Page 104 of Forging Darkness

Pushing past the pieces of my shredded heart, I cock my arm, readying myself for what comes next, when a ribbon of flame wraps around my forearm, staying my hand.

The fire licks at my skin but doesn’t burn. I can’t decide if I’m disappointed or not that I was stopped.

“Enough!” Seraphim’s voice jars my attention. The end of her fire whip dissolves, and I spin around.

My stomach bottoms out.

Wrapped in Seraphim’s arms is the human child I pulled from the water, the same one whose mother Seraphim brutally killed. Seraphim presses the girl’s face into her stomach and holds a dagger to her back, positioned just right to plunge into the girl’s heart.

I stride toward the pair, my gaze locked on the little girl. The child trembles. Her muffled cries reach my ears.

“Seraphim, what are you doing?”

“Forcing your submission. I tire of these games. And besides,” her upper lip peels back from her teeth, “you’ve made a disgusting mess of my vessel. I don’t want to end up having to re-grow a limb because of this little insurgence of yours.”

A gust of wind blows lavender-tinted flakes through the air. I’m only a few arm-lengths from Seraphim now. The Fallen and Forsaken on the arena floor have backed away.

The wind buffers against my wings, and I think about how easy it would be to take a few mighty flaps and flee. I have enough stored energy in my body that I’m confident I could blast anything in my way, including the ebony-winged Fallen in front of me.

Humans have never done me any favors. I was only ever tormented and neglected by their kind. Why should I relinquish my body, my freedom, to save one of them?

The child makes another sound of distress. She’s so tiny, only skin and bones.

“Where are the others?”

Nothing on Seraphim’s face changes except the faintest upturn of the corners of her mouth. It changes her look from menacing to psychotic, and despite the heat coursing through my veins, I shiver.

“You killed them all?”

I know she did. I’ve witnessed the ease with which she ends human life.

“I’d say they died well, but that would be a lie.”

“What do you care about falsehoods?” The horror of the situation—that she slaughtered dozens of people, either by her own hand or at her command—turns to rage, further fueling my power. An inferno licks over my exposed flesh. I welcome the heat.

Her head quirks in her signature bird-like movement. “Lying is not part of our nature.”

The sound that erupts from my chest could be construed as a laugh, but is actually a bitter ball of disgust unlodging in my chest. “Thorne promised me I’d be released if I didn’t want to stay and fight for your cause, yet here I am.” I throw my arms wide. “Still a prisoner.”

“Silly girl, I’m trying to release you, but you keep running.”

“Death isn’t a release.”

“Of course it is. I’ll inhabit your body and your soul will be released. Thorne never lied to you about how this would end.”

“Deception is a form of lying.”

“Now you want to argue semantics?” She looks heavenward as if irritated with an annoying child. “I grow weary of this exchange. I could force your capitulation easily. A few more minutes of this and I will.”

Lifting a palm, I urge my powers to condense, creating a ball of angel-fire in my hand once again. The flames are so hot, they burn white and blue. “Are you sure about that?”

Her eyes flare ever so slightly. She isn’t.

“I’m sure I can end this youngling’s existence with a simple flick of my wrist, and you could do nothing about it.”

She’s not wrong. She could easily kill Angeline and I’ve stalled long enough. I knew what was going to happen the instant my eyes landed on the human child shivering in Seraphim’s hold. What kind of monster would I be otherwise?

“I want assurances that the girl will be returned to the humans . . . unharmed and unchanged.”

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