Chapter 55: Chapter 55

DEVAS

The moss under my feet gave way, soft and yielding like a stifled sigh, as the heavy portal opened behind me.

A rift in reality, it didn’t glow like the usual gates, which shone in glistening white or blue. No, this one pulsated in a dark violet color, so deep and impenetrable that it almost appeared black.

An ominous glow illuminated the forest floor in front of me, enveloping me like an invisible hand.

Evangeline’s scream, sharp and panicky, echoed in my head. And my body responded before my mind realized.

I ran. Instinct. To survive.

A humming could be heard. Deep, vibrating, as if the air itself were trembling.

The splash of footsteps stomping through something wetter than bare ground. And shortly afterward, this hissing.

Elven metal, drawn in a single, lethal stroke.

The blade cut so close to my neck that I felt the touch of its sharpness, ice cold against my skin. I gasped and threw myself to the ground—just a second earlier.

The sword’s edge left a burning line in the air, exactly where my head had been a moment ago.

I rolled across the damp ground, my heart a hammering vortex in my chest, and straightened up. Turned round.

There it was.

The source of this strange, frightening power that flowed through me like an invisible stream. It waited.

Bael was already at my side. He must have sensed it just like me.

“Devas!” Iris yelled behind me.

But I could hardly move when I saw who was walking through the portal.

It was Avery. Or what remained of him.

His face emerged in the flickering light, contorted with determined haste as he rushed towards me. His face was a frozen reflection of what he’d once been.

But every warmth, every spark of humanity had been drained from it. The skin, once vibrant and softly toned, now looked as pale as ash, as if something had hollowed him out from the inside until all that remained was an empty shell.

Dark veins snaked beneath the surface, pulsing with a strange, sinister energy.

But his eyes… They were the worst part. No longer the soft purple that had once looked so familiar.

No.

Now they were black, not just dark, but an unknown darkness, impenetrable, as if they would swallow up the light itself. And something was emanating from them.

Not like a glow, not like a light, but like the slow leakage of a shadow that was eating its way into the world.

Every look from him felt like something cold was creeping over my skin, like the air around him was getting thicker, more poisonous.

His mouth moved, but the voice that came out was not his. Too deep. Too rough.

Like something was scratching inside him, working its way down his throat to speak.

And I knew…this wasn’t Avery anymore. Not really. Not any longer.

With a single, brutal gesture Avery flung Bael aside. Nothing more than a fleeting movement of his hand, but the power behind it left no doubt.

This was no longer the man I knew.

His sword flashed through the air, a deadly arc, aimed at me. Every fiber inside me froze.

“Traitor! Give me back my Iris,” he screamed.

The voice that broke from him was not human. It boomed as if something unnatural was speaking through him, raw and torn by a hatred that made me shiver to the core.

His eyes, those black, lightless abysses—sparkled with a rage that knew no end. Just one goal… to wipe me out.

Time seemed to stop.

I saw the sword rising. Heard the sharp hiss as it traveled through the air.

Felt the breeze that took my breath away…

A bright flash of lightning cut through the darkness. Not just light—no, it was as if the sun itself exploded in the forest.

The shock wave hit me like an invisible hammer, vibrating my eardrums, collapsing my lungs. It was a sharp jolt that made me flinch.

But the blade didn’t hit me.

It was Evangeline.

She stood between us, her hand clutched around the bloody metal. The edge had dug deep into her palm, and dark red blood dripped onto the floor like a macabre tick of seconds.

But she wasn’t screaming in pain. No.

Her cry was wild, triumphant, a rebellion against disaster.

And then…she unleashed her power.

A cracking sound. A rip. A fracture in reality.

Then…~they~ burst forth.

Two massive wings burst from Evangeline’s back as if they were piercing the skin of the world itself. Not softly. Not gracefully.

But with the brutal force of a being freeing itself from the bonds of mortality.

Feathers, white as the first light of creation, unfurled in a breathtaking flurry. But between them sparkled pointed rays of gold and silver, as sharp as poisoned blades.

Every movement caused the light in them to refract, as if the wings were not vibrating but cutting the air.

They spread out until they spanned the entire portal. Their shadows crawled over us like fallen angels.

With every breath Evangeline took, they vibrated as if an invisible force was flowing through them, a stream of pure, unbridled light.

And then… a single, mighty blow.

The wings flapped and the earth trembled.

“I see you… Timorax. You have no power here,” Evangeline shouted.

I watched as she pulled him to her, into a hug. Her wings embraced Avery, and he opened his eyes wide.

Her wings still twitched in the reverberations of her unleashing as Avery slumped. A broken warrior, his dark obsession now consumed.

With a strangled gasp, Evangeline pitched forward, her knees hitting the hard ground. Caught.

Her arms wrapped around Avery, just in time before his body hit the cold floor. The weight of his unconscious body sent her staggering.

Her wings, mighty instruments of divine punishment a moment ago, now shook like sails in a storm. They flapped once more, in vain, then she too fell forward, Avery’s head against her chest.

Blood dripped from her hands and onto his face. Her blood. His tears.

And for a moment, no matter what power she had just unleashed—she was just a girl again, holding our King.

“No…Avery,” Iris cried out as she ran past me.

She collapsed to her knees, pulling Avery towards her. I snapped back, my eyes wide open looking at Evangeline.

~She~ was an angel.

Iris stared from Avery to Evangeline, as did everyone else as they stood beside me. All the banished demons rushed to our rescue.

We were so close to that camp. It could have destroyed us all.

Evangeline breathed heavily, her face marked with pain.

“He’s possessed…” she groaned.

But that wasn’t a surprise to me. What threw me completely off was that she called the creature by its name.

An icy breeze brushed across the back of my neck.

I only recognized him when his influence was already burning like poison in Avery’s veins: Timorax, the fear devourer.

A demon that crept into the cracks of the soul, a shadow that fattened itself on anger and fear. I saw the black threads of his power eating through Avery’s gaze, heard the low, malicious whisper that wasn’t a sound but a nightmare right in the brain.

But Evangeline... she ~saw~ it. Not just when he had already taken control.

Not when it was too late. No. She recognized him the moment he struck.

When the air in front of Avery’s mouth turned into a grinning, toothless maw. And she took action.

With a gesture that was neither spell nor sword stroke, but simply pure, unrestrained refusal, she pushed him back. Something invisible that suddenly took shape under her touch.

A figure of pitch-black smoke and narrow yellow eyes that blinked in surprise. Timorax staggered.

Only for a moment. But at that moment, it was all over.

“We have to save him,” Iris cried out desperately.

Evangeline nodded, putting her hand on Avery’s forehead.

I could hear her whispering words I’d never heard, in a language that seemed unfamiliar to me. Then Avery’s face relaxed.

He seemed to be sleeping. But Evangeline collapsed.

Before she even touched the ground, I was by her side and caught her. “I’ve got you,” I said quietly.

My fingers were still twitching under the gentle electric shocks of her touch as she confided in me. Her body sank into my arms, heavy and yet so unbelievably fragile.

A soft moan escaped her lips, a sigh that shook me to the core. “My angel... what am I supposed to do with you?” I breathed, my voice rough with the worry that was burning in my chest.

But the warm throbbing that flooded through me wasn’t my own. It was her feelings, flooding into me like liquid gold, permeating every fiber of my being.

And then she smiled. That smile... soft, almost painfully tender, pierced me.

And suddenly, I knew. Angels healed with ~love~.

My lips found hers before I’d even finished thinking the thought. The first kiss was soft.

A breath. A pledge.

But then... she kissed me back.

Suddenly, there was no holding back. My hands dug into her hair, pulling her closer, even further, until our bodies could hardly be separated.

Our lips crashed against each other, hungry and passionate. No more tender exploration, but a demand—a desire that burned me to the bone.

It tasted of sunlight and something indescribable, something perfect. A low, throaty moan escaped her throat, and her hand cupped my cheek, tender but full of unspoken desire.

“Evie... what about him?” Iris’s voice tore us apart.

We both looked at Avery, who was now glowing softly.

“He’s fighting it,” Evangeline replied. “And you need to help him.”