Page 179 of Love & Heart Braking

No one could survive something that hot.

But as I watched, four balls of blue flame burst from the tower. Blue phoenixes. His family! I gasped as one of them lost altitude fast, plummeting downward and out of sight, followed by the other three screeching Lanarays.

Devereaux set me down as another of Soleil’s siblings blurred at him.

No! I shook my legs that were slowly recovering, then jumped as a loud crack rent the air. The siren crumpled to the ground at Devereaux’s feet, neck broken.

Mars alive.

“The berserker has lost control!” someone shouted.

Guests who’d been pushing to get out of the pit whirled on Devereaux, spreading out. Austin crumbled to the ground, unconscious, and I forced myself to stand as at least ten descendants converged on my berserker.

I held my palms up and my bow landed in them. “Stop,” I yelled. I called forth the metal arrow and nocked it.

There was no way I even had the strength to draw the bowstring back. And if I could wrangle that, the metal arrow wouldn’t hurt these people. They weren’t candidates for its brand of punishment.

My arms shook as I held the bow high. “You saw what I can do. Do you want to join them?”

They paused.

I collapsed to the ground right next to Smolder Cineres, and the hesitation I’d created collapsed with me. But crashing and howls rose the second they converged on the snarling Devereaux.

Translucent bodies hurtled into the amphitheater, Rodney leading the charge in his three-piece suit and bowler hat.

The poltergeists were here!

They swung candlesticks, upturned seating, and sent the coals of the fire pit scattering. An axe one poltergeist wielded spun close to me and seeing the threat to Devereaux was gone for now, I snagged the weapon.

Grabbing a handful of Smolder’s long, black hair, I sawed through far more than a chunk.

And it felt so good. Bitch cow.

Rodney was chasing the Plorex woman who’d escorted me to see Maligni. I whistled and tossed the axe high. He winked and grabbed it, whipping the weapon around at the water nymph, who ducked just in time. Not that poltergeists could murder—just convincingly terrify.

Devereaux swung me up into his arms and bent his knees. I gasped as we soared upward. He gripped the top lip of the pit with one hand, then pulled us into another bound. I stared at the meadow and the chaos surrounding us.

Unicorns were charging, thundering hooves shaking the ground and seemingly sure of the targets getting impaled on their horns.

Law enforcement was here.

Already struck dumb, I barely registered the masked and caped Mantle flipping through the gore to roundhouse a Ventram.

“Austin,” I said eventually.

Devereaux started running. “Maligni’s job. I need to get you out.”

“Soleil and Bain,” I cried out, spotting them fighting back-to-back just as they’d done against the kraken.

That slowed Devereaux, but as he turned, I spotted something else.

Someone else.

Untouched. Unfazed. A sphinx walked between the battling descendants. He didn’t pause as a vine pierced through a law enforcer. He didn’t appear to even see when a kraken crushed a unicorn in its tentacled grip.

“Devereaux,” I whispered.

The sphinx stopped. And smiled.

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