A Shield of Glass (A Shade of Vampire #49)(72)

A third Destroyer swooped in and snatched Phoenix before anyone could react. Jax tried—I could see his eyes glowing yellow—but the Destroyer flew upward in a zig-zag, and the Mara couldn’t catch him with his mind-bend in time. Phoenix struggled against his captor before the hilt of the Destroyer’s sword smashed down against his skull, and he went limp.

None of this was okay.

With every step we took forward, Azazel managed to pull us back by two.





Serena





The young Druids came back to the western shore with us and they brought us up to speed with what they’d been doing since they arrived on Marton. The flying horses they’d brought with them didn’t stay for long. They flew back as they couldn’t stand the high noon temperatures of the desert. It turned out that the creatures were dependent on a milder climate and were quite independent, despite the young Druids’ efforts to keep them around.

They met with Jasmine once every full moon, until she stopped coming. When Draven told them she’d been seen hiding on Antara, Malachy and Ori were the first to express their anger and contempt. Had she at least warned them, they would’ve kept the others from checking the western shore and getting killed or taken by Destroyers.

Once we reached the ship, we relieved the two succubi that had been left behind to stand guard. Draven and I gave them our horses so they could reach the rest of the Green Tribe safely.

The stallions galloped down the black stone passage that Draven had pulled out of the ocean to connect the ship to the shore. Once we watched the two succubi vanish behind the palm trees lining the beach, we got on the ship.

The Druids and I followed Draven’s precise instructions in lifting the anchor and setting the sails, after which he muttered under his breath and a flash of white light left his body. The waters around us soon moaned as the shipped was pushed out onto the ocean, stunning the Druids.

“Whoa,” Ori gaped at Draven as he held on to one of the pillars. “Where’d you learn to do that?”

Draven smirked and pulled the Druid scrolls we’d brought from Stonewall out, and tossed them over to them. They anxiously unraveled them, studying the spells with broad smiles.

“It’ll take us a few good hours to reach Stonewall,” he said. “So, you might as well start reading up.”

Draven used the ocean in our favor again, using his newly acquired skills to send the ship cutting across the waters and covering hundreds of miles in one tenth of the time it would’ve normally taken for a vessel of this size to travel from Marton to Antara.



The ship slowed down as we approached Stonewall, the grey citadel rising proudly on the rocky shore, its derelict harbor waiting quietly below. Draven steered and docked the vessel beautifully, with a little help from the foamy waters. I couldn’t help but watch with fascination as he manipulated the waves to get us safely back on dry land.

As soon as we climbed off the ship and rushed up the stone steps leading to the eastern terrace, I got a whiff of burnt wood and flesh. My stomach instantly churned, and I looked over my shoulder to find Draven frowning.

“You can smell it too?” I muttered.

He nodded and we picked up the pace, followed by the young Druids.

We reached the terrace above and I could see threads of black smoke rising from the other side of the citadel. I couldn’t push the anxiousness back so I stopped and used my True Sight to look through the stone walls and identify the source of the smoke and its unpleasantly familiar smell.

I saw Jax, Field, Hansa, Anjani and the others on top of the front steps leading into Stonewall, with hundreds of incubi and succubi bodies burning at their feet. Dread came over me in waves of hot and cold as I ran into the citadel and rushed through the maze of corridors leading to the front side.

“Serena, what did you see?” Draven called out from behind.

“Something’s horribly wrong,” I replied, breathless as we crossed the courtyard.

I caught glimpses of Eva and Bajang cubs watching from the open windows, their faces shadowed by frowns. I didn’t like any of the feelings I was getting from the atmosphere.

We reached the steps and I stopped next to Anjani and Hansa, looking down at the massacred bodies blazing in the afternoon sun. Worms crawled from the piles, squealing and flailing. Some succumbed to the flames, while others made it out and vanished below the tall meadow grass.

“Oh, no,” I gasped, realizing what I was looking at.

“Sluaghs,” Draven breathed out next to me.

I looked at Anjani and Hansa first, and noticed the charcoal smudges and the deep cuts on their arms and legs. Hansa was holding her right shoulder, where a deeper wound pushed out silver blood.

Jax paced around furiously, while Field was slumped on one side against the wall as Rebel nursed his bleeding side with wet cloths. Several Bajangs were left from her garrison – I counted about a dozen. They’d just finished burning all the bodies and they all carried deep wounds on their arms and legs. Jax’s wards helped them up as well.

I didn’t see Phoenix or Aida anywhere, and the thought alone made my heart constrict in my chest. There were four shifters left, licking their wounds in front of the fire below, occasionally snapping their fangs around an escaping Sluagh and tearing it to shreds before spitting it out.

Jovi came running back from the meadow, sword and shield in his hand. He was livid.