Page 72 of House of Demons and Bones

My back arched, burning need for him coursing through me. Killian growled in response, heat searing his storm-blue eyes.

But we couldn’t get distracted now. I threaded my dark flame into his death light, the power he’d inherited from Hades. He was death, and I was ruin. We were made for this.

I threw my palm up. A beam darker than midnight shot toward the commander as it lunged for me. The lethal strike landed between its eyes, sank deep, and ripped through it. The thing burst into flames, my father’s inhuman scream cutting off as it died.

A plume of smoke exuded from the Shrieker commander, spreading across the battlefield like a dark canopy.

A thunderous, sinister voice boomed from the living smoke. “You can’t run from me, daughter. Now I’ve learned everything I need. I will come in my true form, bringing an army as vast as the ocean, countless as the sand. All will kneel and tremble in terror before me. Until you surrender, daughter, I’ll spare no one. I’ll start with the one you’ve been fucking while you watch?—”

I raised a hand to summon my dark flame to shut him up, but only a trickle came. I was more drained than I’d realized, and Killian was just as spent. We’d thrown everything we’d left into destroying Ruin’s vessel.

The horde of abominations shrieked with bloodlust, thousands pushing toward us. Killian and I stood alone, trapped deep in the enemy ranks. The heirs fought to reach us, but I screamed for them to fall back. They’d never make it in time and would die trying. I couldn’t watch any of them fall. There’d been enough death already.

I trembled, and Killian held me against him. His heat and courage comforted me.

“He won’t get to you,” my mate vowed. “I won’t allow it.”

“I don’t want anything bad to happen to you, even though you’re a hardass fool sometimes,” I said, my mouth full of ash and fear.

“I can live with being a hardass fool,” he said. “And nothing’s going to happen to either of us. Now get on my back.”

I didn’t ask why. Sometimes you just needed to listen and have faith. Trust didn’t come easy to me, but Killian had proved that he could be trusted.

A flash of starlight and fire rolled through the air, and Killian shifted. His dragon exploded into being beneath me. I was suddenly perched on Tyson’s back, my arms wrapped around his neck, hanging on for dear life. Light glinted off his black and sapphire scales, his massive wings ablaze with fire.

Tyson was a force of nature, deadly, beautiful, and ridiculously protective. While Killian and I were drained dry, Tyson was bursting with energy. He launched into the air and roared his challenge, blasting a jet of fire straight into the vast sentient smoke of my father’s essence, toasting it.

Dear old dad hadn’t expected that one, had he?

“Eat shit!” I bellowed.

“Eat fire, as my flame isn’t shit,” Tyson corrected primly.

The smoke shrieked, an inhuman sound, before vanishing under another blast of dragon fire. Ruin’s spirit fled back to his lair. It would take him days to return; Tyson had bought us precious time.

The sky cleared above us.

The dragon rained fire on the army of abominations below, but the Shriekers were endless.

The ground shook. A portal ripped open from the blackened woods, its edges crackling with hellfire. From its center poured an army of horned demons, each wielding an ax wreathed in infernal flame. Something stirred in my blood, my genetic knowledge telling me these weapons were forged in Hell’s inferno.

My breath caught as Queen Lilith emerged at the head of her thousands-strong force. She strode forward in gleaming black armor, crowned in darkness, wielding a flaming archangel blade.

She crashed into the Shrieker horde like an avenging storm, her blade carving through them with deathly precision. Her army surged behind her, their infernal weapons finding purchase where mortal steel had failed. They carved through the mechanical ranks with efficiency.

The battle kicked back into high gear without my father around, our warriors jumping right back into the fray. Demons dropped left and right, but fresh ones popped up to replace them instantly. Demons got off on violence.

Lilith fought with lethal grace, the abominations crumbling before her. She was breathtaking and terrifying—everything a queen of Hell should be.

I didn’t like that she looked so damn glorious. I wondered what Killian thought of his maybe-ex-betrothed as he watched through his dragon’s golden eyes. Was she even his ex? He hadn’t exactly made their breakup official.

I bit my lip as guilt creeped in to replace my insecurity. Great timing for relationship drama—right in the middle of a freaking battle.

Good timing.Sy gave me a nod.

Tyson rained down streams of fire on the Shriekers the demons had missed, while I shielded his vulnerable belly from the barrage of iron arrows with the wisp of power I had left.

The battle accelerated into a blur until suddenly, it was over. Silence blanketed the battlefield for one breathless moment before Tyson shattered it with his victory roar. I purred encouragingly, and he let loose a few more triumphant bellows, shooting flames skyward as we soared. His massive wings cast sweeping shadows across the carnage below.

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