Page 53 of A Fate of Blood and Magic
“As do my fae who you helped abduct.” I summoned Finley forward, purposely ignoring Brenton and his impending reaction to my next words. “Her intended is among the tortured fae. Maybe I should leave the fate of your people to her.”
Finley’s fingers sparked with her red magic, hersilver eyes turning so white, they appeared translucent. A sense of foreboding seemed to vibrate in her every limb.
He put a trembling hand to his face and used a single finger to brush his chapped lips. “Have mercy, Elias. I beg of you.”
I smiled, flashing my elongated canines while I made sure to keep my tone free of emotion. “Have mercy?”
He stared up at me, and his throat quivered when he swallowed.
My jaw tightened along with my fists. “Your betrayal saved your family. Is that not what you wanted?”
“You can’t . . .”
“Should we have brought tea for these negotiations?” Although Brenton’s words came out as a tease, I was certain the wrath written on his face mirrored mine. “Perhaps we can hold hands and talk about our feelings.”
I inched closer to Sebastian, my nostrils flaring at the overwhelming scent of his fear. “We came here with one purpose. We will free my people and lay waste to anyone who tries to stop us. Your actions will dictate whether you see your wife and children again. Stay here, and don’t utter another word.”
He took a retreating step back, right into Everly’s chest. Her canines gleamed as she glared down at him.
“Once we breach the compound, the lirio and nyxx will join us as our first line of defense,” I continued. “We should anticipate the humans’ guns shooting iron bullets.”
Alastor nodded to his fae while they held a private conversation in their minds.
I held my breath in my lungs for a few beats before I stepped out from beneath the tree line. Finley walked beside me with the others following, while Alastor stayed behindwith his fae. While the lirio and nyxx were intimidating and ruthless, they were also large and conspicuous. Right now, we had the element of surprise, and I wanted to keep it that way for as long as we could.
If fate was on our side, we’d be able to kill the soldiers standing guard and enter the compound without anyone noticing.
As we slowly approached, the scent of iron grew more potent, as did the smell of the humans hiding behind the material. When we were a few steps from the compound wall, Sebastian’s voice cried out in warning. The wind picked up on his shout and drove the words toward the compound. Just as his screaming died, a red flare of light shot from the tree line to the sky.
I growled at how this worthless male betrayed us as easily as he had his own kind. Two lirio barreled toward us, moving so swiftly I barely saw them as they ran past us.
Flashing lights and blaring alarms peeled from within the compound walls, and as the guards on the wall pointed their rifles at us, I let my anger consume me and sent out that rage in a wave of magic that reduced the guards to ash. In a taunt, their remains floated down and settled on the snow before us. It did nothing to quelch the stench that wafted from the ashes.
More guards replaced those I’d just killed. Before us, the nyxx grew like snowy mountains. They used their mighty fists to topple the platform on which the humans stood. The hulking footsteps of the remaining lirio raced behind me, getting closer.
“Do what you must to kill as many as you can,” I told Finley.
She nodded, her eyes turning white as she slipped into her primal instincts.
With the lirio in front of us, I ran toward the compound door and summoned my lethal magic again. Within a few beats, the door turned to dust.
Humans stood ready for us, pointing a large cannon where the door once stood. The lirio lumbered before us, taking multiple gunshots. Just as the cannon exploded, Alastor threw a protective barrier around me. While it shielded me from the blast, the shot erupted on several of his lirios, killing them instantly. Fire spread around us unnaturally, clinging to the nyxx. The flames danced atop the nyxx, making the snow they formed from melt. The fire that consumed them was different from any I’d seen. It was hot enough to burn but lingered against the nyxx, killing them far too slowly.
When Alastor struck a wailing nyxx, I sent my destructive magic to several other nyxx to quicken their deaths and ease them from their suffering. Brenton also used his smoke magic to ease our new allies quicker into death.
While the majority of the soldiers fired upon us, the civilians ran with their distressed shrieks trailing them. Whether the soldiers were untrained or simply afraid, many of their bullets hit humans—children and women.
My gut twisted, hating the sight of younglings dying, but it couldn’t be helped.
The moment the humans abducted my people, they declared war upon us. And sadly, in war, the innocent usually suffered the most.
The few shots whose aim was true speared the lirio. Savages in their own right, the lirio continued to fight despite the iron piercing their skin, spreading the poison into their blood. They tore through the humans, separating their limbsfrom their bodies. A head rolled to the ground, the human female’s unseeing eyes pointed at me the way my father’s had.
Mercifully, either someone turned off the alarms or the device broke, because now all that remained were the cries of battle.
A fiery thread of red shot from Finley’s hands, sweeping over those in the compound before it struck the bloodied snow. In an instant, every uniformed soldier collapsed to their death. I noticed several of the fallen soldiers wearing similar iron chains around their necks, just as Sebastian had. Being around the material affected my energy, but I continued moving forward to do what I must to bring home the abducted fae.
Finley heaved in unsteady breaths, and when she leaned forward to rest her hands on her knees, Brenton went to her side. He rubbed her back as she took lungful after lungful of air. As I stepped away to address the suddenly still crowd, I heard Finley vomit and the way Brenton tried to comfort her.
