7
The Witch

 

 

 

Gabriel laughed half in amusement and half in dark lust.  

I pictured how the thick head of his shaft pressed open my folds. The anticipation sent shivers down my spine. The first thrust was always glorious. And this time, I had a memory of how good it had been when we had fucked in the shuttle, though I wouldn’t remember all of this tomorrow morning.

What was he waiting for? Why was he still fumbling with his trousers? How long does it take to pull out a cock?!

Liquid fire licked the tender flesh between my thighs.

I was going to yell at him or beg if I didn’t have a cock inside me the next second.

Gabriel’s body stiffened.

A second later, mine tensed as well.

The jungle suddenly felt very wrong.

An unfamiliar chill slithered up my spine.

Gabriel dropped me from his grasp and formed his massive wings around me to shield me. But that wouldn’t stop Akem if the entity was determined to harm me.

My breathing became uneven.

I’d thought Akem had left us alone. I had been wrong. And I’d let my guard down in this perilous jungle, distracted by the Angel.

I’d let the mating call turn me into a feline beast in heat.

Even now, while danger closed in on us, my body was still burning hot for him. 

Akem’s darkness creeped in, no longer presenting it as akin to mine. There wasn’t the slightest benign feeling or even simple curiosity toward me. It had only an evil intent and the promise of harsh punishment.

I’d really burned my bridges with Akem when I’d insisted on taking Gabriel out of the jungle.

As it turned out, the entity was unable to let go of a grudge.

But I wasn’t completely unprepared.

As my magical markings had warned me this morning, Akem’s most lethal weapon was his poisonous fog. I could use my storm to blow it away from Gabriel and me. I could shield us with my ice magic. So, even if the red fog touched us, we’d have a second skin.

I’d been practicing my shielding in my chamber every night. Though I couldn’t remember details, I’d made my magic my first nature.

It would act instinctively to preserve me and to protect Gabriel.

But my goal today wasn’t to stay in the jungle and fight Akem. We needed to get out now, since I was spent after I had pushed myself to the limit sending my TimeFire to search for the portal. I should have taken time with my fire magic before I exhausted it. That had been a desperate move.

Now that I was drained, my storm and ice magic were greatly weakened, and my darkness didn’t twirl at my feet as usual.

“I’ll allow no one to touch you,” said Gabriel. 

“I’ll rely on your sword today to return me to the tower,” I said.

A piercing shriek rose above the thick canopy. The Furies had returned.

“We have to go,” I urged.

Gabriel held my hand, and we were about to run.

But shadowy figures burst out from every tree line.

The vampires!

They were everywhere.

Desdemona must have sent out the entire horde.

I’d wondered where the Furies had gone when they had flown toward the City of Nine. Now I knew. They’d headed toward the vampire tower to summon the bloodsuckers.

Akem could have used his own monsters and beasts to besiege us. Instead, he’d called in an outside force.

Why?

What was his ultimate plan?

He had never allowed the vampires to enter his jungle. But everything had changed after Gabriel and I became lovers.

“Back to the shuttle, Fia!” Gabriel said.

He wanted me to hide in the ship while he fought. He thought I’d have a better chance guarding the half-open door and a broken window than battling in the open.

But those hundreds of vampires, who had super speed and strength, would tear him apart.

Just as I considered the vampires’ speed, they zoomed in, closed in on us, and cut our retreat.

At the rear of their ranks, standing on a higher patch, was a vampiress in a pink gown.

Kaara had briefed me about the vampire hierarchy, and I realized this was Princess Jasmine.

Tall, slender, and immortally young, she had blonde hair, crystal-blue eyes, and pale skin.

The vampire girl was elegantly sexy.

I wondered if she was Gabriel’s type.

Her hot gaze was fixed on him. She wanted him.

Rage burst in me.

“Archangel Gabriel.” The vampire princess parted her red lips, and her voice flowed out like music. “My argument isn’t with you. We came for the Wickedest Witch. All you need to do is stand by, and you’re free to go.” She swayed her narrow hips, and her perky breasts under her thin gown seemed to want to pop out for him. “But if you join me, you’ll have a great reward that no man can resist.”

I wanted to claw her eyes out for looking at Gabriel like that, and to tear her throat out for her flirty purr. She had obviously met him before, since she knew his name and gazed at him as if he belonged to her.

Gabriel focused on the vampire princess as if, suddenly, he no longer registered my existence. Was he already taken by the sexy vampiress? My throat tightened. My hand gripped my ice spear.

“A great reward that no man can resist?” he asked curiously. “What is it?”

“Me,” the vampire princess said. “As I promised you when we first met, I’d give you pleasure beyond your wildest dreams. The offer is still open. You don’t even need to deliver the witch. Just let me take care of my business. And I invite you to come with me after that. One day you’ll rule Pandemonium with me.”

It might have been an attractive offer, if the Angel really wanted the vampiress and didn’t know the planet was about to explode.

I had something Gabriel wanted more. I was the only one who could open the portal.

But when he had the chance to leave, he hadn’t taken it. 

He hadn’t left me behind.

A flying lizard with an owl’s hairy face perched on a high branch of a tree, staring hard at me.

Akem’s messenger had come.

His two-headed hellhound stood under the lizard, fangs dripping, a hungry look in his onyx eyes as they were fixed on me.

“You have nothing to offer the Archangel, Wickedest Witch,” Akem’s messenger said.

I must have shouted my thoughts out in my head.

Gabriel flashed his long sword and growled. He didn’t like to hear anyone, even a lizard, ridicule me. But why hadn’t he snarled at the vampiress? He had even asked her what his reward would be, and when she’d replied that it was herself, he’d said nothing.

Could he be interested?

Maybe I had put my trust in him too soon?

What if he turned on me now?

The vampiress was offering him a way out, plus herself, as a package deal. She seemed sweet to him, and I hadn’t been kind to him. I might be the only female who had caught his eye before in the City of Nine, but now he had more options, and the vampire princess was very sexy. 

I tried to step away from Gabriel—I gotta watch my back—but he pulled me closer to him. I wouldn’t fight him now, when I had a horde of vampires surrounding me, but I stayed on high alert and shielded myself with the residue power of my ice and darkness, just in case he decided to betray me.

If Gabriel went against me, it would simply make my demise quicker. I wouldn’t make it out anyway, even if he didn’t abandon me.

“You’ll never leave Pandemonium, Wickedest Witch,” the lizard said. “Your fate was sealed when you came to Akem’s realm.”

“Is that why you allied with the bloodsuckers, Akem?” I drawled. “Just to stop me from leaving? Why now?”

“Akem once considered you his,” said the lizard. “But you had to defy him with your Angel lover. Is the sex worth it? You might not remember, but Akem owns you. Wherever he is, you’ll be.”

I sneered. “No one owns me, not even gods.”

“Akem is more than a god,” the lizard said. “Today he’ll hand you over to Dark Prince Desdemona. If you repent and bathe yourself in tears long enough, Akem might take you back in the end.”

“How touching,” I said. “But the Wickedest Witch has no tears, only wicked revenge. By the way, doesn’t Akem know Desdemona would drain me, if and when Akem finally decides to take me back?”

“Dark Prince Desdemona won’t drain you,” the lizard said. “He made a pact with my master. He dares not take your life. All he wants is a bride in his bed and a few sips of your powerful witch blood. He’ll tame you for Akem, then you’ll remember how generous and kind Akem is. You’ll be forever grateful when you’re returned to him.”

It was pointless to argue with the sick logic of an entity, who didn’t think like any flesh and blood.

Beside me, Gabriel snarled viciously. His whole body had become steel hard, his muscles taut, his wings arched. The Angel was in battle mode.

I laughed. “Akem thinks I’ll remember his kindness?”

The lizard blinked. Got him, didn’t I?

“And your jungle is too small a pond for me,” I said, testing him. I didn’t know how far he could reach on Pandemonium.

“My planet.” The lizard’s voice no longer sounded human. A chill filled me, and all the tiny hairs on my neck stood up.

The jungle became deadly quiet.

Gabriel tugged me closer.

“The whole planet is mine,” Akem said. “I allow the aliens to live in the City of Nine and elsewhere, and I tolerate them because I have use for them. Once they’re in my land, no one departs. As for you, my favorite witch, I’ll always have a special place for you. Only now I have to alter the plan, since you’ve found the portal. I can’t allow you to leave me. When you become a vampire, you’ll live here, like other vampires. And you’ll love the shades. Your home is here, and forever here, with me. Even if your immortal life expires—by misfortune—your spirit will roam and wail in my realm.”

His pronouncement chilled me to the bone.

Akem wanted me as his prisoner, forever.

“That sounds like a dream come true, Akem,” I said, “if Pandemonium doesn’t go up soon in a vast, spectacular flame. And where will you be then?”

“Don’t count on it, witch,” Akem said in a distorted voice.

I sighed.

Reasoning with a delusional entity was like arguing with death.

The lizard dipped his head toward Gabriel. “Disown your loyalty to the Wickedest Witch, Archangel, and you’ll live. She doesn’t care for you and never will. She won’t even remember you tomorrow. I’ve touched your mind, and I can confirm that your doubts about her are all true. She isn’t worth it.”

I swallowed.

I knew I had no hold on Gabriel, but somehow my feelings for him had changed. I had strong feelings for him now, feelings that confused, electrified, and scared me. They made me vulnerable, just as I was now—standing here beside him.

Akem wanted to punish me so much he believed turning Gabriel against me would hurt me the worst.

I didn’t blame Gabriel for having doubts about me. Who wouldn’t?

I was the Wickedest Witch, after all.

I was never the good guy, not in any universe.

“Lying fuck!” Gabriel spat, a spark of fire materializing on one of his black feathers before vanishing. “You couldn’t touch my mind,” his fiery eyes fixed on the lizard. “An Archangel’s mind is a formidable thing, and no one can violate mine. Definitely not you, filth.”

“Calm down, Gabriel,” Jasmine warned, heat remaining in her eyes. She really desired him. “Choose wisely, please. Look around. You won’t get out in one piece if you don’t make some compromises. Don’t go down with the witch. A great warrior like you should know when to quit.”

“Gabriel, leave me,” I said.

I didn’t need to say more. I was okay with him preserving himself. I encouraged him to do so. Why must we both go down, when he could live to fight another day?

It wasn’t practical.

I would die, but I would never allow myself to be captured.

So, this was it.

Akem had waited until I was spent, and he’d learned about my fire magic.

I didn’t regret my decision not to step through the portal when I’d had the chance. I couldn’t bring myself to leave my subjects behind, especially Kaara. I didn’t know what she was to me, but I knew she meant a great deal.

I only regretted that I hadn’t pushed Gabriel to leave through the portal, because of my own selfishness. I’d wanted him to be with me, and now I had doomed him. No, I hadn’t exactly doomed him. He still had an opening. All he needed to do was abandon me right now. 

It was necessary. There was no shame or guilt for him to do so.

On Pandemonium, everyone looked out for their own interests.

I staggered back, trying to put distance between us and to make it easier for him to go.

My cold sweaty hand grabbed Defender tighter, not to fight the Angel, but to be ready for the vampires. 

I would take down my foes, as many as I could. And before they could seize me, I would slit my own throat and leave them with nothing but a bloodless corpse.

Fate was the cruelest mistress, and more merciless than I. Just when I’d thought I could finally go home, this day would become the end of me.

My unknown enemies who had tossed me through the portal were going to have the last laugh. I licked my lips at the bitter thought.

Before I perished, I’d make sure to burn my soul with the last ounce of my magic, so my spirit wouldn’t roam on this planet. I would completely wipe out every part of my existence—body, soul, and the last piece of my consciousness. 

I would leave nothing of me for Akem.

Gabriel bared his teeth and snarled. “Never, Fia.”

A dagger appeared in his hand, and it flew toward the lizard the next second.

Akem’s messenger flew into the air, but not before the blade cleaved its left wing. The Archangel was incredibly fast. The lizard’s blood sprayed onto the branch where it had perched. Its green blood dripped down on the head of the hellhound.

The lizard screeched in pain and tumbled down into a cluster of thorny bushes.

The hound licked the blood that trickled onto his muzzle.

Above the canopy, the Furies shrieked with giggles. If I hadn’t known better, I’d have thought the Furies hated their master.

Yet my magical markings had mentioned the Furies were cursed before being enslaved by Akem.

I would never let Akem shackle me.

The vampires gasped. All of the beings on Pandemonium feared Akem more than anything. They trembled just hearing his name. But Gabriel had called Akem filth and had just maimed his messenger.   

“No! Gabriel!” Jasmine cried, throwing her hand to her mouth. There went her chance to get him to go with her.

I smiled. Okay then. We’ll kill and cause carnage, and go down together.

My heart warmed as courage pumped into my heart. 

The jungle shook with Akem’s fury, but the Archangel’s rage was greater.

With a battle roar, he leaped, faster than a flash, going straight for Jasmine.

I knew what he was trying to do. Once he seized the head of the snake, he’d make the vampire princess order her army to retreat. With fewer numbers arrayed against us, we’d have a better chance fighting our way out of the jungle.

But the vampiress had anticipated that. Before he’d even moved, she’d zoomed away. “I’m not a fighter. I’m a lover,” she purred. 

A shameless slut and a coward!

A wall of vampires stood between Gabriel and Jasmine. The Archangel crashed into it. His long sword rose and fell. But the vampires surrounded him, layer after layer, moving like a blur.  Bodies and blades and claws became one.

Akem’s hellhound shot toward Gabriel, but my icy storm slammed into the dog. Though I was spent, my magic could still keep a few hounds and vampires at bay. However, my magic wouldn’t last long.

Plus, I needed to reserve my energy, so I could shield Gabriel and me when Akem sent his acid fog. I wouldn’t use up the last morsel of my magic unless there was no other choice.

My storm peeled off the inner layer of the vampires who swarmed Gabriel, as I fought toward him. Bodies fell around him under his blade, but the rest kept rushing toward him.

Then a dozen of them surrounded me.

“Fia! I’m coming!” Gabriel shouted.

I propelled my ice spear forward and pierced through an attacking vampire’s heart. The spear disappeared, then reappeared in my hand as I swung it backwards and buried its spearhead into the foe behind me.

My darkness pinned down another vampire to my left.

If I hadn’t been so drained, my darkness would have attacked in waves and kept nearly a hundred enemies at bay.

A vampiress leaped at me, her sword swinging toward my head. I bent backwards, and her broad blade whooshed by, a few inches above my face.

I’d thought I had this one advantage—the vampires would want to capture me instead of killing me. Then I had realized that Jasmine wanted me dead, even though her prince brother wanted me delivered to him alive.

I threw my darkness at the vampiress and at the same time tossed my spear toward an old vampire as he lunged at me. This undead immortal had wrinkles on his weathered face. Either his master had turned him in his older age, or he’d been starving.

Before he grabbed me, my spear penetrated his throat, vanished, and appeared in my hand again.

More vampires came toward me. Sweat dripped into my eyes, but I dared not wipe it off or blink, despite the sting.

But I slowed down.

I should have gone through the portal to the other side and figured out a way to return for Kaara. My death wouldn’t do anything to help her or any of my followers. And now there was no exit for Gabriel and me.

Then unnerving bellows rose all around the jungle. The nightmares had come. Akem’s other creatures—beasts, the giant Lamashtus, and monsters of all shapes—rushed toward us from all directions.

Gabriel fought toward me, his angelblade cutting into rows of bodies, his broken wings sweeping away a few cannibals. The Archangel wheeled and kicked a horned beast flying.

His clothing turned to strips, hanging all over him.

The enemies’ weapons and claws couldn’t bleed him. They now clung to him like leeches. At least a dozen vampires hung on each of his wings, trying to pin him down. If Gabriel’s wings hadn’t been broken, he would have fared better.

I’d been cruel to him. I hadn’t cared for him. If I’d fixed his wings when he’d first fallen on Pandemonium, our fate would have been different now. He would have flown me out of here.

I’d been petty and callous because he’d refused to bow down to me, and now we were paying with our lives.

I wouldn’t last long. I shouldn’t drag him down with me.

The vampire princess wanted the Archangel even more as she watched him fight. A glance at her had told me that much.

She didn’t even hide her hots for him. His excellence and brutality turned her on. After I went down, she would spare him.

“Leave me, Angel!” I shouted. “I command you to return to the tower. Now!”

They didn’t want him. They wanted me dead.

He could fight his way out if I was no longer his burden.

At his speed, he could escape Akem’s fog.

“Never leave you!” Gabriel roared, struggling to shrug off the vampires, hounds, and beasts all over him.

Two Lamashtus grabbed his wrists to keep him from wielding his blade.

As I cleared a path and darted toward Gabriel, Akem’s foul darkness rammed into me. My weak icy storm and darkness pushed back at Akem’s attack, but they crumpled at my feet.

It wasn’t the first time I’d tasted Akem’s dark power. Even fully charged, I wouldn’t be able to beat him with my dark magic. The only magic that could stand a chance against the entity was my fire, but I’d exhausted it.

Akem’s darkness sent me flying backward like a rag doll. My back hit a huge tree trunk. Pain blurred my vision, and my own blood tasted metallic in my mouth.

“Fia!” Gabriel screamed as rage, fear, and agony twisted his face.

How could he care about me so much? I hadn’t done anything for him. I didn’t deserve him.

With a thunderous roar, Gabriel threw the giants and vampires off him, his blade lashing out like lightning, and cutting a new trail, leaving bodies scattered behind him.

The Archangel fought like fire descending from the heavens.

“Gabriel, go!” I shouted. “Save yourself!”

“Never leave without you!” he shouted. 

A horde of vampires zoomed in toward me, ready to snatch me away.

Just then, dozens of wolves raced toward me and cut in between the vampires and me.

Kaara Nightshades was among them.

She roared, thrusting her angelblade into a vampire who darted toward me. And my army from the tower crashed into Akem’s creatures, blades and claws against their fangs.

No aliens had dared enter the jungle, knowing they wouldn’t get out alive. Yet they’d come for me.  

I struggled to get to my feet but slumped back against the tree.

I was afraid I might have a few broken ribs.

My army and allies had come for a useless, wrecked witch and would forfeit their own lives for it.

Bitterness tasted anew on my tongue, along with the tang of my blood.

Kaara fought beside a large gray wolf, her mate, to keep the vampires from getting to me. They had their hands full, and no one was free to help me up.

Gabriel was now less than ten yards away from me, but a troop of vampires and beasts had inserted themselves between us again.

“Get up, witch! Get up!” he shouted. “You’re the Wickedest Witch! Now act like one!”

How dare he scold me in the heat of battle?

I’d show him how the Wickedest Witch would act! I drew a couple of deep breaths and let the pain pass through me. Gritting my teeth, I stabbed my ice spear into the forest floor. Holding it to support my weight, I rose to my feet. The move hurt like hell, but I commanded my muscles to work, then I was functioning again.

I spun, my ice spear piercing one vampire after another, as I fought beside Kaara and the gray wolf.

Gabriel cut through a wall of bodies and reached us.

I threw my spear at the face of a ponytailed vampire, who lunged at Gabriel from the left, and the bloodsucker dropped in a heap as the spear went through his head.

“Fia!” Gabriel grabbed me. 

The wolves and my army had all fought back to us. We were together now with the strongest fighters at the edge of our ranks.

But we were still outnumbered, and Akem’s beasts kept coming.

“We need to get out!” Kaara shouted, and darted her eyes around frantically, seeking an opening.

There was none.

I let a trace of my magic guide me and it pointed south.

“Southwest is the closest to the city,” I said. “We have to fight through it.”

“Marrok,” Gabriel snarled, “let’s tear it open.”

The gray wolf growled in response.

Acting as one, the two great warriors rammed into the vampires and monsters ahead.

Kaara sent me a concerned look.

“I’ll be fine,” I said. “Stay alive, Kaara. I found the portal.”

Kaara nodded and charged ahead.

I let my spear fly through a vampire’s open mouth and dashed after Gabriel. His wings became steel, sweeping away the vampires in my path.

As I glanced back, I could see my army fighting bravely and savagely.

Among the wolves bringing up the rear, an enormous white wolf fought especially well. I’d seen him tear a few vampires apart. His brutality and fighting skill kept even the Lamashtus at bay.

As one, we pushed through. A few of us fell, but we couldn’t go back for them. We had to move forward. 

The vampires and Akem’s creatures regrouped and pursued us in great numbers.

Gabriel and Marrok were unstoppable, but our rear was being cut down. Many wolves had fallen, and the white wolf was having a hard time fending off all the foes that came upon him.

It was clear our enemies intended to cut through from the back, eating into our numbers.

“We’re almost out,” Gabriel said. “Marrok, bring my mate and yours out and protect them with your life.”

The gray wolf growled and nodded curtly, as he bit down on the head of the beast before him.

“What are you doing, Gabriel?” I hissed. “Whatever is in your mind, I forbid it.”

“I must stop them from coming after you,” he said. “This is the only way you’ll get out alive. There’s an obvious fallout between Desdemona and his sister. She wants you dead, but wants me alive.”

My eyes burned with fury. “Are you asking me to whore you out to her?”

“Do you want us all dead?” he asked, steel in his voice, too.

“We stick together,” I said. “I won’t sacrifice you.”

“We don’t have the luxury of sticking together anymore,” he said. “It won’t be a sacrifice. You know I’m the only one who can stop them from pursuing you. You live, and I’ll live. I must preserve you. I’ll find you. This is the best plan, and I don’t have time to argue with you.”

“No!” I said.

Gabriel pulled me to him and kissed me raw and hard.

The kiss burned to my soul.

His strong hand held my chin as he looked deep into my eyes. “Remember me, baby. I’ll come back to you. I’ll always find you. I fell into the past just to be with you.”

My jaws clenched. “Gabriel—”

The enemies charged.

Gabriel thundered, his sword rising and falling, leaving bodies behind.

He leaped high and forward with his broken wings, landed fifty yards behind, and joined the force of our rear army.

With the Archangel reinforcing him, the white wolf howled and resumed his brutal assault on the horde of vampires. They tore, cut, and slashed at the enemies, working as a perfect team and halting the monsters’ advance.

I bit my lip as I fought beside Kaara and her wolf mate.

At last, we tore through the opening and charged forward in a forceful current. 

“Go!” Gabriel shouted at us. “Go!”

We needed to go, but I wanted to go back and join him.

“Fia! We have to go!” Kaara called.

“I can’t leave him!” I said.

Kaara yanked me ahead. “He’ll find us. He’ll find you. He has to, and he will!”

I shrugged her off. “I need to be with him. I can’t leave him.”

“Fia! They don’t want him. They want you. Gabriel knows what he’s doing!”

This was our chance to flee, but Gabriel wouldn’t take it.

He didn’t plan to take it.

How could I abandon him? Where was my loyalty?

“We have to run faster, Fia!” Kaara shouted. “Please! You’re responsible for us, too. You can’t let us down. If you die here, all hope dies with you.”

“I can’t, Kaara,” I sobbed, which might be the first time I’d wept. “I—I can’t leave him. I’m not really that—heartless. Sometimes I pretended. I—I … I just can’t.”

“I know, Fia. I know.”

“I’m going back to him.”

“Go, witch!” Gabriel roared. “If you really want to die, I’ll do you a favor and come and slash your throat myself, and finish your pathetic, vile life!”

What?

Kaara dragged me ahead. “Fia,” she said. “He won’t die, because the vampire princess wants him. She’ll preserve him.”

My eyes found Jasmine staying out of the action, away from the battlefield, and protected by her soldiers. Her gaze fell solely on Gabriel, blatant heat burning in her eyes. It was as if she’d never wanted any man as much as she wanted him. It was as if she wanted to drag him to her bed right now, or just fuck him in the middle of the battle, without a care in the world.

Rage and jealousy pierced my heart.

I had to kill her!

I wouldn’t give up Gabriel to that slut!

I stalked toward the vampire princess, my ice spear in hand. I would cut a bloody trail of vampire bodies to her and pierce my spear into her whore heart.

Kaara pulled me back. “Fia! You live, and let him live another day. He’ll figure out a way to come back to you. His loyalty is to you, and no one can take it away.”

Marrok tore apart a vampire that had caught up with us.

I was slowing them down.

“Get her out of here, Nightshades! Do your fucking job! She’s your mistress, your charge!” Gabriel roared, swinging his angelblade at the enemies. “Just go, before I cut you all down as well!”

Clarity returned to me.

Kaara was right. I had to leave with the army and let Gabriel catch up with us.

But what if he didn’t?

I shut my eyes for a second.

Jasmine wanted him so much he stood a chance to live.

If I didn’t go, Kaara, my army, and the wolves wouldn’t leave, either.

And if we stayed, we would all die here today.

Live another day at the cost of Gabriel. He said he was my mate. He asked me to remember him after kissing me goodbye. 

That kiss had imprinted me.

Gabriel spun 180 degrees, his wings spreading to their full length and sending several foes flying. For a second, our gazes connected.

“I won’t leave Pandemonium without you,” I said, my vow snapping into place.

Three Lamashtus charged him and held onto his wings. The white wolf rammed into a Lamashtu, but a hound tore into the wolf.

My magic wasn’t enough to aid Gabriel.

I turned away from him.

Akem’s red fog rose, drifting toward us. My lingering ice and darkness shielded my companions, and my icy wind expelled the fog further.

I charged out of the jungle with Kaara, her wolf mate, my surviving army, and the rest of the wolves. 

Gabriel roared his battle cry in fury and might, rocking the entire jungle and shattering my heart.

The Furies hovered above the canopy, shrieking and puffing out black fire.

Kaara cursed. We were in no shape to fight the creatures of the nightmare. And I had completely exhausted my magic.

I swallowed hard.

But the Furies just watched.

Flee, Wickedest Witch, and now you owe us a favor, a coarse female voice said in my head.

When I swept my gaze up, one of the Furies winked at me.

That was the first time the Furies had spoken. I hadn’t known they were intelligent beings, and that they could telepath.

Which meant they were magic beings, unlike Akem’s other creatures.

So, the myth was right about the Furies being cursed.

Why should I owe you? I hissed. You summoned the vampires.

We had our orders! one of them snarled back. We’re bound to obey him.

So, they were indeed enslaved by Akem.

Help me get my Archangel mate out, I said, and I owe you a life debt.

The Fury shrieked at me, The Archangel is where he must be. Leave now or I’ll eat your followers. They flapped their red-taloned wings, preparing to dive and attack.

Fear seized my army—their adrenaline was running out.

“Go! Go!” I shouted to my army and the wolves. They didn’t need to be ordered out again, and shot toward the ruins of the city.

When we reached my Witch Tower, Gabriel’s desperate roar still rang in my ears.

And then I could no longer hear him.

I, the Wickedest Witch, had left my mate behind and let him fend off a horde of vampires, monsters, and nightmares alone.