It was obvious in hindsight.
The angels called me “sinful blood” because they knew what I was, and they knew what she had been.
Mother had been an angel without wings. And the others knew it.
For some reason, the High Court had positioned an angel on the throne of death. It was an inside job.
A cover-up.
I’d never developed fae powers as a child because I was never a fae and Mother had known it.
Her taunt about how I’d never be more than her made so much sense.
The slur carved into my back was a statement. Mother had wanted to make me in her image and ensure I never achieved what she couldn’t.
In the beast realm, a maid had confronted Sadie and me. Her voice had been warped and distorted as she said,
“One must join, and raise the rear,
Other must break, and bring the kings,
One must grow, and lose the fear,
Other must die, and rise with wings.”
It was the same voice that had just spoken to me and welcomed me into the Consciousness—some type of connection among angels.
It had found a way to speak to me even before I’d earned my wings.
It had guided me.
To this exact moment.
I’d assumed, since I was depressed and fearful, that “one” referred to me and “other” was a metaphor for Sadie embracing her powers.
Now it was obvious.
I was the other.
It was all predetermined: I’d been broken, I knew three heinous kings, a piece of me had died in the competitions, and I had wings.
Free will was a lie.
I snapped back into the moment.
My brain had processed everything in 0.2 seconds, but I was still free-falling.
I screamed as my body twitched from the force of the change that had ripped through me.
There was no time left and no miracles to be had.
I was back at square one, with the problem I’d always had at the academy. Knowing wasn’t the same as doing.
No one was coming to save us.
No god would stop this fall.
Understanding everything didn’t change the reality that Jinx was plummeting toward death and no god was going to step in and save Jinx from her fate.
There was only me.
Doom was a few seconds away.
Gritting my teeth, I tensed and flexed every muscle in my body. Sweat poured down my face as I tilted my shoulders to the side and spread cartilage wide.
Bones clicked and jarred together. Wings fanned behind me and caught against the wind.
We banked rapidly to the left.
Spiraled sideways toward a post.
I barely had time to shift Jinx in front of me before my back slammed against wood and crystal feathers clattered.
The wind exploded from my lungs, and Jinx tumbled backward out of my hands. She fell limply through the open air.
Paralyzed with outstretched arms, I could do nothing but watch.
As she fell.
For a long, horrible moment, my momentum kept me pinned to the post as Jinx disappeared out of view. Then I tipped forward and plummeted face-first after her.
It was a short fall.
I face-planted, and my nose exploded beneath me.
Blinking in dirt, I lay immobile.
Behind me the student section screamed encouragement, and their shouts jumbled together.
Jinx.
I strained to roll over as the heavy weight of my wings pinned me down.
They crushed me.
With every ounce of strength I possessed, I pulled myself upward. Tipping backward, I threw myself forward to counteract gravity and managed just barely to stay on my feet.
I staggered toward a child’s limp body.
Bruises were already forming on her skin, but her limbs were attached. When her chest rose with a shaky breath, I nearly collapsed with gratitude.
The relief didn’t last long.
Whoosh. Three kings landed on their feet with a crack as the dirt cratered beneath them.
The three devils had jumped from the tops of their posts and landed on their feet. It should have been impossible.
I forced myself to stand up straight, and I stepped toward Jinx.
White light still shot out of Scorpius’s three eyes, and Orion’s pink petals floated around him.
Malum pointed a flaming finger at Jinx.
No.
Still winded from the fall, with heavy wings holding me back, I couldn’t move fast enough.
One second, Jinx was lying mostly unharmed.
The next moment, Jinx’s leg was on fire.
Orion sang, “Judgment is here,” as Malum’s scarlet flames spread rapidly up her leg and left nothing but ashes behind.
“Stop!” I shrieked like a maniac as I flung myself at Jinx. I landed atop her small body, and turquoise leapt from my hands as I patted at Jinx’s leg desperately.
Ice fought fire.
I nearly wept with relief when the flames dissipated.
The kings took a step forward and towered over us, blocking out the eclipse, casting us in cold shadows.
Three nightmarish villains with unbelievable powers.
Three men built for murder.
Death incarnate stood before us.
They were mindless killing machines.
Judge. Jury. Executioners.
As I stared up at them, visions flashed before me: cities on fire, people screaming for help as they burned to death. You could feel it in the air around the kings—the capacity for atrocity and the sheer lack of control.
How were they allowed to live? How could the sun god name these creatures his kings?
How could a god allow such monsters to live?
They were more weapons than men.
Who could stop them?
No one.
The potential for mass murder was written in the harsh planes of their faces, in the perfect cuts of their high cheekbones, in the muscled lines of their immense heights. I saw it every day at the academy. They lacked empathy for others. Everything was about dominance and asserting themselves.
They were more beast than man.
My stomach churned. Horror exploded across my synapses.
There was no way to reason with them in this state.
With monumental effort, I spread the bones of my wings and splayed my limbs so I covered Jinx’s smaller frame with my own.
“To get to her, you’ll have to go through me,” I snarled up at them.
Scorpius’s three eyes glowed creepily as he stared down without blinking. Silken petals drifted across my skin as Orion sang loudly, “Justice must be served. She has committed an unspeakable wrong. Her soul is black.”
Malum pointed his flaming finger down at us.
This was going to fucking hurt.
I held my hands up in front of me uselessly.
Once again, the world was drenched in shades of crimson.
I drowned in fire.
Burned.
Opened my lips and screamed.
Then—
Something exploded.
My ears rang like the sound barrier was broken.
Flashes of scarlet and teal lit up around me like bombs until my vision went white, then blank.
My thoughts disappeared. I was cocooned in a peaceful song. The tune was so soft and lyrical that it sounded like silence.
But it wasn’t simply quiet.
It was fate.
Destiny.
A predetermined life path.
I floated lazily in the melody of a song that soothed every jagged edge of my existence. Pure contentment flowed through me.
I was yanked out of the safe place.
The world snapped into focus as someone grabbed me roughly.
Orion held me by my arms and shouted down at me.
Malum and Scorpius hovered beside him but they didn’t look fully conscious. There was a glassy sheen to their expressions like they were still out of it.