Page 50 of Of Flame and Fury

“Edith,” Misha hisses. He storms forward.

Tears leak from Edith’s eyes. She’s lost all control.

“You will beg for all to die.”

Misha shakes her hard. “You will not leave me,” he orders.

The intestines she carries drop in wet tufts at her feet. She resumes her singing, falling into hysterics. “Nyte has come, Nyte will kill.” Her gaze pleads with Misha to save her.

“Heal,” Misha commands. “No more of mine will succumb to the Fate.”

Hank and Tim rush Misha, trying to haul him away, worried she’ll infect him. The Catholic schoolgirls shriek through their tears, begging Edith to fight, to live.

Aric hauls Celia away when she lunges at Edith. “Edith, snap out of it,” she yells at her. “Don’t give in, you’re stronger than this.”

I stomp forward, Sparky lighting up like a flare and electrifying. I almost don’t remember, everything happens so fast.

Edith whips her face toward me at my approach, hissing in pain. I wrench Sparky back and smack Edith hard. Fangs shoot from her mouth, followed by several long strings of worms from her ears. The parasites land on the ground, writhing and dying in the night air.

Gemini catches me by the waist when I curl forward to vomit.

Edith falls limp in Misha’s arms. He grasps her chin and tilts it from side to side. “They’re gone,” he says. “All of them.”

“Well done, precious one,” Ileana says. She beams, unlike my sisters, who look as sick as I feel.

I straighten just enough to speak. “We have to get out of here,” I manage.

Aric places Celia on top of Koda before she can argue. “We’ll head to the perimeter farthest away from the road. They’ll expect us to charge the gates leading out, not the wall.”

I don’t manage a step toward Celia when something else appears.

From the ground a phantom rises, like tar poured in reverse, her liquid body solidifying as quickly as the next breeze passes. An aura of moonlight surrounds the grisly shape she takes, and a blood-red cloak covers the shoulders of her naked and grotesquely thin body. Her deep-set black eyes are too large for her face, despite her disproportionately large head. As she stands, the tips of her midnight hair skim the grass beneath her feet.

I zap the absolute shit out of her.

Gemini grabs me, hauling me away when she slaps at the ground, trying to stand. I zap her again.Take that, freak.

Gemini snags my wrists and shoves my hands down. “What did you do?” he asks me.

From her perch on top of Koda, Celia turns slowly my way, her stunned features matching Aric’s, my sisters’, and everyone who had the absolute pleasure of witnessing my rather impressive ass-kicking.

“What?” I ask.

“You shot Destiny’s messenger,” Gemini explains through clenched teeth.

“Twice,” Shayna points out.

“Her what?” I squeak.

“Dude.” Shayna hurries forward. “Witches, powerful ones like Destiny, always send messengers during times of war to speak for them. It preserves their energy.”

The “messenger” staggers to her feet, the scathing look she hits me with enough to cut me in two.

“Sorry,” I say, to like,everyonearound me. “Look at the night we’ve had. When something ugly and creepy”—I hold up a hand—“no offense, girl, rises from the ground, I fire first and ask questions later. Besides, how the hell am I supposed to know what she is?”

“Ah, T,” Shayna mutters under her breath. “He’s a boy.”

Could have fooled me. Poor bastard.