Magnus

After climbing through the rubble and slipping out a hole I found in the side of the ruins, I moved toward the front of the building in time to watch Amalia vanish from beside Absenthees. I hoped she never returned, but I had no doubt she would. She’d gone to bring back help, and she would come back with the others.

And when she did return, I had to be near her, because the jinn were already settling in to wait for her near the monolith.

I stopped to erase the few footprints I left behind as I moved. Earlier, I’d seen some of the jinn break away from the others and head toward a pathway I was sure would lead them to me. When they arrived, they couldn’t know I was heading toward them instead of away. I could have cloaked the prints with a small illusion, but it was more important to focus my energy on healing and keeping myself cloaked.

Besides, I hadn’t left a print since I’d moved past the area closest to the collapse, where the sand and dirt of the ruined building was fresh and thick. Further away from the collapse, the ground was the color of sand, but as solid as a rock.

From around a corner of a boulder, four jinn emerged and started toward me. Ducking back, I gripped the top of a three-foot section of wall and boosted myself over it without a sound. Though I’d cloaked myself and moved out of their way, I still crouched down when they neared.

My horns had finally returned to normal, but now they slid forward again as my body pulsed with the need to kill. Amalia’s kind or not, I’d had enough of these fucking assholes. However, I remained where I was; to kill them now would let those below know I’d survived the collapse and was coming for them.

My fingers clawed into my palms as the jinn strode passed me with an arrogance that infuriated me. It was the kind of arrogance I’d always exhibited—a “you can’t touch me” approach to life I no longer felt because I could so easily be destroyed now.

Before Amalia, I’d never cared if I died and would have done so with a smile and a big fuck you to whoever killed me as I took them down with me. I’d been willing to give my life for my king, the cause of destroying Lucifer, and to keep Earth as intact as possible. Nothing had scared me before because there’d been nothing I cared about losing.

I had so much now. I would still die for this cause—we’d all die if we didn’t fight the craetons—but I wouldn’t go into anything with the same arrogant indifference I’d possessed before. If I died, then so would Amalia. And if I lost her….

For the first time, I understood terror as it settled in my gut and chilled my skin. I would level anyone in my way if it meant keeping her safe, and if necessary, I would do precisely that to get free of this place.

When the jinn were out of sight, I moved away from the wall and toward the path.

The fifth jinni stood at the head of the pathway with his arms crossed over his chest. He stared straight ahead, unaware I stood behind him though I was practically breathing down his neck.

Gritting my teeth, I turned sideways and edged passed him. I ached to bury my horns in his throat and rend his head from him, but I slipped by and raced toward the monolith.

I came to a halt at the end of the pathway and behind a sixth jinn. The path here was too narrow for me to pass him without touching. Standing behind him, I stared at his neck. He had to die, but I’d have to wait until Amalia returned before making my move. The second his body hit the ground, the others would know I was here, and I needed to maintain my element of surprise until Amalia returned.

Lifting my gaze from his nape, I stared at the spot where Amalia had vanished as I waited for any sign of her return. I spotted a subtle ripple in the air before she emerged in Caim’s arms. Red filled my vision; my lips curled back as jealousy seared like a hot poker straight into me.

Caim’s wings unfurled with a crack of air, but before he could take flight, two of the jinn crashed into the side of him. Swinging a wing out, he battered the jinn with it and knocked one of them back.

Where are the others?

As the question crossed my mind, I seized the head of the jinni before me. I tore it from his shoulders and lobbed it aside. Before it hit the ground, I created a duplicate image of myself and sent it forth. As the image ran forward, more than a dozen identical illusions broke off from it and ran toward Absenthees.

I ran straight up the middle of the splintering figures as I headed for the monolith and Amalia. Caim gave up trying to fly and punched the other jinni in the face, but more jinn were converging on the two of them. Lifting his right wing, Caim turned it over and plunged the silver spike at the bottom of it into the eye of another jinni.

“Go!” Amalia shouted at him when half a dozen jinn closed in on them. “Find Magnus!”

Caim could have gotten free without her, but he remained by her side and, for the first time, I felt a twinge of respect for the fallen angel, even if I would still like to kill him for touching her.

Some of the jinn rushed forward to attack the duplicates of me, which vanished when touched. As they were disappearing, I sent more forth until over a dozen mirages of me filled the cavernous space. I resisted my instinct to slaughter the jinn I ran past; I didn’t dare give away my location, or the fact I was cloaked again before I reached Amalia.

One of the jinn ran past Caim’s wing and barreled into Amalia. With his shoulder in her ribs, the jinni lifted her off her feet and propelled her into the monolith. A cry escaped her when her back slammed into the structure; I barely suppressed a bellow as her voice echoed in my head. I’d tear the jinni apart for harming her.

Arriving at the rocks mounded around the bottom of Absenthees, I climbed them faster than I’d believed possible as Amalia fought against the jinni trying to get a firm hold on her. A thunderous look crossed the jinni’s face when she wiggled free of him again.

Have to get to her. Have to get to her.

The jinni succeeded in getting one arm around her waist and was trying to lift Amalia when she pulled back her hand and punched him in the nose.

Her face twisted in pain and she shook her hand while the jinni adjusted his hold on her. When we were free of this place, I would teach her how to fight.

Halfway up the rock base, the coating of debris from the ruins shifted beneath my feet, and I almost went down. I managed to catch myself, but I couldn’t cover the rocks and dirt skittering away from me and tumbling down the base of Absenthees. They would know I was not one of the illusions.

The noise drew the attention of the few jinn still climbing toward Amalia and Caim. They turned toward me, but I’d already risen away from where the sound was centered. One of them started toward where I’d almost fallen, but two others looked in the direction of where I was heading. They couldn’t see me, but they’d surmised it was me and were trying to figure out where I was.

They guessed too accurately for my liking.

Like locusts, a handful of jinn swarmed Caim while the others moved beyond him to Amalia. The jinn had all gotten too close for Caim to continue using his wings as weapons, and he was starting to lose the battle. Clutching his arms and legs, the jinn were about to lift him off his feet when he shifted into raven form.

Some of the jinn yelped and stumbled away as Caim rose into the air. The three-foot-tall raven was easily a hundred pounds and had six-inch long talons curving into lethal hooks. Turning, Caim tucked his wings back and dive-bombed the jinn with a ferocious shriek.

One jinni threw himself backward and toppled down the rocks. I darted out of the way when he bounced passed me. Another jinni wasn’t fast enough to avoid the raven; he staggered away with both his eyes and a good portion of his face missing. Caim rose higher before diving again at the jinn still swarming the rocks.

Unaware I was there, Caim came straight at me to get at the jinn who had started in my direction after I dislodged the debris. I threw myself to the ground before he took me out with the three jinn he knocked onto their backs.

Rising, I raced back up the rocks, uncaring about any noise I might make as four jinn surrounded Amalia. The jinni she was fighting with the whole time finally succeeded in lifting her. Amalia hit his shoulders before rearing back and smashing her forehead off the bridge of his nose. The jinni squealed and released Amalia as if she were on fire.

Blood pooled from between the jinni’s fingers as he clutched his nose and stalked toward her. When Amalia’s back connected with the monolith, it stopped her from retreating any further. The jinni pulled back his arm to punch her.

No!

I covered the distance separating us in three large bounds. Coming up behind the jinni, I gripped his head and yanked it to the side. One of his hands flew up to mine but not in time to stop me from ripping his head from his body.

Amalia pressed against the monolith with her eyes closed as she waited for the blow to land. When it didn’t, she cracked open an eye as the jinni’s body hit the ground and I released his head. She blinked, her mouth parted on an O before excitement lit her face.

“Magnus!” she breathed.

• • •

Amalia

“Amalia.”

I still couldn’t see him, but his whisper caused his breath to caress my face, and then his hand cupped my cheek. I turned my head into his palm as a wave of his love swept over me.

And then, he was gone.

Opening my eyes, I discovered three jinn tackling an invisible mass onto the rocks. As they rolled, Magnus’s feet came into view, then his extended horns and head. The disconcerting, patchwork way he shed the cloaking illusion made my breath catch. His legs and torso remained invisible until a punch to his gut knocked the breath from him, and his upper body reappeared, followed by his legs.

Resting my hand against the monolith, I rose to my feet and turned to face the two jinn coming at me. A thrill of power raced into my palm and up my arm as the warm glow lit the symbol beneath my hand again.

I wanted to turn to look at Absenthees, but I didn’t dare tear my eyes away from the approaching jinn whose loyalty only went as far as anyone who didn’t stand against the horsemen, I realized with a heavy heart. Behind the seal, we were all so close; there hadn’t been this hatred toward each other and the world. There was resentment, of course, but not to this degree.

The falling of the seals did more than set us free; it also released all the hatred and bitterness the jinn suppressed over eighteen thousand years of captivity.

They’d kill me to get what they sought, and I’d fight them to the death, theirs or mine before I let them return me to the horsemen. My life, and Magnus’s, might as well be over if those abominations had control over one of us again.

Kill or be killed.

Bracing myself for a battle, I removed my hand from Absenthees and fisted them before me. When this was over, I was going to learn how to punch as I’d broken my thumb when I hit the jinni earlier. It was healing, but not fast enough.

I was about to launch my first blow when Magnus plowed into the side of one of the jinn and shoved her into the other. The strike took them both out. With no jinn before me, I could see what was happening below. Though at least twenty jinn swarmed the monolith and were climbing toward us, almost a dozen remained below, uncertain about jumping into the fray.

Nalki and another jinni restrained my father while he struggled against their hold. Olgon stood between Pride and Lust; their attention was focused on us, and their fury was a hot ray I felt from nearly two hundred feet away. Sitting beside Lust, Sloth yawned as he surveyed the fight with a bored air.

I didn’t know why they hadn’t set their powers free to put an end to this, but then I realized that if the horsemen unleashed their abilities, they would trap all the jinn too. Doing such a thing might render the jinn useless to them and might make it so the horsemen couldn’t escape the Abyss.

And Pride had told Lust she should have suspected the Chosen bond would make Magnus capable of withstanding her power. They loved to create death and destruction, but they preferred to do it without getting their hands dirty. Magnus had almost killed Lust once already; they wouldn’t take the chance such a thing could happen to one of them again.

Still, I didn’t want to see what would happen if the horsemen decided they had no choice but to free their abilities.

We have to get out of here, now!

Stepping back, I pressed against the monolith and flattened my palms on it as Magnus brawled with the two jinn he’d tackled. When another jinni came toward me, I remained where I was and hoped my face reflected my fear. I kept my eyes lowered so they wouldn’t see the rage simmering in them while I waited for her to get closer. Then, I’d surprise her by shoving her backward.

I had crossed a line when I brought Magnus into the Abyss, but what they planned to do to us went far beyond that line. I was looking to save lives, they were looking to end ours, and any loyalty I might have felt toward anyone standing with the horsemen died with my mother.

Now, I would play the role they expected of me, helpless and frightened. I may not be the best fighter, but I would not go easy, and I would not let them destroy my love for Magnus.

Love?

I would always believe peace was better than war; it would always be my preferred course of action, but whereas before I would have walked away from this and let the jinn do what they wanted, I would not back down.

Magnus, the Abyss, the humans, the world, and I were all worth fighting and dying for.

The jinni was only a foot away from me when, keeping my head down, I leaned against the monolith, lifted a foot, and smashed it into her chest. Her mouth formed a startled O, and her astonishment hit me like a hammer as she clawed at the air. However, there was nothing she could grasp to stop herself from falling over, and I watched as she toppled head over heels down the rocks.

I took no pleasure in having beaten her, but I did take satisfaction in it.

Magnus succeeded in throwing one of the jinn away from him before bashing the head of the other off the stones and tossing their limp body aside. Overhead, Caim swooped down to pluck another jinni from the rocks.

The man screamed as Caim flew across the cavern and released him over Pride’s head. The sound the raven released sounded like laughter as the falling jinni flailed his arms. Pride jerked his horse out of the way in time to avoid being hit by the jinni. The man hit the ground with a resonating crunch.

Pride fixed hate-filled eyes on Caim as, against my back, Absenthees heated further.