Page 188 of Lady for Embers

Scarlett nodded. The Fae were all taking not having their magic fairly well. They knew what to expect after coming last time, were prepared for it as much as they could be, but they were all depending on this to work. In short, they were all depending on her.

“Let’s start a ?re,” she purred, shadow wolves forming in front of her and prowling ahead as Rayner disappeared among smoke again. Cassius and Razik fell into step beside her. Callan and Azrael would take the lead once they were inside the Necropolis. For now, it was her and the dragons.

Everything was quiet for the ?rst mile, the braziers outside the Necropolis entrance burning bright and getting bigger as they got closer. She tensed as she felt her shadows begin to vibrate. Her shadow wolves lunged ahead into the dark, and a second later two grunts of pain ?lled the air. She was sending star?re into the void infront of them, wings of two seraphs catching alight moments before black ?ames devoured them both in seconds. Turning to Cassius, she smiled darkly at him, his hand still raised. She turned to Razik, who seemed to have stopped mid-step.

“Problem?” she asked.

“Currently wondering why you needed me to come with you for this,” he replied.

She reached up and patted his shoulder. “Are you sad we didn’t save you one?”

“Don’t touch me.”

Scarlett snorted, her wolves pacing in front of them. She sent them ahead as they all began moving again. Rayner appeared when they were a few hundred feet from the steps of the Necropolis. ­Cassius moved down, allowing Rayner to walk beside her.

“They are waiting for us. They summoned more. There are ten now,” he reported.

She nodded. “Do they know how many we have with us?”

“No. Their scouts did not return,” he said darkly.

“Nice work.”

She nodded, turning to speak over her shoulder. “Keep the kings protected. I will have shields around them, but someone is by their sides at all times. I’ll light up the area when we reach the base of the steps. Briar and Azrael, ?nd the water seraph and take care of him. I’ll set wings on ?re to keep them on the ground until someone can deal with them. Cass and Razik will help as much as needed, but we’re all trying to reserve power. Blades through throats and chests work, but you’ll get one chance. They are trained to take down whoever they can when they go down.”

They knew all this, but it never hurt to repeat the plan one more time. There was quiet acknowledgment, the mortal kings letting them do their thing. Callan and Drake were used to this, but she idly wondered what Hale was thinking. She was certain he hadn’t experienced real-world battle. He might have trained and watched some of the Avonleyans train, but this? Being in the thick of it? When would he have ever experienced that?

A few feet from the base of the steps, she tossed star?re into the sky. The top of the steps lit up, a line of ten seraphs waiting at the top, just like Rayner had said. She didn’t stop, didn’t pause. Shecontinued up, one step after another, her wolves a step in front of her.

“A welcoming party just for us?” she asked. “How thoughtful.”

She watched their eyes skate over all of them behind her, taking them in, calculating. She was halfway up the steps when one near the center said, “How will you do anything when we will take care of this from the air?” At his words, half of the seraphs took to the sky, arrows nocked into bows and aimed at them. “You can save a lot of lives by sitting quietly until your master gets here.”

“That’s cute,” she mused, getting a shield in place around all of them. “Apparently your master neglected to tell you about my dragon friend over here. His ?re turned your pals back there to ash in seconds.”

“We know about the Witch child,” the seraph sneered again. “Why do you think all the arrows are aimed at him?”

“Oh, I meant the other one,” she said, nodding in Razik’s direction. She brought her hand up to her mouth, mock whispering behind her hand. “Between you and me, he’s a little crabby about not getting a kill back there, so I think we’ll let him have ?rst shot at your friends. That seems fair, right?”

Razik slowly turned to look at her incredulously, his eyes already glowing bright blue, pupils vertical. She smiled sweetly. “Well?”

He rolled his eyes, wings ripping from his back and scales rippling across his body as he shot into the air. Two seraphs were ashes before they even realized what had happened. Cassius was in the air the next moment, Cyrus moving to his place seamlessly as they reached the top of the steps. Arrows bounced off her shield in front of them, and she felt the same hit her shields around the mortal kings. She looked up, ?nding Cassius and Razik engaged with the two remaining seraphs in the air.

She drew the spirit sword from her back, star?re winding around the blade. “That one,” she said to Cyrus. “We’ll do him ?rst.”

There was a seraph with earth magic attempting to get past her shield, but a moment later, his wings were ?ames. She dropped the shield at the exact moment Cyrus struck out, cutting a wing from his back in one clean swipe. The other landed on the ground as Scarlett sliced down from his throat to his navel, blood spraying and insides falling to the ground.

“By Anala,” Cyrus said. “You couldn’t just slit his throat, ­Darling?”

“He’s the one who insinuated I had a master,” she sneered, the star?re burning away the blood on her blade.

“Fair enough,” he said as Cassius and Razik landed beside them.

She turned to see Rayner behind another, a dagger going across the seraph’s throat. She sent star?re to ?nish the seraph as he grappled at his throat, blood running between his ?ngers.

The mortal kings had been herded off to the side. Briar, Azrael, and Eliza were in front of them, engaged with the remaining three seraphs.

“One for each of us,” she mused, stalking forward. “I will still be in the lead that way.”

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