Their Wings

Chapter 28: Loss

“ATTACK!” Ciara screamed.

As if they were one entity, the Demonate surged forward, a giant sea of obsidian against the night sky. From there it was instinct. It was as if the sword was speaking to me, telling me what to do. I wasn’t Ella anymore, I was a heria.

My wings lifted and gave a giant flap, propelling me upwards over the front line. Landing on my feet, I turned on my heel just in time to block an upward strike from one of the Demonate. Pushing their sword away, I counter-attacked and plunged the blade into their stomach.  They collapsed to the ground, only to be replaced by another. Parrying the blows, I fought as if I had been doing it my entire life. My wings cast a glow around me, allowing me to see where they were coming from. I knocked one to the ground and stabbed the sword into their chest, then twirled and fought another.

Sometimes I caught glances of a flash of gold among the ebony sea, and that made it a bit easier to fight.  We were making progress, the Demonate falling quickly, but there seemed to be an unlimited supply of them taking the place of the dead. They materialised out of nowhere, stabbing and slashing with their daggers and spears. Overhead I saw arrow after arrow flying into their ranks, taking out many Demonate. The rain was pouring down, saturating my hair and clothes, and yet I moved as if I was weightless. My wings picked me up, dropped me down, made me turn and allowed me to see them.

Suddenly a huge burst of white light erupted next to me. I turned quickly to see Mina stagger to her feet, a sword clutched in her right hand. Her wings were still blindingly white, though they seemed used and tired now, with feathers missing in a few places.

“MINA!” I screamed when I saw her.

“Ella, there you are.” she said while dispatching a Demonate who had tried to tackle her.

“You’re supposed to be dead!” I exclaimed, spearing one through the stomach,

“Yeah, I was in the crypt when they came. When I got back to the Palace they were all dead, and I could do nothing.” she said, simultaneously fighting.

“I’m so sorry.” I said.

“It’s fine, besides if I was dead I couldn’t have brought reinforcements.” she replied laughing.

On her word huge bursts of light began to appear all over the battlefield. I didn’t have to look hard to know they were more Angelus. I laughed hysterically, finally seeing a way for us to properly win this fight.

Before I could speak a new wave of Demonate hit and Mina and I were separated. I was immensely glad for the size of Alice’s property, knowing a full-scale battle like this couldn’t have happened anywhere else.

My sword was stained black with their blood, though the rain endeavoured to wash it off. My wings were aching, but I didn’t stop fending off the Demonate. Kicking the legs out from under one, then turning and spearing the heart of another. Blows to the shoulder, head, anywhere I could. They were quickly falling, but impossibly more materialised.

I was so preoccupied with watching them rise up from the dark grass; I didn’t notice one sneaking up next to me until his dagger had cut a deep gash into my arm. I spun around and killed him, only then noticing the cut. I was so cold because of the rain that it went numb immediately. My blood was pouring out of the wound, ruby red and soaking my left arm. I felt strangely disassociated at this point, as if I was watching the actions instead of doing them myself. My body didn’t feel mine anymore, because I knew my body could never do these jumps, leaps, ducks and dives. I was panting, flicking my black hair out of my eyes as I killed more and more of them.

Suddenly a familiar face jumped in front of me, and I froze. His dagger was half an inch from my throat, when he stopped and collapsed to the ground. I looked up with my chest heaving to see Luke pulling his sword from the back of Mr Nelson.