Page 132 of The Crown of Nyx

The demon fazed out of sight, and as soon as he was gone, the cabin disappeared with him.

54

Ivy

We didn’t have much time to deal with the rain that pounded against us. With the cabin gone, we were left to the elements…

And our enemy.

Three creatures—one Fae male, a rabid wolf shifter, and an elemental mage—stood across from us.They wore gear like ours, but different.Perverted, like the magic they wielded. Like the magic Dante had corrupted.

Their gear was grey, lighter than our black clothing. But while ours was free of any emblems or decoration, theirs held an insignia on the breast, right over the heart. It wasn’t anything I recognised, the thread silver, too light to really make out, even with my heightened senses.

Magic crackled beneath my skin and exploded out of me without a thought. Lightning struck at the three,not giving them a chance to move or summon their own magic to fight back.

The Fae male flew backwards into one of the pools of water surrounding us. The wolf, somehow, held its ground. But the mage deflected the strike with one of his own.

Crap. Elemental that specialised in lightning.

“Fucking hell,” Elias muttered beside me. He shifted immediately, male replaced by large wolf. Terror spiked within me as he rushed towards the other wolf.

“I’ve got his back,” Maeve said as she ran to join him. My heart pounded as I watched the pair try to take down the wolf, but it was a lot bigger than my mate. Stronger, too.

A flash of light hurdled towards me. Before it could hit, shadows transported me from the place where the cabin once stood, across the pools to where we first appeared. The cave offered a small amount of shelter, but it put us close to the Fae male I’d knocked out.

Never thought I’d wish my magic had killed someone. It would have made this a whole lot easier.

The male rose from the water with rage burning in his silver eyes. “You bitch.”

“Coward,” I snapped back, summoning another bolt of lightning. “Let Nyx know I said hi.”

I had to wonder if he and the others knew that electricity and water didn’t mix. At the very least, it might shock his heart enough to keep him down, because the others were having enough trouble with the remaining super-charged soldiers. The wolf, rabid and strong, was trying to tear apart my other mates. And the elemental mage could not only wield lightning, but he had power over air, too. So, any time Hawk tried to lift into the air, the mage brought him right back down.

There were only three of them and eight of us. How the hell were we not putting them in the ground?

I aimed my lightning at the water, rather than the male himself. He appeared to be from one of the Seelie Courts, though which one, I wasn’t sure. Summer, maybe, as he tried to use the water as a shield.

Even though he smirked like he had won some kind of game, it didn’t take long for my lightning to hit the pool he was in, for electricity to dance over the surface towards him. The smirk turned to a look of shock but quickly shifted to fear as his eyes rolled into the back of his head and his body convulsed.

I’m surprised, wife,Damon whispered in my head.That was brutal. I never took you for someone who would so easily deal out death.

I glanced at him, lips pressed together. My stomach turned; whenhadI so easily become a killer? I quickly glanced in the direction of Orion. I couldn’t blame his calming presence in my mind directing me how to use my weapons now. It was all me.

They killed my mom. They could have killed my little sisters. I’m not giving any of them a chance to come after my family again, I replied, storming away from him and leaving the Fae male floating in the pool. I wasn’t even sure he was dead. Fae notoriously had fantastic healing abilities, so he could have just been knocked out. But when I glanced back at the cave where Damon stood, the pool nearby turned red as his shadows receded.

Just to be certain,he said.Wouldn’t want him coming back.

I couldn’t tell if he’d done it so I wouldn’t feel guilty, or because there was a chance the male could come back. But either way, I was grateful.

I turned back to the main fight as the rabid wolf leapt at Hawk’s back. His wings were out, soaked by the rain but exposed to the claws of the beast.

I acted before any rational thought could stop me. The shift swallowed me, cracking and breaking my bones before reforming them into something new—something different. My wolf rose to the surface, protective instincts heightening, and before I knew it, I threw myself into the side of the larger beast.

Something cracked—either within me, or in the other wolf—as we tumbled to the hard ground. I rolled over him, still clumsy in this new body, as he climbed to his feet.

Fuck. It had to be twice my size, with much larger teeth. The paws alone were double the size of mine, and the claws…

The claws were capped in silver.

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