Esther snarled. “Yield, Wynter. Your little group will die here if you don’t.”
“Looks like the ones dying areyourpeople.” Wynter sent out another surge of magick. The surge swirled and morphed as it sailed toward her old coven, becoming red and black ashes that stuck to the skin of whatever witch they hit. More importantly, the ashes melted into any open wounds, wrenching cries and hisses and winces out of the witches.
Horrendous blisters soon began to pebble on the flesh of the aforementioned witches, including Esther. Those blisters burst and bled and sizzled, making the little skanks freak the fuck out.
“What in the name of …” Esther trailed off, striking out harder, absolutely panicked. That panic only increased when she realized that an inky blackness was spreading through her veins. The other witches who were similarly affected kept glancing at their Priestess even as they fought, looking for reassurance, maybe?
Well, they’d find none.
Soon enough, as the magick began to eat at their bodies, their skin began to blacken. Sag. Peel. Decay.
Teeth fell out. Hair thinned. Lips shriveled. Muscle wasted away. Extremities withered and became stumps.
“Damn, Wyn,” said Xavier, grinning. “This is … sickening. I love it.”
Wynter lifted her hand and paused the magick that was rotting Esther’s body before it could reach her brain. At this point, the Priestess looked both hideous and pitiful. Which was just absolutely wonderful.
Esther tried backing up, almost falling over the dead witches behind her. The coven’s number had steadily dropped until only a few were left standing, and Wynter doubted the woman had even noticed.
Wynter eyed her from head to toe. “Now your appearance matches the monster you are within. And I’d say you’ll fit in just fine with the other monsters you’ll meet where you’re going.” Wynter psychically tapped into her connection with the netherworld. The ground beneath Esther darkened and rippled like fluid. “I told you I wanted to be the one to see youfall, right?” Then the Priestess dropped with a scream.
*
Cain sucked in a pained breath as a heavy, white-hot bolt of light crashed into him, burning like a firebrand. The Aeons were now fighting harder, redoubling their efforts to take down the Ancients, no longer resorting to only using elemental power. But he and the other Ancients were hitting them just as hard and fast, giving no quarter. Hence why Cain then whipped the invaders with power, slashing their flesh and sending some sprawling to the ground … giving Seth time to rise after being knocked off his own feet by a strike from Lailah.
Cain had sensed several of the Ancients fall at one point or another, but none were down for long from what he could tell. It was hard to be certain. Aside from Seth and Azazel—who Cain could see in his peripheral vision—he had no way to check on the others. Not without turning his attention from the Aeons, which he couldn’t afford to do. But although he’d heard the occasional cry or grunt of pain, he had no sense that any of the other Ancients were badly injured.
Now that the Aeons were scared and weakened by both injuries and exhaustion, Cain and the Ancients were no longer concentrating too much on Lailah and Saul. They instead made a point of taking out the siblings’ backup one by one. But each time someone shielding them fell, another Aeon was quick to replace—
Cain spat out a string of curses as razor-sharp power pierced and snipped at his flesh like scissors. “Fucker.” He launched a ball of plasma that smashed into the legs of an Aeon, exploding on impact,destroyingsaid limbs. Cain’s creature hummed its pleasure. Plasma was its favorite weapon, but Cain didn’t often toss it, despite how deadly it was—the orbs didn’t move as swiftly as others so were easily blocked.
Seth swore as spheres of blinding light zoomed through the air like bullets. “Christ, they’re fast.” He moved swiftly, emitting a wave of repellent power, but not fast enough to deflect every sphere.
Two wacked into Cain and,Jesus, they packed a punch. A punch made of iron that singed flesh like molten lava.
Another sphere must have crashed into Inanna, because she spat, “Bastards.” Then she was launching power grenades at the Aeons, who scrambled to deflect them.
Cain took advantage of their distraction, forming a vortex of power that zipped toward them. Its magnetic force sucked several off the cliff but Lailah acted fast, lifting her hands, causing massive wings of white air to appear. Said wings flapped hard, destroying the spiral and hitting the Ancients with a surge of wind that almost knocked Cain clean off his feet even though he’d braced himself for impact.
No one had time to retaliate, because the Aeons struck again swiftly, splattering the Ancients with blobs of mud. Cain hissed as the weird fucking dirt ate at his skin.
“It’s like goddamn acid,” Azazel ground out.
Worse, smoke rose from the mud, rushed up Cain’s nostrils, and entered his lungs, eating at the oxygen there like a sponge.
He stood very still as he purged the toxic smoke out of his system fast, growling as power sliced and stabbed him like a fucking immaterial blade. He assumed the other Ancients were forced to do the same … which was most likely why Saul chose that moment to act.
Silver shockwavesrocketedtoward the Ancients. One smacked into Azazel, sending him zooming backwards. Another hit Cain, causing him to stagger into his brother—which, inadvertently, knocked Seth out of range of a third shockwave.
Free of the effects of the mud, Cain righted himself just as Azazel returned to his side.
“Fucking hate shockwaves,” Cain heard Dantalion growl, and then pulses of near-nuclear energy crashed into several Aeons, killing two. Only one rushed to replace the living shields … and it seemed to be right at that moment that Lailah and Saul finally realized how dramatically their numbers had dropped.
Lailah let out a cry of fury and emitted an omnidirectional wave of gas that shimmered in the air.
Cain didn’t even want to know what that gas would do. He let out a gust of darkness that formed a giant smoky hand with skeletal fingers. Said hand hit the wave and sent it ricocheting back to the Aeons, who bowled over coughing as they fought the effects of the gas.
Taking instant advantage, the Ancients attacked as one—launching missiles of glass shards, zapping bodies with electric tenacles, hurling orbs of power that cleaved and bisected whatever they touched. The latter took out the two Aeons who stood in front of Lailah … providing a clear path to the bitch.