Mated (The Queen's War #1)

Chapter 42

Lucan's rage fuelled the monumental explosion of power and demonfire that erupted from his body. The metal and concrete that Michael had just tried to bury him in splintered into millions of pieces. His entire body was engulfed in flame as he spread his wings wide and surged high above the conflict.

He frantically searched the skies for his brother and only just managed to catch the tell-tale wingspan of gleaming white as he threw an orb of angelfire at the ground. Lucan streamlined his body in Michael's direction, terrified for Perci's life, but snapped out his leathery wings to stop as a dozen angels blocked his path.

"Move!" Lucan roared.

The angels gathered their collective power and came at him as a unit. Not even the sheer magnitude of his power was enough to keep them at bay without using his skill with a sword.

Desperation made his viciousness rise to the surface, and he gave none of the enemy a chance to land a single blow. Instead, he decimated every angel that stood in his way and rained their body parts over the battle below.

Precious minutes had been wasted by the time the last angel fell and now when he looked he couldn't see Michael at all. Lucan thwarted all further attempts to stop his progress towards the Archangel's last location, but a burly seraphim used his divided attention to his advantage and jumped off a nearby roof to drag him to the ground.

Once there, the Luminate seraphim, whose golden armour stood in sharp contrast to the silver of his fellow knights, unsheathed two long curved swords. Lucan could feel that the seraph before him didn't have the benefit of power like a lot of his ilk, instead he circled their impromptu arena with sure and steady footing. This seraph was likely a master of blades and had only been kept from rising to the title of seraphite because of his lack of power. He had no intention of letting down his guard because of that though.

Lucan gripped the Nightsword in his right hand and slid a large dagger from the sheaths at his hips into his left. For ten thousand years he'd been practising with blades of every size and shape. One lone seraphim would not be getting the better of him. Not when Michael could be killing his soulmate as they fought.

With that in mind, Lucan made the first move and came in fast and hard. The seraphim to his credit parried and fought back with a skill that most of his Commanders would be hard-pressed to beat, but it wasn't long before a hard slash of his Nightsword sliced through the muscle and bone of the seraph's wrists. His swords clattered to the ground and he fell back with a garbled shout. Lucan wasted no time in beheading the Luminate.

Once more ascending to the skies, Lucan sheathed the dagger and began racing towards the area of buildings that Michael had been flying over before, but a heart-wrenching sight greeted him. Hanging almost lifeless in Michael's arms, was his soulmate. Lucan could do nothing but stop and maintain his position and hope that his twisted brother would not hastily kill the other half of his soul.

Seconds felt like hours as Lucan waited for Michael to reach him, but finally he stopped and hovered just metres away. No matter the risk, Lucan put all of his attention on the weak sight of his Queen. Below, the fighting drew to a halt as both sides realised what was happening above them.

"What are you waiting for?" Lucan asked Michael with a snarl. His body was still aflame, but now he focused the demonfire into his arms.

"For your downfall." Michael answered and manoeuvred Perci so her back was to his front. His arms were wrapped around her middle, holding her effortlessly.

"If you kill her, you won't survive me." Lucan growled.

"I am aware of that." Michael's smile turned dark. "That's why you are going to kill her for me."