Page 129 of Inflamed By an Incubus

Fenix held his hands up, hoping to calm Archer, and not only because he needed the mage alive. He was standing between Archer and the mage, and he had a bad feeling that if Archer lost it, he would gladly go through him to reach Drystan.

“He did this,” Archer snarled, his voice gaining a strange echo as he bared fangs at the mage. “Pushed her to this. The pain. The fear. She doesn’t want to die. Not again. Never again.”

“I know.” He flicked a look at Evelyn, tears misting his eyes as hers locked with his and he saw her feelings in them as well as felt them in their bond.

“He was going to… use her… as… a vessel… for his… wife.” Archer pushed those words out, each one taking effort.

Rage burned up Fenix’s blood again, obliterating his fear as he swung towards the mage. The urge to kill him for trying to use Evelyn like that, turning her into someone else after all the pain he had put her through already, was strong and he fought it as he stalked towards the male. The mage’s crimson eyes edged towards him as he screamed again, his body arching forwards, bending at a painful angle. He deserved to suffer.

But gods, Fenix couldn’t let Archer kill him.

Not yet, anyway.

“We need him alive, Archer.” Fenix looked over his shoulder at him. “He’ll pay for what he’s done once this curse is broken and Evelyn is free.”

His gaze dropped to her again and his heart ached as she stared at him, as he saw the hurt in her eyes together with something else. Regret. Acceptance.

“No.” He turned back to her. “You can’t give up.”

“I can’t stop this,” Archer bit out as the flames spread up her arms and flickered around her legs now, growing brighter by the second. His black gaze landed on Fenix. “I’m sorry.”

Fenix lunged for Evelyn.

Archer teleported and grabbed him and the mage, and Fenix felt the heat of Evelyn against his fingertips before the void swallowed him. He staggered forwards across the grass as Archer released him and turned on a pained growl, a demand that he take him back to Evelyn rising to the tip of his tongue.

Heat surged over him, knocking him to his right, and he grunted as something sharp cut across his left cheek.

“Brace!” Rosalind yelled as she appeared close to him and bright blue light burst from her palms.

She leaned towards the mansion, drawing his gaze there as she grunted, and his eyes widened as huge chunks of the sandstone walls came flying at him and hit the barrier she had constructed. The clear blue shield sparked brightly wherever the stones hit, ripples chasing outwards from each point of impact.

Archer hurled the mage to the grass and shoved his boot into his back to pin him down as he twisted towards the building and swept his right hand out, his black claw-tipped fingers cutting through the air.

Rosalind’s barrier gave out and Vail lunged for her, tucking her to his chest and turning with her so his back was to the blast as one of the flying blocks rocketed towards her.

A deep violet dome shimmered across the air between them and the chunk of sandstone before it could strike them, repelled the block with such force that it shot back towards the burning mansion and took out one of the remaining windows on the lower level.

Vail uncurled to reveal Rosalind, his head twisting to his left, towards Archer.

“I guess you’re not so bad,” Rosalind muttered, as close to a thank you as the warlock was going to get. Her shoulders sagged as she looked beyond her mate to the building. The entire right side of it was on fire, the flames leaping high into the air. “Mother earth. Mac and Hartt! They’re still in there.”

She winced as a huge section of wall crumbled and fell, sending flames and sparks high into the air.

“We have to help them.” Rosalind lunged forwards but Vail caught her wrist, holding her back. She cast a glance at her mate and lingered as their eyes met, a look of despair laced with resignation crossing her face.

“Hartt will teleport Mackenzie out. If they do not appear soon, I will go inside to find them.” Vail flexed his fingers around her wrist, his gaze softening as he stared down into her eyes.

She looked as if she wanted to argue with him, and then she sighed and eased back a step, falling into line with him again, and stared at the building.

Fenix crouched beside Drystan, grabbed his white hair and yanked his head from the dirt as Archer stepped off him. “Tell me how to break the curse.”

Before it was too late.

Drystan’s crimson eyes narrowed as he smiled at Fenix, a look that said he wasn’t going to talk. So Fenix reintroduced his face to the ground, smashing it against it, breaking his nose, and then lifted the mage’s head again. This time when he smiled, his teeth were bloodied.

Fenix’s senses sparked another warning and he tensed as his head snapped towards Rosalind. Relief swept through him when he saw it was only Hartt and Mackenzie.

And a male who looked strikingly similar to the redhead.

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