Page 60 of Wicked Angel
The light from the dagger intensified, bathing both Rhodes and Adona in its crimson glow. Adona's back arched, her mouth open in a silent scream as the dagger's magic invaded her body.
“Obey me,” Rhodes commanded. “Serve me. Be the face of my regime, the puppet through which I will rule Elysium!”
Something was wrong. The light from the dagger wasn't just flowing into Adona—it was being somehow reflected, amplified, spiraling outward in patterns that made my eyes hurt to look at. Rhodes's expression shifted from triumph to confusion, then to the first hints of fear.
“What's happening?” he demanded, trying to pull the dagger away, but it seemed stuck, fused to Adona's chest. “This isn't right!”
A high, keening sound filled the chamber, building in intensity until it felt like my eardrums might burst. The fighting faltered as everyone, angel and ally alike, turned toward the source of the noise.
Adona was changing.
Her slender form began to grow, stretching and expanding until she towered over Rhodes. Her delicate features contorted, sharpening into something feral and predatory. Her wings, normally hidden, erupted from her back—not two, but six massive appendages that spread across the width of the chamber, their color shifting from pearlescent white to a deep, burning gold.
Her eyes, once the gentle blue of a summer sky, now blazed with an inner fire that held no recognition, no mercy, no trace of the wise and compassionate leader she had been.
Rhodes stumbled backward, the dagger falling from his nerveless fingers as Adona continued to transform. Her hands lengthened into claws, her teeth into fangs, her entire body radiating a power so intense it made the air around her waver like heat over desert sand.
“What have you done?” Haines whispered, his face pale with horror.
Rhodes had no answer, could only stare in mute terror at the creature he had created—a being that bore little resemblance to the Adona we had known. A monster that stood nearly eight feet tall, its golden eyes surveying the chamber with a predatory intensity that sent chills down my spine.
For a long, terrible moment, everything was still, the fighting forgotten as we all stared at the transformed Adona. Then, slowly, deliberately, she turned her gaze toward Rhodes, a low, inhuman growl rumbling from her throat.
Rhodes raised his hands in a placating gesture. “Adona, I command you to?—”
The creature that had been Adona threw back her head and let out a roar that shook the very foundations of the tower, a sound of pure, primal rage that held no hint of understanding or restraint.
Then she lowered her gaze, surveying the chamber once more—Rhodes, Haines, the angel warriors, my friends, me. There was no recognition in those golden eyes, no indication that she remembered any of us or cared who was ally and who was enemy.
There was only hunger, and fury, and power unleashed from all restraint.
And then she attacked.
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The creaturethat had been Adona launched herself across the chamber with shocking speed, her massive claws raking through the air toward the nearest target—an angel warrior who barely managed to dive out of the way before those talons shredded the space where he'd stood.
“Don't hurt her!” I shouted, dodging a swipe from Julien that nearly took my head off. “She's still Adona!”
“Tell her that!” Farrah called back, creating a wall of ice between herself and the transformed angel, who shattered it with a single blow. “Because she doesn't seem to know!”
The chamber had descended into absolute chaos.
The disciplined battle lines had dissolved into a frantic scramble as everyone—Rhodes's forces and our allies alike—tried to avoid Adona's relentless attacks. She moved with terrifying grace, her six wings allowing her to change direction in midair with impossible agility.
“We need to contain her somehow!” Lacey shouted, her hands weaving protective spells around herself and Abbie as Adona's attention briefly turned their way.
“How?” Levi growled, still locked in combat with Sariel. “She's juiced up on whatever the hell that dagger did to her!”
Rhodes had retreated to the far side of the chamber, his face pale with shock as he watched the monster he'd created tear through his own forces.
“Adona!” he called, his voice cutting through the din of battle. “I command you to stop this! Obey me!”
The creature paused, her golden eyes fixing on Rhodes with predatory focus. For a heartbeat, I thought his command might have worked—then she let out another earth-shaking roar and launched herself toward him, all six wings propelling her with frightening speed.
Rhodes barely had time to summon his own wings before Adona crashed into the spot where he'd stood. Stone cracked beneath the impact, sending fissures spreading across the floor. Rhodes took to the air, flying toward the shattered dome of the ceiling, desperate to escape.
“He's getting away!” I shouted, breaking free from Julien with a well-placed blast of light magic.
