The mountains trembled in terror and the forest shuddered, not because of Ares’ roars.

Massive wings covered the sky and blotted out the sun.

The horde of the Dark Lord’s Angels had arrived.

They swarmed the place.

Outside the window, their black wings swung in the air, their cold, determined gazes on me and Ares.

They’d come to take me to my grandfather, so he could harvest my power, as he’d done to others who had powers he coveted. The magic in me would revive him, and he would break me. It didn’t matter that I was his blood. All that mattered to him was his uncontested power and throne in the universe.

I was his means to regain the glory he had lost.

Ares tugged me behind him. “Get dressed, quickly!” he ordered.

I shoved on my clothes hastily. Under the circumstances, there was no need to go nude.

The Angels outside the villa all wore full armor. Eye-patch had told them about my lethal touch, so their skin was all covered. From what I knew, their armors could shield their faces and wings as well, though an earthling’s eye couldn’t see through the device. 

In a second, Ares had hauled on his armor that covered his torso, forearms, and thighs. He handed me the ray gun, but I doubt it would do much harm on the armored Angels. They’d prepared and were armed to teeth.

The whole legion had come just to capture me. Atlas was indeed beyond desperation.

Ares and I shared a look as we surveyed the situation. There was no escape route out of the villa embedded in the cave. There was only one entrance—the cave mouth—and now the front window.

When the High Prince of Angels had picked this place, he’d never thought of building a backdoor because he had wings and immense power. Now Ares and I had to pay for his arrogance and carelessness.

The legion besieged the Moonshade Villa and extended beyond the forest.

Hatred burned in me. They had come for me, mere moments before Ares had been inside me. He’d just marked me as his, and I hadn’t had time to savor the significance. I’d also just taken a leap of faith and come clean with him that I was his witch and he hadn’t had time to think it over and react either.

Facing my immortal enemies and not seeing the slimmest chance of escaping, my fear rose as strongly as my hate, engulfing me like dark flames.

Ares put two of his fingers into his mouth, ready to summon the guardians.

I laid my hand on his arm. “No,” I said.

He knew what I meant. I didn’t want the guardians and his men to fly into the slaughter.

“I need you to escape while I hold them off,” Ares said in a choked voice. “I need you to live. You’ll take the chance.”

He didn’t plan to survive. Immense anguish and regrets flashed through his eyes. He thought he’d brought this to me. He thought he harmed his mate while all he wanted was to protect her—me.

I shook my head and gazed up at him, a thousand words in my eyes. He let go of his fingers, his face stricken with grief. He knew there was no chance for me—especially not for me—when a legion of Angels had come across the universe and light years to capture me.

No earthling army could overpower such a mighty legion. Only the elite battleships of the High Prince of All Angels could fight it. But the ThunderSong had returned to the Twilight Realm. 

I looked up to the sky but didn’t see any enemy spaceships. They had to keep the ships on the other side of the portal, not wanting to alert the High Prince. They planned to snatch me and run.

No one would come for us. No one would save us.

All I had was Ares, and he had me.

“Freyja, my true witch, my true mate,” he said, his thumb moving across my cheek so gently, yet such rage storming in his eyes. Soon, even his fury would be ash as the legion of tens and thousands tore through us.

I half closed my eyes. Such was our fate.

The Oracle had led Ares to me. Had she seen this horror before us?

“When we can fight no more,” I said, “you’ll end me. You’ll never let them catch me. The Dark Lord plans to feed on me and drain me dry.”

“I won’t let them have you,” he said as he moved me further behind him.

As Merlin had said, my mate’s primal instinct was always to protect me first and beyond anything.

An Archangel descended before the vanguard of the legion.

“Hello again, Princess,” Eye-patch called. “Did I catch you at a bad time?” He leered at Ares, then at me, and started laughing.

Ares hadn’t attacked as he was waiting for the best opening. Even though there was no hope, he still hoped I would escape and live a life without him.

“Shouldn’t Dark Lord Atlas come in person?” I asked. “Oh, I forgot. He hasn’t picked all of his pieces together.”

Atlas could project his astral self to every corner of the universe before the Fey Empress and his heir shredded his essence. At the moment, Eye-patch was his eye. Through the link, he watched me from the far end of the hole where he hid like a coward.

“You’re just like your vicious, rebellious uncle,” Eye-patch said. “The High Prince destroyed our species, but at least you can be of use. With your sacrifice, Princess, the High Lord will return and rule again.”

My heart skipped a beat. I’d come clean about being the First Witch, but I wasn’t ready to let Ares know I was a Nephilim—the one and only Nephilim. I didn’t want his last image of me to be tainted. But it was all out in the open. He now knew my most feared, darkest secret. He now knew I wasn’t just a spawn to any Angel, but the monster Angel King, and the bloodline of the most powerful, despicable Dark Lord of All Angels.

Ares still shielded me behind him, his broad angelblade flashing before him, ready to draw the Angels’ blood. And soon, I would fall under that blade, too, as he’d promised me.

At the revelation, Ares remained quiet. He couldn’t look back at me while we faced our worst enemies, but from the slight rising and falling of his shoulders, I knew he wasn’t unaffected by the news.  

I gave Eye-patch a razor-sharp smile and stared into his eye with concentration. “I know you can see and hear me, Grandfather,” I said in my most commanding voice. “Dispose of this vessel of yours. He offends my sight. I have no more tolerance to imperfection as you do.”

I wouldn’t mention that I was the cause of Eye-patch’s maimed eye.

A chuckle boomed out of Eye-patch’s throat, and I felt a penetrating gaze from him.

A power I hadn’t felt before vibrated in the air.

Holy shit!

Atlas had taken charge of his vessel through light-years of distance.

With shattering essence, the Dark Lord could still command such power. What would he do when he regained full strength? First, he’d return to Earth and deplete it for revenge.

I had only my pack before, but now I had more people I cared about deeply. I wouldn’t let my grandfather destroy their planet.

My blood thrummed in my ear, but I held my ground.

The air crackled tightly. I knew the Angels felt their Dark Lord’s signature power, for they all bowed their heads.

The only one who remained untouched was Ares.

He’d withdrawn half a step to hold my waist. My heartbeat returned to normal. His energy surged to me through our bond, replenishing and anchoring me.

He knew I had a plan, and he was aiding me, though he very much wanted to cut down my grandfather’s possessed vessel, who hovered outside the broken window and stared down at me like a vulture waiting on a corpse.

I had no chance of getting away, but I could still manipulate Atlas to leave Ares alone. As soon as my mate was far away from the horde, I’d slice my throat good and deep with the angelblade hidden in my boot.

The Dark Lord would return empty-handed, except for my bloodless corpse, which would be of no use to him.

“I sense great power in you, Freyja,” Atlas said through Eye-patch. “You’re indeed my granddaughter. I’m delighted and proud.”

Of course he was delighted, he would harvest my essence. And the way he said my name crept me out.

Ares clenched his teeth, pulling me tighter against him, his knuckles straining all white on the hilt of his sword. I subtly tried to untangle from him, but he only growled.

Idiot, I was trying to get him away from here. I wanted him to live.

“Since you’ve acknowledged me as your bloodline,” I said. “I deserve respect and the privilege as the first and last Princess of All Angels. If you want to see me, Grandfather, all you have to do is to extend an invitation. Isn’t it overdone by sending a horde of thousands to pick me up?”

Atlas laughed. “My sharp-tongued granddaughter! You’re far more worthy than your useless father. However, as you said, you’re the first and last Princess of All Angels—rare and precious, it would be only fitting to have the greatest army to escort you.”

“Then we should be on our way.” I sighed. “I don’t want my boy toy to go with us, though I’m fond of him. I’m going to send him home, and then I’ll pack.”

Ares snarled. “You think I would leave you? They’ll have to go through my dead body to get to you.”

“Stop it,” I hissed in a low voice and almost stomped on his foot for trying to ruin his only surviving chance. I couldn’t bear to see him perish before me. I wouldn’t allow it.

The vessel leered at us. “Child,” he said, “you’ll have to stay by my side for an eon to learn how to plot. My former heir is the only one who ever succeeded in overthrowing me, but not for long. Isn’t the half-blood Dragonian your mate? His mark is all over you, just as your scent is all over him. He’ll go with you to the end, as a good mate should do. My vessel wants to gut him, but I won’t let him. However, I can’t stop him from breaking your mate’s bones one by one if you prove to be too difficult to manage on the journey to me.”

It took less than five minutes for the ancient fuck to show his true colors. And I was toddler—no, a fetus—compared to him when it came to dark schemes.

There was only one option left—fight the legion, take down as many as we could, and die in Ares’ arms. 

As soon as my decision was made, both Ares and I attacked Eye-patch in unison, determining to eliminate the Dark Lord’s vessel first and hopefully hurt him in the process.

I aimed the ray gun toward his remaining eye, and Ares threw his dagger toward the enemy’s heart.

Eye-patch flashed aside, ducking my energy beam. At the same time, he brought his broad sword up and sent Ares’ dagger flying backwards.

The horde flapped their massive black wings excitedly at the start of a battle. Endless darkness rolled over the sky.

Fear churned in my stomach, but a rush of adrenaline pumped through my blood.

“Take the Princess!” Atlas ordered.

“Be my shadow,” my mate ordered, meaning for me to fight behind him.

Ares transformed into his warrior form.

A nearly nine-foot-tall half-beast and half-giant man blocked the entrance of the broken window, wielding his angelblade to draw the first Angel blood.

The air tore open, and a battleship shaped like twin arrows burst through the portal and hovered above us in a slant angle.

The Reaper!

An intense light shot out and locked on me.

Ares bellowed and lunged to pull me out of the beam that would take me to the Reaper.