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“Calm down, little sister, you’re safe!” he roars.
I blink, finally giving myself a chance to see who actually caught me. “D-Devion? Right?”
He smiles broadly at me. “Yup, the biggest, baddest motherfucker in the family!” he says as he tucks his wings and dives for the ground.
I shriek, holding onto him for dear life, before he hands me over to Sebastian.
“Thank you…” Sebastian murmurs, holding me tightly.
“Don’t thank me yet, Bane. We still haven't decided if you get to live!”
I fling myself around to stare at my brother in rage and see him laughing as he takes back to the air. Furious, I watch him fly back above the castle where Lilith and Angelica are spiraling around each other in a rain of blood and fury.
“Fayla! Are you alright?” My mother screams, and I turn to fall into her arms as she collides with me. “My baby…” she cries.
I bury my face against her shoulder and sob. I missed her so much, and being wrapped in her arms in the middle of the battlefield feels surreal.
“I’m alright, really,” I tell her.
But she doesn’t release me. “We need to get you out of here. This is a bloodbath and there’s no sign of stopping! Maybe Devion can fly you away? Maybe one of these helicopters?”
I smile at her. She’s in a panic, trying to think of any way to protect me. “I will not leave my family to fight without me,” I tell her gently.
Tears of pride well up in her eyes as she strokes my hair back from my face. “My brave girl…” she whispers, then kisses me on the forehead.
“No!” someone wails, the word dragging on with horror-filled intensity. Everyone looks up, even the zombies, as Angelica spirals out of the castle, holding someone in her arms. I freeze, dread rolling over me.
She’s holding Mara.
“Oh, Xanthe… I hope you didn’t think she was getting out of this alive!” Angelica roars.
Xanthe screams so sharply I feel her heartbreak in my chest.
“She’s already dead, you monster!” Brec roars.
Angelica just laughs. “She’s not dismembered yet. I can still do that!”
My blood is burning as I watch her carry my friend high above the ground. She’s ripping at her flesh, holding her too hard, and all Mara is doing is snarling at the humans below. She’s dead, lost to us. What Angelica is doing is meant to distract and hurt us further. I fall to my knees, screaming for my friend, screaming because there’s nothing I can do. My fingers dig into the damp earth, wet with rain and blood, and I wail at the top of my lungs. Sebastian is holding me, I can feel it, but it doesn’t help. My friend is being hurt, tortured, maimed. And I’m helpless far below.
All around me everything seems to heat up, boiling the blood and rain around me until every raindrop turns to nothing but steam.
“Let her go!” I roar at Angelica.
Her sharp eyes focus on me. “You were supposed to die, bitch!” she screams, yanking Mara’s head back so roughly that the skin of her neck starts to split.
“Should have tried harder!” I shriek, sinking my fingers deeper and deeper into the earth.
The ground is bubbling, boiling, an earthquake rumbling the ground beneath me. I watch Angelica’s eyes as they turn from evil to terrified. The ground is rocking so hard now that people are falling, landing on piles of corpses and looking around with sheer terror in their eyes, even my family.
“What the fuck is that?” Rodrick roars, and I feel Sebastian hold me tighter.
“It’s a fucking mountain!” another human screams, scrambling away from the edge of the cliff on his hands and knees.
I laugh, feeling the power coursing through my veins, knowing whatever’s happening behind me is happening because of me. With hard, angry eyes, I look up at Angelica and smile.
“Burn, bitch!” I scream as the top of the mountain erupts and a pyroclastic cloud billows into the air, launching fireballs straight for the enemy.
“A volcano?” my mom shouts.
