Total pages in book: 44
Estimated words: 42412 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 212(@200wpm)___ 170(@250wpm)___ 141(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 42412 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 212(@200wpm)___ 170(@250wpm)___ 141(@300wpm)
Cold amusement tugged at my lips.
They recovered, coming at me in a blur as they picked up speed.
But I had no time for them.
So, I made nothing of them, tearing through the Revs with fangs and claws steeped in the essence throbbing within me. I moved like a shadow, slipping under swords as I cracked bones. Shredded throats. Clawed hearts from rib cages. Ripped limbs away from those I touched. Tendrils of essence rose and struck like pit vipers as I punched my hand through a chest, the essence freezing tissue and bone until the body cracked like delicate glass. All around me, they fell and stayed where they had fallen, littering the road.
Catching a Rev’s arm, I spun them and drew them back, sinking my fangs into their throat. Blood poured down my chin as my essence poured into them. Their body stiffened—
Pain flared, sudden and hot, radiating across a wing and shooting down my spine. Ripping my fangs free, I cranked my head around with a hiss as several silver feathers fell to the ground, covered in blood.
The Rev shot forward, driving the shadowstone sword in a straight, forceful blow. I felt the impact more than I felt the pain. Looking down at the hilt now flush with the center of my chest, I straightened my head and dropped the Rev I held onto the road.
I laughed, the sound full of icy smoke and frosted shadows as I grabbed the sword.
The shadowstone splintered into nothing.
Snapping forward, I gripped the Rev by the cheeks. My fingers pressed in, smearing red paint as I leaned in until my lips were inches from theirs. “Ouch.”
Eather erupted from my hands, cascading over the Rev. Their veins lit up with muted silver and shadowy crimson. Smoke drifted out from under their eyelashes a heartbeat before silver flames consumed the Rev’s eyes.
I shoved them back as their lips stretched wide, smoky eather erupting from their mouth in a silent scream.
I turned, seeing that the road ahead was empty except for the bodies scattered down its length.
The seeping wound in my chest was already healing, but my wing throbbed. Instinctually, and without much thought, I willed the wings away. Something deep in my back, between my shoulder blades, shifted. The skin there tingled, and the muscles spasmed and then contracted. The sensation was…strange, and the wounded wing stung as they both flattened and folded inward, slipping beneath the skin. I could still feel them inside me, under flesh and muscle, tucked along my spine.
Walking forward, I picked up speed and leapt over the space where the colonnade had once stood, landing in what was left of the atrium.
I scanned the wide, long hall ahead as I drew in a deep breath, searching for that sweet jasmine scent. I found it within seconds. A low snarl rumbled from my chest. Rising from the crouch, I moved again, letting my senses swell. I was close to the gods—close to the Primal.
Ascended swarmed from both sides of the hall, rushing toward me, their fangs bared and sharpened bloodstone clutched in their hands.
I had even less time for them.
My gaze flicked to the ceiling. Eather thrummed and expanded within me as my will took shape. Grabbing the head of the first Ascended to reach me, I snapped their neck as a low, grinding sound came from above.
The Ascended stopped in their tracks, heads jerking upward as the walls trembled.
“The roof!” one of them shouted, spinning around. “Ashwood, the sun!”
That name stopped me. My gaze shot to the Ascended who had yelled the warning. A dark-haired female ran back into the chamber as wood splintered and nails shrieked, tearing free. The roof was torn upward with a deafening crack, peeling back like it was nothing more than a can being opened as I tracked the female Ascended to a group of vamprys pressing themselves against the wall farthest from the Hall. One male caught my eye. Tall, with hair as black as night and dressed in crimson silk and doeskin breeches, the expression on his pale face was haughty as fuck, even as he turned to run like the coward he was.
I was willing to bet that was Eldric Ashwood—someone I would make time for.
Because I was still petty like that.
Sunlight bathed the hall, igniting the Ascended as my eyes narrowed. Lifting my hand, I helped Ashwood escape as flames roared with a whoosh, sending him through the paneled interior doors and into another chamber. The air crackled as the fire spread, and screams rang out. The ceiling lifted, sending shingles flying.
I moved past the panicked, chaotic Ascended as flames engulfed them, my steps slowing before the rounded entrance to the chamber with a still-intact roof. Kicking in the doors, I immediately found Ashwood.
In the center of the sitting room, amid shards of wood and broken furniture he must’ve crashed into, he staggered to his feet and turned to me.