“Are you sure you want to do this?” Sadie’s ruby eyes glowed with concern.
I nodded. “Climb down to safety and hide. We’ll handle the last of the ungodly.” The unspoken, otherwise we’re outnumbered and could lose the battle, hung in the air between us.
She stared at me for a long moment, then nodded and gestured to her mates. “Let’s go down and wait it out. Aran can handle this.”
My stomach knotted. I rubbed at the black fabric which covered my neck and concealed my new tattoo.
I hope she’s right.
Cobra narrowed his eyes at me like he wasn’t going to obey, but at the last moment he shook his head and followed Sadie. “Don’t get yoursssself killed,” he hissed as he stomped past.
“Don’t question our ability to protect our mate,” Malum snapped. Scarlet flames danced across his head.
Cobra bared razor-sharp fangs at him, then disappeared over the edge of the mountain. The assassins were a blur of shadows behind the shifters.
The angels remained.
“You should go,” I repeated.
“Angels don’t run and hide,” Rina spat. “We’re staying.”
Whatever. I tried.
Cracking my neck back and forth, I focused on the village full of infected.
I pushed my pipe between my lips and inhaled enchanted smoke.
“Are you ready?” Scorpius asked with a grim expression.
“Yes,” I said, before I could change my mind.
Cherry blossoms swirled off Orion’s neck, a pink pretty in the lavender sunlight. They traveled through the air and circled around the structures.
I tensed my muscles.
Click. Click. Click. Click.
The gold hardware on our ears floated upward and separated into shards of a crown.
Unlike last time, the kings’ eyes didn’t darken.
Ice talons exploded from my fingers. Scorpius’s and Orion’s talons looked the same, but Malum’s had changed.
They were made of fire.
Malum tipped his head back and said, “As the Ignis from the illustrious House of Malum, I invoke the power of my mates.” He pulled the wickedly sharp dagger from his neck. He stared at me as he said, “As the crowned King of the Sun God, I invoke the power of my mates.”
My skin prickled with power.
It was intoxicating.
“Venimus!” Orion sang. “We came.”
I braced myself for the trancelike state—it never came.
Scorpius grinned as he realized and bellowed, “Vidimus! We saw.” The eye tattoo on his neck looked around and his milky blind eyes glowed brightly.
It was Malum’s turn to speak, but I tipped my head back, and sheer power ripped through my chest.
On instinct, I yelled, “Interfecimus! We slaughtered.”
Ice shot from my fingers and formed into a staff. It touched the ground and towered high above my head. A skull sat on the end, and Horse settled onto it. His feathers gleamed with shades of red and gold.
He was corporeal.
I gasped with delight.
Horse opened his long beak and cawed, the sound toe-curling and vicious.
Malum shouted, “Vicimus! We conquered.” He held the dagger above his head, and flames poured off him, filling the air.
Ice burst from my fingers and rose to greet his heat.
The lavender sunlight disappeared. Gray clouds rolled in and snow whipped furiously.
The blizzard had arrived.
“The day of wrath is here,” Orion sang loudly in his sweet, poisoned voice. White-blond hair floated alongside cherry blossoms. He winked over at me. “The day of wrath is upon us.”
Doors slammed open, and hundreds of infected poured out of the structures into the unforgiving snow.
Scorpius tipped his head back to the sky and bright light shot out from all three of his eyes.
The white flames above the infecteds’ heads flickered green, then midnight black.
Orion sang, “Your souls have been found lacking. You have committed a heinous crime against bodily autonomy. Redemption is not possible. You will be exterminated.”
I raised my ice staff.
Slammed it down onto the rocks.
CRACK.
Horse raised his wings wide and screamed into the storm.
Temperatures plummeted. Lower. Lower. Lower. Lower. Winds intensified.
Visibility was nonexistent, but I didn’t need my eyes to see.
I could feel the location of every infected person. Their souls were corrupted by the foul ungodly.
Scarlet flames leaped and rose higher off Malum, and his warmth cut through the ice storm. The twins stepped forward and stood beside the flaming king.
Malum spread his arms wide, and his heat sheltered all of us from my cold.