by Quinn Loftis
The water shield that Tucker had been hiding behind dropped, but instead of revealing Tucker, there was an empty spot where he’d stood only moments before.
“Damn,” Gabby huffed. “That was disappointing.”
“He’s a coward,” Tara said. “There’s no way he’d stay and fight if he thought for a second he couldn’t win.”
Frost appeared beside them and Gabby blinked, trying to figure out how the professor had gone from not being there to, boom, just appearing.
“We’ve got to keep the heat off of the light royals. They have to all be connected and focused to perform the devil’s trap spell in order to trap Dolion,” she said quickly, while at the same time deflecting a spell one of the witches cast at her. The woman was tough as hell.
“That’s all fine and dandy,” Shelly said and then pointed to the sky, “but we’ve got incoming.”
Gabby looked up and saw the dragon girl, riding her beast. Aston was positioned behind her on the monster. Flying around them, two on each side, came the other four dragons that had emerged through the portal.
“Well,” Tara said, “if you’ve ever wondered what being fried like a chicken leg feels like, you’re in luck. Because we are about to get cooked.”
“Love your positivity,” Elias said dryly.
“It’s totally my thing,” Tara said.
The dragons were over them now, staring down at them as if trying to decide who to eat first.
“Surrender now and you will be spared,” the blue and green dragon said.
Gabby’s mouth dropped open as she blinked several times.
“Did anyone else hear that dragon speak, or am I high on some sort of power trip?” Shelly asked.
“I heard it,” Gabby said as she raised her hand as if that was necessary. She was having a slightly difficult time processing everything that was happening. She couldn’t remember ever reading anything about dragons being able to talk.
“Surrender,” another dragon said, and this one sounded distinctly female. “We don’t want to hurt you.”
“Um, really? Because your boyfriend ate our friend,” Shelly blurted out, her shock wearing off and anger taking over. “That isn’t the action of a dragon who doesn’t want to hurt us.”
“I was under a spell,” the dragon said. “The demon placed it over us. His power is waning, and we’ve managed to break it.” The blue and green dragon growled. “I don't want my mate hurt.” His head motioned to the purple scaled dragon next to him. “Give up the battle and leave.”
“We can’t do that,” Professor Frost told the beast.
“The demon who put a spell on you wants to open the gates of hell,” Ra said.
“That has nothing to do with us,” the dragon replied.
Gabby was so over this conversation. She looked at the girl on the dragon in the middle and called out, “Who are you, and why do you have Aston?”
The girl, dressed all in black with dark hair flowing wildly around her, glared down at Gabby. “I am Rory and Aston is mine.”
“You have sixty seconds to shield your people,” the blue and green dragon said to Professor Frost. “Then we let our fire rain.”
Frost let out a curse and then turned to them. “Run and tell everyone now!” She took off, and Gabby didn’t hesitate as she grabbed Liam’s hand and took off running.
“Put up a shield,” she yelled at every elementalist she ran past.
“Dragon fire is coming,” she heard Liam yell. “Put up a shield.”
Gabby had no idea if their shields would hold against dragon fire, but it was better than simply standing there and getting burned to a crisp.
She heard others yelling the same thing. Gabby came to two demons battling it out, and Liam pulled her to a stop. One she was pretty sure was Osiris if she remembered what he looked like correctly from her textbooks.
“Osiris,” Liam said, “the dragons are about to rain down some serious flames. Can you help?”
Osiris slashed out his hand as the other demon attacked, and the lord of the underworld’s long claws raked across the demon’s face. Then Osiris looked at them. “I’m the lord of the underworld, boy. Of course, I can help. But I’ve got bigger problems at the moment.” He dodged the right hook the other demon threw at him and raked his claws across his opponent's stomach.
“Liam.” Gabby tugged on his hand and pointed up at the sky. The dragons, all five of them, had reared back their heads and smoke billowed out of their nostrils.
Liam lifted his hands, and water flowed up out of them, encasing both of them completely. Gabby couldn’t help but keep her eyes up, fascinated to see the dragons releasing their fire. Maybe she was a freak for wanting to see it, but she kind of felt like it was a once in a lifetime thing. Of course, that could be because most people who saw a dragon's fire ended up dead. At least that’s what her textbooks said.
The fire that shot from their mouths wasn’t red like she thought it would be. It was blue. It swept across the clearing, and even through Liam’s shield, she could feel the suffocating heat.
“It’s blue,” she murmured.
Liam nodded. “Like the hottest part of a fire, down at the bottom where the coals burn. The blue flames are the hottest.”
That sort of made sense. If a dragon was going to breathe fire, then they would no doubt breathe the hottest part.
When the blue flames finally stopped, the dragons swooped down, flying so low that those who hadn’t been cooked had to drop to the ground to keep from being knocked down. One by one, the dragons flew back through the portal. As soon as the last one disappeared, the portal snapped closed and vanished.
Liam dropped the shield, and Gabby looked around. The dark royal elementals survived, and some of the dark elementals and acolytes were fighting, but all of the witches lay dead. She guessed they must not have had a way to protect themselves from the dragons.
Osiris and the other demon, who Gabby figured must be the Dolion dude who was trying to open hell, were still going at it. Apparently, dragon fire didn’t do a damn thing to demons, or they’d somehow managed to protect themselves. Okay, so that made more sense. They were powerful demons, and one of them was basically the devil. Of course, they would be able to protect themselves while they continued to duke it out.
When the shock of the fire wore off, the battle renewed as Gabby watched Zuri bellow out a battle cry as she, Frost, Josie, Miles, and the triplets ran full out at the dark royals. They threw everything they had at the evil elementals.
“They’re distracting them,” Liam said as he pointed to where Aviur and the other light royals were forming a circle.
Gabby noticed that Dhara, the earth queen, was on her feet and appeared strong as she raised her joined hands in the air with the other elementals. All around the royals were small pixies, and they’d covered the group in a shimmering globe of magic. Circling them were the boulder golems, their backs to the royals as they deflected the attacks of the dark elementals and acolytes still standing.
Gabby shifted and saw a chalice in the center of the circle where the light royals were chanting. It was beginning to glow a bright red, and as the chanting grew louder, it began to shake.
“No!” The sound of Josie’s cry caused Gabby to turn just in time to see Miles take a blast of fire from the dark fire king straight to his chest. His body went up in flames. A moment later, there was nothing but ash where Miles had been.
“What the…” Gabby breathed out. Her stomach rolled as she watched Josie throw her hands out, bolt after bolt of blue power flying at the dark fire king. Walking toward her, he deflected them, one after the other.
“We have to help,” Liam said. He started toward Josie and then looked over his shoulder at Gabby. “Don’t die, dammit,” he snarled.
Gabby frowned. “You don’t die either,” she snapped back.
“Glad we have a plan,” Liam said.
Ra and Shelly ran toward them from the other side of the clearing, their eyes also o
n Josie.
Liam held out his hands and muttered under his breath. Gabby placed her hand on his shoulder and pushed her power into him. Blue and red balls of power shot out of his hands, aimed for the fire king, but the dark water king, Radagast, whom Gabby recognized from a text book in her class of History of the Royals last year, intercepted it with his magic.
He laughed and looked at them as if they were the dirt beneath his feet.
“You children think you have a chance against us?” Radagast bellowed.
“Our age doesn't matter,” Ra said calmly. “It’s the light we wield inside of us that guarantees us victory.”
“Naive babies,” Nimue, the dark earth queen spat.
Elias and Tara stepped up as they, too, began to add their power to the fight. Elias stomped on the ground and sent a pulse of power that caused the dark royals to stumble. At the same time, Zuri placed her hand on the dirt and spoke in the language of the earth elementals. A fissure opened up in the ground. It moved across the dirt toward the dark royals, rending a gash in the earth. They had to jump, right or left, to keep from falling into the crack.
Josie took advantage of their distraction and leaped at Viscious, the dark fire king. His arm shot out, and his hand caught her around the throat.
Gabby’s heart dropped to her feet, and she heard herself yell. She wasn’t the only one. Other voices joined in, and other bodies ran toward the dark royals. But the powerful dark elementals were joined by their acolytes, and no one was able to get through to Josie. Gabby watched in horror as Viscious jerked his hand, and Josie’s head flipped at an odd angle. Then he simply dropped her. She fell to the ground in a heap.
Gabby froze, staring at the lifeless body of the warrior she had come to know as a fierce fighter and funny woman. She was gone, in the blink of an eye. Just like Jax, just like Miles, and possibly just like Aston. Alive one second and then … dead.
The triplets—Atticus, Shaw, and Omar—leaped across the fissure, and one of them actually landed a punch on Viscious’s grinning face. One after the other, they either used their power or their fists to battle the fire king.
Professor Frost and Professor Fernis fought Lamia, the dark air queen, while Zuri and Elias kept trying to throw the royals off with ripples in the ground.
Gabby felt Liam’s arm wrap around her waist as he jerked her around, blocking a blast of fire from a fire acolyte. She narrowed her eyes at the acolyte and patted Liam’s back. “Thanks, babe,” she said. “Now do your mate a favor and drown that dude.”
Liam grinned at her. “As my lady wishes.” He turned and water rushed out of his hands. Gabby shot fire on either side of the acolyte so he had nowhere to run. She didn’t allow herself to feel anything when the guy finally dropped to the ground. Her friends were dying. She didn’t have time for mercy. She’d deal with her conscience later.
Liam was beside her a second later. “I’m with you, always. We’ll get through this.”
She knew he could feel her confusion and stress, but she nodded and then looked for her next target. They had to win, no matter the number of lives she had to take. Hell’s gates could not be opened.
Shelly was exhausted. Her hands felt like they were burning up, though she knew that wasn’t the case. If it wasn’t for Ra assisting her with his own power, she would have dropped long ago. She tried to assist Ra deal with three acolytes who were battling their way to the light royals in hopes of disrupting their spell to trap Dolion. But she was just so damn tired.
“Hang on, Mery,” Ra said as he put up a wall of fire between them and the acolytes. “It’s almost over.”
She looked over her shoulder and saw that the chalice in the center of the light royals’ circle had opened into a large hole in the ground. Fire leaped from it. A bellow shook the ground, and her head whipped around to see Dolion, the demon who Osiris had been fighting, throw back his head as his body began to crack—literally crack, as if he was made of stone and he’d been struck by a hammer. The demon shook his head from side to side, and fire sprang from his fingertips.
Osiris, who was looking all kinds of scary in his demon form—though Shelly would recognize those eyes and wicked smile anywhere—stood back, staring at Dolion with the satisfaction of a man who knew he’d won.
Ra wrapped an arm around Shelly and pulled her against him as the ground began to shake violently. She couldn’t take her eyes off Dolion as the demon was pulled toward the circle of light royals. By the time he reached the center, his body was coming apart. The pieces were sucked down into the hole, which closed with a resounding boom.
Everything went still. Those who had been fighting suddenly stopped, and the battlefield stood silent.
Shelly looked around and saw the shocked faces of the dark royals as they stared at the light royals. They clearly hadn’t expected to lose this battle. One by one, they disappeared as portals opened and acolytes dove through them. A few moments later, the forces of darkness had scattered. All that remained in the clearing were the light royals, the warriors and professors, the stone golems, and the pixies.
“That turned out to be easier than I thought.”
And Osiris. She turned to look at the lord of the underworld, who had returned to his human form and appeared all clean and neat in a black suit. Who the hell puts on a suit after a bloody battle? Satan, that’s who.
Things were only calm for a second before movement caught Shelly’s eye. Zuri leaped from where she’d been standing. Using the earth like a springboard, she flew at Osiris.
“This is all your fault,” she roared as she landed in front of the lord of the underworld. Her fist came back and flew forward the second she was in reach, plowing into Osiris’s shocked face.
Shelly gasped and, without thinking, pulled out of Ra’s hold. She ran toward Osiris and Zuri as she yelled at him, “Stop! Don’t touch her.”
Zuri threw out bolts of green power, but Osiris batted them away as if they were pesky gnats. Zuri kicked and punched, and Osiris met her tit for tat. He didn't even look like he was trying.
“He would still be alive if you had done your job and kept your damn demons in line,” Zuri growled as she stomped her foot, making the ground shift. Osiris sidestepped the movement and backhanded Zuri.
Shelly came to a staggering halt, realizing he’d just been deflecting blows up until that point. He hadn’t actually hurt Zuri, but now the earth elementalist warrior wore a bruise across her face.
“You have no idea what you’re talking about, little girl,” Osiris snarled at Zuri.
“I know that Dolion was yours, and you lost control of him,” Zuri spat back. She lunged again, but Osiris was ready. He whipped around and came up behind Zuri, his arm wrapping around her shoulders as a blade appeared out of nowhere and was suddenly against Zuri's throat.
“NO!” Shelly screamed, and she was moving again.
“SHELLY,” Ra’s voice finally broke through her fear, and she knew he’d been calling her the whole time. When she looked over her shoulder, she saw a wall of fire. Ra’s skin was burnt from where he’d tried to get through but couldn’t.
Shelly whipped back around and met Osiris’s flaming eyes. “Don’t do this,” she pleaded.
Zuri tried to stomp on Osiris’s foot but he moved, as if he knew what she was going to do before she did.
“You’re the reason Jax is dead,” Zuri said as Shelly watched a single tear slide down the female warrior’s face. “Because you couldn’t hold hell together. What kind of incompetent lord are you?”
Shelly wanted to tell Zuri to shut up, but she knew the woman was devastated and angry. She needed to take it out on someone, and Osiris was the logical target because it was his fault. Dolion had gotten out of control, and it had been the lord of the underworld's job to keep his demons in check.
“You have no idea what it takes to rule my realm,” he told Zuri, though he was looking at Shelly. “You have no idea the sacrifices I make to keep the humans from becoming fodder to the demons
I am tasked with.”
“Sacrifices?” Zuri spat. “You know nothing of sacrifices. You know nothing of the pain true sacrifice causes.”
“That’s where you’re wrong,” Osiris said as his eyes bore into Shelly’s. “I know exactly what kind of pain giving up something you want—someone you want--causes.”
Shelly shook her head at him. She knew he was talking about her, but there was no way he could mean that. He didn’t want her, not really. He wanted the idea of her. A bride to rule at his side. Someone to offer him company instead of just the wailing souls.
“You’re soulless, demon,” Zuri told him. “You’re not even a man. You’re simply a means to an end.”
Shelly saw the second Osiris made his decision. She moved even closer as she shook her head. “You don't have to do this,” she practically whispered. “You don’t have to be what people say you are.”
“He will never be anything but what he is,” Zuri said as her eyes met Shelly’s. “The destroyer of souls. Without care or mercy.”
Osiris shook his head. “You’re wrong.” He glanced down at Zuri, and his eyes seemed to soften for just a minute. “I can have mercy, and I’m offering it to you.” His blade slid across Zuri’s throat so fast Shelly didn’t even have time to make a sound.
Osiris turned back to her as he gently laid Zuri to the ground. His eyes held hers as he spoke. “I’m not the devil you think I am, little one.”
Shelly’s eyes dropped to Zuri as blood pooled around her. When Shelly looked back up, Osiris was right in front of her. “I’m worse,” he said as he wrapped an arm around her waist. “And I’m tired of not having what I want.” Shelly heard Ra’s voice calling her name as she looked over her shoulder and found his horror-filled eyes just before Osiris took her.
“She said I didn’t care,” Shelly heard Osiris whisper in her ear. “She was wrong. I care, but only about what I want and about you.”
Tears slipped down her face. “I’m not meant for you,” she said as they suddenly appeared in the room she remembered from her first time in hell.
“I thought I could let him have you,” Osiris said as he released her. He lifted his hand and wiped her tears away with a gentleness that shouldn’t have been possible from the demon who had just slit Zuri’s throat. “But I’m a demon. Coveting things is what I do. And I’m not just any demon, am I? I am the serpent of old. I am the great deceiver. I am the roaring lion who devours his prey. And I will take what I want when I want. And you, Shelly Smith, are what I want.”
