Page 207 of The Bonds of Indigo

“Go. I will keep the Pyrehounds at bay.”

“I will aid too.” Zuhara steps up beside the creature, hissing and summoning my shadows around her.

With no further hesitation, I rush toward Kayn. He’s bulked up—not by shifting, but from the Crimson Dawn saturating the air. He’s soaking in the blood and the power that comes with it.

That, and he fed on me last night—wait, and on Amarah. I’m not sure if her blood carries the same potency mine does, but if I had to guess, it should.

Oh, no, it definitely does.

Because when Kayn’s fist cracks into Belial’s nose, my father actually stumbles from the blow.

I take the distraction and pull my shadows from the ground, snapping them around his wrists and restraining him. He pulls hard, but he barely has a second to react before Kayn punches him again. The impact is so powerful it sends a shockwave rippling through the space.

“You took him from me!” Kayn roars, slamming his fist across Belial’s jaw. My father yanks viciously at the shadows binding him, and it feels impossible to keep them locked, but I hold.

“I’m just taking him back.”

The next attack sends Belial to a knee, and for a moment, I think maybe we’ll be alright.

That it was possible we could’ve fought back.

But just like everything that seems too good in my life, that hope is torn away from me.

A red pulse, like a wave of electricity, shoots out of my father. Oh shit. “Kayn, RUN!”

I’m grateful for his speed, because not even a second passes before that attack blasts across the surrounding space around us. He’s above Amarah, and I blanket us in a shield of my shadows. Thornwyn was capable of getting behind me, because as I look around to confirm I’d kept the area around us protected, he’s also got a barrier for our girl made of the same foliage as his body.

Only after I don’t feel a heated pressure against the darkness I summoned, I drop it.

Belial stands as tall as he had been before, unphased and undeterred. Kayn’s presence comes to my side, and I peer up at him. The red in his eyes has spread into the white spaces and he, too, looks ready to continue this fight.

“This is useless,” my father shouts. “I do not tire. I will not die. I’ll simply continue until that one is dead”—he points to the man beside me before slowly dragging his finger toward Amarah—“and the Witch is mine.”

I begin wrapping tendrils of shadows across Kayn’s arms and upper body.

Belial narrows his eyes on me. “Why.” It’s delivered without much of a question, even if it is one. He’s pissed, and although I’ve not felt such an incline to care, quite literally nothing matters but the man beside me, and the woman behind me.

“I may be your son, but I’m not your fucking slave. This is my life, and as long as I’m breathing, I’ll make my own choices in it.”

His eye twitches.

“My choice is him.” I gesture to Kayn. “And the woman you nearly killed. Salvage what you can still get out of me by walking away. But if you attack us again, I’ll never come back, and I will fight against everything you’re trying to do.”

The tick in his square jaw comes with a long, drawn out suck of air between his teeth. Around him, his Pyrehounds snarl and snap their jaws. I doubt they’d listen to me above my father, but I’ll try if he so chooses wrong.

“I swore I raised you better, yet here we are. I’d rather have a bastard of a son at my side, than a pureblood brat as feeble-minded as you.”

It isn’t Belial who attacks, but Kayn. He’s back in his face, hand clenched into a fist, landing a blow right between my father’s eyes. Although my shadows aided in delivering that powerful blow that sends him flying back, it really wasn’t needed.

Kayn is powerful, and I should’ve never doubted he’d have chosen to fight for me.

Chapter 51

It definitely does something to my ego being able to punch the ruler of the Beyond. I’d like to enjoy this, fuck around and make some cocky remarks, but I honestly haven’t been able to see straight.

The way he speaks to Lucifer.

The fact he touched Amarah.