I bend my knees. “We’re going to make it a concern of yours, fuckhead.” I bare my teeth in a snarl. “You should be thanking me, you know.”
“Is that so, Hellwhore?”
“Aye. We took out the four other Ministers. Now it’s the One Ministry. You got your wish: all the power in Olhav. So you’re welcome.”
He barks a laugh, flaring his wings with a heavy beat. “You’re not the scared cunt I thought you’d be.”
I bend my knees lower, getting ready to spring. “Oh, I’mdefinitelya cunt.”
Aramastun prepares in a similar stance, bending his knees. I know those wings will bring him to us much faster than we can get to him, so we’ll need to be ready.
All the back and forth between us served a purpose, of course. Up here, moonlight shines brightly on the entire rooftop. The shadows cast by us are long and spindly.
With the loud wind and our raised voices, it’s allowed Skartovius to weave a shadow portal behind Aramastun ever-so-gently, ever-so-quietly, with the demon’s very own shadow. Now he gives a faint nod of his head to Jinneth, who has just started to notice the gateway undulating mere feet from her.
She gets to her knees to crawl over—
And her neck jerks with a froggy gurgle as Aramastun kicks the end of the chain up into his hand and lifts her off the ground in one fluid motion.
My mother is a heavy, tall woman. She squirms and wobbles and kicks in the air, hands going to her neck as her face turns red and Aramastun holds her in front of him effortlessly, her bare feet inches off the ground.
“You fucking bastard!” I scream. “Let go of my mother!”
I charge . . .recklessly.Drawing my swords, screaming into the swirling wind, hair whipping, heart racing, stomach jostling.
Aramastun pumps his wings once, lifts into the air with my mother in mid-strangle, and hovers in the sky ten feet above us. All in an instant. He pumps his wings once more and backpedals, throwing a wave of wind at us. My mother swings in the air, croaking.
He now hovers with gently lapping wings, comfortably out of range of my swords, five feet off the edge of Sutlis Spire and hundreds of feet off the ground.
His sneer is dark and rictus. “A poor choice of words, Sephania Lock. But I’m obliged to agree.”
And he releases the chain holding my mother.
Chapter 57
Sephania
Jinneth drops in a free-fall, shrieking, disappearing from my sight past the edge of Sutlis Spire’s roof.
I hold my breath, eyes bulging, and Skar growls behind me. He changes the trajectory of his shadowgate and turns it into a many-headed hydra of black tendrils that shoot across the sky, dipping over the edge of the roof.
Seconds later, Skar grunts with a great effort, lifts his hands in a flurry, and Jinneth’s large body careens through the sky the opposite direction, flyingupand arcing back over toward the roof.
Aramastun, still levitated off the rooftop, quirks his brow. “Fascinating. Once might say that’s a better power than these wings . . .”
I run forward as if I’m going to catch my mother before she plummets to the concrete. But she’s at least twenty feet up and Skar’s shadows look uncontrollable at this point after expending so much energy to catch Jinneth. She’s going to crashmuch harderthan I can take on, and it’s going to mean many broken bones, if not outright death.
Garroway, Lukain, and Vallan charge toward me, while Skar stays stationary to try and weave the shadows like a wizard.
Aramastun abruptly flies toward me, darting forward with a roar faster than I can blink.
I duck on instinct, putting my hands up and sliding to avoid him—
Which allows Skartovius to utilize my free-standing shadow and create a small portal out of it with his off-hand. He waves wildly and plops Jinneth down next to me from twenty feet up—
Directly into the portal.
I gasp in shock at the rush of air around me, glancing around wildly, not finding Aramastun or Jinneth anywhere.