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“I broke your femurs. You can’t have possibly healed that quickly.”
Bastian shrugs, coming to my side. “What can I say? One night with your daughter made us pretty much indestructible.”
Malachi roars, and a great bolt of fires strikes the ground behind him, setting my father ablaze in blue-violet. Not a cloak, his whole body is engulfed in blue.
I should have told them not to provoke him.
Axe laughs. “Fire?! We’re demons, asshole. There isn’t much those pretty blue flames can do to us.”
“Axe, don’t. It’s not fire.”
All at once, three indigo plumes of magical fire spring from Malachi’s flaming form, and three of the four heirs go flying backward, Axe included. The only one remaining is Dashel, and only because I’m standing in front of him.
I’ve never seen him wield the flames that way. Never seen them go so swiftly from blue to the near black glow of indigo.
“Dove, come back with me or I’ll end this here and now and add your power to mine in this stinking abomination of a world. I’ll tell the counsel you found a home on the mortal realm, and no one will be the wiser. They’ve already believed the lie once.”
Sera would know. Sera would cause a riot until she found out the truth, and Malachi already knows where my thoughts are.
“And before you remind me about your cousin…” He pauses, a terrifying smile spreading on his face. “Well, before I tell you that, I would like to congratulate you on the loyalty you inspire in others. It took quite a bit of convincing to get Sera to tell me where to find you.”
My stomach drops. I can’t breathe.
“Unfortunately, Sera did not survive her wounds. Fortunately for me, I was able to perform the ritual and add her power to mine, so all wasn’t lost.”
Calm.
His words have the opposite effect he expected, I’m sure. My mind stills, vision sharpens even more.
Like the first time I stood up to him, just before coming here, a strange lightness descends in my chest. “Father, if you try to end my life and take my magic, I swear to the Flames it will not go well for you.”
The heirs, taking longer to recover this time, manage to stumble into line next to me.
“Dove, please do not make me do this. Not here. Not now. You aren’t ready.”
“I’m not making you do anything. You’re free to leave any time you like, so long as you leave me in peace.”
“You know I can’t do that.”
“No. I know you’re a selfish, cowardly, weak man who is too afraid to stand on his own, so you use everyone around you to bolster your ego. I know you killed my mother and my best friend for your own stupid, power-mongering ways. And I also know that you’re not doing that to me. So you can leave. Or I can end you. Those are your choices, Malachi.”
With every word, Malachi stares at me through a pillar of darkening flames until he stands in front of me cloaked entirely in pure black fire.
“Fuck yeah, Dove. Let’s get to stabbing.” Enzo’s recovered enough to bounce again.
“You don’t honestly think you’re a match for me, do you?”
I answer him honestly. “I know I’m not. But I also know that I’ll die before I let you take me back to Celestus. I’ll die before I willingly put myself under your thumb again. So just go. Go before one of us dies.”
Five pillars of black flames shoot out from him, but I was waiting for that exact thing. With the demon magic waiting on my skin, I gather the flames and send them back to Malachi before they even blow a strand of hair on any of the heirs.
“My quarrel is not with you, boys. Leave now before one of you is seriously injured.”
I laugh at him. “A little late for that, don’t you think?”
“We’re not going anywhere,” Dashel says as much to me as to Malachi.
My father takes a breath. “Fine. You’ve made your choice then.” A plume of flames, black as I’d ever seen, comes straight for me. I have a split second to decide what to do.
