AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The next second, I spotted Aria in full angel form slamming into Azazel, and terror immediately rose up within me.
I shoved it down to start looking for the twins, wishing I knew how the hell Auren always managed to contact these people when he needed them.
Shouting for them seemed a solid way to deal with things.
“Kiran! Atlan!”
Sure enough, twin howls went up in response before they were cutting through the crowd. Their appearance didn’t shock me this time; in fact, I felt relief as they stopped before us and melted into their fae forms.
“I need you two to portal out as many people as you can,” I said, panting from panic. “We need to get somewhere safe and regroup. They have at least one demon roaming around, and they… they already killed Kiyomasa.”
Atlan paled at the news, while Kiran’s lips pulled back in a snarl, face twisting between human and beast rapidly before settling again.
“We’re on it,” Atlan promised, grabbing his brother’s arm. The two shared a look before nodding to me, then shouting for the Resistance to fall back to the training field.
I watched as several familiar little faces sprinted toward the field, hands clasped together and worry on their brows. Maisie was among them, clutching Anthony to her chest as both of them cried, though they were valiantly trying not to.
With that accounted for, I turned back around to see that Aria had Azazel pinned to the ground and was practically beating the life out of him.
“Aria!” I shouted, but my mate might as well have been on another planet; her fists kept slamming into Azazel’s limp form like cinder blocks, blood splattering out of him. “Aria, we have to go!”
That got her attention. Her head cocked to one side for one second, and then the next, she was suddenly standing in front of Auren and me. She was stone-faced as she stared at me, her wings fully out, her eyes glazed over with gold, and her entire being glowing white.
If I didn’t know better, I would have been intimidated.
“We need to leave,” I said softly, reaching out to hold one of her bloodstained fists.
I could see her struggling to regain control, brows furrowed as her angel continued to wordlessly watch me. There came a flickering in her golden eyes, interrupting the angelic aura, and after another final moment of struggle, Aria was back in the driver’s seat, the glowing and wings gone all at once.
She looked behind her at where Kiyomasa was still hanging—with Azazel slow to rise to his feet—then at Auren, who had started silently crying at some point.
Her eyes softened. “Come on,” she urged, her voice soft.
My brother let her guide him toward the training grounds without a hint of protest. It made my heart ache to see how his normally strong and stoic persona had crumbled.
I spared Kiyomasa one last glance before following after them.
The attacking wolves and witches were chasing most of us towards the field, but there were already members of our own covens there blocking them with some kind of invisible shield that we were able to charge through. I couldn’t fathom how; it was hard to focus on much of anything with the mental image of my deranged father burned into my retinas.
“We’ve gotten almost everyone,” Atlan informed as he and Kiran popped back into the circle, brows dotted with sweat. The portal-making was obviously taking its toll. “The ones who can’t make it here, we’ll have to come back for. Some of the witches agreed to stay behind and help us get through the crowds.”
Part of me wanted to tell them to leave them behind. If they couldn’t make it here, they were a burden, and we couldn’t afford to risk good soldiers on rescue missions for them when everything had already gone to shit.
“Sariel,” Aria chided gently. I turned to her, then over to who she was gesturing to: my brother.
My devastated baby brother, who had poured his heart and soul into making the Resistance a safe haven for the forgotten members of society.
Would he have left them? Would Kiyomasa have?
“Fuck,” I breathed, knowing there was no way they would have. If not because it was the right thing to do, neither man would have left our slower members because it would have hurt morale. It was one thing to lose, but to be forced into leaving people behind? It didn’t sit right with anyone, much less the soldiers being asked to do it.
“I know,” Atlan murmured grimly. “We’re going to lose people one way or another, but at least it won’t be because we abandoned them.”
He squeezed my shoulder as Kiran reappeared, looking exhausted. In the next instant, everything went black—and then we were standing in a forest.
“We’ll try to be fast, but get a headcount so that we can figure out who we’re missing,” Atlan ordered.
I nodded, happy that someone was stepping up and giving me some direction with Auren out of commission, and with that, he blinked out of my sight.
