Page 118 of An Empress of Earth & Darkness

“Brilliant, isn’t she?” Torin’s gaze softened for a fraction of a second as he watched Emara’s magic devour the last of the demons.

“This place is crawling with demons. We need to go,” Artem said, a lower demon still hanging from his axe. He shook it off. “We don’t need to win this battle when we have won the Stone.”

Emara smiled at him with black gore spattered across her face and darkness in her eyes, looking like a true warrior. “That’s the smartest thing I have ever heard you say.”

“I have my moments.” Artem grinned, and even Breighly snuffed a laugh in her wolf form. She shook blood off her coat and sauntered up beside them.

The Empress of Air looked towards Torin. “Let’s quit whilst we are ahead, Commander. We got what we came here for. Let’s not risk anything else if we don’t need to. Take me home.”

Torin took her hand and dragged her off to find their way out.

But Gideon was left feeling like this couldn’t be the end, especially not after Kellen’s vision.

“Wait,” Gideon yelled. “Kellen has something he needs to tell you.”

With Emara’s hand in his, Torin stood at the top of the temple steps looking down at a bloodthirsty army.

Kellen’s words ran through his mind over and over again. “I saw Balan. Here. The King of the Underworld is here.”

But the King of the Underworld was locked in a cage. The vision had to be wrong.

Emara’s hand tightened on his own as his gaze finally fell upon the giant portal that hovered like a dying star between the gates of the temple and their exit. It swirled like a maddened galaxy, blowing apart the garden’s shrubbery, sending leaves and twigs into the air. His heart fell still and fear for his wife spread thick in his veins. He had never seen a portal from the underworld, only the disgusting creatures that crawled from it. They were unusual to catch, normally only open for a few moments to let demons rush into his world. But this one was huge, pulling the air around them, commanding it into chaos.

No elemental magic surrounded the portal, only dark energy that looked like it could be the soul of Veles himself. Bubbles of blackness festered as sparks of power burst from within it. It oozed death and destruction. Torin raised his chin, showing no fear to the army whose crimson gazes were hungry for blood.

He could hear daggers being pulled from their sheaths, the promise of a battle in the silence of the space.

He could feel Breighly’s magic urging her to devour them. He could feel Artem itching to sink his axe into the demons’ skulls. He could hear the stretching of Gideon’s bow beside him, ready for release. He could feel Emara’s magic radiating from her like a beacon. But they all waited for his instruction. He let go of Emara’s hand and unsheathed his second sword and swaggered down a few steps. He picked out the biggest bastard he could find in the crowd of demons. He wanted his swords to bathe in the blood of the biggest fucker there.

“Are you going to let us through the gardens peacefully, or are you going to feel my steel corrupt your pathetic skulls?”

The madness that he knew glittered in his eyes began working its way through his veins, brewing a storm of violence in his heart. They were outnumbered, like always, but that didn’t mean it was a losing battle. Gods only knew how many Emara could wipe out with her power, and the normally peaceful witch standing beside her had a glint in her eyes that promised death. He knew how capable his clan was; he wasn’t worried.

“Since none of you answered my question, I guess death is on your spirit cards today.” He winked at Emara before he jumped off the steps and planted his sword in the skull of a lower demon. In the same breath, he swung his right arm and decapitated another one.

Before its head hit the ground, the promised chaos erupted around him. As he sliced through another two demons, arrows and steel began flying through the air, taking out the army around him.

His clan was on the move.

Battle cries ruptured the air, and the smell of death and blood was no longer on the horizon, but in front of him. Soldiering forward, he took down four demons with brute strength, stabbing his swords through their hearts. Spinning to stand, he saw a demon running at him. Before he could pin it and make the kill, flames engulfed the demon.

Torin had never felt heat like it before. Emara’s power was undeniable, a rage of wind whipping around her as her palm glowed with fire. Still safe on the stairs, she sent out another blast of flames and wiped out a full line of demons in Torin’s path.

He was so utterly proud of her. She was making her title her own. She was anything she wanted to be, and he loved that about her.

She gave him a look that sprinkled shivers all over his spine.

She was so dangerous, an ultimate weapon.

Her mystical eyes left his face and she pulled on her magic once more, sending fire across the gardens to a new target.

Torin reluctantly turned away from her and noted a wolf diving and ducking, slicing through the army with her fangs. Artem Stryker was just behind her, ending anyone who came close to her. Gideon fired arrows from beside the earth witch, who was still on the steps, pulling on her magic to create vines from the ground. The vines wormed their way around the demons’ legs, rooting them to the spot, making them easy targets, or pulling them to the ground. Arlo was fighting closely with Kellen, and Torin could see how united they had been in the Selection with how synchronised their movements were. A single heartbeat later, he felt a thrumming power radiating behind him. He turned to face a demon. He was ancient, clad in battle regalia. This creature was no minion. He had the features of a human man and the build of a warrior. Torin recognised the pointed features and crimson eyes immediately.

He had come face to face with him before.

He was the same knight that had put a demon blade in Gideon’s arm, almost killing him in the Blood Moon battle. The bastard was born and bred in darkness, and its power reeked from its core.

“It’s a shame that you have lived so long only to die in a battle such as this one,” Torin taunted. The knight’s vile lips parted to show rows of black teeth that had been sharpened into lethal points, and his tongue swished over his lips like he could already taste Torin’s blood.

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