Page 124 of An Empress of Air & Chaos

She pulled back and seized his tie in her hand and directed him towards the door across the hall from the room Kellen was in. She flung open the door and pulled Gideon towards her; his eyes wild with hunger, he complied.

Guilt ripped through her, tearing her conscience apart, but she didn’t know what would happen if Gideon saw Kellen—with a boy, in a room, alone. And that wasn’t a risk she was going to take. If Kellen was scared to tell anyone, then it wasn’t her place to make anyone aware of his situation.

As she pulled Gideon into the room, his back faced the door that one blue eye and one green eye glared from. She reached up, running her hands down Gideon’s neck. He bowed his head and kissed into her neck as she made her way along his shoulders with her fingers. She gave a small command to go with her index finger and closed the door, shutting them behind it. Just as the door clicked behind them, Emara pushed herself back.

Confusion coasted across Gideon’s face as they stood in silence, panting. She hadn’t been sure she even wanted to kiss Gideon after this morning—she had wanted to take it slow, so that there were no mixed signals.

Well, that worked well!

“Emara?” Gideon questioned, his voice low and bewildered.

Emara’s lips parted to form an answer—

Smashing and screaming shook through the manor and before she could speak, they were both running into the corridor.

Another crash and screams could be heard as both Gideon and Emara ran towards the shrieks of pain and destruction.

As Emara and Gideon entered the threshold of the ballroom, she could smell the sulphur and death. Which meant one thing—they had come again. The screams and screeches of the people within the room pierced her ears and another crash exploded as one of the great chandeliers smashed against the ballroom floor.

Emara recoiled back, bile rising in her throat as she looked up at the open roof where once a domed, colourful stained-glass story had hung overhead. Its ancient stories now lay shattered amongst the bodies on the floor. People were scurrying, screaming, and running in every direction, desperate to evade the destruction. She tried not to look down at the bodies that lay lifeless amongst the wreckage as she moved forward, blood seeping onto the polished tiles.

It was anarchy.

The ballroom had descended into utter chaos. Trying to stop her legs from shaking, she took a step forward, her chest heaving. Before she could take another step, Gideon yanked her back by the arm. “Go! Get out of here!” he ordered. “Run and don’t stop!”

But Emara’s legs felt like cement as she stood and watched the crowd fighting against their greatest fear. Suddenly a wave of people parted to reveal a woman, pinned against the wall by a golden spear. Her throat was ripped, shredded, as the blood gushed down the neckline of her emerald gown.

Emara’s legs almost gave in to the pull of the floor as she took in what she saw. No matter how disturbing, she couldn’t tear her eyes away from the woman’s impaled body.

She knew that gown. Emara had admired it from across the room earlier this evening.

It was the Empress of Air.

“Emara, move! Go!” Gideon shouted over the screaming.

People flew past her in desperation to escape, but Emara couldn’t move. Screams broke through the air in the left-hand corner of the ballroom. Another woman, in a baby-blue gown, was speared to the wall, like the first. Her body was hanging limp as her head dangled down enough that she couldn’t see her face. Emara had no doubt that the woman was dead; she didn’t have to see her face to know that. The golden spear was stuck through her abdomen.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw it.

The demon.

The creature took the same form as when she had been in the gardens with Torin, the night of the Blood Moon. It was a disgusting, winged beast with teeth like large needles and talons as sharp as blades. Its spine bulged out of its vile hunched back as it stalked towards a man, locating its next victim. The blonde-haired Hunter pulled a weapon from his belt and dove into action, to kill.

Another smash of a window on her right-hand side pulled Emara from watching the fight as another winged creature protruded through the glass.

Smash!

Another winged creature cannonballed through another window.

Clatter.

And another.

They just kept on coming. Emara almost hurled at the smell that oozed from them, but terror had taken grip of her body. Gideon sprang into action, running like a flash of lightning towards them, and then he was lost to the madness. Another woman’s scream sounded and Emara spun around, seeing yet another woman impaled onto the wall with a spear. This time the spear was directly through her throat. The woman’s dark eyes went wide with shock as she took her final breath; the blood from her neck and mouth ran down her chest and into the sweetheart neckline of her silver gown.

The horror that filled Emara’s veins was unimaginable as she took in the sight of everything around her.

Seconds later, the House of Fire Witches made themselves known as they congregated together. Seething hot fire erupted around the room, aiming at any demon that tried to enter from the windows. Emara forced herself into a run, not exactly sure what she was supposed to do to help, but she would do anything she could to save lives.

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