Page 74 of The War of Wings
Chapter 29
Petra
Screams. Panic. Swords. Chaos. Occulti.
Occulti.
He was here.
I fought against the current of people scrambling in every direction as the doors to the courtyard burst open. I couldn’t see over the crowd, couldn’t hear over the shouts and cries that vibrated through the air.
The crowd broke apart for a split second, just long enough to see the dozen Occulti tearing through guests like paper. These were the Occulti we’d seen in Heaven, in their true, nightmarish forms. I surged forward, but my steps were restricted by this stupid fucking gown. Why the hell did I have to choose a spiteful dress over a functional one?
Adorex!I screamed down the line as I shuffled forward.Occulti! Now!
Guards had managed to slam the doors shut and wedge tables and chairs against them. They may have been able to keep more Occulti from getting in, but now the people in this room had no way out. The floor was slick with blood. Bodies fell into mangled heaps. People tripped over severed limbs.
I didn’t have to work hard to summon my fury. Flames sparked to life as I set my sights on the Occulti closest to me. One of its angular arms closed around a woman’s shoulders. An agonized scream left the woman as the demon’s nail sliced through the skin on her arm like a knife through butter. I aimed for its head, hitting it square in the face with an angry burst of flames.
The woman scrambled free as the demon whirled toward me, its milky-white skin charred and its slitted eyes narrowed. A bone-chilling smile pulled at lips that were too thin. But as it lunged for me, heat surged in the room, and its veiny skin shone red in the light of driva fire glowing from outside the windows.
Many, Adorex thought.
Fuck.
Malosym?I called back down the line.
No.
I couldn’t savor the relief that Malosym wasn’t here as another blast of fire flew from my palms, this one colliding with the demon’s chest. The monster hit the ground and writhed for a moment before it stilled. The other Occulti in the room screeched, their movements picking up speed.
A hand closed around my elbow for a split second before it pulled away, and there was Cal beside me.
“Apologies!” I yelled as he shook out the hand I’d just burned. “Malosym’s not here! Only Occulti!”
A driva’s roar shook the entire ballroom, the chandelier above rattling on its chain as the windows glowed again. Heatsurged. More screams. Windows shattered. The people in this room thought the world was ending.
It was.
“On your right!” Cal shouted, and with a flick of my wrist, the Occulti’s neck snapped and the demon hit the ground.
My head whipped back and forth. Cal was behind me, Tyrak appeared to my left, but… “Where is Miles?”
“Don’t know,” Cal called back. “Tyrak! Find Miles!”
A rattling gasp sounded from the ground, and my heart seized when I looked down to see a woman clutching a gaping wound on her neck.
“What’s your name?” I asked as I tried to hike my skirts up to retrieve my dagger, butSaints fucking dammit, I couldn’t.
“Ahmi,” she croaked, her eyes wide with shock as her hand moved to the wound on her neck.
I reached for Cal’s sword, running it across my palm only to find unbroken skin in its wake, just like in Eserene.Aegrabane.It didn’t cut me because it was Aegrabane.Of course.
Thinking fast, I sliced through the fabric at the bottom of my dress and handed off Cal’s sword just in time for him to catch an Occulti in the chest and take the demon to the ground.
I grabbed the edges of the torn material of my gown and ripped until a slit opened just high enough to get my dagger. “Ahmi,” I repeated back to the woman, hoping she could hear me over the chaos as I sliced into my palm. “I’m Petra.”
“Behind you!” Cal bellowed, and I looked just in time to see an Occulti hurtling toward me as Cal’s sword pierced the neck of another. I threw my uncut hand out, easily taking it to the ground with a painfulcrackof more than a few ribs before I turned back to Ahmi, placing my bleeding palm against her face. “It’ll be okay.”
