Total pages in book: 153
Estimated words: 141492 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 707(@200wpm)___ 566(@250wpm)___ 472(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 141492 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 707(@200wpm)___ 566(@250wpm)___ 472(@300wpm)
The flames in the fireplace suddenly leapt higher. The three former mages crouched low, bared serrated teeth, held talons in front of them like claws and leapt at Safia from all three directions.
Lilith had given the command to all four demons. Petru realized Safia knew what her enemies were going to do before they attacked. As they sprang at her, she spun so fast she was a blur. In one fist was the crystal sword with its brilliant light so hot it was a blue flame. In the other was a vial of water from a sacred stream. The vial shot the water high into the air, blending with the flames, spreading in a wide circle. Drops fell like rain over the demons, hissing as they hit the armor and drove straight through them, leaving behind holes where the blue flames began to flare into a storm of fire.
Safia continued to spin, bringing the sword sideways, the blade sweeping across their necks, severing the heads, sending them rolling across the floor. At once, she buried the sword into the floor of the restaurant.
“This ground is lost to you. This form is lost to you. Any other form you sent this night cannot return to the world below. That form cannot rise to this one.”
As Safia scattered the sacred water over the floor, the blue flames consumed the three demons. At first, the stench was overpowering in the enclosed building, but the fire burned bright and hot until even the ash was gone.
CHAPTER
17
Safia heard Lilith’s deadly hiss, a promise of retaliation. The woman still had no idea that Safia had stolen control from her and that Art was no longer under her command.
“This is your fault, you coward,” Lilith sniped, stabbing at the hapless demon’s brain with her fiery poker. “If you don’t kill her now, you will live for eternity in such pain as you cannot possibly imagine.”
The female head of the underworld poured more of herself into the demon, taking over so she could stare malevolently through his eyes at Safia, sizing her up.
“Now,” she snarled, directing Art to spring at Safia. “Tear her apart.”
Safia struck with the crystal sword, piercing the demon’s right eye with the blue flame, driving the sword to the hilt, withdrawing swiftly, and piercing the left with blurring speed.
Lilith’s shriek was hideous, the glass shattering all around them. Petru caught Safia and thrust her behind him as Art’s body exploded like a powerful bomb had gone off inside him, the blast catching the Carpathian hunter fully and knocking him backward into Safia despite the partial shield he’d managed to erect when he realized Safia’s intent.
Nicu and Benedek completed a shield around the two as Petru staggered but managed to stay on his feet, facing the nearly transparent apparition, a murky pink. Both sockets were empty holes, bleeding and flickering with tiny blue flames. Lilith’s hair hung in strands, with tufts bunched in places and raw patches on her scalp in others. She opened her mouth wide and spat a horde of stinging insects at Petru and Safia. The bugs hit the shield so hard they splattered against it, showing exactly where the safeguard had been erected. The insects’ bodies were crushed, and yellow venom ran down the shield.
Safia started around Petru, her heart hammering. She couldn’t see Petru’s chest, but she felt the blast hit him. She’d also felt the explosion of pain hastily cut off. It had been true agony, much like when her heart had been ripped out of her chest when she’d been a child in a previous life. She knew the force of that blast would have killed her. He’d saved her life.
“Stay where you are.”
She heard the absolute command in Petru’s voice. There was no moving. Even shifting her weight from one foot to the other didn’t work.
“How dare you,” Lilith’s disembodied voice intoned. “You think to challenge me with your puny skills?” Her voice began to rise to a higher pitch. “You have no power. None. You’re a child playing at war.” She began to shriek. “I will destroy you and everyone you love.” She began to scream and curse at Safia. As she did, more insects flew from her mouth, hitting the shield. “Your Carpathian lover will lie dead at your feet, but first you will see him betray you again and again as he did in the past. You are worth nothing. Nothing,” she screeched.
Then she was gone, leaving behind a trail of destruction.
“That was pleasant,” Benedek announced. He waved his hand toward the glass, and the thousands of shards coalesced to re-form the windows.
The shield dropped. Petru burned the insect bodies and what was left of Art to a fine powder that dissolved under a white-hot flame. Mataias gestured toward one of the low-slung couches in the center of the human men who were gathered around the fire, and Petru walked over to it.