Chapter 13 First Real Fight
MIREYA'S POV
We dive toward the university, straight into the angel army.
Holy fire erupts around us. I dodge left, Azraeth banks right. We're separated immediately.
"Mireya!" His voice comes through the bond, not my ears. Stay close!
But I can't. Three angels are on me, their blades burning with star-metal light. I throw shadows at them, but they cut through my magic like paper.
I'm not strong enough. Not trained enough.
One blade slices across my wing. Pain explodes through my back. I fall, hitting the ground hard.
The angels descend. I roll, barely avoiding a sword that would have taken my head off.
Through the bond, I feel Azraeth fighting twenty angels at once. He can't help me. I'm alone.
A female angel pins me down, her blade at my throat. "The Demon King's whore," she spits. "You should have stayed human."
Rage floods through me. Not just mine—Azraeth's too, bleeding through the bond.
"I was never just human," I snarl.
Shadows explode from my hands, throwing her back. I launch into the air again, wings straining.
But more angels swarm me. Too many. Way too many.
I crash through a window into the university building. Land hard in a familiar hallway.
My old department. Where I used to work before Kieran destroyed everything.
Footsteps echo behind me. I run deeper into the building, toward my old research lab. Toward where Kieran is performing his spell to break the bond.
The lab door is ahead. I can feel the magic pulsing from inside—holy light mixed with stolen demon research.
I burst through.
Kieran stands at my old desk, surrounded by magical circles. Books I wrote are open around him. My research, turned into a weapon against me.
"Mireya!" He looks delighted and terrified. "Perfect timing. I'm almost finished breaking your bond. Then we can fix you. Make you human again. Normal again."
"I don't want to be normal!"
"You don't know what you want. The demon corrupted you." He gestures at the spell circles. "But I can save you. Prove I'm the better choice. Prove you should have chosen me."
"You stole my research and destroyed my life!"
"I improved your research! Look what I've done with it!" His eyes are wild. "I can control demons now. Bind them. With this power, I'll be the greatest researcher in history. And you'll be by my side, grateful and—"
I don't let him finish. Shadows slam into him, throwing him across the room.
"You took everything from me," I say, walking toward him. "My career. My reputation. My future. You made me feel worthless."
"I made you better!" He scrambles backward. "Without me, you'd still be a nobody librarian!"
"You're right." I smile, and it's not a nice smile. "Without you, I never would have been desperate enough to summon a demon king. I never would have discovered my true power. So thank you, Kieran. For being such a terrible person that you pushed me to become something greater."
He tries to activate the spell. Holy light flares.
Pain rips through my chest. The bond screams as the magic tries to tear it apart.
I fall to my knees, gasping. Through the bond, I feel Azraeth's agony matching mine.
Hold on, he sends desperately. I'm coming!
But he's too far away. Fighting too many enemies.
I'm alone with Kieran and his spell that's slowly destroying the one thing keeping me powerful.
"It's working!" Kieran laughs. "Soon you'll be human again! Powerless! And you'll need me to protect you!"
Rage burns through the pain. He wants me weak. Dependent. Grateful for scraps of his attention.
Just like everyone else in my life.
No. Not anymore.
I reach for the shadows. Not gently. Not controlled. I grab them with everything I have—all my anger and pain and years of being dismissed.
"You want to know what I learned from demon magic?" My voice echoes with power. "That I'm done being the victim in everyone else's story."
I unleash everything.
Shadow-fire explodes from my hands. Not the controlled blasts Azraeth taught me. Pure destruction. Wild. Chaotic.
The spell circles shatter. Kieran's books incinerate. The walls crack under the pressure of my rage.
Kieran screams, throwing up magical shields. But my power tears through them.
"Stop! Mireya, stop! You're going to kill me!"
"Good!"
The shadow-fire reaches him. He falls, screaming, his shields collapsing.
And then I feel it through the bond—Azraeth's shock. His fear. Not of me, but for me.
Little betrayed one, you need to stop. If you kill him like this, you'll burn yourself out. You'll die.
I don't care!
I do! His presence floods the bond, trying to pull me back from the edge. Don't let him make you a killer out of rage. If you want him dead, kill him with purpose. Not like this. Not destroying yourself in the process.
His words cut through the fury. He's right. Kieran isn't worth burning myself to ashes.
I pull the power back. Slowly. Painfully.
Kieran lies on the floor, burned and broken but alive. His spell destroyed. My research in ashes.
"You're pathetic," I tell him. "You stole from me because you knew you'd never be as good as me. And you were right."
I turn to leave.
"They'll kill you!" he shouts after me. "The angels, the witches—everyone will hunt you! You'll never be safe!"
"I know." I look back at him. "But I'd rather die fighting as myself than live as the powerless nothing you wanted me to be."
I walk out.
The hallway is full of angels now. They surround me, weapons raised.
And at their center stands Seraphina, her star-metal sword blazing.
"Azraeth is captured," she says. "Surrounded in the courtyard. Surrender now, and I'll let him live. Fight, and I'll kill him in front of you. Just like I killed Morwenna."
Through the bond, I feel Azraeth's rage and terror. He's telling me to run. To save myself.
But I'm done running.
"You want me to surrender?" I spread my wings. "Then you should have brought more angels."
Seraphina's eyes widen. "There are fifty of us. You're alone and half-trained. This is suicide."
"Probably." I call shadows to both hands. "But I'm tired of doing what powerful people expect. So here's what's going to happen: you're going to let Azraeth go. You're going to stop hunting demons. And you're going to admit the truth about who really committed those atrocities five hundred years ago."
"Never."
"Then we do this the hard way."
I attack first.
The fight is chaos. I'm outnumbered and outmatched. But something has changed inside me. After facing Kieran, after almost losing the bond, I'm not afraid anymore.
I'm furious.
Shadow-fire tears through angel ranks. My wings give me mobility they can't match. And through the bond, Azraeth's power feeds mine. We're fighting separately but together.
An angel's blade catches my side. I scream but don't stop. Another blade cuts my arm. I keep fighting.
Blood—my black demon blood—drips onto white marble floors.
And still I fight.
"She's insane!" one angel shouts. "She's not even trying to defend!"
He's right. I'm not defending. I'm attacking with everything I have because defense won't save us. Only overwhelming violence will.
It's brutal and desperate and probably stupid.
But it's working.
Angels fall back. Some flee. Others press forward but hesitate.
And then Azraeth breaks through from the courtyard, his chains shattered, his power unleashed.
He appears beside me, wings spreading protectively. "Together?" he asks.
"Together," I agree.
We attack as one. Our powers synchronized through the bond. His calculated violence and my chaotic rage combining into something unstoppable.
Seraphina faces us alone now, her sword raised. "This changes nothing. We'll hunt you forever."
"Let them try," I say.
Through the bond, Azraeth and I strike simultaneously. Seraphina blocks, but barely. She's strong, but we're bonded. Two souls fighting as one.
Her blade shatters.
The star-metal weapon that killed Morwenna, that imprisoned Azraeth, that represented five hundred years of angel tyranny—breaks into useless fragments.
Seraphina stares at the pieces in shock.
"Impossible," she breathes.
"Nothing's impossible anymore," I tell her. "That's what you should have learned when you killed Morwenna. Souls don't stay dead. Bonds don't stay broken. And eventually, the powerless rise up."
I raise my hand to finish her.
But Azraeth stops me. "Wait."
"Why? She killed you—killed us!"
"Yes." He steps forward, looking down at Seraphina. "But killing her makes her a martyr. Letting her live, broken and defeated, makes her a warning." He crouches beside her. "Tell your Celestial Council: the Demon King has returned. His queen stands beside him. And the age of angel rule is ending."
We leave her there, surrounded by her defeated army.
We fly out of the university together, wings synchronized.
The city spreads below us. Twenty safe houses need evacuating. Hundreds of refugees need protecting. A war is coming in three days.
But right now, in this moment, we're free.
"We really did it," I breathe.
"You really did it," Azraeth corrects. "You walked into that trap and came out victorious."
Through the bond, I feel his pride. His love. His fear that he'll lose me.
I reach for his hand mid-flight. "You're not losing me. Ever."
"Promise?"
"Promise.