A Light in the Flame (Flesh and Fire #2)(18)

Guards rushed from all sides of the courtyard and on the Rise, kneeling and taking aim at the tan draken as it circled back, raining shimmering blood in its wake. The blood showered the west side and the guards there—

They shrieked, falling to the ground and writhing as they pulled out of their armor and clothes. Their agony turned my insides frigid. I’d never heard shrieks like that before. It sounded as if they were screaming for the release of death.

“Dear gods,” I whispered. “What is happening to them?”

“Our blood,” Orphine growled. “It will burn most alive.”

“Fuck.” I looked for Nyktos, unable to make out most of those in the smoke. “Even Primals?”

“It’ll burn them, too, but it won’t kill them.”

I supposed that was a relief—kind of. I sucked in a short, smoky breath as the tan draken released another burst of flames. The stream cut short. A large, black-and-gray draken swooped down from the sky, crashing into its side.

“Nektas,” I rasped, awed by his size. I couldn’t even see the other draken.

“They’re coming!” a guard shouted, drawing our attention to the Rise. “Shut the gates! Shut the gates!”

A chill of dread shot down my spine as I took off for the gates, ignoring the rocky ground under my feet. I raced past those heaps. I couldn’t look at them. The urge to stop and change what had happened was already pressing down on me. If I looked, I didn’t know if I could stop myself.

“They’re not going to make it!” Orphine shouted. “They’re already there!”

I didn’t see them at first. It was too smoky beyond the Rise, but then Nektas and the tan draken appeared just outside it. Nektas dug his talons in, his wings whipping through the air as he twisted, throwing the asshole draken into the burning trees. A shower of silver sparks lit the ground beyond the Rise.

Jerking to a stop, I swallowed a shout of surprise as they slammed into the partially closed gates, splintering the wood. They poured in through the opening, a mass of sunken, chalky flesh and hungry, wide mouths. There had to be dozens of them—maybe even hundreds.

They swallowed the guards at the gate, taking them down in a frenzy. Then they were inside the courtyard, running faster than I would’ve thought their frail, malnourished bodies were capable of.

But I guessed I wasn’t the only one motivated by hunger.

“Don’t die,” Orphine warned, tossing me the sword she held. There was a flash of silvery-blue as she shifted into her draken form.

An onyx-hued wing swept over me as she came down on her forelegs and extended her long neck, firing on a group of fallen. They went up in a wail of shrieks, some falling to the ground and others still running.

Head or heart, I reminded myself as my breathing slowed and became even. I braced myself, the short sword in one hand and my dagger in the other.

The first entombed god made it past Orphine, its fangs bared and the grayish skin around its eyes smudged black. Two more were quick to join it as Orphine swiped out with her horned tail, knocking several burning fallen back. I waited until they reached for me.

Snapping forward, I slammed my dagger deep into one. Hot, shimmery blood that smelled of decay spurted from the god’s chest as I kicked it back into the other. I spun, sweeping the sword out wide in an arc. The sharp blade cut through the god’s neck far too easily. My lip curled, and I twisted, thrusting my dagger into the chest of the third as Orphine lit up the courtyard once more. The light was brief but lasted long enough for me to catch sight of Bele fighting near the gates. The snarls of the fallen gods quickly overshadowed the shock of seeing her after I’d last seen her dazed and drenched in blood.

I had no idea how many of Nyktos’s close guards were here at night, but the fallen gods were everywhere, running or feeding on the ones they took down and those already wounded.

Nektas suddenly took flight, appearing in the sky above the Rise. He flew out toward the deeper, denser parts of the Red Woods, where I’d originally seen the flames. The burning had stopped, but smoke billowed into the air.

A pain-filled scream jerked my head to where a guard was slamming his dagger into the side of a god that had him on his back.

Disgust and anger throbbed within me as I stalked forward, sheathing the dagger. How could anyone, Primal or not, unleash something like this? Using both hands, I shoved the sword deep into the god’s back. As I withdrew the blade, the god pitched forward, falling onto the guard.

Shoving the fallen aside, I jerked back. The guard’s eyes were open and blinking rapidly as blood frothed from his mouth and his…throat. My hands heated, and the embers pulsed. I knew I shouldn’t, even if healing someone couldn’t be felt by the gods and Primals of other Courts. But it was like instinct; a reaction I couldn’t control, just as Aios had said. I started to reach for him—

Orphine landed beside me, nudging me back with her wing as she let out a thin stream of fire toward a group of fallen gods clamoring toward us. I stepped out of the path of her wings and saw that the guard’s eyes no longer blinked. Blood no longer flowed as freely. The embers stretched against my chest. Shuddering, I turned away and found a new horror.

Entombed gods had swarmed the fallen draken, who had shifted into its mortal form. There were so many fallen near the draken that I couldn’t see who it was.

I took off, leaping off the guard’s body. The draken was in a far more vulnerable position now. I plunged a dagger into a god’s head and shoved another into Orphine’s path. Her head snapped down, and the crunch of bones was something I wouldn’t forget for a very long time. Shoving aside another god, I caught a glimpse of reddish-brown skin that was too red, and honey-brown hair—