Page 95 of Shadow & Stars
Almost there. Almost there.
Xavier leaped over a car, taking out the final corner of this road, aiming straight for the blockade.
The piece of sky broke free with a deafening crack. I couldn’t help but look back, watching in horror as it came down on the street, crushing everything within seconds like something out of a cartoon.
Explosions went off, fire and smoke and debris rushing up and out, an avalanche of it coming right at us. Xavier dove into the front garden of a house close to the blockade, knocked over a bird bath, shifted into his spinneret form, spun me around so I faced him, and wrapped us in a silky cocoon.
I held onto him for dear life, pressing my face into his chest as the devastation roared around us. It battered the steely silk, vibrating deep in the soles of my feet, a terrifying rage of destruction inches away from us.
“Those people…” I whispered.
Xavier kissed the top of my head without a word.
Wrapping my arms tighter around his torso, I sent a million prayers to spare as many lives as possible.
29
XAVIER
After approximately five minutes passed, the cloud of destruction subsided. I retracted the silk back into my spinnerets, then shifted back into my humanoid form.
Inspecting my witch for any damage, I cupped his face in my hands.
He looked up at me with fearful amber eyes. I stroked his cheeks with my thumbs, his lovely face unhurt. All of him safely before me. Physically before me again, filling me with so much joy and trepidation.
I loved him so much that every single stray thought of him not being with me gave strength to my fears. He was precious, to be carried away to the safest corner of the universe and hidden from all pain.
That didn’t exist, especially now.
“I’m okay,” Roman said. “You?” He coughed on the debris dust tainting the air.
I nodded, my hands sliding down to his shoulders.
In the hole where the sky had broken, the blue stars of the demon realm twinkled. Butterfly’s dust began to fall, indicatingthat the barriers of time and space were falling apart, everything melting together, the future and the past colliding.
I growled, my bloodlust baying for Butterfly’s head.
“Let’s go.” Roman jumped on my back.
“You there!” a male agent bellowed from the blockade.
Ignoring him, I took off again, navigating the back route to June’s house. Vaulting over garden walls and fences, the pixels seemed to follow me in a colorful line. In no time, we arrived in the back garden of the house next to Roman’s childhood home.
I put him down, jogging over to the fence to check the time door. Peering over the edge, I saw agents eyeing the skies, talking on phones and radios. Not a single demon in sight. There were barriers already in place around the door, everything heavily guarded.
Sweat beaded on my brow. It wouldn’t be long until the towers broke my natural defenses. We couldn’t linger here.
Why wasn’t Ismael attacking this time? Were the risks too high with the scales tipped in the witch’s favor here? Or was he aware of the collapsing walls? Was he biding his time until the dust spread everywhere, giving him a vast expanse of times to dominate?
What a terrible thought.
“Ready?” I asked.
Roman returned to my back, whispering about the damage done to his grandmother’s house and the garden. Her vibrant flowers were crushed, patches torn from the grass. And the house itself did not look healthy at all.
Such a shame.
I cleared the fence, barreling toward the time door. Agents spotted me, calling out to me with their guns drawn, their Synth ready for the attack.
