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She shook him off.
“No. I can’t let all of these fae get hurt when I could stop this.” She pushed through the line of enforcers and closed her eyes as she shifted.
Her red hair tumbled out of its updo, turning to strands of silver, and her skin shimmered like diamonds in the midday sun. She had never shifted in front of so many fae before. But did it matter right now? She had gotten incredibly strong in her fae form, but her nymph form amplified her powers even more. And she needed that power. All of us did.
The way the light shone on her skin and hair caught the fleeing guests by surprise, momentarily making them stop and gawk. No one had seen her like this before, or even known that she shifted. I didn’t blame them for being stunned. Up until then, they’d believed nymphs were a myth, and now one was feet away.
“Go!” I shouted at them. “Get out of here!”
Flint shifted into his wolf form and darted ahead of us at a full sprint. Lex and I nodded at each other and did the same, fanning out. Shifting into my demon form was like letting myself out of a cage, my wings sprouting from my back and my nails turning into claws. The surrounding air burned, the scent of smoke filling the air. I took off so I could see the situation from above.
Chaos. Somehow, everything had fallen apart. The attackers had weapons and spells and were taking down whoever was in their way. All of them were rushing toward us. Smoke rose among the buildings of the city at a distance, more and more explosions rumbling through.
Lex shifted into his dragon form and hovered near Arden.
“Take the south!” I yelled at him, my voice deeper and raspier. “She can handle herself.”
Arden brought up walls of rock in rapid succession, making the assailants crash into them. Without a pause, she pulled the branches of the plants around her into a cage, capturing some others. She had this. Lex spiraled away, his massive wings stirring up dirt below us.
I faced the west, feeling the heat deep inside of me rise to the surface. The attackers were in tactical gear like they were ready for a fight, making them easy to pick out. I shot flames at them, lighting their clothes on fire first. Some with power over water tried to put themselves out, but my fire burned so hot that it turned to steam.
They kept coming. How had they gotten all of these fae? I flew around, taking down group after group of attackers.
I grunted. It felt like someone had wrapped a rope around my ankle and started to drag me toward the ground. I twisted in mid-air to look behind me. Fifty or more fae, some who had managed to narrowly escape my fire, were doing a spell on me all at once. I fought against it, heating the air around us since my fireballs weren’t as accurate with this weight on me.
But it didn’t deter them. They used every ounce of their magic to drag me down. My vision faded in and out at the corners, and I growled, trying to turn my entire body into flame. But it was no use. Fifty moderately powerful fae were just enough to take me. My demon form faltered, and I fell from the sky, dipping out of consciousness before I hit the ground.
Chapter63
Arden
There were so many of them coming from every angle. Hordes and hordes of fae. Young ones. If I had to guess, Forsaken Lunars.
I’d worked with them for years before I met the Royals, and I knew the organization was big. But I didn’t know they were big enough to launch a full-scale attack like this.
I worked every form of the earth that I could—rocks, plants, sand. Anything I felt from within me to stop them from invading the palace. I wasn’t tired yet, but I wasn’t going to last forever. My nymph form was strong, but not impervious to fatigue.
I glanced over my shoulder. A huge swath of land was on fire, from Jagger, I assumed, and ash blew through the air on a heavy wind. Were they okay?
I threw sand in the eyes of a fae who had gotten too close, coming at me at full speed. She cried out, trying to shove me back with her fire. It didn’t work. None of their attacks, one on one, really worked. But their numbers grew, and an invisible weight dropped over my shoulders. I looked around to see where it was coming from. Another group descended on me, working in tandem. A group spell.
I couldn’t fight off both, and as hard as I resisted, they took me, putting me to sleep.
When I woke up, I was in the outermost section of the vault, bound by charmed cuffs. A heavy, drugged feeling still lingered over me, like I’d had way too much to drink. I’d shifted back into my human form, too.
“She’s awake,” a smooth, musical voice said from behind me. It took a moment for me to connect the voice to my memory.
“Moon Oracle,” I said, craning my neck to see her.
She drifted toward me in a long gossamer dress, her blonde hair in its long, loose waves. The energy radiating from her was strong, like always, but it wasn’t as intimidating as I’d found it before my power was unlocked.
“Arden.” She smiled benignly, as if she didn’t have me in cuffs and hadn’t created a full-scale attack on the palace. “I’m glad we can finally connect again.”
“Yeah, after you escaped prison?” My blood was boiling, but whatever spell they had on me or whatever tincture they’d given me made me too tired to raise my voice.
“She saw the opportunity and took it,” Chad said, emerging from around the corner. My heart stopped. Seeing him outside of the coffee shop was always weird, but seeing him here was even stranger. Why was he here? “She’s always been good at escape spells. Draining some power from an enforcer who got just a little too close, and poof, gone.”
My mouth gaped open as he came to stand next to the Moon Oracle. Out of everything I’d assumed would happen here, Chad having a part in it wasn’t even on the list. He looked just like he did every day at the coffee shop—baggy clothes, blond hair buzzed. He was holding his arm as if it hadn’t quite healed correctly, the shoulder that he’d been knifed through.
