Page 81 of Hunted By Her Demon Wolves

The mage fell forward, sprawled out face first on the ground. With one final sigh, black smoke expelled from his mouth before his body went limp and a blackened claw tumbled out of his hand. Not wanting her daughter to suffer another second, she zapped Phoenix’s bindings and floated her off the grate, gently setting her down on the ground. She let out a strangled cry when she rolled her onto her side. The clothes had been melted off her back, and her skin was burned beyond recognition.

“It’s okay, baby.” She brushed Phoenix’s sweat-drenched hair out of her face, kissing her brow. “Mama is here now.”

Closing her eyes, she summoned every last ounce of healing strength into her fingers, channeling it into Phoenix’s back. For a long moment, the only sounds in the room were the strained breaths from those creatures as they rattled their chains and the soft hum of Jezebeth’s magic. While the magic flowed through her, Jezebeth had time to reflect on her own life, on the humans who’d died because of the curse she’d placed on Phoenix’s gamma father, Sami. No doubt those humans also had mothers who’d cried for their children. And now Phoenix was being punished for Jezebeth’s sins. If she could’ve, she would’ve traded places with her daughter on that fire pit. She would burn a thousand deaths just to keep her daughter from pain.

After every last ounce of Jezebeth’s energy was drained, her limbs weighed down with fatigue, Phoenix let out a sigh of contentment and rolled onto her back.

Jezebeth cursed when she saw an amethyst necklace was embedded in her daughter’s skin. She had to get it out, but how when she was so tired?

The beasts rattled their chains louder, groaning and moaning. She knew they were her daughter’s zombie mates, but Jezebeth was too fatigued to help them. They would have to wait for their own mother.

Phoenix’s eyes fluttered open. She gaped up at the low ceiling, her lower lip trembling. “Mother?”

Jezebeth’s vision blurred with tears. She cupped her daughter’s cheek. “It’s okay, baby. You’re safe now.”

Phoenix coughed, and Jezebeth stumbled to her feet, looking around for water. Venom coursed through her veins when she turned around and faced an ugly creature, black ink dripping from his large eye and pooling out of the slash on his face she assumed was his mouth. Gorgo. Jezebeth struggled to gather her magic, but she’d drained it healing her child.

She arched away when the creature reached for her. She couldn’t run when she was the only thing between the monster and her child, and she wouldnotlet Gorgo hurt her baby again.

That slash on his face widened, more black ink pooling down his neck and chest. “Bitch!” he spat, spraying her with the disgusting and foul ink.

Turning up her chin, she refused to show fear. She had to stall him while she gathered her strength. “What did you expect me to do? You were hurting my child.”

He raised grotesque, knobby fingers that ended in long talons. “I smell the filth of your sins. Your blood is soured.”

The monsters behind him fought against their chains while chanting, “Mate, mate.” Out of the corner of her eye, she could see one of them had nearly pulled his chains out of the wall.

“That’s right,” she whispered under her breath. “Fight for her.”

She had no time to prepare for the black whip of pain that shot out of his fingertips and wrapped around her throat.

“You ruined my claw!”

His what?

He threw a charred claw on the ground, then twisted his talons, tightening the hold on her throat.

More black ink pooled down his face. “Now you shall be obliterated!”

She wrapped her hands around the searing magic, struggling in vain to break free. She cried out when the magic lifted her off the ground, strangling her while she hovered over her child.

No, no, no!She couldn’t fail Phoenix.

And then she was being flung across the room, and she knew her time was up. She only hoped she’d stalled him long enough so that the others could save her daughter. She would forfeit her soul for Phoenix’s freedom.

* * *

PHOENIX’S HEART TOOKoff at a race when Gorgo threw her screaming mother across the room and into the adjoining cavern. She had to help her, but she was still numb from either shock or fatigue, and she had to focus hard to get her stiff body to work. She rolled onto her side, struggling to find feeling in her limbs. Finally, she mustered enough strength to edge toward that charred claw Gorgo had discarded. Her movement was something between a slither and a crawl, exerting every ounce of strength she had left. She prayed the claw still had enough magic to help her.

She’d almost made it to the claw when her mother’s agonized cry split her heart in two. She rolled onto her back in time to see the evil mage throw her mother into a pit of fire, this one much wider than the grill he’d used to burn off her flesh, with flames that jumped toward the ceiling in time to her mother’s cries.

“Mom!” Reaching toward the flames, a sob caught in her throat. Her efforts were futile, for she could hardly move, much less access her magic.

Don’t cry for me, child. My sins are cleansed.Her mother’s voice echoed in her ears.I love you. Now fight!

“Mom?” she whispered through a constricted throat, her eyes welling with tears. Her mother couldn’t be gone! She wouldn’t accept it!

The flames roared toward the ceiling like a burst of dragon fire, knocking the squealing mage onto his back, and her mother’s laughter ricocheted around the room.

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