I kicked and screamed, but I was bound immobile as the spotlight suspended me in its column of beam toward the Reaper.

Ares slammed into the light again, but it sent him flying with its electric shock. His skin scorched, yet he immediately rolled up and charged at the light.

“Ares,” I cried, tears streaming down my face, but I couldn’t move a finger to wipe it off. “End me. Now.”

He looked at me in horror, anguish twisting his near beastly face. He raised his sword, his hand trembling and his knuckles white on the hilt of the blade.

I gazed at him with tenderness and farewell. What wouldn’t I give to have more time with him? Fate brought us together, so at least we could die in each other’s arms.

He lowered his sword as tears flowed from the corner of his eyes. “I can’t, love,” he said. “I can never harm you.”

“You promised me, Ares,” I cried. “You can never let them take me!”

“They won’t take you!” He kept stabbing at the beam to get to me while the light kept sending me up. 

A burning sensation spread across my wrist. The silver bracelet Fia had given me flared a silvery light. Strange runes radiated on its surface, rippled through space, and shattered the beam that caged me.

I was no longer ascending; I was falling. Ares caught me and grabbed me to him.

Fia’s words echoed in my head, “Either I kill you or you wear it, so the old creep can’t snatch you away easily. I can’t allow him to have your power. I’m giving you a fighting chance. But before I leave Earth, you’ll have to return the borrowed gift, or I’ll hunt you down to the end.”

Her magical bracelet had stopped the Reaper from taking me. I didn’t think there was a chance in hell I would give this bracelet back to her. She could hunt me to the end of time, if she so desired.

How could she call this a fighting chance? I wished she was here to take a look around at what she deemed a chance.

But then, who would trust the wickedest witch in the universe?

Eye-patch screamed and leveled his sword toward Ares. “Cut down the Dragonian beast and take the Princess!”

The Angel sentinels at the front row raised blades and charged toward us with battle cries.

Ares shoved me behind him and swept his sword toward the first Angel’s neck. The Angel dodged and brought up his sword to meet the angelblade. The sharp sound of their crossing blades echoed in the villa. The second Angel tried to squeeze in, but Ares kicked him in the gut and sent him flying backwards. The Angel crashed into a row of his peers, a look of pure astonishment on his face. I bet he had never met a powerful earthling like Ares.

Pride swelled in my chest.

I played my sidekick role and shot my ray gun toward the Angels in a frenetic manner. I managed to shoot down quite a few from the sky and shouted my cheers when they fell. I knew we wouldn’t last long. Our goal was to bring down as many enemies as we could until we could no longer fight.

Five sentinels emerged from the side. They’d entered through the cave’s mouth. The defense system at the entrance had maimed several of them but failed to discourage the rest from charging in. I pressed my back against Ares as I shot at whoever showed up.

But there were too many of them, and their enhanced shield diffused my energy beam.

The sentinels waded over the bodies of their peers, competing to reach me. Every single one of them wanted to seize the Princess of All Angels for their Dark Lord.

Ares pierced his blade through an Angel’s armor and buried into his chest. Three Angels were upon him the next. He slashed at them with his side angelblade, but as he pulled out his sword from the Angel’s chest, another Angel sliced his leg.

Ares roared in fury as he swung his blood-tainted sword at that attacking Angel.

I couldn’t join his fight. I had five Angels surrounding me in a half circle. My heart bled at the smell of my mate’s rich-iron blood in the air.

Ares couldn’t kill me when I’d begged. I would have to finish myself at the end. I had no battle experiences, but I had the leverage—none of the minions dared to bleed me before delivering me to their Dark Lord. I took full advantage of that and brought down a few more Angels.

Outside the window, Eye-patch called with my evil grandfather’s eerie voice, “Princess, you’ve made your point. Now’s the time to surrender. Quit being rebellious!”

What an ancient asshole!

Ares cut down more Angels, but he was wounded all over. They planned to bleed him out to weaken him.

Through our mating bond, every cut on his skin felt like a slice on me.

My heart ached. I kept shooting at my enemies and my angelblade stabbed wildly at them.   

Fia had believed that I had a fighting chance and she hadn’t said it lightly. Was the ThunderSong nearby? Did she and her mate plan to use me as bait?

After our encounter, somehow I could sense her magic.

She wasn’t around. The ThunderSong wasn’t close.

Ares and I might survive only if I could conjure my magic, but it was far beyond my reach. My dark beast was at the abyss of the ice lake.

“Embrace your darkness, Witchling,” Fia had lectured me without my invitation. “Our kind never fears our great, terrible power.”

I would try anything. I would release the darkest darkness in me. If my beast wanted to wear my skin from now on, so be it, as long as it could save my mate.

Ares wasn’t slowing down even though blood gushed from his open wounds. But he would eventually bleed out.

Beast, I called. Come and become me!

There wasn’t a stir. The she-beast didn’t respond. She refused to play.

So much for embracing the darkness!

Ferocious howls reached my ear from under the cliff. Had my pack followed me here?

Then roars thundered across the sky. 

The guardians had come! Without Ares summoning them in order to spare them, they’d come for us. I glanced over the window. At the far end of the forest, our team broke through the opening, but then the Angels sealed the breach.

A dragon with jade-gold scales led the charge and tore a gap again. Astride the dragon sat Merlin. He’d also come for us, and with a legendary dragon!

The dragon spat fire, and Merlin sent his wind to push the fire further.

Warm tears wet my eyelids. I hadn’t had any friends before. After Ares had kidnapped me, I’d gained many.

The Angels held their lines. I’d seen how they’d eliminated a whole race of dragons from another planet. Merlin’s magic was great, but it couldn’t destroy the Angel horde. Even with that knowledge, he’d still come for us.

To my surprise, a small Dragonian army, led by Caen, was attacking the left side of the Angel horde. Caen must have learned of the Angels’ return and brought reinforcements that included the rest of the guardians in Atlantis. Tyrone, the horned Dragonian whom Ares had banished, was among them. But if he was here, who was the traitor among us?

No time to ponder on that matter. Today, all of my friends would be slain.

The Angels were too mighty and many, and our power didn’t stand a chance against this army. The ocean of hordes separated us. The Reaper opened fire on the guardians, and I saw one of them fall from the sky.

Beast, I summoned her urgently, my mind reaching her as I returned to the icy lake and broke the layers of ice for her to come out. Become me. Take me. Do whatever you have to do and vanquish my enemies!

A stir, and then nothing. She swam in the icy water, refusing to meet me.

I’d banished and caged her to the depth of the ice lake for decades.

This was her revenge. She would rather perish with me.

Ares fended off waves and waves of Angels, which only made them more excited and bloodthirsty. They hadn’t seen an earthling resist them as he did, so they turned it into a brutal hunting game.

My ray gun and angelblade could no longer halt the swarm of the sentinels who poured in unceasingly through the cave of the mouth. And now, they had separated me from Ares.

As Ares withdrew to reach me, over a dozen of Angels surrounded him from all sides.

An Angel used a corpse to shield himself from my ray gun, and another Angel disarmed me. It all seemed to happen within seconds, and before my mind could register it, the Angels cast a net over me.

The Reapers had failed to beam me up, so the Angels were using the conventional way to capture me. I pulled out my hidden dagger and slashed at the net to no avail. I couldn’t cut through it. It had to be made of special materials. 

“Freyja!” Ares bellowed furiously and lunged at the net, his eyes bloodshot at the sight of me being ensnared. He had dozens of cuts over him. Soon, he would fall under their swords.

There wasn’t time for a proper farewell. People used to say “May we meet again,” when they departed. What could I say to my Dragonian prince?

He’d just marked me as his moments ago. I’d even thought of giving up my freedom and living with him. We could have had a good life together—at least, the sex would always be fantastic.

I couldn’t utter a word, but my eyes said it all—thousands of words, regrets, and hopes.

“Freyja, hang in there, love!” he called, still refusing to let me go.

“Ares,” I called back. “I’ll see you in next life.”

I would never be captured.

I was wild. I was free.

I turned the angelblade toward my throat. Ares lunged toward me, leaving his back to the Angels. Eye-patch thrust his blade into Ares’ chest from behind, and an Angel shot a beam at my wrist before my dagger could slash a line across my neck.

I screamed Ares’ name.

He dropped to his knees, gazing at me with love, sorrow, rage and pain. His hand reached the blade sticking out from his chest, trying to pushing it out. He still wouldn’t give up. He still wanted to fight, wanted to protect me.

Through our mating bond, I knew he was heartbroken that he couldn’t save me. The last light in his eyes was his profound, tender love for me that I’d been too late to catch up.

“No!” I screamed. “No! Don’t die, Ares! Don’t die!”

The Angels grabbed the tightened net and dragged me toward the open, broken window. Ares reached to grab the net when we passed by him, but an Angel kicked him down.

My enemies lifted me into the sky, leaving the cliff toward the Reaper.

“Freyja!” Ares roared. “Freyja!”

They were taking me away from my mate. Forever.

Ares was dying.

Rage and pain I hadn’t known I was capable of vibrated in my every rebellious cell.

The instant I snapped, I let go of all of my fear. I knew what to do. If my beast wouldn’t come to me, then I would go to her. I retreated back into myself, hurrying to make it to the lake. I dove through the shattered hole into the depth of the icy lake.

The water chilled my bones. The she-beast had suffered alone here for decades because of me. Now she stared at me without a word.

“Acknowledge it, claim it, own it, and command it,” Merlin had said. He’d ridden the dragon and come for me. If I couldn’t entice my beast out, Merlin would die with us. The guardians and Ares would soon perish. One of the guardians had gone down, and I didn’t even know which one. I didn’t even have room to grieve for him.

I’ve come to claim you, I declared, as a part of me.

You named me a monster and locked me up, she said.

For that I’ve paid dearly, I said. I’m about to lose my mate. I can’t lose him.

I’m the darkest darkness, she said, shifting forms between shape and shapeless, darker than midnight, darker than deep space, darker than the cores of the dark stars.

And I embrace you, I said with my heart.

The Angels had come to take me, my nightmares surrounding me.

I had nothing to lose except myself. And I had nothing to offer except myself.

When fear stared you in the face like an abyss, you better not to stare back. You became it. My evil grandfather had just taken my last barrier, and now nothing stood between him and me.

My shapeless beast stalked toward me, her crimson eyes glowing and her breath dark. I opened my arms to welcome the menacing, mighty, and vengeful force. 

In an instant, we merged. I arched my back with a gasp, and she sighed in satisfaction.

We were finally one.

And for the first time, I felt complete.

I felt marvelous and invincible.

Pure, dark power surged through me. 

I was the ultimate predator in the universe.

And they treated me as a prey.

An unforgivable mistake.

Fury burst in me like a terrible storm from another universe; dark fire lit my skin and leapt, burning the net.

The Angels carrying the mesh yelped in alarm, their massive, black wings flapping. My dark fire rammed into them, burning their wings.

I did not fall.

Wind swirled around me, and a pair of blue-flamed wings burst from my back, arching high and beating.

“It can’t be,” Atlas’s cries cut through Eye-patch’s mouth.

Ares couldn’t rise to his feet with the angelblade buried in his chest, but he was trying and waiting for Ventus to reach him, so he could come for me.

Ventus fought beside the blue dragon. Among the chaos, they’d nearly broken through the walls of the legion.  

Ares stared up at me on the edge of the villa. I was afraid that he might see me as a winged monster, but there was only awe and wicked delight and adoration in his golden eyes. He knew I had come to power as the First Witch. He knew I would survive, though he might not.

I was his witch. He’d acknowledged me as such with no reservation.

An Angel dared raise his sword, ready to behead my mate.

I threw my head back, spread my arms, and roared, “Behold the wrath of the First Witch!”

Red waves blasted from my body, surging toward the Angels who surrounded Ares. As my red wave hit, my immortal enemies inside the villa turned to skeletons, their flesh ripping off them. It passed through Ares, not harming him. The sword that had aimed to decapitate him dropped behind him.

The flame of my wings burned fiercely. 

The battlefield froze. Everyone—my allies and enemies—turned to me with awe and fear. I flashed them a smile that had claws and teeth. Such power!

My darkness roared with joy.

My allies resumed fighting to get to Ares and me, and the Angel horde tried to put a safe distance between me and them. Who said that Angels were fearless?

“The Princess has the Red Plague!” Eye-patched cried. “Retreat!”

The horde followed the Reaper and sailed toward the portal that shimmered in the air.

For once, I could fight back with ease, and I was tired of being hunted. I would not allow them to leave.

I struck with my red wave, and bolts of lightning accompanied it. The Angels dropped from the sky like a mass of burned bats, their eyes bleeding and their shredded wings limp and useless.

My death touch was never my most lethal weapon—this was!

I was the First Witch.

“How does it feel to be impotent, Grandfather?” I laughed with sweet venom. “You’ll stay that way until we come for you. I’m not the only one who wants your old ass.”

Eye-patch shot toward the portal, but a thread of my red lightning coiled around him and dragged him back from the brink of the shimmering gate, bringing him back to me.

I stared into his eye, and the red abyss that was my eyes reflected back to me.

“Still want to harvest me, old clown?” I asked. “Here’s my gift to help you return to your glory.”

I slammed my red lightning into Eye-patch’s chest.

He screamed. Atlas’ furious shriek was a melody in my ear. I wished he could scream longer and feel the burn, but then Eye-patch blinked. He was himself again. His Dark Lord had abandoned his imperfect vessel. Incomprehensiveness and fear formed in his eye before my lightning diminished his every cell and returned him to skeleton, then dirt.

Earthlings had a saying: from dust we formed, to dust we return.

Were Angels made of star dust?

I would ponder on that when my body wasn’t aching so much.

It was the first time I’d used my most lethal magic and I didn’t know how to take it easy. Besides, I couldn’t take it easy when I had a hostile force to burn. 

My magic consumed me.

My last red wave rolled across the horizon, red lightning sparking faintly at its vanguard before whimpering out. There were no more Angels in sight. Reaper and a few Angels had escaped through the portal. Pity.  

I turned toward Ares. Merlin and his dragon had reached him. The druid knelt beside my prince, tending to him, and the dragon guarded the entrance, his massive form blocking part of my sight of Ares.

My heart burned with need and desperation for my mate and my stomach churned with acid fear. Would Merlin be able to save him? I wouldn’t know how to live in a world without Ares.

Intense pain, pride, and amazement were etched on Ares’ face, and his amber eyes, though dimming now because of the loss of the blood, never left me.

I had to go to him. I had to fly back to him.

But the flame winked out, and my wings vanished.

I had no magic, strength, or no energy left. I plummeted toward the ground. 

“Freyja! Ventus!” Ares roared, blood pouring out of his mouth.

Stop yelling, idiot, I wanted to say.

Something snatched my body before I hit layers of Angel corpses at the bottom of the cliff.

Ventus had me in his huge claws. 

Hello, Witchling, he said in my mind.

You and your brethren should address me as The Great and Terrible First Witch of Earth from now on, I advised. I believe I’ve earned the title today.

It’s an inside joke, right? he asked as he soared up toward the villa.

“Hey, Dragon.” Ventus said. “Move aside and let my mistress pass.”

The blue dragon sent me a cautious look, gave Ventus an evil eye, and puffed out a stream of fire. But she swept her tail of golden-blue scales and allowed us to approach Ares and Merlin.

What an attitude! Ventus murmured, but for a second, he was staring at the dragon’s splendid scales with envy.

Ventus gently laid me beside Ares.

I knew how I looked—ashen face, lifeless dull eyes, dry and chapped lips. On top of that, my flaming hair was splayed around my head in wild tangles.

Merlin had extracted the angelblade from Ares’ chest and miraculously stopped his bleeding.

I sobbed in relief, yet my fear lingered.

“Freyja,” Ares whispered, “I’m sorry I couldn’t save you, but you saved yourself and us. You returned to me.”

“Where else can I go without you?” I asked weakly.

He reached for me, his thumb tracing across my cheek, and his energy burst in me like a beam of sunlight.

Merlin grabbed Ares’ wrist and lifted it off my skin. Both of us growled.

“Not now,” the druid said. “She’ll absorb your life force. She can’t control herself when she’s depleted.”

“Then let my mate have it!” Ares snarled. “I won’t let her deplete.”

“There will be a time you’ll need to give her energy, but that time is not now,” Merlin insisted.

My dull eyes warned Ares to back off.

A humming of machines grew louder in the air.

To my horror, a fleet of Reapers tore through the rift of the portal.

Revenge was a bitch. Atlas had known that I was worn out, and he was determined to take me today. There was no chance in hell I could get up again and throw my power at another horde.

I’d timed it wrong. The horde of tens and thousands of Angels had been the distraction. Atlas’ true force had been waiting behind the portal to strike me. They’d waited until I’d emptied myself of my magic. When they captured me, they would put me inside a glass coffin to prevent me from regenerating until they tossed me onto the operation table before their Dark Lord.

I thought we’d won the battle. In the end, I was but a fetus against an ancient serpent.

A flash of dark lighting pierced through half of the sky.

My heart leapt.

ThunderSong materialized. I’d never been so happy to see High Prince Seth’s symbol of a black lightning bolt slashing across the ship’s hull.

ThunderSong led a fleet and came to meet the Reapers.

A formidable Angel stood beside Gabriel by the view window, his golden wings arching behind him and his eyes burning with furious black lightning.

“Fire!” the High Prince of All Angels bellowed.

Fia, who leaned against Gabriel, tilted her head to give the High Prince an evil eye, probably annoyed at his loudness, before turning toward me with a wicked grin.

I wasn’t in the mood to return even a half smile. I didn’t even have energy left to stab a finger in her direction to accuse her of using me as bait.

What a wicked world! And I stared into its delightful face as the real battle broke out.

My last thought was Ares.

And my flaming wings.

I was once glorious.

I was loved.