Fury and Flame | 3

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J A K E

      For a moment, I simply watched. The pilot had ejected out and was drifting on the wind with a parachute. But the plane was gathering speed as it plummeting towards the earth—plucked from its path of travel and sent downward to kill us.

      I'd always known the assassin had much more power stored inside her than she ever let on. She'd always refused to demonstrate her full might. Until now.

      I stood poised, waiting for the perfect moment. When the aircraft was dangerously close, I raised my hands and let the ice break the plane's momentum. It crashed through the wall of ice with ease, freezing splinters of it falling all around us. But the weight of the impact was already over. The downed plane slid across the dirt field, slowing by the second. I didn't even move when the nose stopped inches from where we stood.

     Turning to face the assassin, unimpressed, I found that she was already watching me as she planned her next attack. She hadn't won yet, but she'd been able to hold the six of us off at once.

      It was time to blind her before she did any more damage. This fight, we'd come prepared. Jaxon held a bag in his hands that would prevent her from seeing. Once we were able to tie it over her face, she would be easy to knock unconscious.

As she stood in front of us, we waited. The Reaper began to stride forward, brandishing a dagger in each hand, confidence in each step. There were enough blades strapped on her to slit all of our throats at once. With the sun gleaming in her hair and face and the lethal narrow-eyed stare she was delivering us, she looked like some sort of goddess on the battlefield. Unearthly.

      But that was before the light hit her daggers—already dripping with blood. Dangerous. She was dangerous.

On either side of me, Kane and Jaxon both made moves to run for her, but I held up a hand. "Wait. Let her come to us."

      They obeyed, staying where they were. We all watched as Delphinium strode lazily toward us, a panther circling her prey. But Jaxon held the bag. As soon as she got close enough...

      She didn't have to be near for me to sense the sense of otherness that Orion planted in her. I could see the whites of her eyes, every detail on her blades. That was it. "Go," I said in a low voice. My teammates didn't need to be told a second time as they all surged forward, forming a half-circle around the assassin.

      Finn's fire made her jump back. One step closer to Jaxon. Arlo swung wildly for any part of her body he could lay his knives on. Kane hit her back farther as Riley's thick plants wound around Delphinium's legs. A spray of ice particles into her eyes had her stumbling back into Jaxon's arms. The bag went over her head as she thrashed. Kane helped hold her down as I stood over them, watching carefully.

      Throwing a glance over her shoulder to where the two sides of soldiers were still fighting each other, Riley said, "We need to make this quick." Kneeling down, she held a hand out to Jaxon, who'd been carrying a syringe for her. Arlo made a face at the sight of it. "This will knock her out for a half-hour, tops."

      Being able to hear every word we said, Delphinium writhed around in Kane's steel grip. When she realized she was no match for the strongman's strength, the assassin then screamed out one word in Romanian. I didn't have to know the language to know she'd told the soldiers to fire at us. Jaxon slapped a hand over her face under the bag, but she'd already done the damage.

      Bullets turned from our soldiers to us. One whizzed straight for my chest, but I batted it away with a single bolt of ice. Knowing that our attentions were now divided, Finn and Arlo both ran to aid our soldiers in taking out the gunmen.