Page 105 of Frosted Torment

I lifted my arms, and with one swift motion, I unleashed an unending round of electricity straight through its body, causing it to explode.

“Noa!”Baz’s voice cut through the noise, distant and distorted as if he were calling to me from under water.

I tried to answer him, but my tongue was thick and clumsy in my mouth, now full of demon blood. I blinked and spit the blood from my mouth, and when I looked up, Baz’s sapphire eyes were glued to mine.

Sobs overcame me as I laughed, burying myself in his chest. “You’re alive!”

“Takes more than that to get rid of me,”he said with a grunt.

A heartbeat later, Vallen swooped down from the sky, his massive wings stirring the air around us, causing Baz and me to cough as the sharp smell of sulfur pierced our nostrils.

“O’Neil told me that Vallen saved my life,”Baz admitted as he scanned the area for unexpected attacks.

I gestured with a nod at Vallen and smiled. “Baz knows you helped.”

“Keep an eye on her then,” Vallen told Baz, his voice tinged with urgency.

“Seriously?” I remarked, shaking my head. “It’s like that, Vallen?”

“You’re the one who has to finish this, Noa. Remember that,” Vallen said to me, then turned to face Vincent on the other side of the field.

“I know!” I called after him as my hands found Baz. I stroked his fur, grateful I had him back with me.

As I whipped my head back around to search for Maros, Vallen had Vincent cornered, and the demons and fallen angels were retreating. Maros had disappeared from view, and I didn’t trust that he wasn’t waiting for me somewhere.

Baz and I ran up the side of the field closest to Dawson and Nevaeh’s now-destroyed home. Nevaeh’s face drained of color as she stepped out of the tree line. Her eyes bulged with shock when she saw Dawson’s body. Nakoma caught his grandmother, holding Nevaeh up as her legs gave way beneath her.

Nevaeh’s wail echoed across the clearing as she cradled Dawson’s head in her lap. “Curse you, Vincent, for taking him from me!”

“Stay close to me,”I instructed Baz as I looked over at him.

Baz sighed.“Always.”

Glancing around the field, I asked him,“Where do you think Maros went?”

“No idea,”he replied with a low growl, his skeptical gaze not matching my growing alarm.“Something doesn’t feel right, though.”

Vincent’s soldiers started to retreat or were gathered up by angels from our side and taken away. The once deafening roars of battle began to quiet as even the Baneful drew back. My attention snapped back to the battlefield when a sudden shout filled the air.

Vincent had next to no time to draw his own sword before they lunged at each other, their blades ringing in a metallic frenzy. Vincent’s blade sliced across Vallen’s cheek, sending droplets of blood flying. Vallen snarled and retaliated, his sword cutting into Vincent’s arm.

Sparks erupted as their weapons clashed again and again.They crashed to the ground in a whirlwind of tangled limbs and feathers, rolling through blood-soaked dirt. Finally, Vallen pinned Vincent beneath him, holding his sword to Vincent’s throat.

“It’s over, brother,” Vallen growled, pressing the sword up into Vincent’s jaw.

“You’re wrong,” Vincent spat back. “I will have, Noa! And if not me, then Maros.”

With a burst of strength, Vincent threw Vallen off and lunged at him. But Vallen leaped over Vincent’s head, twisted midair, and brought his sword whistling down in a ruthless arc. Vincent let out a shriek of agony as Vallen’s blade sliced clean through his wing, severing it in a spray of blood and feathers.

His wing turned to ash in mid-air, and the bones landed in a crumpled heap next to Vincent, who fell to his knees. Vallen broke one of the most sacred laws of the angels by taking his brother’s wing.

Vincent’s voice trembled with agony as he cried out to Vallen, “Do the laws of honor mean nothing to you?”

Vallen’s eyes flashed with rage. “After keeping me prisoner in a cave and after kidnapping Sasha, you want to talk to me about honor, brother?”

Vallen’s sword glinted in the fading light of day, and his grip on it tightened. Vincent knelt before Vallen, wincing as blood seeped from his missing wing.

Vallen towered over him and sneered, “You aren’t worthy of honor.”

---