The Attack

TW: This chapter will contain some violence and gore.

Azriel's PoV:

Knocking on his door woke Azriel up with a start. He sat up to see that his room was still cloaked in darkness but his shadows seemed a little restless.

It was the middle of the night.

Why would anyone be rousing him at this hour?

Then he remembered that the house was empty and the only person who could be knocking was Cal.

He jumped off the bed and headed to the door.

The knocking sounded a little terrified.

He opened the door to see Cal standing there, her sword in hand. Her face was terrified.

"Wha-" Azriel started but Cal cut him off.

"There is someone on my balcony," whispered Cal.

"Alright."

Azriel asked no more further questions. He headed back to his room and picked up Truth-Teller. Then he grabbed Cal's hand and left his room, heading to hers.

"I was about to go out and attack it," Cal continued but Az thought it was unnecessary. She didn't need to explain herself. Az had already known that this was a possibility. "I got a little scared Az. When I removed the curtains, there was absolutely no one. But I am sure that there had been someone."

"I know," said Azriel. "I am going to get that someone."

Azriel walked into her room and went straight to the balcony. The doors were open.

"Did you leave this open?" asked Azriel.

"I don't think so," said Cal, scrunching her eyebrows. "I was scared, I don't remember very well."

Az looked down through the railings into the streets below.

Night life in Velaris was particularly beautiful, but owing to the recent attacks, it was relatively less crowded.

Azriel suddenly heard a sharp gasp from Cal and turned to her. Her eyes were wide and she had unsheathed her sword, looking at something above Azriel.

Azriel then felt a clawed hand grabbing his shoulder but before he could react, Cal had already swung her sword, catching the creature in its hand.

The creature shrieked and jumped off the balcony, but not before Az could get a look at it.

It was a naga. A half breed.

Without a second thought, Azriel unfurled his wings and dived after it.

If it was keeping an eye on his Cal, it wasn't leaving unscathed without giving him some answers. He landed right beside the half-breed and bolted after it.

The naga turned a sharp circle and started running back towards the house.

Azriel smirked as he realised that the naga was now trapped.

It wouldn't be able to enter the house, and even if it did, Cal was waiting there. And Azriel would be right behind it.

As they ran towards the door, Azriel saw Cal standing inside the glass doors, sword in hand.

Azriel was very close to the naga but it was very fast.

He then heard some kind of dialogue come from the creature; it sounded like a bunch of hisses. Just then, Azriel saw the house shimmer; and with his stomach filling with dread, Azriel realised what was happening.

The naga was breaking the spell on the house, or altering it.

"Cal," screamed Azriel, "get out of the house! It's not safe! Get out!"

Before Cal could react, the naga had already raced into the house, and turned back to look at Azriel, as if in challenge.

What a moron! It had turned its back on Cal, it was a matter of seconds before Cal would kill it!

Then he noticed, and he felt his veins fill with ice water.

Behind Cal was another half-breed naga, holding its claws at Cal's neck; she had frozen, staring beseechingly at Azriel.

He ran faster, confused as to why the other naga was just staring back at him.

He stepped through the door and felt like something had smacked him across his face.

He took a step back and realised that there was an invisible barrier, stopping him from entering the house.

The naga had altered the spell on the house!

His eyes met Cal's the exact moment she figured it out and they widened in terror. She then kicked the naga that was grabbing her and ran, trying to reach Azriel.

But he knew it was of no use.

She crashed with the invisible barrier and then banged her fists roughly against it.

She could not leave the house.

And Azriel could not enter.

Cal was trapped in the house with two possibly mad half-breed nagas.

Cal's PoV:

The moment Cal pounded her fists against the air and felt an invisible barrier, she realised what had happened. She was trapped.

She moved away from the door, realising that she would lose sight of Azriel for what she needed to do.

He looked terrified and shadows seemed to be branching away from him, as if scattering somewhere. His hazel eyes were trembling and Cal could see how scared and angry he was.

Cal ran back inside the house, steering clear of the nagas and picking up her sword.

She ran up the stairs to the dining room and took her place behind the curtains.

The curtains in the dining room were particularly flowy and they would nicely cover her.

She would wait there for the nagas, or for Azriel to figure out a way inside the house.

These nagas looked very different from the ones she had seen before.

Why were they different? Maybe they were half-breeds. How had they broken the spell into the house? The other naga must have gotten in before when she had found her balcony door open; the protective spell must have broken earlier. The second naga who was being chased by Azriel must have put another spell, locking Azriel out of the house.

How could they break spells?

They were half nagas; the answer to the question was probably hidden in what was the other half of them.

The lights in the dining room were out and Cal knew better than to turn them back on. She had muscle memory of the entire house, the nagas did not.

She heard some dialogue a short distance from herself and it sounded like hissing. She realised they were conversing. She peeked through the curtains and saw that they were searching for her.

They both had reddish hair and looked very similar. Their mannerisms were feminine and the way they were dressed, they looked like females. Maybe they were sisters.

Both were turned away from her and Cal knew it was her only chance.

She tip-toed towards them, holding her sword high. In the few days that she had had the time, she had practiced moving in her new body, getting used to the extra-long limbs. She reached one of them and lifted her sword.

Before she could deliver the blow, she felt like a mass of scales and claws had crashed with her and she fell sideways, realising that while her eyes had been fixed on one of them, the other had spotted her.

Cal gripped her sword fiercely and fought, getting herself free from the clawed clutches. She stood up and realised that she was now being surrounded by those two. From the faint moonlight that crept into the dining room through the curtains, she saw that the two of them were moving around her in a circle, searching for the perfect opening to attack.

"What do you want?" asked Cal without a tremble in her voice. She knew she was armed and more than capable of protecting herself.

"You," said one of them.

"You think you can kill me?"

"We are to bring you alive."

"To whom?"

One of them attacked her instead of answering her question. Cal parried the attacks with her sword and defended, landing a slash across the knee of one of the attackers. She could not see the blood in the darkness but she knew she had hit with enough force.

She swung her sword and one of them caught her wrist. Instead of trying to free her hand, she folded it towards herself, and then hit the naga on the nose with her elbow.

She fought faster than before and every blow she landed made her happy. She did not want to kill either of them. If she could catch them alive, Azriel would get a lot of information from them.

One of them pounced on her and she held her sword across and pushed the naga back with full force. The naga flew towards the curtains, its claws getting caught in the fabric and dragging the curtain down.

More light flooded the room and Cal could now see the damage she had done.

Or the lack of it thereof.

There was not a single slash on any of the nagas' bodies, some scales seemed to have been ripped off in places where Cal had thought she had attacked, but that was it.

She jabbed her sword at the other naga, the point tipped over where her heart should be. But the sword did not pierce; even though Cal pushed it.

The shock made her freeze and that was a mistake.

The other naga, the one she had thrown at the curtains pounced on her, throwing her flat on the ground. Cal's fingers uncurled when she tried to protect her face and the sword clattered to the ground a little far from her.

The naga tried to slash at her face and Cal crossed her arms in front of her face, receiving the slashes on her arms. She could feel the sharp sting of the wounds, but she was still trying to get away.

"What the fuck are you?" asked Cal, realising that they were much stronger than the nagas she had previously encountered. Their skin seemed impenetrable and that had never happened.

"Your betters," said the other naga from beside her and it chuckled as the one on top of her slashed across Cal's shoulder, making Cal gasp in pain and surprise.

"You think," said the naga on top of her, "you are better than us? You walked the earth as a human. A common human filth!" The naga punctuated her sentence by spitting on the ground beside Cal. "And then, you turned into a High Fae. You were beneath us, and you stay beneath us, bitch!"

The naga slashed at Cal's shoulder again and Cal could feel that the wound was deeper somehow, making her gasp in pain again, pushing at the naga with all her strength, trying to get away from it.

Then, the naga did the absolute unthinkable. It protruded its forked tongue and licked the wound on her shoulder.

The moment its tongue contacted Cal's skin, she screamed. Cal felt a terrible burning pain at the contact and she struggled violently to get away.

"We need her alive," hissed the other naga.

"She won't mind if we drain her a little," hissed the naga as it licked off some blood from its lips. "Her blood tastes like power."

The naga bent its head and licked again, making Cal arch her back in pain and scream. The pain made her dizzy and she thought she was blacking out.

Through blurring vision, she saw a shadow crash through the windows.

No, not a shadow. An Illyrian warrior.

The shadowsinger to be exact. Azriel.

Her Azriel.

He grabbed the naga that was pinning her down and threw it against the wall. He walked towards the half breed in long strides, his eyes burning with fury. He held Truth Teller in his right hand and he grabbed the naga right beneath its nose with his left.

No, not the nose.

He was grabbing her tongue, the same tongue that was still dripping with Cal's blood; the same tongue that had made Cal scream out in pain.

As Cal stood up hastily, she really saw Azriel.

He looked like a statue of death and destruction brought to life, the dim light making his features look deadly and unforgiving. His hair was messy and his wings were tucked in tight, the claws at their end pointing menacingly.

Azriel looked furious; a single look at him and Cal knew that he could, at that very moment, burn the whole world to avenge her.

Without further ado, he pulled on the naga's tongue harshly and it shrieked. Azriel didn't stop and kept pulling until he had ripped out the creature's tongue, making blood flow out of its mouth.

The other naga, that had been too shocked to act, now attacked Azriel, slashing its sharp claws against Azriel's back, making deep welts.

Azriel grunted in response but did not turn around.

The sight of blood dripping from Azriel's back made Cal fume with anger.

She had been so scared when they had attacked her. She still feared what they could do to her and where they planned on taking her. But right now, she was furious. They had no right to hurt Azriel.

She glared at the naga, an unforeseen anger making itself known as she felt her skin tingling. She wanted to burn the naga alive, to hear its screams as its scales melted. Maybe their skin was impenetrable to knives, but nothing could resist fire.

Suddenly, the naga that had slashed Azriel across his back, spontaneously burst into flames.