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Chapter Forty-Seven
Saving Grace
Joleen
“Wake up. Please wake up.” A deep velvety voice filled my ears. I knew that tender voice. That voice warmed my heart, imbued with love.
“Victus, I had a long, strange dream.” I fluttered my eyelids open as an explosion and screams resonated.
“Do you know your name?” He spewed his words with urgency. “Do you know where you are?”
Victus was on the ground, cradling me across his lap. I recalled being stabbed by the divine dagger. And … Saving Grace. How was I alive?
Victus shot up with me in his arms. “I’ll explain later, but can you walk?”
“Yes. But Nadira?” My heart squeezed at the destruction and war below us. The boiling lava had dominated the ground and tore through the earth.
Victus lowered me. “Markane and Abacus have her. I’m sure of it.” But he didn’t sound certain. “We have a war to end. You ready?”
“It ends today. And—”
My words cut short when Asmodeus, rather the beast, leaped and landed in front of the tower and brought it down with one strike. It happened so fast I didn’t have time to open my wings to take flight, so I plummeted.
Victus moved in lightning speed and grabbed my arm and swung me around to dodge the bricks and stone collapsing. In his arms, my back to his chest, his black wings expanded and stilled in midair.
Asmodeus swiped his arms fiercely as if he was swatting a swarm of bees. He didn’t notice Victus and me. In fact, he was trying to wipe away the mice and squirrels all over his body nipping at him.
“Are you seeing what I’m seeing?” Victus’s flapped his wings, ready to take flight. “How?”
“Snow.” I snorted. I could hug her.
Victus blinked. “Did you see an apple shoot across the space?”
“Otis loves apples.” I snorted again. Then my voice became serious. “The divine dagger. Who has it?”
“Rafael dropped it when he stabbed you. And it fell with the tower. It’s likely dropped into the lava. We don’t have time to look for it. It’s best no one has it.”
“Look near the moat. Do you see Nina and … and … and she’s on a giant creature.”
“Nina?” Victus’s voice rose with concern. “She’s riding on Hawk. Licker and Willa are on either side of her. We don’t know how much time they have to live, but Nina must have convinced them to help. Bless her heart.”
Victus soared through the air, heading to the heart of the battle.
Chapter Forty-Eight
Regrets
Nina
Hawk held Nina in the cocoon of his wings and soared with his companion beasts, the breeze blowing through her hair. The sky illuminated with gentle shades of pink and violet, and below looked like a patchwork quilt of wild fields and rolling hills. Nina reveled in every second of the view.
Until …
Asmodeus’s castle loomed ahead. Heavy clouds blanketing the horizon shifted and rolled, making time seem to hurry along. The thatched roofs of local homes burned and flames rose to the sky.
People ran out of their homes, screaming, some lit on fire. A dark foreboding settled in her stomach and she found it difficult to believe that the Netherworld had come in her lifetime.
Hawk, Willa, and Licker landed near the moat and marched on. Nina rode on Hawk’s shoulder, Kara’s dagger sheathed at her waist, the dagger Kara had tried to kill Nina with.
