Page 25 of Mayhem and Ember

Miles gathered energy between his palms. His efforts resulted in a baseball-sized sphere of electricity, and he threw it at the mosaic ripple. The fae darted out of the way before shimmying up the wall and leaping onto his chest, knocking him onto the pavement.

Ember swung her fiery blade, hitting the fae, and it leaped onto the wall, uninjured. She helped Miles stand and dashed toward her sister, returning with a plastic bottle. The fae rippled to her left, and she spun, hurling a fine white powder into the air. What spell she cast, I did not know. The fae dashed away before the powder reached it.

“What was that magic supposed to accomplish?” I asked.

“It’s not magic; it’s baby powder, and it clings to everything. If I could see the bastard, I could kill it.” She searched the alley, squinting as if narrowing her vision would bring the pest into focus. “Why are you here? What do you want?”

“This is our world now,” a gravelly, seemingly disembodied voice replied.

“The hell it is.” She threw another mist of powder in the direction of the voice, but it missed its mark.

“Hell is next,” he said.

Ember flew backward, slamming into a brick wall. She grunted and squeezed the bottle, coating the fae’s head and torso in white powder.

Its pinchers opened and closed two inches from her face. “Witches will submit or die.”

“I’ll take option C.” She reached down, retrieving a knife from a thigh holster, but the fae had armored exoskeletons. She was about to learn how useless her blades would be when my brother barreled into the pest, dragging it to the ground and punching it in the face.

Its pinchers caught his wrist, and as he pulled free, they sliced into his skin, leaving a deep, jagged cut on his arm. Chaos stood, stumbling backward, the venom already taking hold. Ash and Miles grabbed his arms, leading him to the alley exit and lowering him next to Shade.

Ember threw a dagger, lodging it in the fae’s neck. It screeched, spinning and flailing as it grasped the handle and pulled it out.

“Demon blood should not affect me.” It spit and wiped Chaos’s blood from its pinchers. “How?”

“These aren’t just any demons.” Ember thrust her flame-licked sword beneath an armored plate, slicing into the fae. “They’re Princes of Hell.”

It coughed, its bug eyes moving in different directions, and green fae blood oozed from its mouth. Ember removed her sword, and with an elegant, ethereal spin, she swung, chopping off the creature’s head.

I stood there, stunned, my mouth agape as the beast collapsed to the ground. She brushed past me, rushing to the others and checking their wounds. She offered Chaos a bandage before helping Shade to his feet, and a feeling of both admiration and awe warmed my chest.

Ember was no ordinary witch. She was a warrior. A leader.

A goddess to rival Athena herself.

“We need one more shadow spell so we can get rid of the body,” she said.

Shade nodded. “I think I’m okay now.”

“No.” She touched his shoulder. “You need to recharge. I’ll cast the bottled one.”

Ash tossed her a glass container, and she removed the cork, reciting the same words her sister had used.

The world around us returned to gray. I had been so enamored watching her fight, I hadn’t noticed when our surroundings shifted to color.

My brother and the women approached the body while the men returned their supplies to the bag Ash had carried. Chaos shot a stream of hellfire at the fae’s severed head, turning it to ash.

“I can cut him into pieces if we need to,” Ember said. “His exoskeleton looks as strong as the scout’s.”

“I believe the four of us can penetrate his armor.” Chaos looked at me, and the witches followed his gaze.

Ember scoffed. “You mean the big, bad demon prince, whose favorite pastime is supposedly killing fae, is actually going to help now?”

Her goading broke me from my stupor. “I rather enjoyed watching you struggle. Perhaps I’ve found a new favorite pastime.” In truth, it was not the struggle I enjoyed. It was her ingenuity, the way she commanded the situation…how stunning she looked while battling a foe who could kill a normal witch before they had the chance to utter a single spell.

Her jaw ticked. “Let’s get this over with before the cloak wears off.”

Ember lifted her hands, palms toward the dead fae, and released a stream of flames. Chaos and Ash followed suit, the exoskeleton flaking beneath their heat. I joined them, and the four of us worked together to burn through the overgrown insect’s armor.

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