Page 71 of House of Demons and Bones

Half a dozen wolves squared off against twice as many Shriekers. Some shifters had transformed, but their claws were useless against the metallic monstrosities. I watched, gut twisting, as Shrieker tentacles shredded a massive wolf. My magic bomb turned the remaining abominations to ash, yet more rushed forward. Killian’s lightning and the combined force of the heirs and me had already taken down a third of their forces, but it wasn’t enough. Now hundreds of them circled me and the heirs.

“Princess! Princess!” Their metallic voices grated through the air.

Pain, rage, and dread clogged my throat as I watched the battlefield become a graveyard of familiar faces.

This is war, and war has casualties,Sy cut in, ever practical. When it mattered, my soul sister always stepped up.Don’t let it weigh you down. Push on!

She raged inside me, dying to come out to fight, but we both knew we couldn’t risk Ruin spotting her. Now her magic had manifested, she’d shine like a fucking beacon.

My heart squeezed with sorrow and panic. I couldn’t watch more people die. But surrendering wasn’t an option. I carried Sy. If she fell into my father’s hands, everything would be lost.

My eyes found Killian. My mate stood alone in the thick of the Shrieker ranks. The abominations closed in on him as hislightning grew weaker with every strike. He was spent, yet he still tried to draw their attention to him, keeping them from rushing me.

“Killian needs us!” I shouted over the chaos. “They’ve got him surrounded!”

Louis swung his sword at a Shrieker that had breached our line, but the blade glanced uselessly off its mechanical hull. His man bun had come loose, with patches of hair torn out at the roots.

“Tighten formation!” Rowan bellowed. “We have to protect Sy and Barbie!”

But it was a losing battle. The five of us could barely hold our ground under the relentless assault. The Shriekers had orchestrated this perfectly—dividing us, trapping us, and now closing in for the kill. Their metallic chattering and piercing shrieks grated against our already frayed nerves. Machine-cold claws raked across my back, drawing a gasp of pain. Through the chaos, I could see the heirs fighting desperately to reach me, but the distance between us only grew.

Rowan was closest, but five Shriekers kept him pinned, drawing frustrated roars from him. Our disadvantage stared us in the face—no one’s weapons or magic could kill the abominations, except mine. We had only one effective weapon, Deathsong, and Rock was using it to hold the enemy commander back. Ruin’s attack had already caused several deaths from the chaos house. Cassius danced around the commander, keeping it from pushing toward me while Rock tried to land hits where he could.

“Killian!” Cade shouted. My mate had pushed too deep into the Shrieker ranks. “To us! Fall back, everyone! Retreat to the other side of the Veil!”

“We need to regroup!” Silas yelled. “We can’t hold them like this. Those fuckers are too many!”

The survivors of our small army started falling back, fighting through the horde. By the Veil, Bea was helping wounded warriors retreat to the safety of the realm.

The heirs carved a path ahead, leading everyone toward the Veil, but Killian was stranded amid the enemy. Wave after wave of Shriekers, all nine feet tall, charged at him under my father’s command. He knew what Killian meant to me, even if he might not know Killian was my true mate.

“I can’t leave him behind!” I shouted, launching myself onto a Shrieker’s metallic head.

“Barbie, get back to safety!” Killian’s panicked voice cut through the chaos. “Leave me!”

Like hell I would.

Tentacles snapped at me from every direction, but I was already airborne, leaping onto another Shrieker’s head twelve feet away. Before I could find my footing, I sprang again, landing on yet another abomination, moving too fast for them to get a clean shot.

I plunged deeper into the Shriekers’ ranks.

“Princess! Princess! Come home!” Their shrieks echoed with sickening excitement.

Killian fought toward me, lightning crackling around him. The heirs and a team of chaos warriors carved their way through the horde. I was steps from Killian. My hand morphed into razor-sharp claws and plunged between the third eye of my current Shrieker perch before I dropped to Killian’s side.

A path through the Shrieker army opened before us, and my stomach dropped. It was for my father. The commander charged toward us, fixated on capturing me. The shield around his vessel had shrugged off everything we’d thrown at it—my evil blade, Killian’s lightning, even our combined magic bombs.

“Leave me, love!” Killian growled. “I’ll hold him back.”

“I didn’t come all this way just to abandon you, you fool,” I shot back.

“No one’s called me a fool and lived to tell the tale!”

“Oh yeah?” I countered. “Then stop being one for once. When I come to rescue you, you say thank you. I don’t run around getting all sweaty for fun.”

“And you shouldn’t,” he said, his voice tight with worry. “Your safety matters more than anything!”

He pulled me to him. His lightning and starlight exploded outward, the shockwave driving the Shriekers back. An idea sparked in me. I’d combined powers with the heirs, but never with Killian. I laced my fingers through his, and he caught on instantly. His power surged through me, and I drunk it in deep, our mating bond flaring to life.

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