Bittersweet (Book #1 Evening Wings Trilogy)

Chapter 29

29

—XANDER

“Stop!” called a perfectly familiar voice.

One of the reeking ogres guarding me paused, holding a Seelie male by nothing but his wingtips and stared at the beautiful girl standing in the middle of the large disk of memories—the portal to Avlis.

I could almost hear the thoughts running through the creatures of Naida’s contingent. How did the girl manage to get inside the circle? Not even the Seelie queen could pass over that powerful magical barrier—because she was not an enchanter.

Naida dropped the poor soldier she had been pummeling and muttered an expletive that sounded hideously wrong in her little voice.

“It’s you…” she murmured slowly. “I should’ve known.”

The whole prairie fell silent as Elizabeth lay staring at Naida with the darkest hatred in her beautiful emerald eyes. Her curls swung around her in the wind, and faint black veins spread under her eyes as the moon shone down on her.

“You can’t wage war against people who know nothing of.” She smiled bitterly. “If you want the portal to Avlis, you’ll have to pass through me first.”

Naida cackled. “I’ve beaten you before, little girl, don’t think I can’t do it again.”

Elizabeth did not flinch and Naida proceeded to taunt her.

“You’re just a weak little girl, with a power too strong for you to even contemplate controlling. You’ll be an easy defeat.”

Elizabeth’s skin seemed to shimmer in the moonlight as if it were the stone sitting on her collarbone. The moon shone on her skin like the most brilliant light, starting to lift her off her feet. Glowing wings sprouted from her spine with a lush tear, spreading out of her vertebrae like a new flower.

Everyone was silent as she rose with the moon, hands outstretched, palms up in the moonlight, the strangest golden aura speeding off her body in vapory rings.

An unnatural wind swept through the vast lowland, sweeping the gorgeous curly hair off her forehead, whipping the dead leaves around in a vortex, swinging the tree boughs mercilessly. The odd skirt fanned out behind, greener than I had ever seen it—the hideous striped pajama pants falling in ripped shreds to the grassy ground.

The stone circle of ancient times past, slammed against the ground with an earsplitting rumble and a dozen undersized fey leapt out from beneath it. Some with golden wings and some with black wings, they all proceeded to swirl around my Elizabeth as if she were a goddess.

She shone with a warm golden glow, its shine growing more luminous by the moment. Gazing deeply at her, I felt myself drawn in by her strange celestial allure.

As her altitude grew higher, the light of her skin grew brighter, her eyes nothing but emerald green pendulums in the dark sky. This was what had been hiding within her. With her skin pulsing brightly with warm illumination, she closed her eyes and the glow within her grew even whiter, the gold hue now only occasional flecks within a being that was only a silhouette of unfeasibly pure white.

In an instant, the light enveloped the prairie, shining brighter than that hauntingly large moon in the wake of her.  However, that was only for an instant. It rushed back toward her, the pure white figure hovering in the air’s spine arching as the light returned a flash of searing light.

I did not want to look away, but it was as if I were staring into the blinding sun during a hot summer day. I caught a brief glimpse of her body once again, but the light became too concentrated and I had to look away.