A Battle of Souls Read online

  “How are my favorite chew toys doing?” Rewa asked, her voice sweet like honey but reeking of poison. We were in for another taunting session from Little Miss Psycho.

  I cleared my throat, prompting Blaze to follow my gaze. He noticed the gold keys hanging from Rewa’s belt, then quickly switched to his mind-bent stare as she approached us. The only influence she’d exerted on me had been to make me stay quiet. She needed me conscious and aware of what was happening, so I could watch her making out with my dragon.

  She slithered across the room and leaned in to Blaze, cupping his face and pressing her lips against his. I almost retched when she flicked her tongue over his lower lip, then bit it, a little harder than usual. She enjoyed inflicting pain even on her “favorite chew toy.” I was seething, and I didn’t hide it, either, giving her the kind of death stare that could’ve made her heart stop forever, if I had such an ability.

  What a shame that I don’t.

  “I slept like a baby last night,” Rewa cooed, keeping her cheek close to Blaze’s, her eyes half-closed as she enjoyed the physical contact. “Thinking about all the ways in which we’ll have fun together. I’ll have to work hard to convince Shaytan to let me keep Blaze, but you?” She sneered at me. “You, I look forward to handing over. But there’s something missing from this whole arrangement. You’re getting off easy after how much of a nuisance you’ve been.”

  She took a couple of steps back, picking some lint from her black velvet dress before she gave me one of her insufferable smirks.

  “I don’t think the idea of me making love to your dragon will be enough to torment you for all eternity,” she muttered, putting on a pensive expression. “I wonder what else we could do to make sure you never forget the price you pay for crossing me…”

  In that instant, she lit up like the night sky on the Fourth of July.

  “I know!” she exclaimed, giggling like an ecstatic little girl. “Blaze, darling, I need you to burn Caia. Just on the face, though. We don’t want her dead. We don’t want to waste any of the soul food she’s got for the daemon king. But it doesn’t say anywhere that she needs to be in perfect working order for Shaytan’s consumption habits. Burn her face. I want her ugly and disfigured, so whenever she catches a glimpse of herself in a mirror, she remembers that I, Rewa of House Xunn, defeated her.”

  That entire statement sent chills down my spine, but the look on Blaze’s face—which she’d yet to notice, since she was busy grinning at me—told me what we had to do next. First off, it was time to drop the act for a minute.

  I couldn’t help but smirk. “You know what, Blaze? I’ve had enough of this bitch. Burn her ass to a crisp,” I said flatly.

  Rewa froze, realizing that her mind-bending wasn’t working. I was supposed to be mute and helpless. Watching that grin get wiped off her face was, perhaps, one of the most satisfying moments in my entire life.

  “Wait. How—” She stopped herself from talking when logic finally caught up with her. If it didn’t work on me, it didn’t work on Blaze either. She stared at him for a second, finally seeing the grim look on his face. “Wait. You… How did you—”

  Blaze blew out a thick column of fire. The flames were so powerful and so intense, they instantly killed her. Within two seconds, Rewa was a blackened husk with a humanoid shape, the golden key hanging by a burnt thread. It would take just one gust of wind to completely disintegrate her. Blaze had put enough fury into those flames to perfectly replicate death by standing right at the back of a rocket. The charmed cuffs didn’t do anything against a dragon’s natural ability to breathe fire, after all…

  Rewa was dead, and I could breathe again.

  “Wait, wait, wait,” I murmured, then managed to slip one boot off. I put my foot out to catch the keys with my toes as they fell off her. I dragged them back, then clutched them with my toes and brought them up in a yoga-like stretch. It took some grunting and panting to lift my leg to a height where I could reach the keys, since my hands were still cuffed against the wall, but I did it. “There we go.”

  Blaze stared at me, evidently impressed. A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.

  “I didn’t know you could stretch like that,” he breathed.

  “Oh, there’s a lot you don’t know about me yet,” I replied with a playful grin, then nodded at Rewa’s carbonized corpse, still standing and sending chills down my spine. “Now, let’s clean that mess up before others come in.”

  Nowhere did Nevis’s instructions say we couldn’t get rid of Rewa. Besides, she was despicable and annoying as hell. It didn’t feel good to take a life, but the world was definitely a better place without her in it.

  Blaze

  I watched in amazement as Caia twisted her hand around, key firmly between her fingers, until she found the keyhole and we heard that first, liberating click. With one hand free, the other cuff didn’t stand a chance.

  Two seconds later, we were both free, standing in front of Rewa’s charred remains and completely weirded out by the fact that she’d yet to fall apart. Caia narrowed her eyes at what had once been Rewa’s face, pursing her lips.

  “You brought this on yourself,” she muttered, then exhaled.

  That brief blow of air was enough to finally do the deed, and Rewa disintegrated into a pile of charcoal on the floor, prompting Caia to yelp and take a couple of steps back. We instinctively froze, listening to what was going on outside. We breathed a sigh of relief when nothing concerning came through. The chances of someone walking in at this point were slim.

  “We need to move fast,” Caia muttered, frowning as she looked around. “Gah, where’s a broom and a dust pan when you need one?”

  I stifled a smirk, then went over to one of the wooden cabinets on the other side of the room. A brief search through the cupboards and drawers answered our prayers—sort of. Armed with a handful of cloths and a porcelain bowl, we proceeded to transfer Rewa’s ashes into the china container.

  It took us about two minutes to get most of them. I stashed it into the cupboard, while Caia blew over the floor, scattering the rest away. It was literally the best we could do with what we had.

  “Now what?” I asked, resting my hands on my hips.

  She sighed, then pointed at the cuffs. “We’ll have to go back there and pretend nothing happened,” she said.

  I rolled my eyes, then walked over and wrapped my arms around her, pulling her into a deep and feverish kiss. There was something about Caia that constantly kept me on my toes, equally nervous and exhilarated. Being around her made my heart beat faster, even when we were chained to the wall. She’d been so resilient, so patient and self-contained, until we got rid of Rewa. I was genuinely in awe of her.

  She moaned gently against my lips, then put her arms around my neck and held me tight. The move set my soul on fire, and, for a split second, I completely forgot where we were.

  It took all the energy I could muster to pull my head back and give her a weak smile.

  “Sorry, I just had to,” I whispered.

  “No, no, it’s okay. You kind of read my mind,” she replied, giggling.

  We went back to the wall and loosened the chains on our cuffs, enough for us to reach our hands and each other if needed, then locked ourselves back under the swamp witch charms. Caia held on to the key, slipping it into one of the back pockets on her leather combat suit.

  “Okay, so, what if they come looking for Rewa?” I asked.

  Caia shrugged. “We pretend we’re two mumbling, drooling messes. We don’t know where she went after she came by just now. She just taunted us and left. They have no reason to distrust us. After all, we’re mind-bent,” she replied, her lips stretching into a smirk.

  I wanted to kiss her again, but, at the same time, the weight of what I’d just done finally kicked in, the adrenaline wearing off.

  “I don’t like what I just did,” I muttered.

  “I know. Me neither. But, Blaze, she would’ve tortured and killed as many innocent creatures
as she could get her claws on,” she replied softly. In my heart, I knew she was right.

  “Yeah. The weird thing is I feel bad, but I also feel… relieved.”

  “Because you did the right thing, even though it was, in a word, awful. It just proves you have a conscience, and it’s one of the things I love most about you,” Caia said, giving me a warm smile.

  A minute passed as we gazed at each other. I wondered what I had done to deserve such a wonderful creature’s undivided attention. Caia was like the sun, and I was desperate to get closer to her, even if I got myself burned. It was a price I was willing to pay.

  She made me feel something so ardent, so intense that it made it difficult for me to breathe if she wasn’t around. The world was a better place with her in it. My world, in particular, was infinitely better since she’d stumbled into it. No matter what came next, I was determined to make sure we both walked out of it alive. I had plans for this fae, and they involved breaking that celibacy oath over and over again.

  “Would you mind taking my cuffs off for a second?” I asked.

  She frowned, somewhat confused. “Why?”

  “Because I really need to hold you and kiss you until I run out of air.”

  Caia burst into laughter, then quickly silenced herself, pressing her lips into a thin line. She didn’t want anyone hearing us, and for good reason. We were still neck-deep in enemy territory, after all.

  “It’s best not to risk it, even though every fiber in my body is screaming, ‘Yes!’,” she replied.

  I let out a heavy sigh, resting my head against the wall. “Have you ever been to New Zealand?” She shook her head, prompting me to smile. I instantly made plans in my head. “Once we get out of here, I’ll take you there. There’s a volcanic lake area called Rotorua. It’s absolutely stunning,” I said. “You’ll love it.”

  “First date?” she replied, smiling.

  “I was thinking more like first elopement,” I muttered.

  “That sounds… appealing,” she said. “I’ll hold you to it.”

  I chuckled. “Already looking forward to it.”

  There wasn’t much else we could do, given our position. We were in for the long run, playing the waiting game as we mentally prepared for the final gag. Having something enticing to come back to was just extra motivation, an additional incitement to make sure we won this fight.

  I knew one bungalow in Rotorua that offered a superb couples’ suite, with floor-to-ceiling windows and a plethora of flowers framing the terrace, which provided direct access to a thermal spring. I could already see myself and Caia there, with no clothes present between us and nothing but love for each other. I could already feel her heartbeat echoing in my ribcage as she opened her eyes in the morning. I could already see the look of pure happiness on her face as I showed her the lake in its multitude of colors.

  That alone made me want to fight harder than ever. The chance of living a life with Caia was something worth burning a thousand Rewas over. I didn’t voice that thought. I kept it to myself because my conscience made sure to send a dagger through my stomach just for thinking it. But I secretly accepted the concept as a part of who I was becoming—a dragon willing to endure and do anything to defend freedom and peace.

  After all, circumstances didn’t always allow one to spare one’s enemy. Sometimes, death was the only option.

  Hansa

  Fate worked in our favor. The mansion behind which our secret tunnel ended was inhabited by more than just the Mara we’d killed the day before, when we first came out. Yet no one had come around searching for him. It was close to noon when we got there, but the back garden was empty.

  We could hear pots clanging in the downstairs kitchen, along with various doors opening and closing throughout the building. However, no one was out back, which suited us well. The rest of our crew had ingested invisibility spells and had spread out, taking their positions throughout the city. Rover and Hundurr stayed close, using the forest surrounding the city on all levels of the mountain as cover.

  But Jax and I were visible, donning the funeral garb and porcelain masks that Aymon had procured for us. The ceremony for Vincent and Amalia was important and was going to unfold with much more pomp than the last funeral we’d attended in Azure Heights. According to Aymon, the procession was set to start from the sixth level, where the Lords’ funeral house was. The masked clerics and Correction Officers were then going to lead both coffins down the main road all the way to the ground level, then to the burial ground.

  The Imen were usually buried, but all Maras were cremated. After the funeral, we knew for a fact that the Lords were going to meet with Shaytan, and that was when all hell would break loose, one way or another.

  Our cloaks were black and made of velvet, smoothly concealing our weapons and supply belts. They weren’t loose enough for us to inconspicuously carry our shields, too, but that was something we had to work with. Blending in was more important. The large hoods and porcelain masks made us disappear in the crowd, as the similarly dressed Exiled Maras and Imen gathered on the sixth level.

  As expected, Emilian, Rowan, and Farrah were present. They wore gold-threaded cloaks with intricate gemstone patterns embroidered around the head and shoulders. Their masks were painted red, and they wore red velvet gloves. Everybody else—with the exception of the clerics, who wore white robes—was dressed in black. Clearly, Mara nobles had different funeral ceremonies, as opposed to the commoners. I could easily spot the differences from Minah’s burial.

  All three Lords stood by the main entrance to the funeral home. All of their family members were here, from what I could tell. They were all waiting for Vincent and Amalia’s caskets to be brought out.

  Gasps erupted from the crowd by the main road. Soon enough, Jax and I understood what the fuss was all about, as people made room for Shaytan to come through, accompanied by three of his sons. I recognized Abeles, Garros, and Mammon. Behind them were ten other daemons—large ones, with meranium armor and extra-long rapiers. They looked like they meant business. Their expressions were firm, but clear: make one wrong move against the king or his sons, and your head will fall.

  I could almost see the sudden tension gathering in Emilian’s, Rowan’s, and Farrah’s shoulders, especially when Darius emerged from behind Shaytan. He wore his regular bourgeois outfit, all dark green velvet and gold thread beneath a flimsy black hood that shielded him from the sun. But what really caught my eye was the pair of charmed cuffs keeping his hands together.

  “I take it Shaytan’s being extra cautious,” I muttered.

  Emilian scoffed, then motioned for an Iman servant. “Someone get Lord Xunn his funeral coat!”

  His tone was clipped. It quickly put the fear in an Iman maid, who rushed up to the seventh level and came back, two minutes later, with Darius’s special cloak and red mask. The maid helped Darius put them on, as he briefly hissed from the direct sunlight, in the temporary absence of the black hood. Shaytan offered the Lords a polite bow.

  “Please accept my sincerest condolences, on behalf of the entire daemon nation,” Shaytan said.

  Rowan shook her head slowly. “What is the meaning of this, Your Grace?” she asked the daemon king, pointing at Darius.

  Shaytan smirked. “Precautions, milady. These are difficult times, and I completely understand that, but I am no fool. Let us proceed with your funeral ceremony, then discuss the matter of Lord Xunn’s… repatriation.”

  The daemon princes snickered behind him but instantly stilled when he gave them a brief over-the-shoulder glance. Shaytan was not to be toyed with—not even by his sons.

  My hand instinctively found Jax’s, and we slowly inched closer and settled in the second row of the crowd, with a good view of both the Lords and the daemon king. We were much safer under these cloaks than we would be if we were wearing invisibility spells, since all the daemons on Shaytan’s envoy wore a red garnet lens, and there were plenty of Correction Officers also equipped to spot any unseen
hostiles. Shaytan’s scepter also carried its large red garnet gem. However, we’d prepared for this. Our team knew what positions to take in order to stay out of sight.

  The clerics finally emerged with the caskets, which were both beautifully sculpted, their lids loaded with flowers. The message didn’t escape me: while life is beautiful, it is fleeting, and it eventually ends. No matter how long different creatures live, the end is still a possibility, and when it comes, it is cause for misery and grief.

  Sculptors had worked hard for those caskets, and they were going to watch them burn.

  We followed the procession down the main road, keeping an adequate distance from the Correction Officers, the Lords, and the daemons. Two of the clerics played wooden instruments through which they blew, producing a soft but heartbreaking melody.

  Emilian and Rowan led the funeral, while Farrah stayed back with Shaytan, his sons, and Darius. The latter kept looking around. “Where’s Rewa?” he asked.

  Only then did I understand that she wasn’t with the rest of the noble families, beneath one of the masks. She would’ve been the first to try to get close to Darius, perhaps even protesting a little louder over the charmed cuffs that Shaytan had made him wear. Jax and I looked at each other.

  “Do you think something might’ve happened?” I asked him, keeping my voice low.

  “I wouldn’t be surprised if she got on the dragon’s wrong side,” Jax muttered. “Let’s not forget she’s had quite the obsession brewing for Blaze.”

  I stifled a chuckle as we passed by the fifth level. Looking around, and knowing where we’d assigned key positions, I caught glimpses of air rippling. I put my red lens on, beneath the mask, and was relieved to see our people on top of buildings, peeking from behind chimneys and small towers.