Page 63 of Mastering Mayhem

And that his clothes were still coated in beastie biscuits and gravy.

My stomach lurched. Thankfully, my innards ignored the command to spew chicken salad all over the place, and I reached higher, clutching his shoulder with one hand, the amulet with the other.

Talk about your power surges. Damn.

My muscles seized, my hands tightening into unbreakable fists, my inborn fire rising to the surface, setting my skin ablaze. I pried my hand from Adrian’s shoulder and let myself fall, the chain snapping off his neck with a jerk of my arm.

We weren’t that high. A straight fall to the ground might’ve bruised me a little, but of course, I hadn’t thought my escape through.

I did not fall straight to the ground. In fact, I got caught in the spiraling tornado, and it slung me around like a rotating catapult, flinging me against the trunk of a massive birch. Every ounce of air left my lungs in a whoosh, and my vision tunneled and wavered.

The impact nearly bent me in two. My vertebrae cracked like a glowstick, and if I had hit it at an angle a few degrees different, I had no doubt I’d have been paralyzed.

Instead, I pushed to sitting, my head still swimming, and tried to make my eyes focus. My sister dragged Adrian to the ground. Chaos ripped a pincher from a soldier’s mandible. Mayhem stood on the mausoleum steps, his taloned fingers wrapped around another soldier’s neck. Witch fire mixed with hellfire blazed all around us.

Something made impact with the side of my head.

My face smacked the earth, filling my mouth with charred dirt. I spit and sat upright, the amulet giving me strength to endure what should have rendered me unconscious.

Ignacus loomed over me, poisonous saliva dripping from his pinchers as he slammed a barbed insect foot into my wrist, pinning me to the ground. He pressed one wiry hand against my stomach and snatched the amulet from my grasp with another.

I tried to pull my wrist free, but the barbs protruding from his foot dug into my flesh. I’d have to take off my entire hand to free myself…ifhe didn’t rip out my liver first.

I slid my free hand down my thigh in search of a blade. I could live with only one hand.

Ignacus raised the amulet triumphantly. I could feel the power surging through him, burning my wrist where he’d penetrated it.

He snapped his gaze to me, his expression livid. “Where is the rest of it?”

“I have no idea what you mean.” My fingers brushed the pommel of my dagger.

He grunted. Then he growled. He opened his mouth, and the most freakish chittering sound I’d ever heard emanated from his throat. Barbs extended from the tips of his fingers, cutting through my shirt and into my skin.

With the amulet amplifying everything, I felt his energy coil in his shoulder half a nanosecond before he plunged his claws into my stomach.

21

EMBER

Ascreech sounded from inside the mausoleum. Ignacus paused, his claws an inch inside my flesh, and jerked his head toward the sound. The griffin barreled toward us.

The piercing pain in my abdomen made everything that happened next foggy, but one second, I was laid out on the ground, a feast for the fae prince, and the next, I lay there alone, the gouges in my abs and wrist bleeding profusely.

I pressed my injured arm to the puncture in my stomach and applied pressure with my free hand.

The griffin took to the sky, the fae prince’s head in her beak, his body flailing as it dangled from her grip. She flapped her massive wings, turning herself vertically and clutching Ignacus with all four of her murder mittens.

Then, she jerked his head clean off.

She spit, and the head hit the ground, bouncing once before rolling into the ring of fire. With another ear-piercing screech, she shot to the earth, slamming him down and literally ripping him limb from limb and throwing all the pieces into the fire too.

Only his torso remained, but I wasn’t taking any chances. I grabbed the dagger I’d been trying to reach, marched toward our fractured foe, and slammed it beneath a breastplate, piercing his heart.

“Em, the amulet is in the fire,” Ash shouted. “Call yours back.”

I did as she asked and stroked the griffin’s feathers. “Thank you.”

She noddedyou’re welcomeand turned toward Mayhem.

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