from the earth, spewing into the garden like lava and icebergs. Countless more Sirens came pouring in from the fountain like leviathans of the deeps.
As Hunter’s Bind-forces crashed the party at last.
But even as thousands of ancient Dragons suddenly flooded the near grounds of the Hotel and the sky above, hurtling towards them, Layla heard a tremendous roar from Luke and the Intercessoria Archangels holding theirnullax-barrier. With a scream and a thunderclap, and a terrible swath of sheet-lightning through the sky, Luke suddenly blasted hisnullax-magic all through the dome – borne upon the Archangels’ power as all those Ephilohim roared with him, flaring their silver-light wings with a terrible beauty through the night. As Luke flooded his power out and the Ephilohim flared theirs through the ether, their combined horror smote Hunter’s arriving forces like a hurricane of mist and wrath.
Devouring them in a seething rush all through the gardens.
As that magic heaved out, cordoning off the Hotel and devouring everyone inside the dome who had not tasted Rake’s drinks, Layla heard shrieks all around – Luke’s seething white mist and the Fallen Ephilohim’s power devouring Dragons everywhere. For a moment, it was chaos as white mist rushed all around Layla and their allies with terrible silver-light flashes – Luke’snullaxmaking hundreds of Royal Dragon Binds drop even as they flooded in. For a moment, there was nothing but the sound of an endless inhalation, as if the cosmos itself had come to devour them, plus the shrieking of affected Dragons having something deeply Bound inside them taken away.
But Layla felt it as Hunter’s Royal Dragon Binds were torn from him by the hundreds – then the thousands. She felt it through her own Bind to him as he roared furiously from somewhere far away – as Nadia’s people from Petra and his other unwilling followers plummeted from the sky and collapsed unconscious to the ground from the pain of losing his Bind. Even as Hunter’s army arrived, it was decimated by Layla’s allies in a way he hadn’t anticipated. As Layla and the rest of her Bind-mates cast up a quick every-magic shield around themselves now, she watched the might of Hunter’s army collapse.
A surge of battle-ready glory heaved all through Layla’s veins as her drakaina roared with glee inside her. Chaos consumed the night as Hunter’s remaining forces pulled back; his shock and theirs rushing through them all now in a jangle of uncoordinated energy, making them cower suddenly in fear. As that Bind-shared fear paralyzed Hunter’s forces in a massive ring around the gardens, the Hotel’s allies regrouped in strong fighting-cadres inside the dome. But even as Layla and their allies regrouped, hands raised to fight with more allies shifting all around, Layla still saw Hunter had thousands of Dragons left.
Thousands of Royal Dragon Binds who had no problem doing his bidding – and would fight to the bitter end for him.
As Hunter roared with pure wrath all through Layla’s bones, she felt a wave of mind-power slam through his Bind, thundering his army forward. And then a comet hurtled down from the sky – exploding the Dragon-effigy behind Layla and her men.
Beginning the battle at last.
CHAPTER 19 – BATTLE
Shock smote Layla as dozens of attacks suddenly came at her from all around. As Hunter’s forces swarmed in, massive eruptions upheaved the earth, lightning strikes and blasts of fire exploding chunks from the Hotel as waves of Siren-water erupted around her everywhere. Brutal and merciless, Layla and her Bind barely got an every-magic shield up in time as the fight suddenly raged all around, blitzing the gardens as Dragons on both sides were mortally injured, down already. As Layla’s Bind erupted into action, smiting enemies all around with terrible surges of their own power now, countless magical attacks and physical ones pummeled the night.
But even as Layla’s head spun from the chaos, she saw a battalion of Hunter’s turn and attack the Intercessoria’s forces, where they held theirnullax-barrier. Though their dome took out more of Hunter’s conscripts as reinforcements arrived, the Intercessoria Ephilohim were having to abandon the barrier now as Dragons boiled over to them, the Fallen Archangels like dervishes of universal wrath and glory as they joined the battle. Pummeling Dragons through the ether, striking and hammering with their seven-layer wings as they skewered Dragons in blazes of light with their silver swords, Heathren and Insinio fought as a terrible power-duo with their kind, even as half their wings remained suspended.
Holding the barrier as long as they could.
As Layla and her Bound mates had their shield finally blasted away, their garments from Amalia taking damage, they finally roared up into their Dragons. As Layla did, she saw Insinio finally abandon the barrier to protect the still-meditating Luke and the viciously fighting Heathren. Luke was white, shaking from the strain of holding the barrier alone now as cascades of his power surged from him, his body roaring into a half-shift as enormous white spines shot from his shoulders and scales blossomed out over his skin. Fighting to take just one more Dragon from Hunter’s clutches, Luke gave his all, roaring up at last into his massive all-white drake. His white eyes seethed with fury as one final shockwave ofnullaxblasted from him.
And then he crashed to the ground in a dead faint – the thunder of universes smiting the sky and blasting a pause through the battle as hisnullax-barrier fell.
Phase one complete!Layla heard Rhennic roar through her mind then.The nullax-barrier is gone! Rake, Reginald, Fury – phase two! Keep the fallen Binds down!
As Luke’snullax-barrierflashed out, Heathren stepped in to protect Luke’s unconscious drake from a massive onyx Crystal Dragon – roaring into its face and chopping off its head with one swipe of his razor-sharp wings, then stabbing right through its crystal scales into its heart with his bright silver sword. All the Ephilohim were now battling for their lives against hundreds of Dragons; but at Rhennic’s command, Rake André and Layla’s Royal Sirens took action – a darkness huge as the Pacific Ocean suddenly roaring in Layla’s mind and out through the entire battle. That massive rush of magic used every person who had taken Rake’s drinks as a conduit, with the mind-crushing power of Reginald, Fury, and the Durants behind it. Gold, silver, and black flooded Layla’s vision as the sound of the ocean roared in her ears, a tremendous rush of sea-dark energy pouring through the entire battle and washing into Rake’s maelstrom of mind-bending through the ether.
Channeling straight into Hunter’s unconscious Royal Dragon Binds.
As Rake’s Deathkeeper magic rode that wave of Siren power, hurtling into Hunter’s unconscious Binds, Layla felt Rake and the Sirens’ massive abilities breathe through those Dragons – making sure they remained asleep through the battle to survive it. As Layla fought scale-to-coil in a roaring Dragon-trio now with Adrian and Dusk, blasting enemies right and left with tremendous shockwaves of all-magic power, she felt a second wave of power from Rake and the Sirens now – bolstering her courage to fight on, to fight harder, and to give this battle everything she had for the people she loved. Roaring as a corona of gold-white fire exploded from her scaled body, Layla’s heart screamed with love as all their allies did also, that enormous brightness blazing through everyone. But even as it did, Rake’s magic suddenly surged away, spent, and Layla saw him fall.
