Total pages in book: 127
Estimated words: 119942 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 600(@200wpm)___ 480(@250wpm)___ 400(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 119942 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 600(@200wpm)___ 480(@250wpm)___ 400(@300wpm)
The flames rushed at the house, making Harper, Larkin, and the hellhound back up fast. Worse, the flames were so tall they were curling over the building, so thick and raging that there was no clear path for Larkin to fly them all out.
An elderly practitioner shrunk away from the sight. “We’ll be safe if we get inside,” he told his friends. “The house is protected, it will remain standing.”
One of the other practitioners shook his head. “No. The protective spell will do no more than buy us time.” He turned to Harper. “If you don’t tell us what he is, if we don’t stop him, you’ll die with us. You’ll—” He screamed as a single flame suddenly curled and contracted around him like a boa constrictor.
Another flame hooked around the throat of a female practitioner and tossed her into the fire. A black flame then lashed out like a whip and wrapped around the ankle of a chanting practitioner, causing him to fall flat on his face. He screamed for help, scrabbling at the floor for purchase, but the flame dragged him into the fire.
“Harper, we’re dead if those flames keep coming!” shouted Larkin, face red from the blistering heat.
She was right, but the figure controlling them didn’t appear in a rush to ease them. It stood there, calm as you please, as it watched the destruction around it. The flames were licking along the walls of the large building, ready to devour it. Each time she breathed and took that hot air into her lungs, her chest felt tighter.
“Call to him, tell him to stop! Yell at him telepathically!”
“There’s a shield of fire between his mind and mine.” Once more, Harper attempted to fierce it, but it held strong.
“If he doesn’t pull back, he’ll kill us all!”
Harper was about to reassure her that Knox would stop, that he had the control to pull back, but then she remembered something he’d once said. ‘If anything happened to you, if you were taken from me, that control would be gone.’ More of his words came to her…‘I’d make them all pay. But I wouldn’t stop there. It wouldn’t be enough. Not for me, not for my demon. So many would die, so much would be destroyed.’
It was only now – as the flames ate at everything they touched, as the practitioners screamed in agony, and as the building began to creak and weaken beneath their feet – that Harper truly understood the severity of his warnings.
Desperate, Harper psychically battered at the shield between her and Knox. It hurt like hell, but she kept going; slamming her mind against his, crashing her psychically spiked shields into the wall of fire, calling on every single ounce of psychic energy she had and—
Screaming, Harper curled in on herself as the shield cracked and a scorching heat poured into her mind, flooding every crevice, and searing everything it touched. The agony spread like wildfire, making her back arch as it crackled its way down her spine, boiling her skin until it sweltered and sizzled. The pain ate every vertebrae, every nerve, every muscle, and every ligament.
Tears burned her eyes. She was going to die. She was. No one could live through this.
Her demon panicked, fought to surface and somehow help, but it was trapped. Harper screamed again as the scalding pain blasted the space between her shoulder blades, making her bones groan under the strain and her skin peel. She could smell her flesh burning, could hear it sizzling. Then it was like something ripped the skin off her back. A scream slid through her gritted teeth and she—
The pain stopped. Just stopped.
“Oh! My! God!”
Frowning at Larkin’s exclamation, Harper went to speak when she suddenly became aware that something was very different. Very wrong? Her demon didn’t think so.
“You have wings, Harper!”
Wait, she what? Sure Larkin was wrong, Harper glanced behind her and…“Oh, my God.” She had motherfucking wings. They were…well, they were gossamer. A striking gold with strands of red and black. Well, fuck.
The building shuddered and creaked once more. It wasn’t going to last long.
“Harper, if there’s something you can do, do it now!”
There was really only one thing she could do. There was a good chance it wouldn’t work, but she was fresh out of ideas. Taking a preparatory breath, Harper jumped to her feet, rushed across the roof, and leaped into the flames – heading straight for the figure of fire. Because there was another thing that Knox had once said…‘The flames can’t burn you, Harper. Because they’re me. And you’re right, I’d never harm you.’
She’d love to say she flew, but it was more like she shakily soared through the fire and, fuck, it was hot! The flames scorched her skin, zapped every nerve ending in her body, as she headed for him. But they didn’t hurt her. Somewhat ungracefully crashing into him, she picked him up, ready to fly them out of the flames. Not yet adept at flying, however, she lost her balance and they slammed to the ground, rolling several times.