Page 89 of Of Vows and War: Special Edition
“Stassi darling, how are you?” he asked, opening his arms wide. I felt his magic seep from him, the sparkling cloud of deep brown smacking into me and willing me to be peaceful.
Growling, I hit him with my own magic as I simultaneously fought off his. If what Stella said was true, then we were capable of more feeling than we realized. Perhaps that meant I could find a deeper sense of virtue within him now that I was back on Alemthian.
We continued to face off, the two of us grunting from the force of attempting the other to submit. As expected, males proved themselves weak when push came to shove. Jonah let out a final groan of displeasure and then dropped to his knees in surrender. Raising his hands, he looked up at me and smirked.
“You win.”
“I always do.”
“Padon would disagree. In fact, I think he’d be quite interested to hear you were able to suggest that to me at all.” There was a hint of a threat there in the depths of his words. “Tell me, do you think he knows you’re on the same world as his beloved?”
“She isn’t his beloved.”
“Testy, aren’t we? Care to explain to the class why you are suddenly so defensive of our emperor’s mortal pet?”
“What can I say, I’m a sucker for an underdog,” I replied with a shrug. Jonah only smiled wider at my words, as if I had said something exciting. “Why are you here?”
“Boredom, mostly. I want war. Something new and interesting. You’re offering that.”
“Battle is inevitable but getting Anastasia home will make it smoother. Less likely for chaos on our shores,” Venturae said.
“Iniko brings chaos wherever he goes. War will come to Shamay, regardless of what happens on this pitiful world.” Jonah continued to smile up at me as he spoke, an odd sort of knowing in his eyes that, quite honestly, terrified me. “There is a throne to win, after all.”
Eternity damn them all.
“How about this,” I said, straightening my spine. “You both leave and I don’t kill you where you stand.”
I had always been one to act stronger than I was. It was the only way to compensate for how little magic I possessed. Alemthian changed things. More magic coursed through my body than ever before. Maybe I could actually follow through on the threat.
Jonah snorted loudly, staring at me with humor in his eyes. When I did not back down, his gaze went wide. I thought I had him. That perhaps he was finally scared. But of course, thatwasn’t the case at all. The idiot bent forward and burst into laughter.
Laughter!
“It won’t be funny when I’m bathing in your blood and holding your seed in my fist!” My shouts were met with his abrupt silence, my tone finally forcing him to take me seriously. He stood, looking at me as if he were seeing me clearly for the first time. Sadly, there was no fear in his eyes.
“How aboutthis.You come with us, and we don’t kill you where you stand, you pathetic—”
“Jonah, fate grows uneasy,” Venturae cut in.
“—ridiculous—”
“Jonah…” she said once more.
“—unimpressive—”
“Chance feeds, Jonah!” Venturae shouted.
“—weak little creature!”
It all happened rather quickly after that. Jonah’s hands gripped my arms as his magic erupted from him. At the same time, I let my own magic free, groaning with the effort it took to shove into his chest. Venturae ignored us both, screaming with more terror than seemed necessary.
At our backs, the real threat loomed. A burst of swirling white and black magic slammed into the three of us. The blast hit me, sending my body soaring through the sky and then crashing back onto the grass below.
Lifting my head with a hiss of pain, I caught sight of Stella as she approached. She was a vision of sun and moon, the two colliding to tear down the universe. Her hands were held outwards and kept low at hip level. Black surrounded the right half of her body and white surrounded the left, splitting her into night and day. She stared at us with eyes entirely void of color. Each step made the ground beneath her quake, the clouds above us turning a deep gray as they swirled.
Despite being banished, Stella was still the holder of Sun and Moon, the rightful empress of Shamay. The ethers themselves bowed to her will. We were reminded of that as lightning streaked the sky, followed closely by a boom of thunder.
“You have reminded me just how horrid life is as a high demon,” Stella drawled. The tone of her voice was the antithesis to her stance of fury and power. Jonah peered up at her in pure terror. There was no being in existence that was as feared as the high demon of Sun and Moon.
