Page 30 of Midnight Kingdom

“Roll!” Pyre yells at me and I instantly roll to the side, feeling the air of one of the harpy’s wings as she misses in her attempt to grab me and flaps back up into the air. I glance back at Pyre and notice the Harpies blocking his path. He snarls something under his breath. I can’t hear him.

Turning onto my back, I look up at three of the winged creatures flying right towards me. I finally gasp for air and lash out with my blade. They screech and howl into the night as I fight for my life. One of them tries to bat my dagger away, but I hold tight. She parries each of my attacks. I duck, dive, and dodge, trying to stay alive.

My arms quiver with exertion. I can’t keep this up for long. Those jagged claws arc right toward me, and I sidestep. Hot liquid pours down my chest. I look down and see a long claw digging into my skin, causing me to drop my dagger. I grip the harpy’s claw, trying to keep her talon from penetrating any deeper. I also don’t want her to lift me into the air again. I have a feeling that’s how the harpy’s kill their prey—by tearing it apart. Pain echoes through my body as I fight the harpy from taking off with me. But she’s stronger than I am and before I know it, I’m airborne again. I try to hold on to her bony legs, but my vision begins to darken. Shadows creep along the edges, and that uneasy dark power begins to surge inside me.

I reach for it, feeling it uncoil and spread through my limbs until an explosion of light surrounds me. Everything goes dark then. I can’t hear or see, but I feel myself falling to the ground. Vibrations ripple across the stone, causing my skin to tingle.

Then, there’s nothing…

When I wake, I find myself propped against an obsidian stone. My eyes shoot over to that long expansion of gray rock and I watch the harpies circle above the scarlet stain on the ground like vultures. “Am I dead?” I ask.

Pyre chuckles. “No. Not quite. But you’re lucky. Your power will only continue to grow and if you have any hope of taming it, you’ll need to practice. A lot.”

“We need to stop Variant. I don’t have time totameanything.”

“What good will you be to anyone if you end up killing yourself or us?” he asks, catching me off-guard. “If I weren’t immortal here, in The Veil, you would have incinerated me with that show of light power back there. You’re lucky the harpies flew off before the explosion, or else you would have had their entire flock hunting you across The Veil for killing their queen.”

“Queen?”

“The one that approached you before the fight,” he explains. “She must have sensed the succubus inside you and determined that you were a threat to their males.”

“What do you mean?”

“Like succubae, harpies accept multiple mates. They don’t feed from sexual power, but they use the males to breed new female warriors. Very efficient.”

“Noni said there was an incubus.”

“She was correct.”

“What do you know about him?” I don’t know why I’m suddenly so curious, but I feel as if knowing just a little bit more about my kind is important.

“There’s usually one incubus male for an entire nest of succubae, even though the females take other lovers. Incubae are part of an ancient bloodline that dates back to the beginning of time,” Pyre answers. “It takes a succubus queen and the incubus male to breed an heir that will take the place of his father, if he dies in battle. The last incubus male died without an heir. No more king meant no more breeding for the succubae in general. They could feed from other males to sustain their numbers, but they couldn’t grow their population.”

“Which was how they became extinct after Dragan killed Lamia and her daughters, right?” I ask and Pyre nods. “But how am I the last of the succubaeandthe last of the winged angels?”

Pyre gives me a strange look, and I almost think he knows the answer to my question but won’t tell me. Dragan, Baron, and Cambion never answer me directly either. But something tells me Pyre’s reasons are different.

“The only reason I can think to tell you is thatyou, Eilish, are the last of the incubus’ bloodline. The last surviving incubus must have broken the pattern, gotten your mother pregnant and then abandoned the nest before any of them found out about his secret, which is why there is no male heir.”

An eerie sense of peace washes over me. It has to be true. The woman from my dreams, my mother,wasan angel. If succubae can’t breed without the incubus, then Ihaveto be heir to the last incubus. “Could he still be alive? Hiding somewhere in The Veil?”

Pyre shakes his head. “If he were here, I would be able to sense him. I’m aware of every being inside the spirit world. There are plenty of succubae, but no incubus. He’s either dead and moved on to the afterlife, or he’s still in the realms. But I doubt he’s alive. Someone would have found him by now.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Because incubae have a much stronger seduction than succubae. Their pheromones are hard to miss, and they attract females of all species. Lamia or someone else would have tracked him down and either returned him to the nest or sold him for breeding purposes or sex slavery.” Pyre stands and helps me to my feet. He looks no better than he did before I collapsed, but I’m grateful for the assistance.

I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders with regard to our conversation. I look at Pyre and smile with gratitude. “With how slowly my memories are recovering, I never thought I’d learn anything about myself. You’ll never understand how much this means to me, Pyre.”

He takes my hand and leads me beyond the obsidian stones. I know the path ahead will only become more dangerous. But there’s no one else with whom I’d rather trek through The Veil than this man.

CHAPTER EIGHT

BARON

The Veil

Dragan and Cambion limp beside me as I bite back a laugh. They look like two old ladies trying to make it across the street.

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