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Before he could answer, she appeared in human form, the shadows uncoiling around her.His heart jolted as if he’d already grabbed the power line, and his world narrowed to her.Those amethyst eyes were closed.She slumped, and he rushed to catch her in his arms.The knife was out of her back, but by the powers, all the blood.She was soaked in glistening gold.
He had to save her.No matter what it cost him.“If the electricity doesn’t kill me, Petra will.I can do this.”Maybe.If he got lucky.
“You sure?”
Not at all, but he would finish this.“Pretty sure.”
“Hey, that’s my catchphrase.”The snark would’ve been funnier if she didn’t sound as though she struggled to breathe.As if her tightly held control over her berserker side had shattered.“We’re in this together.”Her eyes opened, her gaze purple ringed in gold, pain filled but determined.“Do it.”The harshness sounded more beast than beauty.
Shit.He’d come close to losing her, and if he’d misjudged his ability to take in the powers, he would kill them both.No time for second thoughts.Petra was back on her feet.He grabbed the sparking line.
White-hot currents raced through him, forcing a scream from his throat.The agony was overwhelming, blinding, never-ending.Except there was a cool touch against his cheek, his neck.Vori.Where she held tight to him.Her touch grounded him, centered him, saved him.As fast as he could take on new power, she stole it from him, channeling it in a spiraling spool.
A primal yell pulled him from the all-consuming hurt.Petra.She howled as if no humanity remained in her.
Holding his queen tight, Perry unleashed his magic.The electricity flowed through him like a shotgun blast—splatter and spread instead of aim and precision.It was dizzying and addictive.This otherworldly supernatural connection to Vori, who would take on harnessed lightning with him, for him.But pain burned through the euphoria.
The sparks latched onto Petra, jolting through her with lethal doses of direct power.She stiffened, spasmed, and seized—slamming against the asphalt where her body twitched and convulsed with every shock.
Perry dropped the line and fell to the ground, cradling his love in his arms.The asphalt hit hard, but he took the brunt of the fall.She didn’t make a sound.
“Vori?”No answer.He ran his fingers over her still face, tracing her eyebrows, her cheekbones, her jaw.Cuts marred that perfect complexion.Huge welts stained her face.He called her name again.
“Pretty sure for the win,” she whispered.
He inhaled a rush of acrid air and relief.He could breathe again.She was alive.He wanted to hug her, to kiss her, to tell her everything he should have before.But she winced, and he settled for kissing her forehead instead.
The swish of heavy wings and thunk of even heavier footfalls had him pushing off the pavement, except he couldn’t.Not without letting her go.He braced, wrapping himself around her to shield her.
A voice called out in a determined, take-no-prisoners tone, “Cousin.”Alexei.
“Over here.”Perry’s throat felt stripped raw.The aftermath of riding an electrical wave that had blazed over him and through him.“Watch the live wire.”
“It’s not live anymore.You sucked it dry.”Alexei knelt beside Vori and wrapped a fistful of charms around her wrist.“Healing spells.Sent by the Legacy witch.”He handed Perry one.
“Not until Vori is better.”
“Don’t.”The gruffness in the demon hybrid’s tone was undercut by the concern.“Don’t argue with a mob boss, witch.Cousin?”
She winced.“Take the damn charm, husband, or you’ll be arguing with a queen.”
“We can argue as much as you want when you’re better.”Perry only half watched her cousin checking on Petra’s body.
“You just want to make up.”Vori’s joke would’ve been funnier or embarrassing even in front of Alexei if she didn’t sound so damned weak.
“You’re right.”Perry palmed the charm, and a pins-and-needles tingle spread up his arm.He didn’t risk a glance at Alexei, just raised his voice.“Please tell me she’s dead.”
“Burned through and through.How much power did you hit her with?”
“Not enough, and not nearly fast enough.”Or he would’ve been here in time to save his queen from so much hurt.“I should’ve been here.I should’ve fought the witches.”
Vori shook her head.“Blood vows fulfilled, you shocked the scary berserker out of me, and I have this.”She twisted her wrist.Shadows played across her hand, swirling in a smoky mist.From her fingers dangled a golden crown of twisting, thorned vines with seven amethysts.
“Is that what I think it is?”Alexei asked.
“The wicked crown,” she answered.
The man frowned and dropped his wings in the same downward swoop that he’d curved his mouth.“Can’t you stay, cuz?Don’t you want to?”
