Page 18 of Hellfire to Come
She fought like the goddess of wrath had taken human form: fast, sharp, and unrelenting. Fire crackled from her hands, her boots moved like she knew the floor was about to betray her. Light, barely touching the ground. She wasn’t holding anything back.
But neither were they.
One witch snarled and sent a wave of wind so strong it cracked the wall beside us. Brooklyn ducked, rolled, and hurled a spear of flame from her palm, striking her square in the shoulder.
That one didn’t get back up. Smoke curled up from the heap under the cloak.
I tangled with another, jaws snapping inches from her throat as she tried to chant. She screamed when I sank my teeth intoher arm. Magic fizzled and spat as her focus broke. Her blood hit my tongue, thick, bitter, burning.
I didn’t let go until I was sure she wouldn’t be casting again. My jaw released her only after she lost consciousness.
Two down.
The remaining pair circled Brooklyn now, weaving energy between them in a helix of blinding silver and black. They were chanting in a language long forgotten by men, faster now, braiding a shared spell that vibrated in the floor beneath us.
I shifted back just in time to warn my mate. “Break the link!”
Brooklyn didn’t hesitate. She dashed forward, throwing a blade, not a spell, a blade, straight into the throat of one of them.
The spell shattered like a burst bubble. The second witch howled as her partner dropped, blood spraying across her robes. She barely had time to react before Brooklyn closed the distance and slammed her into the wall, ripping her throat with her fangs.
The fight was over in seconds.
My mate turned slowly to check if I was okay, bright red blood dribbling down her chin.
I’d never seen anything more beautiful in my life.
I caught her in my arms as she walked into me reverently like the blessing that she was, my breath still sawing in and out, heart still hammering in my ribs, body humming with magic and adrenaline.
Then I heard the scrape of a shoe over hard floor.
Footsteps behind us moving fast, uneven, unbothered.
Echo appeared first, eyes gleaming with residual magic. Her hands were stained with blood and something that looked like black sand. “Miss us?” Then she saw the witches around us. “Pfft. You two always end up having all the fun.”
Chester was right behind her, brushing soot off his jacket. “We brought fireworks.”
I rolled my eyes. “We’re past the party, unfortunately.”
Brooklyn didn’t even look at them. She moved to check over the fallen witches, shoulders tight, breathing shallow.
“They’re dead.” Nudging one with the toes of her boot, she wrinkled her nose in disgust but her eyes were unfocused. “Alice is close,” she said, almost too softly.
I believed her.
“Let’s go get her,” I said. “We’ll think differently when she is with us.
Chapter Eight
ALICE
My misery redoubled, every bone in my body aching as I blinked myself out of the nightmare’s hold. For a few seconds, I didn’t know what woke me.
Then I felt it.
It started with the shaking of the floor.
Just a little. Like someone had dropped something very heavy one level above me. Then again, louder. A boom that rattled the ceiling, dust drifting into my hair like a warning whisper, and the chain on my wrist twitching like it wanted out as badly as I did.
