Page 42 of Ignited Spirits
The man chuckles, the sound grating. “Do you really think we’re that stupid? No. You come over first. Then we’ll let your father go.”
I shake my head. “No deal, then.”
Turning to walk away, I stop when he says, “Wait! Fine. As soon as you’re outside of the shield, we’ll let him walk over to the middle. You can meet him there.”
I nod and walk out of the dome. I hear a commotion behind me, but I don’t dare take my eyes off the more than sixty council soldiers staring me down. Once I’m clear of the defensive spell, the guard shoves my dad toward me.
My dad twists around to glare at the guard holding him. “I’m not walking anywhere. I’m not participating in this.”
I wish I could let my dad know that I’m not actually planning to go with the council, but I can’t without tipping off the plethora of goons in front of me.
“Unfortunately for you, you don’t have a choice.” Before my dad can respond, he’s encased in the same yellow magic the guard was just holding. The man uses his magic to float Dad over to me ever so slowly. With the magic-dampening cuffs, there’s nothing my dad can do about it. Once he’s right in front of me, the council goon says, “Now, walk over to me, or I’ll kill him.”
Blowing out a breath, I trudge over to the council minions. The ten feet feel more like ten miles as I regret all my life choices.
When I’m in front of the man, he maliciously grins down at me, looking pretty smug about what he thinks is a victory. He holds out magic-dampening cuffs for me to put on.
Before I comply, I send a punch of magic at the man’s midsection. Not enough to kill him, but enough to make him lose control of his magic. I turn around as my dad falls to the ground without the magic supporting him. I wince at theoofhe lets out at the impact, but at least he’s safer than he was.
With a smile on my face, I turn back to face the guard. Before I’m even fully turned around, he backhands me hard enough that I stumble and fall to my knees. I cup my cheek and glare up at the man.
He walks over and grabs one arm, then the other. I struggle, but it’s not enough. He slaps the magic-suppressing cuffs on me before fisting my hair in his hand. He pulls me up by it, and I let out a choked scream at the pain searing over my scalp.
My magic tries to bubble up to defend me, but it gets blocked by the cuffs.
Well, this certainly isn’t going according to plan. Here’s hoping my mates or I can figure out some way to get me out of this mess entirely of my own making.
Otherwise, I’m in deep shit.
CHAPTER 15
IZZY
Adeafening roar shakes the walls, sending concrete dust raining down on us.
The man holding me looks behind me before his mouth drops open in surprise. His face contorts in horror, and his hold on my hair slackens.
Taking advantage of his momentary distraction, I pull free of his hold and look up. I almost swallow my tongue when I see a massive, nine-headed serpentine monster that’s as tall as the concrete bunker. While it has four legs, its body looks like a snake or a dragon. Then, of course, are the nine heads all hissing at the council goons.
I look over at my mates and brothers. Both Rhys and Aiden are staring up at the creature in awe. Levi, Bishop, and Cain are all running toward me while firing off attacks. Luca leaps and changes into his wolf in midair before crashing into one of the council dudes right next to me.
Cerberus follows my mates, their steps shaking the bunker as they do so.
My forehead crinkles in confusion as I look for Archer but don’t find him. After looking around a few times for him, all I seeis the massive monster straight out of mythology. It’s then that it clicks.
“Archer?” I whisper, staring up at the creature with equal parts fear and amazement.
All nine heads turn toward me. The one in the center chuffs, which almost sounds like a laugh. His lips pull up into what I think is a smile, but it’s terrifying on a giant creature that’s at least two stories tall.
Well, we know what my magic and the Styx turned Archer into. A twenty-foot-tall snake monster with way too many heads. At least that mystery is solved, I guess.
Distracted by me, snake Archer doesn’t notice a blast of magic that hits him right in one of his many necks. The bolt tears straight through his neck and severs one of his snake heads clean from his body.
Archer roars in pain, and I can’t help the whimper that escapes my mouth at him hurting.
He drips blood onto the ground below him, and it eats through anything it touches. I watch in shock as his blood burns a hole straight through the concrete rubble that’s more than four feet thick at this point.
The craziness isn’t over, because his head that was cut off starts to regrow. As I watch, not one but two heads appear where the other head used to be.
