Page 89 of Angel in Absentia
Tenida claimed that the hero of Salanes had called upon a mysterious force to save them all.
Clea reached for that door, hypnotized by it.
Princess?She heard Prince’s voice call her, and felt the tug through her soul.Princess. Princess.His voice repeated as she reached for the door. Her hand grasped the handle, mirroring the fingerprints of the healer.No!Prince’s voice called with such fervor that it shook through her body. In a severe demand, he said,You mustn't give one your soul!And she was torn from the vision, cast into her own body with a gasp.
She came back to consciousness just as Javelin was shoved back, the new creature before him lunging and sinking his teeth into Javelin’s neck, ripping a chunk of rotting flesh free and casting it out in a gruesome rain.
Prince’s mask shielded her from the poison of the rain. The monsters rolled until Javelin de Gal was pinned, another beast crouched atop him with a claw synched tightly over his squirting throat.
For the first time, she saw the other beast as well. With a silver lion’s body and a wolfish head, he soaked himself in the dark blood of the fallen Ashanas Lord. Layers of wings lined his back, half feather, half skin like a white bat and a black bird. Silver layered portions of his body like a metallic exoskeleton, covering eight-fingered paws in sharpened armor and hooks that similarly dressed the monster’s spine and face. Rows ofhorns formed a curling crown on his head, one broken from the struggle, the others drenched in blood.
His side was torn, metallic ribs exposed from the chest to the slew of boiling tails that extended out like silver smoke in long streams around them all. Their movements alone quaked the earth beneath her feet.
Ryson’s beast opened his jaws and prepared another final bite to the throat as Javelin’s soul began to recede back into a disfigured body. He sank his teeth in and broke the neck. The battle was done.
Clea’s heart pounded, and she straightened slowly before Prince’s skin shivered over her. Out of nowhere, Alina’s serpent leapt through the smoke. It tackled Ryson to the ground and sank its fangs into him in what could be presumed to be a lethal bite.
Clea screamed. The betrayal was sudden and ruthless. No doubt, Alina had been lying in wait for a moment such as this one.
The roar was metallic and cold. Clea leapt out toward them, having some control again of her own body. She was tempted to call Ryson’s name. They toiled in the darkness, the black serpent coiled around Ryson, its sharp, dangerous tail struck into the silver monster’s chest like a scorpion.
Blood splattered across the clearing, the silver beast peeling Alina’s serpent loose and crushing it in tight jaws before ripping it in half. The serpent squirmed, its neck straining and sinking into the silver beast’s chest before rolling into the smoke and dissolving into an eerie quiet. Fog swallowed the silver beast that collapsed motionless onto the frozen earth.
Clea started out into the clearing, and the serpent with barely a head thrashed out of the smog toward her, transforming into a figure and then pinning her to a nearby building by the throat. Prince slipped away, running from the danger of Alina’s claws and exposing Clea to the harsh cold of the elements and the toxic air beyond.
Alina’s silver eyes glowed, her mouth dripped with dark blood, body ragged and torn, but she smiled. She drew a bloodied claw back. Clea struggled to breathe. The air was suffocating. The light inside her body felt repressed and suffocated.
“Good bye, Princess,” Alina snarled, licking broken lips that bled profusely, her teeth painted red.
Clea shoved her hands onto Alina’s abdomen just as Alina’s claw struck toward her.
The healing was focused and deep.
Alina’s hand came down, and Clea barely dodged the misdirected claw, which sliced deep into her cheek as Alina stumbled back.
Alina looked at the gaping hole opened in her abdomen, no longer able to repair itself. Her body shook, and she looked up at Clea and shrieked, taking a step forward before her body curled and struggled forward, turning back into her serpentine monster as if to shield her wound.
Ryson’s silver beast sprang from the darkness behind Alina, crushing the final pieces of the serpent and flinging the carcass aside. The corpse rolled toward Clea as the soul dissolved around it. Prince’s mask returned, and Clea gasped through the breath of air he seemed to filter around her.
Ryson followed soon after, walking woundedly from the smog, human again.
Clea ran to him as he collapsed, catching him by surprise and helping him sink down.
“Ryson,” she breathed, tempted to touch him, but knowing unless she was prepared to heal everything, she better not try and heal him now. He laughed, of course, and coughed up blood as he rolled over and cursed. He started to push himself up and then paused, allowing his head to rest on the earth before rolling over again and breathing irregularly. Despite the way his body appeared to be suffering, he watched her calmly.
“Prince, you’re looking rather more handsome than usual,” he said, surprising her. The sheer absurdity of his humor, considering the circumstances, surprised a dark, nervous laugh out of her.
She shook her head at him. It was all she could do before pushing her arms under his back. “Sit up,” she demanded, her mind still reeling from the events of the last few minutes. “Sit up right now. We have to get you back.”
He chuckled but consented to her prodding.
“Alina,” she said, voice still trembling with adrenaline.
“She’s been waiting for her chance and this was a better one than any,” Ryson replied. “She might have had me had she not gotten so distracted by your fear. She rather hated you.”
“I guessed that,” Clea whispered grimly, tempted to inspect the gravity of his wounds, but reminding herself she could do nothing with them. “Prince, can you open a portal?” she asked.
One sparked ahead of them and began to swirl slowly open.
