Appendages exploded from my back.
Blue crystal feathers clattered together in my peripheral vision, and I twisted my torso back and forth, making them shimmer in the sunlight.
They were stunning.
The beauty lost its appeal ten seconds later as I panted and struggled to stand up straight under their weight. The wings were heavy, and it felt like someone had tied boulders to my shoulder blades.
I leaned forward to stop myself from tipping backward.
Sweat dripped uncomfortably down my sides from the strain even though it was freezing.
“Now what?” I asked.
Molten silver eyes melted me where I stood. “Now you stop us.” Malum nodded to his mates.
Orion opened his mouth.
And we walked together into hell.
Chapter 19
Aran
DEVILS UNLEASHED
Igneous （adjective）： of, relating to, or resembling fire.
DAY 10, HOUR 10
Click. Click. Click.
The gold hardware on the kings’ ears levitated upward and separated into shards. Three gold crowns floated above their heads.
Snow whipped around them in a frenzy as the icy wind shrieked. The storm picked up, and the sky darkened.
Rocks groaned under the onslaught.
I bent my knees and leaned further forward as I tried to alleviate the weight on my back muscles. A part of me was shocked that we were really doing this right now. No preamble.
The wind and ice slammed against me, and I cursed the mercurial weather.
Silver, brown, and milky white eyes darkened to black, and talons lengthened on their hands, eerily similar to the serrated ice talons I’d donned when I killed my mother.
Gore in my mouth, blood dripping down my chin, Mother howling as I consumed her heart and stole her crown.
Malum’s baritone voice dragged me out of the memories as he proclaimed, “As the Ignis from the illustrious House of Malum, I invoke the power of my mates.”
He pulled the silver dagger from his throat and said, “As the crowned King of the Sun God, I invoke the power of my mates.”
“Venimus! We came,” Orion sang loudly as he triggered the sequence that unleashed their powers. The three of them went unnaturally still. They became mindless.
My eyes widened at the sheer beauty of his voice.
A petal slapped against my face as cherry blossoms mixed with snow in a swirling vortex of white.
It was magnificent.
It was terrifying.
Scorpius proclaimed, “Vidimus. We saw,” and the eye tattoo on his neck blinked open. It stared straight at me. His blind eyes glowed, and he turned his head like he was searching for people.
“Vicimus. We conquered,” Malum finished as flames poured off him.
My thighs trembled, and I put my hands on my knees to keep myself upright. Crystal feathers clattered against the rocks as my wings drooped.
I wanted to lie down.
Flames tumbled off Malum faster, like the air was kerosine, and somehow the frozen mountainside caught fire.
It should have been impossible.
Somehow the kings’ power broke the laws of thermodynamics.
I gnawed on my lip as I stared at the three men who were in a trance.
It hit me like a punch to the gut that this was an astronomically stupid idea.
How was I supposed to do anything to stop them?
Ice radiated around me, but whenever I tried to channel it into something different, nothing happened. It was like I was an inanimate frozen object, incapable of anything but misery.
No, I was not having a pity party.
It was called being aware of your limitations.
My knees knocked together, and it took everything I had not to sprawl down under the weight of my wings.
“Stop it,” I said and pointed my icy hands at the fire. Immediately I felt like a fool because nothing happened.
If anything, the warmth felt delicious, and I wanted more of it. Why would I try to put out the fire that was warming the chill from my bones? I wanted to flame it brighter.
“Stop the fire,” I repeated lamely to the kings and envisioned ice exploding from my fingertips toward the devils like it had when I’d fallen atop Jinx and stopped them.
At least, that was how I imagined it happening. It wasn’t clear to me how I’d stopped them.
I gnawed on my lip as the flames expanded across the mountainside.
Swearing under my breath, I visualized putting out the fire. My stomach twisted with apprehension.
No ice exploded off my hands toward the scarlet inferno.
If anything, frost receded from my fingers as the air warmed around me. I thawed and basked in the inferno.
I clapped my hands loudly and tried a different approach. “Snap out of it.”
The kings remained mindless beings of fire and death. The very unwell part of me was jealous. It would be nice if I could sink into a mindless craze and stop worrying about my actions.