Page 116 of Cursed Heirs

“Oh, shit,” Xavier uttered.

“What now?” I demanded, following his line of sight to discover the answer for myself.

There, teleporting in a burst of pink smoke just a few feet from my illusion was Dean Bronson, quickly joined by Professor Esmira, werewolf, along with experienced witch, Professor Targus.

“Hell, they’re too close to the illusion.”

“I’m gonna need to drop it anyway to shore up my power in order to shield myself against a hit or two of Talon’s phoenix fire.”

“They could expel you for this. They’ll see it as a mutiny,” he warned. “It could be worse than even that, brother. It could blacklist you, a lot like what happened to your father.”

“Then so be it. I can’t allow them to stop Tal the way they clearly want to,” I said, gesturing at the iron weapons and cuffs they were conjuring as we spoke. What that awful metal did to him… I couldn’t stand it being used against him.

Motherfuck.Maybe I wasn’t the commander, the leader they needed me to be after all, as I’d thought I was prepared to do whatever it took in this war, but clearly I wasn’t, because doing that to Talon was completely off the table for me.

I was just about to drop the illusion and face the consequences when Talon succeeded in shattering the ward. A single hole was all it took for him to completely tear into it and bring the entire thing crashing down, thousands of white shards falling down all around us, my army, X, and I dodging the impact, before they hit the ground around us then dissipated into the earth.

It was just seconds when crimson smoke filled the area over by the gates and then red robed figures appeared—Constantine’s acolytes. A couple hundred of them.

They split into two units, the magic-wielders levitating up toward where Talon was, conjuring a massive brown net that I’d bet my life was made of fucking iron, while the other unit marched upon the Academy, blasting their way through the gates and coming in hot—werewolves turning in mid-run, vampires bursting forward and magic-wielders calling their power, a fucking rainbow of flames cutting through the night.

“He planned this. Constantine did this to Talon somehow.”

Yet another thing to worry about and find a way to deal with.

My watch went off again, but I pushed it aside and focused. “Immediate problems first. I’ll hold the first unit off here. You take the four best of my Light Fae soldiers and four wolves and stop those heading up to Talon. Dodge his blasts if he reacts, you can’t absorb them, not without your magic.”

“Got it,” he said.

I dropped my illusion so my power wouldn’t be expended holding it steady.

I saw Dean Bronson looking over and frowning, trying to determine what the fuck was going on.

I’d deal with damage control on that later.

I whistled, getting my army’s attention and barking orders, while X headed off with backup.

I took position on the frontlines as my soldiers quickly took formation to receive the incoming assault.

“Hold your ground!” I called out. “This is our territory. They willnottake it! Give it everything you’ve got!”

I sent my wolves straight ahead, tearing through the battle lines and howling out into the night as they ripped the enemy off their feet and cut and path through.

I had my vampires intercept the enemy’s that were bursting through and threatening to use their speed to fuck us over. It worked, giving them something to chase as well.

Then I called to the Light Fae to my left, “Use the trees!”

In the next second, Isabella led the unit and roots were rising up out of the ground, snagging incoming acolytes, tree branches wrapping around them and smacking them away across the forest too.

I swept a wave of my power to my right, tearing a dozen magic-wielders off their feet and stunning them, stopping them from firing at my soldiers.

We weren’t just holding our ground, we were beating them back.

Given that there were so many, it was just the beginning.

It was going to be a long night.

Talon’s shriektore through the night and sent a chill down my spine.

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