Page 51 of Loving Nightmares
I assumed he would ignore her or increase the attacks, but instead, they stopped. Completely. The humans froze, and a dark laugh echoed through the air, causing my ears to feel pressure like they were going to explode.
The doors to the main building swung open, the glass shattering to reveal…War?
This wasn’t the same War I had seen before—this War lookedold. Saint stepped forward, looking equally confused at the silver hair and fine lines on the man’s face. He was wearing battle fatigues, and he was as tall as before, but somehow he looked more…fragile? That wasn’t a word I’d normally use to describethe bastard, but he looked breakable, even if his magic said the exact opposite.
“Just thesis metaI was looking for!” War exclaimed happily. “And you came right to me—like a present.”
I nearly snarled at that, but Arabella tapped my tail, so I lowered her down so that she was standing on her own. I could snatch her back up in a moment’s notice, but I still didn’t like this shit.
After giving War a clinical once-over, she offered a smug smile. “You’re sick. My magic made you sick.”
“Physically,” he spit, “but not my magic. Now that you’re here, though, you can fix it. I just have to spill your blood.”
Razar chuckled maliciously, and War briefly looked over us before narrowing his eyes on Saint. “And you—you couldn’t just stay out of this and reap the benefits of my magic? You would have been fueled with death for centuries; instead you want to stop it because she’s your fucking mate.”
“And because despite being Death, I don’t take pleasure in killing those that don’t deserve it.” Saint’s voice was serious, but it quickly turned amused. “A category you aren’t part of.”
“You wouldn’t kill me,” War scoffed, but I could feel the fear there.
Saint would kill him.Saintwantedto kill him.
Arabella drew the conversation back on topic. “War, I am giving you one chance—one chance to release every single human from your compulsion and to allow everything to go back to its natural order.”
“No,” he snarled. “There will always be war, and where there is war, I will be there.”
Arabella shook her head. “I won’t allow you to keep hurting humans. Hurting nightmares. You don’t belong here anymore—this is a war you’re going to lose.”
Power trickled through the air, and I fought the urge to look behind me, knowing that our backup had arrived on that cliffside. War didn’t see them, though. I knew he said his magic wasn’t injured from Arabella, but I didn’t think that was true—especially because he showed no sign of noticing thesis metas.Every ounce of his energy was on Arabella right now.
And in a violent effort, he surged forward to hurt Arabella. Saint blocked him with a pulse of power that sent the god terror tumbling back into the door of the building. He stood up almost immediately, his magic growing and trembling the space around us.
“You will pay for that. All of you will.”
“The only one paying today, War, is you.” Arabella’s voice was light and almost mesmerizing…
All at once her power exploded out—theirpower exploded out—and all of it was directly aimed at War.
20
ARABELLA
I’d never consideredmyself a powerful individual—in fact, it had been the exact opposite for most of my life—but as I spoke those words and let my magic out, I realized how wrong I was. The magic rose from a deep well inside of my chest, one that’d been formed through ancestral magic of othersis metasover time, and began to boil. With frustration. With anger. With so many strong emotions that all revolved around War.
I had given him a chance, but someone like War would never give up—so he needed to be removed from the equation.
I’d known the moment the othersis metashad joined us, their magic colliding with mine, to create a spectacular rainbow-like glowing beam that shot out of my hands and straight towards our target. The power vibrated my bones, and my ears popped from the sonic vibrations of War’s magic fighting against ours. He was so incredibly strong, even while hurt, but it was no match for thesis metas.
We had been placed on this earth as an equalizer.
Our job was to protect.
Our job was to remove people like War.
I could feel that inside of my soul, and an angry cry left my throat as I threw more of my magic towards War, his body pinned against the door to the building. Around me the humans were shrieking and making feral noises, their bonds vibrating with pain because War refused to let go of them. My mates were protecting me and warding them off, and I knew the minute that War was rendered useless, Saint would remove him.
An angry battle cry from above sent another surge of power through me, and I grit my teeth, my eyes watering at the pure amount of power and magic running through me. I could feel us burning at the bonds he had on the humans, but more than that, his magic was growing weak from fighting us. Was it fast enough, though?
We couldn’t afford to mess this up.
