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I might have felt sad at the big, pleading blue eyes he shot Arkan's way, but I stamped out that emotion. Fuck that guy.They had my daughter; what could I do?Actually, you know what? Fuck that entire family.
I brushed Ark's arm as I tentatively approached the wall, running my sharp stare across the scales etched into the stone, an ouroboros surrounding the emerald pupil.
"Wait, wait." I laughed nervously, the weight tugging on my shoulder blades registering. I’d noticed them—I’dusedthem—and been so distracted, I hadn’t realised anything was out of the ordinary. "When did I get wings?"
"You’re growing in power," Ark replied. "Your demon form gets stronger as you do."
"So not batting an eye at me having wings? Cool, cool. I have wings now; wings are cool."
Just call me Batgirl.3
"Be ready," Taj warned our circle—or the warriors and wraiths among us. "Arm yourselves."
There was a whoosh and a tremor through the air as a hundred people summoned magic, but I didn't look back to see the light show; I lifted my hand and ignored the prickle of warning from my instincts as I touched the emerald.
I didn't dare breathe as I pushed on the gem and—I knew it!
The emerald slid into the wall like a button, and with a grating snarl of stone on stone, so loud it shook my bones, the wall slid left into a secret depression.
The second I saw what was on the other side, I lunged for the eye carved into the wall and slammed my palm into the emerald.
Put it back! I fucked up, put it back!
"Avie, move!" Joseph yelled, rushing past me with his scythe slashing through the air—at the colossal viper that waited behind the wall like a blood-hungry sentry.
My heart shot into my throat at how close the viper's fangs were, the narrow slits of its pupils locked on me and the dark green and gold of its scales shifting. If the reptile being seven feet high and fuck knows how long wasn't an indicator that this was no ordinary snake, the way its skin shifted andglowed,scales thrumming with power would be.
"There!" Taj yelled, his voice deeper, thicker. "I can see the sceptre!"
My breath caught, and I followed his clawed hand to a podium behind the viper where a short gold pole topped with a mini crown sat. It was here.
The roar of my heart drowned out all other sounds, my awareness narrowing to that sceptre and only the sceptre.
"Keep the snake distracted," I ordered my mates, ordered the whole room, and lit up my red hand with wicked power as I aimed single-mindedly for the sceptre.
I didn't see the tail until it slammed into my stomach and sent me flying across the dark room.
29
Oh hey, the ceiling of this place was covered in scales. And stars—bright, glowing gold stars speckled the ceiling. No, they hung in the air around me. Wow, it was pretty.
"Av," X demanded, throwing himself down beside me, matching the snake's hiss with a rattling noise of his own. "Talk to me, tell me you're okay."
"The stars are so pretty," I sighed, lifting a hand to trace my finger through a constellation.
"What stars? There aren't any stars. Ark, Avie's broken."
Growls of fury and fear overlapped. My head flared with pain; I pressed my hands over my ears.
"Woah, why's there a snake?" I asked, blinking up at the giant green snake snapping down at blue-black-winged people racing around it with spears and swords. "It's pretty."
"Less pretty when it's trying to kill us," Taj barked. "Joseph, get her out of here."
"I want to pet the snake," I complained when my reaper appeared beside me with a flutter of his dark cloak. His scythe disappeared as if by magic when he scooped me up into his arms. "Joejoe, can't I pet the snake?"
"No, sweetness," he replied firmly, carrying me swiftly across the room and away from the scales etched in the walls and ceiling. Weird, I couldn't see the stars anymore.
"Bye, baby," I cooed to the snake just before it snapped its head down and ate someone whole. I tutted. "You're supposed to chew your food; you'll get indigestion eating like that."
