Total pages in book: 114
Estimated words: 109033 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 545(@200wpm)___ 436(@250wpm)___ 363(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109033 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 545(@200wpm)___ 436(@250wpm)___ 363(@300wpm)
“Fuck,” she hissed, her flesh throbbing. It would have hurt a lot worse if it weren’t for the flames covering her skin.
Gruff Voice laughed in triumph. “I don’t know what you are, but I do know you are no match for us.”
Her entity threw him a harsh glare, but Naomi smiled. “You really think that, huh?” She pyroported behind the asshole and took him out with a violent twist to his neck. He flopped to the ground, sword and all. “Seems you were wrong.”
As magick came toward her from several angles, she pyroported to another spot . . . and another . . . and another . . . and another.
The clerics swore and spun and attacked blindly, missing their target every time. Chanting, crackling, yelling, and the snapping and popping of fire filled the air.
Throughout all the chaos, her inner demon smiled.
Well, it did love chaos.
Naomi landed behind a cleric, but another blindsided her before she could strike. How rude. She lashed out at the interfering bastard with a full-on blast of fire, setting him alight. His cries of pain were a blissful song to her entity.
Four down, three to go.
Another charged her, hurling magick her way too fast for her to dodge it. The blow was like boiling-hot darts sinking into her skin. Fucker.
Naomi retaliated with a stream of red-violet fire that swiftly became a snake. The serpent went right for the cleric’s face, making him stagger back so fast he fell. The fiery snake landed on him and bit into his cheek. His back bowed, a loud cry of pain tearing out of his throat as the scorching-hot venom took instant effect.
Ha.
Her peripheral vision screamed a warning.
She looked to her left to see Stout Guy advancing on her. Wicked fast, she grabbed a fallen sword and slammed it up in time to parry his blow. More, she infused fire into the blade, let it crawl up the steel and then into his own. As it reached the hilt, he released the weapon with a cry. Both swords crumbled to nothing as they fell.
While he stared at his blistering palm, she released a stream of flames that set him alight. Which was right when she sensed that Adrian was going to make a run for it.
Naomi twirled mega fast and pyroported in front of him. “And then there was one,” she said with a smirk.
His eyes wide in a terror that delighted her demon, Adrian took unsteady steps backward. “He has already claimed you as his bride, hasn’t he? He has given you his powers.”
She zapped his blade with fire, unsurprised that he dropped it before the flames could reach the hilt. “You mean Lucifer? I’m not his bride, but to some extent, he did give me power.” He’d contributed to her DNA, after all. “Tell me, are there more of you?”
He clamped his mouth shut.
“Now you’re going to be quiet? You were rather chatty before. Really, it’s best that you don’t fuck around,” she warned. “I’d have no problem hurting you. It would genuinely mean nothing to me.”
He turned to flee.
But she pre-empted him.
She pyroported in front of him again, smiling when he stumbled to a halt. “We’re not done here.” She blasted out a line of flames that quickly formed a circle around him.
His eyes went wide in alarm, his body braced to run through the flames.
“Try it,” she dared, letting the fire engulfing her body ease up until it died down altogether. “The pain you’ll feel will be like nothing you imagined could exist.”
Seraphim fire purified, purging a soul of all guilt and wrongdoing. But Lou’s ability to do so had become warped by the fall, meaning his fire not only contaminated the soul itself but proved noxious to a person’s system—and Naomi’s fire did exactly the same thing.
“You didn’t answer my question,” she prodded.
Adrian notched up his trembling chin. “Do what you will to me. I will never betray my brothers.”
“Don’t be so sure of that.” She tossed a bunch of fiery serpents into the circle.
Fear washed over his face, chasing away the belligerence. He backed up, went to run . . . and then stilled as he seemed to remember that there was nowhere to go.
He hopped from side to side, trying to avoid the snakes, but they were too fast. They slithered up his body, hissing, snapping their jaws, flashing their fangs, flicking out their tongues.
Adrian trembled, flinched, and cried out in pain as their scales scorched every bit of flesh they touched.
“Are there more of you?” she asked.
Lines of agony etched his face. “Yes,” he spat out, resentment coloring his tone. “Many others. They will come. They will keep coming until you are dead.”
“You see the problem, then, because they won’t succeed in killing me. They’re basically on a suicide mission.”
“They will triumph. Good always triumphs over evil.”