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As if to punctuate that claim, an otherworldly wind whirled angrily around Demetria, ruffling her hair and clothes.
The oracle jumped with a screech.
“Kali just wants to say hi,” said Wynter. “It should delight you, bearing in mind how long you’ve been trying to get Her attention.” Trusting the deity to keep the oracle occupied, Wynter cut her gaze to Saul. “As for you, well, you wanted my attention. Now you’ve got it. What are you gonna do with it?”
He licked his front teeth. “I am going to rip your insides out, obviously.”
“Obviously,” said Wynter drily. Her monster snarled, pushing for freedom, wanting to take out these two fuckers itself. And since she really needed to be up on the surface and couldn’t afford to stick around, she’d let the monster have its way in this.
“You really are a dumb fuck, Saul,” she told him. “You should have followed me to the surface and attacked there where you could have called the wind to take you to safety. Coming to my home, attacking me here, is the height of ill-advised.”
Not seeming convinced, he only smiled. Then he rushed her, a white fireball materializing in his hand.
Wicked fast, Wynter shoved her palm into his chest, sending him zooming backwards and crashing into the wall. He bounced to the floor, his fireball fizzling out. She heard Demetria gasp in shock and then let out a squeal as a breeze again picked up, but Wynter didn’t look her way. She remained focused on the Aeon.
“Yeah, I’m a lot stronger now,” Wynter told him.
Saul blinked up at her, stunned. “How . . .”
“Like I said, you’re a dumb fuck. You think you’ve trapped me here with you. The reality is that you’ve trapped yourself here with me.” Without moving her gaze from him, she gave a discreet signal to her coven. They quickly fled, disappearing from view.
Saul jumped to his feet, snickering. “Are you not going to run too? Not that it would do you any good if you did. I would be on you before you could blink.”
Black ribbons sliding along her eyeballs, Wynter had to smile. “They’re not running from you, Saul.” She dealt him a magickal “punch” that knocked him on his ass. “They’re running from me.” And then she let her monster free.
*
In the hallway, Anabel froze as a grating, hackle-raising roar came from the living room. There were screams of terror, both male and female. Power crackled. Magick whooshed. Bones crunched. Sharp cries of pain rang out. And then there were nauseating slurping sounds.
Anabel shuddered in horror, knowing that Wynter’s monster was eating its prey and drinking their blood even as it fought them. The coven had fast learned that that was how the monster rolled. Which was why Xavier winced, Delilah pulled a face, and Hattie quietly cackled to herself.
Lots of things made Anabel nervous. Everything from crowds and attention to the breath of death itself. Recently, she’d been able to add another thing to that list: Whatever creature lived inside Cain. Its eyes had given her the creeps in the worst way, and she hoped to never come in contact with it ever again in her life. But Wynter’s monster? In Anabel’s opinion, it was ten times more horrifying than any serpentine entity.
Soon, the terrified, pain-filled screams faded to whimpers. And those whimpers eventually lost their strength until, finally, they stopped altogether. A feminine laugh that rang with power and was so very other filled the air. Kali.
There was a feral roar of triumph, and then pure silence. A distinct thud told Anabel that Wynter’s monster had withdrawn, causing the Priestess’s unconscious body to hit the floor. Crap.
Anabel and the others hurried into the living room. Jesus Christ on a goddamn cross, there was blood everywhere. Not much remained of Saul or Demetria. A few limbs, brain matter, and half a head. Ew.
Wynter lay among her monster’s left-overs, out cold. Sometimes she passed out. Sometimes she didn’t. It was weird.
Delilah crouched beside their Priestess, who stirred with a moan. “You’re okay, Wyn; they’re both dead.”
Sitting upright, Wynter groaned as she took in her surroundings. “Hell, what a mess.”
“We can clean it later.” Xavier frowned at her appearance. “And you.”
The poor woman was covered in not only blood but fragments of bone, brain, skull, and guts. But none of it detracted from the metallic blue mark of Kali that now decorated one side of Wynter’s face. A mark that often came and went.
Nodding, Wynter got to her feet, her expression solemn. “We have to get to the surface right the fuck now. First, we gotta call on Mary.”
Anabel braced herself. “Do it. But please make sure she doesn’t eat any teeth this time—they’re murder on my digestive system.” And they hurt her ass on the way out.
“Done,” said Wynter. “Mary, Mary, please come out.”
As a shower of rocks, pebbles, and sand came flying his way, Cain shoved out his palm, emitting a wave of power that “caught” the shower and caused the fragments to disintegrate. That same shower soon began to buzz frantically as it became a cloud of killer bees. Cain directed the flying insects at the invaders up ahead of him.
Hands dropped arrows and bows as they batted at the angry wasps and slapped at their own flesh to kill the insects. Some troops staggered forward and toppled right over the cliff or crashed into fellow soldiers and knocked them down.
