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“Look at me when I talk to you.” Levia gripped my chin hard, then snuck a quick glance at the sky again.
This time, she seemed nervous.
What was she looking for?
Her voice dipped lower. “Listen carefully. Your life is in my hands. When I set you free, you will kneel, and you will open up your wings and embrace me. Do you understand?”
Her words and her actions didn’t match up. A slap in one second and the promise of freedom in the next.
Which to believe?
Motion on the roof of the stadium caught my eye. I must be hallucinating or desperate. I blinked and blinked, but they were still there.
Red and silver hair tousled in the wind and shone in the glaring sun. Arrows flew one after another from Dawn and Snow with deadly precision. Humans and demons below screamed and ran, stumbling over each other.
Mothers held on to their little ones and cowered under the seats. Men pushed their neighbors to get to the bottom.
Dawn spread her red wings, and Snow her silver ones. They spiraled around the arena as arrows flew from their bows at the soldiers.
My team!
That baldheaded demon had lied to me to make me lose hope.
No lie was ever more welcome.
Zander’s white and golden wings expanded wide and glorious, rays of sun beaming around him like a halo. He leaped off the wall surrounding the stadium and soared like a giant hawk. His ripped muscles flexed and tightened as he parried arrows with his sword.
Zander was a beautiful creature with tan skin, ash-brown hair, and hazel eyes. But unharmed and untouched in the midst of the chaos, his calm confidence seemed almost godlike.
His presence commanded attention, and the sight of him shirtless, well … that was a whole different story.
Tank plummeted from the sky. He cracked the earth with the force of his landing and one mighty blow from his fist. The ground splintered around him like a spiderweb, then crumbled at the point of impact and fell inward.
A sinkhole opened up and sucked in a swath of the demon army. The remaining foot soldiers rushed him but he held them off with his sword—and some he simply socked in the face and sent flying.
Otis fought alongside Tank, positioned back-to-back, while more demon and human soldiers attacked. Though Otis was just as strong and skilled with a sword, he looked like a stick behind Tank’s height and bulk.
The king stared out into the crowd with his jaw clenched. When he rose, his soldiers escorted him through a secret back door behind the dais.
“Well, don’t just stand there.” Levia flung the horn at the baldheaded demon. “Go get them.”
The soldiers jumped off the podium, and she unlocked Kante’s cuffs with a metal key she took out from her shirt. Kante gathered his broken wing from the ground and limped away.
Levia smirked and raised a sword. I’d thought she was going to kill me, but instead, she struck through the cuffs on my wrists and ankles.
“Do as I told you now if you want to live.” She sheathed the sword behind her back.
I dropped to my knees and embraced her with my wings as Levia had instructed earlier. I didn’t trust her, but calling me Little Dove could only mean Zander had fashioned this rescue mission and she was on it.
Levia rolled us off the stage just before it exploded. Wood and stone burst and scattered in a rain of debris that beat against my wings, still around us. Fire and smoke rose, blinding and hiding us from view. Perhaps blowing up the execution podium had been her plan. The impeccable timing couldn’t have been more precise.
Levia stood and anchored her arm around my waist. I withdrew my wings and hobbled to keep up as we passed hordes of humans scrambling for safety.
I lowered my head and tucked in my wings to keep them out of sight, but I was sure a few demon guards running away from the explosion had seen me. After we passed the gate, we rounded the corner of an empty home and entered an alley.
“Where’s Zander?” I leaned against the tall, pitted brick wall. The clanking of swords and yells in the stadium resonated the direction we’d fled.
Another explosion boomed and flames towered to the sky. Dawn and Snow weaved through the rising smoke, arrows shooting down from their bows. I pictured Tank and Otis swinging their swords, cutting down countless demon soldiers in their true form.
