Page 128 of Stealing Embers
A wave of relief breaks over me.
The sound of metal striking metal is music to my ears.
All around, Nephilim are fighting Forsaken, and this time we outnumberthemfour-to-one.
I prefer these odds, but the fight is still close. Forsaken pop in and out of the spectrum world to attack Nephilim or escape blows.
I spin in a circle, not knowing exactly where to jump in.
Sterling and Greyson tag team a Forsaken to my left. Whenever he phases into the spectrum world, the twins go back-to-back so they aren’t taken unaware by his reappearance.
Sterling fights with a fierce double-bladed ax, and Greyson twirls a spear.
Not far behind them, Nova delivers a series of kicks to a stunned Lilith and then jumps on her back and does some really cool-looking wrestling move that brings her to the ground. Once Nova has her down, Hadley, with glasses still fixed on her face, decapitates the creature.
Whoa, who knew she had it in her?
A blur catches my eye and I twist to see Sable lop off the arm of a Forsaken. What she doesn’t notice is the creature creeping up behind her with a curved saber, ready to run her through.
I sprint three steps in her direction before I’m tackled to the ground.
“Not so fast,” Silver says as she grinds my face into the blood-splattered snow. She wrenches a wing back while pressing her knee into my spine. “You’re coming with me.”
I huff a half-laugh into the copper-scented ice. She’s going to have a hard time hauling me out of here without anyone noticing. And there’s no way I’ll go without a fight.
“You can die trying.”
“Not today.”
Brightness blinds me. When my vision blinks back into focus, the snow beneath me has a lavender hue. Angry waves of light roll through the air. The sky is painted in pastel strokes.
From one breath to the next, I was sucked into the spectrum world with Silver.
“How?”
Jerking my wings, she forces me to my feet.
I watch in horror as Forsaken appear and disappear, using the spectrum world to fight and escape the Nephilim still in the mortal realm.
Silver’s appearance has altered along with our surroundings. Her once-gleaming sheet of raven hair now hangs from her scalp in limp black dreads. Fangs indent her lower lip. Her cherry-red lips have mutated into a deathly shade of bluish-purple. And sharp black claws extend from the tips of her fingers.
“Just because you can’t phase with this around,” Silver hefts the orb she carries under her arm, “doesn’t mean I can’t pull you here with me.”
She tugs my wings again, using them like a bridle to force me in a direction of her choosing. Her claws shred through a few of the feathers and sink into the flesh around the top joint.
I’ve had enough.
Gathering my strength and ignoring the lance of pain in my wings from Silver’s manhandling, I flare them wide, knocking her off balance.
Spinning, the daggered tips of my feathers bite through the soft flesh of her shoulder. A spurt of black blood sprays into the air.
Clamping a hand against her wound, the orb drops from her grasp and sinks into the purple-tinted flakes at her feet.
I snap my foot out, striking her in the chest and sending her soaring until her back connects with a tree. She flops to the ground like a rag doll.
Digging my hands into the snow, I snatch the ball. The second my fingers connect with the object, a bolt of gold lightning streaks across the sky, bathing the spectrum world’s atmosphere with gilded sparks before they fade.
The orb’s blue glow changes into undulating waves of golden light that spread from the source like ripples on the surface of a pond.