Page 177 of Stars in Aura

His gaze flickered to Issa, to Ki’Remi.

‘How epic was it?’

Issa’s stomach twisted.

She didn’t answer.

She just stared at the condemned deity on his knees, then at Zavei and Somayeh, the architects of this reviled demise, her expression carved from stone, her disdain a fire burning in her chest.

Behind her, Ki’Remi rumbled in her ear.

‘Like I said,’ he growled. ‘We are just playthings to them. Don’t give them the gratification of seeing they almost broke us.’

He pulled her to him, and she let him, afraid that if she didn’t rest against his bulk, she’d fly off her handle and burn the entire chamber down.

Somayeh lifted a hand, silencing the murmurs around her. ‘You will live, Sulfiqar,’ she repeated, her tone unwavering. ‘Perhaps for hundreds, even thousands of years. But you will not rule.’

Sulfiqar exhaled, stretching his arms out as if testing his mortality.

‘Fine,’ he murmured. ‘It was a good run.’

The shackles on his wrists extended, enveloping him in a gold cage.

Which at Somayeh’s gesture rose in a spell-woven defiance of the laws of physics.

It hovered in the air for a beat, then whipped out through the expansive windows.

Where it hovered, suspended, for a beat.

Then, with a whip of wind, the gilded enclosure fell.

Rapidly towards the clouds and the planet below.

‘Fokkme,’ Ki’Remi breathed.

Issa found his hand as Zavei tilted his head, studying the couple with wrath.

‘Now, what to do with you both? I believe tis your turn to visit Hades. Tis your destiny. We also can’t let you leave this room and share what you’ve seen.’

Zavei lunged.

Twas a mistake.

Ki’Remi moved first.

Before Zavei’s blade could pierce Issa, the Rider met him mid-air.

The pair slammed together with the force of crashing worlds.

They clashed like titans.

Zavei, the god slayer and sentinel of the Immortals, was a weapon of precision, speed, and lethal elegance.

Ki’Remi fought with the potency of Witchmen roiling in and around him.

Like a storm wrapped in muscle, metal, and sheer, unrelenting power.

Blow for blow, strike for strike.

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