Page 139 of The Phoenix

Confusion centered on Gahya’s face.

“Michael’s sword,” said Roark. “Blood’s Kiss.”

“You interfered. Such is not allowed.” The Genitrix’s eyes widened with incredulity.

Roark’s fiery wings stroked up. Down. “Yet here you are in the midst of battle. Glass houses. You finish it. Besides, I only nudged events.”

“Did Michael give you the weapon?”

“No. BTW. That’s a funny story. Cerberus asked me to find it. When I did, I gifted it to someone else.”

“You understood the OneCreator’s conundrum?” Gahya fluffed her golden hair, posing for cellphone shots from below.

“You and Gabriel should be more knowledgeable of weaponry and the OneCreator’s stupid puzzles.”

“I will not allow you to close the portals, Ohngel.”

His chin shot up. His pale eyes turned to dark coals. He snarled.

“Uh-oh,” said Indigo. “Now you’ve done it, bitch.”

“Go for the wings,” said Roark, an aside for her ears only.

Indigo pulled her brows tight, a wrinkle forming between them.

He explained, “You asked how to protect my ass. The wings.” He angled toward Gahya to speak. “Allow is such an ugly word. It makes my feathers itch. Rots my dick.”

“I will stop you.” Gahya smiled, her lipstick fresh.

“You may try.” The air shook when Roark’s wings pounded downward, unleashing gale-force winds. He rose higher, his form growing impossibly fiercer while Indigo retreated with Oskar to a safe distance.

He flung a surge of power at Gahya.

She tumbled head over ass, finally righting herself miles from where she had hovered.

Indigo spurred Oskar toward the Genitrix, who flew back to do battle. Reaching the bitch, she conjured a sword, using it to slice through a section of the female’s primary feathers.

Gabriel swept from above, his weapon thrust forward, aimed at Roark. “This game between Gahya and I will play out. Before your eyes I shall slaughter every Aeternal in sight. It is my species’ time for victory.”

When the creator of humans raised his blade, Ohngel drove a bolt of energy into it, flipping it from the guy’s grasp.

After diving steeply to retrieve it, Gabriel again charged.

Swift to respond, Roark angled to the right, the sharp edge of Gabriel’s sword nicking his shoulder.

Indigo kept Gahya out of the fray, continuing to target her feathers. When she lobbed off a sizable chunk of wing, the Genitrix wobbled. She drifted downward but quickly righted herself to drive her blade into Oscar’s flank.

The gryphon’s screech filled the air. He rocketed toward the ground, Indigo’s hand pressed to his wound. She was barely able to rein Oskar in so they didn’t splatter on the dirt.

Once out of the sky, she could only watch Gahya join Gabriel, both immortals uniting to defeat Roark.

The Genitrix threw blades of ice, apparently a talent of hers. She had the bad taste to smile as if victory were near. But Ohngel raised his sword, creating an invisible wall where the frozen splinters exploded on contact.

Indigo’s Feard assassin flicked a wing and shot flaming arrows toward Gahya, setting her feathers ablaze.

His ex-lover, unsteady but still in action, patted out her scorched primaries.

Gabriel took advantage of the distraction to run a blade into Roark’s chest.

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