by Meg Xuemei X
My heart leapt up and pounded in my throat, which was bad for me since my fast heartbeat only made me lose blood more quickly.
But—
Mate.
He called me his mate.
I had heard that angels still held onto one unyielding honor: they treasured their mates above all.
I blinked, trying to process the significance of what he had declared and how it had changed everything, and at the same time trying not to pass out.
A blurry flash—Seth had moved.
The guards at the door went down as the lighting struck.
The prince sliced his sword toward Victoria’s head.
Though the king’s general wasn’t as superior as Seth, she spent almost every waking hour in training or on the battlefield when she wasn’t in the sadist king’s bed. If Seth hadn’t interfered when I had dueled her, she would have ended me then.
Victoria bent her head backward just in time to avoid Seth’s blade and thrust her long sword toward him in counterattack.
Black lightning sizzled on Seth’s golden wings.
“You’ll honor me for this fight, Prince,” she hissed. “You’ll fight fair.”
“I don’t need my lightning to take you down,” Seth said.
That bitch was shrewd. She knew she couldn’t defeat Seth, so she tried to stall him until the king returned, until her army swarmed in. She planned to overwhelm him with numbers.
I had once used my feminine wiles on the high prince, but now that we were on the same side, I had to watch out for him.
Playing dirty was considered clever and logical in Mysthian culture.
“Show her no honor and no mercy, Seth!” I shouted, though excruciating pain weakened my voice. “Shove your lightning up her ass, and plenty of it!”
Seth let out a low chuckle.
Before his laugh died, cold fury had returned to him. He focused on her as he addressed me. “It will be over soon, love. Lightning is too good for her, for what she did to you.” He swung his sword at Victoria, but she flew backwards. She was fast.
“Don’t let her get away!” I protested.
“She won’t,” Seth said, stalking toward the king’s general purposefully. “And I’d appreciate it if you could restrain from shouting fighting tips at me while I’m busy.”
Seth swept his sword in a powerful arc. Victoria parried from the side. They both moved incredibly fast and became a blur of entangled movements. The general kicked Seth’s blade in the air and used the maneuver to sneak behind him.
The general thrust her long sword toward Seth’s heart from behind.
He fought straight. She fought dirty.
I cried a warning in terror, despite that Seth had just warned me to be quiet.
Seth slammed his sword onto hers without turning. Then another dagger appeared in her hand. It drove toward Seth’s neck at lightning speed.
My heart stopped cold. I struggled to go to him, but my shackles pulled me back.
Seth grabbed the blade before it reached his throat, blood dripping from his hand.
No, no, no!
Once again, I wished I had the great offensive magic to burn a hole in the bitch’s chest.
No one should bleed Seth except me. He was mine.
Seth’s blade flashed white, and red blood formed on its edge.
The High Prince of All Angels ended the fight.
Chapter 33
PRINCE SETH
A thick red line crossed Victoria’s neck from ear to ear. She held her throat with a shocked expression.
“I would have cut you to pieces before I allowed you to die if I wasn’t eager to get back to my mate,” I said.
I watched with satisfaction as the last light abandoned her eyes. I’d said whoever hurt my mate would never see the light, and I always kept my word.
A sentinel ducked into the inner chamber to check out the noises. I threw Victoria’s dagger backwards without looking and heard the dropping thud and wings scratching the floor.
I strode toward Rose.
She gazed up at me as I struck open the chains on her wrists and ankles with my lightning. I’d never seen her stare at me like that. For the first time, she was looking at me with absolute trust and unbelievable tenderness.
As I tossed away the shackles, I noticed that the dead bitch had broken my mate’s ankle.
Rage filled me again, but there was no more punishment I could enacted on Victoria since she had been choked to death by her own blood.
“Seth,” my female whispered my name.
I brushed my lips over hers gently. “I can’t remove the arrows now, or you’ll bleed profusely.”
She nodded. “I’m fine.”
I scooped her up in my arms, careful not to touch her wounds and the arrows in her. “Let’s get you out of here.”
She bit back a cry of pain at the movement, even though I’d been extra gentle. Her wounds were worse than I thought.
She snuggled her face against my jaw. Even that effort brought her wince and gasp. “Don’t try to move,” I said. “I’ll hold you. I’ll never drop you.”
If we were outdoors, I could fly her away. I looked up at the ceiling: it would open only at Agro’s heat signature. But I could blow it off and shield Rose with my wings.
Seemingly reading my thoughts, Rose clutched my arm. “No, wait,” she said. “We need to get the remainder of my team out of the dungeon.”
“Not until I send you to safety first,” I snarled. “I’ll come for them later.”
“They’ll be dead when you come back,” she said. “I’d made a promise to my courtiers to bring them home. Some of them have survived Victoria. I won’t leave them behind. So either we all escape or I won’t go. Please.”
I gritted my teeth at her stubbornness. “They’re not my priority. You are.”
“They’re my people, Seth,” she said. “And we must take the Dragonian commander as well. He dies, and I won’t have a Dragonian army to fight with me. You’ve saved me over and over. Now please save my people.”
Then she slumbered in my arms. A panicked realization hit me. She could no longer keep up the appearance. Her face was ashen. Any moment she would fade away.
I was a complete ass and an idiot to argue with her.
Her lips shivering, Rose attempted to make her case again.
“Shush, love,” I said. “Don’t talk. Just stay with me. I’ll take your people with us.”
That was a lie.
She could get mad at me later. She could hate me, but I had to get her to safety first before I even considered anyone else.
A horde of angels charged into the room before I could cloak Rose and myself. But then I knew even if I made us invisible, the king’s angels would track us easily because Rose was bleeding. I couldn’t stop it before I brought her to my villa, and I didn’t have time to heal her while an army of hell was on my back.
A change of plan formed in my head.
I would hand her to her guards and help them escape.
I had to stay behind to prevent my kind from hunting her down.
That was the only way to keep my mate safe.
Chapter 34
PRINCESS ROSE
The king’s palace became a war zone. Angels fought each other. I could barely tell who belonged to Seth’s team and who were on the king’s side. I spotted Ephraim. He slashed his long, black sword beside Seth, guarding his back. Seth tore an opening for us, leaving plenty of bodies behind.
Angels’ blood splattered everywhere. Wings broke. Swords thrust into flesh mercilessly. Groans and screams and roars rose here and there. Every angel was an excellent killer, and the fighting was the most brutal I’d ever seen.
The fragments of the battle faded from my eyes, replaced by a starry night in the twilight realm. I knew then I was passing away from this world, but at least I was in Seth’s arms.
Mate.
He called me his mate.
Seth wrapped an arm around my waist and pinned
me against him, so he could use his free hand to shoot lightning at the king’s soldiers. It was a difficult pose for us both. I couldn’t throw my arms around his neck to free his hands, because when I had tried, blood just poured from my wounds. And I’d been feeling too numb to lift my limbs.
Seth refused to let any angel from his team take me, as if he was afraid once I left his hand, he would never have me again.
While he battled, he constantly shouted at me to stay awake and checked on my condition, which reduced his effectiveness in fighting our way out. His fear for me—he was terrified that I would fade and never wake up—was so tangible that I could taste its bile and desperation.
I fought to stay awake, but I was so cold and tired. Every minute felt like eternity.
I forced myself to focus on the present and on my male.
The shouts and the sound of crossing blades hurt my ears, despite my dulling senses.
Seth fought through.
“The dungeon, please,” I reminded him, surprised at my burst of strength before it slipped away.
Angels’ blood shot up and spattered at Seth’s every brutal slash. Feathers fell all around. Seth had been taking great care to shield me, yet drops of blood still fell on my face. I only prayed none of the blood was Seth’s.
Seth carried me amid a heap of broken bodies and blood-tainted wings.
“Go to the dungeon!” he shouted an order at his team in the hallway.
“They’ve sealed the entire palace and Atlantis,” Ephraim called beside him.
Another eternity crawled by as we prowled through. Then I heard Seth yell, “Release the prisoners!”
Then Souline and Femi came forth among others.
Alive! They were alive! Even Hector and Lion, covered by blood, were still breathing. I choked back a sob. I tried to reach for them.
“Hang in there, baby.” Seth’s voice enveloped me in a dream. “Hang in there, please, for me, for us. I’ll get you out soon.”
He gently wiped something wet from my face, and I didn’t know if it was tears, sweat, or blood, or all of them mixed.
I gazed up at Seth. A thousand words were stuck in me.
No longer my enemy, but my mate. My first and last. My one and only.
My mate.
Chapter 35
PRINCE SETH
I was an avenging angel. Only this time, I battled my own kind.
My soldiers and friends fought bravely beside me. Many of them, like Ephraim, had secretly held the same idea as the rebel angels across the universe, advocating freedom for every colonized species and condemning all forms of slavery.
I had looked the other way instead of purging them. I had never been crazy about punishing anyone for their ideas and dreams. No one could touch them while they were under my command.
Today, they fought by my side for my mate, and some of them had fallen.
After a few strikes, I gave up deploying my lightning. My sky power was best used on the battlefield for mass kills. In the narrow space while my soldiers tangled with the king’s, I would hurt them as well. Besides, my lightning wasn’t an endless well. It could exhaust and would take time to refill, so I’d better reserve it for when I needed it the most.
My hand held Rose tightly and carefully; my other hand wielded a sword. As my main goal was to shield her, I was greatly compromised fighting off my foes.
Fear incapacitated me. Every minute I was delayed from delivering Rose to safety could result in her bleeding to death.
But the king’s soldiers kept coming like endless locusts. They swarmed over their peers’ corpses to reach Rose and me, determined to snatch my lamb from my hands. They were afraid of me, but they were the warrior breed and had the king’s orders.
I blinked away the sweat that stung in my eyes.
Deep and shallow gashes sliced across my skin.
I was soaked with blood, mine and the sentinels.
When Ephraim and I reached the dungeon, the team I’d dispatched earlier to free the Mysthian prisoners was still fighting the king’s jailers. Roaring in fury, I charged, yet was careful to keep Rose out of harm’s way, and cut down the rest of the resistance.
My lightning struck open the lock. The surviving members of Rose’s court were all inside the same cell, the Dragonian commander among them.
Rose sobbed and tried to reach for her people, but failed to lift a hand.
“Hang in there, baby,” I begged her. “Hang in there, please, for me, for us. I’ll get you out soon.”
The Mysthian warriors, courtiers, and Rose’s maid rushed out of the cell. They picked up the weapons of the dead jailers, joining the fight just as a second wave of the king’s soldiers arrived. The enemies swarmed towards us, overwhelmed us with numbers, and separated me from Rose’s people.
The Dragonian commander swung a sword among the Mysthians, as if he knew what he was doing. At one point, he sent me a nasty glare. I would have impaled him if it weren’t for my female.
She needed him for the alliance for the future warfare against my kind, and I had chosen her above anyone and anything. For her, I’d fought with a Dragonian and the Mysthians against the angels.
It pained me to know that I had become the worst enemy to my lord father.
But what wouldn’t I do for my mate?
The Mysthian warriors and I cut our way toward each other. They had only one purpose—reach their princess and protect her with their lives. I had a similar goal—hand Rose to them and help them escape.
With our combined brutal, desperate forces, we reached each other, leaving dead angels in the archway.
The Mysthian lead guard nodded his gratitude at me. For the first time, there wasn’t enmity in his hard eyes. He’d been wounded badly, yet he still fought bravely.
“This way!” the Dragonian called urgently and led us through shortcuts toward my study. He must have known every secret path above and under Atlantis since his engineers had built this city. And I had just learned there was another secret door inside my library that led to the subterranean passages.
I carried Rose and ran after the Dragonian, cutting down any angel on our path. I held the princess as gently as I could, so I wouldn’t cause her too much pain with all the running and fighting.
I wished I could suffer for my mate instead and take away her pain.
In no time, we arrived at my library through the inner route.
The main entrance door opened at my heat signature. But before I could rush in with Rose in my arms, a new section of the king’s angels zeroed in, positioning themselves to blast the glass door and windows and ceiling with their laser weapons.
They blotted out the sky and filled the ground.
If I went with Rose, they would chase her to the end. And my mate was bleeding out.
Our numbers were too small to fight the great angel army.
I knew what I had to do.
It was time for me to let her go and give her back to her warriors. Let them carry her home while I held the defenses.
Yet I couldn’t let her leave my arms. I knew once I did, I would never see her again.
My mate.
I’d come across light years and many worlds to find her. I’d waited for her for eons and stood alone in eternal bleakness.
Letting her go was like tearing myself apart right there, yet I had to if she were to live.
The Mysthians waited for me to enter the library with their princess and gestured that they would stay behind to fight the last line. I shook my head. None of them were in a good shape, and most of them could barely stand straight.
The lead guard was a complete mess himself, soaked in blood of both angels and himself. I wouldn’t entrust any of them to carry my Rose. I turned to my most trusted friend Ephraim. “You go with them. You keep her safe for me.”
“You go, Prince,” Ephraim said. “I’ll defend—”
“You won’t stand a chance, either,” I said. “Promise me to keep her safe.”
“Wit
h my life, Highness,” Ephraim said.
I waved the Mysthians through the door, and the lead guard organized the courtiers to go in first, following the Dragonian rebel commander, who shoved a device on a side wall and revealed a secret door.
The Dragonian ducked in first and down to the tunnel. He gestured for the rest of the Mysthians to follow suit, but none did. Every one of them stood beside the inner door, waiting for their princess. They wouldn’t go in without seeing Rose enter first.
As tenderly as I could, I transferred Rose to my friend, but she struggled to cling to me.
“No,” she whispered.
“Princess, you have to let go,” the lead guard said, trying to pry away her fingers that grabbed my collar.
She snarled at him, as did I.
“Let go, love,” I said. “I’ll find you.”
“They’ll…kill…you,” she said, using her every ounce of strength to persuade me. “I won’t leave…you…” She refused to let me go.
“You have to go now!” I said. “I’ll come for you, I promise.”
“No, they’ll…kill you,” she insisted.
“I’m still their high prince,” I said. “And I’m too powerful for them to kill. I can’t fight them off while I have to worry about you, female!”
The lead guard successfully pried her fingers open, which were frail anyway, and I gently put Rose in Ephraim’s arms.
The ceiling in my library shattered. The king’s soldiers were about to come through.
“Go!” I shouted at Ephraim.
“Please,” Rose pleaded, “don’t leave…him.”
Carefully carrying Rose, Ephraim dashed toward the secret door, and Rose screamed for me.
I didn’t even get to kiss her goodbye.
The Mysthian courtiers rushed after their princess, and then the fey guards followed.
My lightning burst toward the broken skylight, crashing into the oncoming angels and scorching everything in its path.
I did not care for the screams of my kind—not when they came after my mate.
Burned feathers fell after the raining glass and splinters of woods and concrete. Angels dropped from the air.
