The God & The Shadow

Chapter 77

VERONICA

Fire. Everywhere I looked, all I saw was fire.

It easily reminded me of how badly my body burnt, or how I literally felt like I was about to conflagrate any moment. It was difficult to regulate my breathing and I was sure my legs were going to give out in the next few minutes.

But it didn't stop me from tearing through the battlefield. I hadn't felt this much bloodlust since the coven I slayed—and that was nothing more than a long needed warmup.

Standing in the midst of the blood-bathed plain, I fake-gagged at the exposed innards of the brute I managed to incapacitate in a matter of seconds. I was no stranger to macabre sights like these, but it still unnerves me at times.

"You good there?" I heard Warren shout from behind. I whirled just in time to see an electric blue orb hurtle from his hands to meet with the face of an angel fast approaching Hermes from behind. He screamed as his face began melting and sizzling from the blue goo quickly spreading all over his flesh.

"I'm still breathing, right?" I blew out a breath and covered the side of my head with an effortless whip of my hand. Withered branches immediately sprung out of the ground at an ungodly speed to shield me from the angel I'd spotted a mile away, his face taut with anger and his sword ready to separate my head from my body.

I closed my hand into a fist and the branches obeyed. Delighting in his screams, I threw out my hand as if I were discarding a crumpled piece of paper to the ground. The branches, now curled into a hollow ball of thorns with a fresh corpse inside it, barreled towards a group of angels all focusing their fire on Olivia and Gideon.

I'd never seen Gideon in battle, but I understood why Tarrin respected him so much. He was a wraith and he knew how to use his abilities well, far more skilled than the rest of us. Never mind the fact that he was weaponless; his power to possess the bag of bones the creatures called their own sacred temple and body proved detrimental in the battle.

And Olivia, gods bless her, was channeling her inner Hecate and using all the knowledge her sisters back at Salem taught her. I recognized the few spells and potions she used from the limited information I managed to gather when I attempted to become a better witch—back when I thought I was one. She was the one who had made the explosion that shook the forest earlier; I was beginning to question her possible qualifications as a demo maker.

Warren managed to huff a laugh and connect gazes with me. "When we get back, I'm taking a sabbatical from Tarrin's petty assignments and missions. The bastard's probably sipping a mimosa back at headquarters right now, having the time of his life while we bleed."

When we get back, he said. I ignored it. "Probably. But I think you should take it, the break. If I remember correctly, your past and recent assignments were to play bodyguard and follow me around in the unlikely case I mess up."

"Unlikely?" He said in disbelief. As we conversed, we busies ourselves with focusing our magic on the rest of the angels. "Perhaps that memory of yours isn't as fixed as we thought it was."

I scoffed as a thorn of mine decapitated an oblivious brute a mile away. "I did many things like go against Tarrin's word and yours, but I never messed up."

"Does cutting it close still qualify as never?" A light voice chimed in. Taylor joined the fray with a cool demeanor and eyes redder than the blood staining her clothes. It was an easy reminder of her demonic nature.