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“What are they?” the princess demanded.
Xian’s hands trembled as she gripped the balustrade.
“Darkans’ summoned beasts,” Ajali rasped. “Uriah, alert all the kingdom warriors to protect and escort the civilians out of the coliseum. Be ready for the beast to leap into the stands at any moment.”
Xian gasped as at least one hundred warriors leapt into the arena, swords aflame as they attacked the beasts.
“Ajali!” The princess’ scream was hoarse and filled with shock at the carnage that happened within seconds.
Dead warriors littered the ground, gore and blood dripping from the wolyves’ fangs and claws.
The sun dipped and the crystals blazed, illuminating the carnage in the coliseum. Dozens lay on the floor ,dead or dying, and the scent of metallic blood flavored the air. Darkness seemed to move over the land, devouring and relishing every cry of terror.
Tehdra’s beast lifted its head and inhaled. Fear was hot and potent on the air as hundreds of thousands fed her darkness. Not only hers, Tehdra realized, the summoned beasts and their masters also fed and grew in strength with every beat of fear, dread and anger that spilled from the crowd.
The violence of the emotions that hammered through her was visceral. The psychic leash she had on her demon shifted, and the need for destruction bled in her veins.
“Create the barrier,” Ajali said, rage riding his voice hard and deep.
Yes, her beast hissed.
It was bloated and drunk on the overwhelming terror. Ajali’s fury washed over her and filled her with dark pleasure. He glanced at Tehdra, and she inhaled sharply. Green orbs no longer stared at her; pits of flames replaced his eyes. Heat rippled and the air contracted around him as his swords, unsheathed and in his hands, became aflame. The chains that wrapped around the hilt were now coated in molten flames and wrapped around his arms up to this elbows.
Tehdra screamed in tandem with Xian when he leapt from the galley over two hundred feet and landed in the arena facing the Darkans and their summoned beasts.
Tehdra gripped the railing hard, and she heard a crack.
Ajali fought summoned demons alone. Every warrior that entered the arena had been destroyed.
Protect, a sibilant hiss filled with madness, scraped and battered against her mind.
“High Chancellor Bastien, create the barrier now!” Uriah commanded.
With speed and efficiency warriors waved their hands and the soft glow of charka expanded and surrounded the fighting arena.
“What’s happening?” she demanded hoarsely. The need to bloodlet beat inside of her like a war drum.
“It’s a barrier made from pure energy,” Gavyn answered. “It will protect us from Ajali’s flames.”
She glanced down and almost flinched from the brightness of Ajali’s flames. It surrounded him like a fiery halo. Powerful, destructive, its beauty was enthralling, seductive and deceptive in equal measure.
The body of the fallen warrior closest to him incinerated to ash and blew away with the wind without Ajali even touching him.
Her beast stilled at the display of power. The rage it touched inside of him made her tremble. The outside of it burned hot and harsh, but at its core was something cold and malevolent. Her darkness lunged to meet with a similar darkness.
It hissed and scraped against her mind.
Ours.
Ajali had something buried inside of him. It was not a demon; she would have sensed it, and they would have connected and bonded, darkness to darkness, and beast to beast.
“What does he have?” she asked, her voice a raspy hiss as the tenuous hold she had on her beast trembled.
Gavyn glanced hard at her.
“He is a descendent from the line of Phoenyx.”
He housed a Phoenyx, the undying flame that can be reborn from its own ashes over and over—a true representation of eternal flames. She had never seen one, only heard whispers, and he had the spirit of one bonded with him.
