"You bitch!" Iona yelled and once again ran towards her with the sword. "You deserve to dieeee! We are going to kill you and then drink your blood!" But she couldn't go more than a few feet as this time she was met with dark shadows that matched her magic. The shadows engulfed her as they sliced her glassy skin.
"Ahhhh!" she screamed in pain. "Brother, you can defend her, but till what time," she said in a jittery voice. "I will kill her eventually. I will kill your mate and then I will rule this world!"
An outraged roar escaped from his mouth as he materialized behind her and punched her back to slow her down. Iona shrieked as she landed on the ground, her back shattering at the place of impact. Anastasia had gone to Adrianna to support her. Iona ran to them, but Ileus stood in between them, stopping her with yet another punch in her heart. However, this time, she exploded into plumes of darkness and Ileus followed her.
For the next few minutes, all one could see was two dark forces, all shadows and smoke and mist, fighting with each other. Lightning bolts and orbs of fire were thrown out. Shrieks and grunts were heard.
"Ileus!" Adrianna shouted in a strained voice as blood oozed from her shoulder where Iona had hit her with the orb of death. "Iona!" She started going towards them. "Stop it!" Her mind was in a tumultuous state. She wanted Iona to come back, but the way she was fighting with her brother, it was impossible. "Iona, my child, please come back!"
Anastasia rushed after her. "Please Adrianna, you should stay away," she advised. The kind of power that the two siblings were, was so enormous that it was like a black tornado.
Adrianna shook her head. "No! I have found Iona after so long. I will have to convince my baby. She has lost her way. I have to bring her back."
A lump formed in her throat and Anastasia could only feel pity.
All of a sudden, with a loud thud, they saw Iona falling on the ground, her leg shattered like glass. She was looking at the shadows that were right in front of her. Ileus became corporeal and shoved his fist on her head. It shattered and she howled.
"Ileus! Please stop!" Adrianna's voice sounded full of pity. "Have mercy on your sister. She is too young," she cried.
"Shut up you old bitch!" Iona shouted. "I don't need your sympathy!" Then she looked at Ileus who was about to give her another punch and said, "I will come back for revenge! I will kill all of you. I will destroy Draoidh!" Saying that she burst into a plume of black smoke that faded in the dark of the night.
Adrianna watched her daughter disappearing in the darkness. Dumbfounded, she stood there, her body frozen, her eyes fixed on the place where Iona was and her words ringing in her ears. 'I will destroy Draoidh.' World went silent.
"Mother," Ileus came to stand next to her. "Please go back to the palace." But Adrianna wasn't even listening to him.
Ileus called Kaizan through his mind link and asked him to take his mother and Anastasia back to the palace.
"I won't go without you!" Anastasia said.
He growled. "I am not requesting you, Anastasia. Can't you see the chaos out there?" He pointed with his thumb over his shoulder towards the Stone of Tepcha. Hooded men and women were still fighting with Darla and several other guards. "You have to leave."
"Come Anastasia," said Kaizan. "Ileus had gone mad tracing you. He wouldn't want to lose you again."
"And I don't want to lose him," she replied stubbornly. "Instead of waiting for him at the palace, I'd rather prefer to die here, with him."
Ileus shook his head. His demeanor softened. "No one is dying."
Her lips quivered as she wrapped her hands around his chest. Ileus kissed her on the crown of her head and then created a portal for Kaizan and Adrianna. Adrianna was simply too numb to say or do anything. Kaizan had to pick her up and take her step inside the portal.
Without another word, Ileus darted to where his men were fighting with others. Anastasia followed him and Darla came by her side immediately.
Despite her wounds, she fought. Three men pounced on her and she dealt them with her dagger, ripping their bodies, spraying their blood. Darla helped. However, it seemed endless, more men poured from the shadows and attacked them. But before they could come to her, Ileus had moved at lightning speed in the front. In the blink of an eye, he had dismembered two of them and spun to plunge his sword in the rest of them. For a brief moment when Anastasia looked at her husband, she was mesmerized. The fury radiating from his face had made his angles even sharper than they were. His golden eyes were burning like hot molten lava. She slashed the remaining three with one stroke.
Gods. Anastasia's stomach churned as giant butterflies fluttered their wings inside. How could she find her husband so… sexy in the midst of a rescue? And that too with people as avaricious and evil as dark forces?
"Stop gaping. You are watching him with reverence," said Darla as she spun her sword and beheaded a man.
Anastasia sighed. "I can't help falling in love with him again."
Darla rolled her eyes. "Save it for the—" But she snapped her mouth shut when in the midst of a bloody war, Ileus walked to his mate and crashed his lips on hers. They exchanged a steamy kiss and while doing that Anastasia threw her dagger somewhere in the side. A scream followed and her dagger returned in her hands.
When he pulled away, he brushed her cheeks with his thumbs. The tension that she had seen in his eyes was replaced with relief mixed with anger. He rested his forehead against hers as she placed her hands on his rock-hard chest muscles. "I need to feel you again, sweetheart and this need is driving me crazy."
She nodded, breathless and aroused as hell. Her magic thrummed back in her chest. He touched her back and unshackled her wings. As soon as her wings dropped down, she flared the white beasts in the air and flapped them.
"Go warrior girl!" he said. "And kill them!"
With a chuckle, Anastasia beat her wings and took to the air. With her dagger in the end, she brought havoc upon them, killing them, slicing them and burning them. She found Lila amongst them. Lila was fighting mindlessly like a few other dead soldiers. She sliced her head and released her from her curse.
It was nearly dawn when Ileus broke the last bone. He walked to where Anastasia was hovering in the air after plunging her dagger in the last dead soldier. Blood was sprayed on her face, her dress and her wings. He extended his hand to her. She caught it and touched the ground. Without looking anywhere, he threw a beam of light on the side, which swirled and circled into a portal. He covered his wife in his shadows—white wings surrounded by black tendrils of smoke and shadows, and took her inside the portal.
They stepped right in the gardens of the east wing of Eynsworth Palace.
"How did you find me?" she asked.