Courts and Cabals by G.S. D'Moore (best e reader for academics txt) 📕

it, too close to my head for comfort, and a waterfall of raven-black hair cascaded down nearly to an ass that wouldn’t, and couldn’t, quit. Black horns poked through hair, encircled its head like an onyx crown, and flaming green weapons appeared in its hands. One was a sword, the other a whip.

“Lilith?” I gaped at the demon-looking succubus. Humans might have mischaracterized her species for millennia, but their descriptions were spot on. She looked like some creature spawned from hell to steal and eat the hearts of men. “If that creature gave everyone a raging hard on.” Despite her terrifying combat form, there was an undeniable femininity to it. “I could use that ass as a pillow!”

I barely had time to get to half-mast before Aveena’s attack ran headlong into a defensive shield. If the attack was only aimed at Lilith, the shield would have held, but spread out to cover everyone else, it was weaker. I lost my footing as the bleed through slammed into me and threw me backward several feet toward the cliff. I saw Dani and Xamira go flying, and grabbed toward them in desperation. I missed the imp, but grabbed ahold of Dani’s braid before she could go over the cliff.

I stabbed my fingers into the ground, frantic to find a handhold, and was surprised when they dug into the solid rock enough to bring us all to a sudden stop.

“Ah fuck,” Dani groaned. If she’d been human, the sudden stop would have snapped her neck. Instead, she just had horrible whiplash.

I didn’t even have a chance to get back to my feet before Aveena’s scream ripped through the dimensional pocket. I looked up in time to see half a dozen glamor swords appear in front of her before rocketing toward them. Two angled toward Lilith like heat seeking missiles, two aimed at me because why the hell not, and one each for the dwarf and imp.

Lilith intercepted the attack with a wave of emerald flame that spewed from her mouth. The swords disintegrated as the fire smashed them to faerie dust, and kept on going. Aveena made a wedge of telekinetic force to part the green inferno around her, and that’s when I knew we were going to lose this fight. Not because Lilith was weaker, or because Aveena had us outnumbered; it was because Lilith was trying to protect us all, while Aveena didn’t give a shit about anyone but herself.

Lilith’s wave of flame crashed around the Fae noble and smashed into the unarmed, unshielded changelings. Their mistress didn’t even try to save them. Their screams, and the smell of roasting flesh, filled the air with its putrid stench. Lilith froze in shock as her attack killed people she’d known for years; people she’d had class with, and shared meals in friendship.

Aveena saw the distraction and struck. More swords appeared, and flashed toward every cabal member. Lilith’s defense was too slow. She smashed aside most of the blades, but one snuck through and imbedded itself deep in her shoulder. The roar that came out of her belonged to some mythical beast, not an injured human woman. Black ichor dripped by the pint onto the floor as Lilith desperately ripped the three-foot blade out of her.

Even more distracted now, and momentarily crippled by pain, Lilith wasn’t ready for what came next. Smaller, more numerous daggers flashed around the succubus as Aveena charged her with a giant six-foot broadsword and matching shield. Lilith didn’t have time to try and block the projectile blades trying to kill her friends. She had to focus all her attention on the bigger threat.

Unfortunately, that meant I was fucked. As the least durable of the group, one hit from the supersonic daggers would crack me like an egg. The Fae noble wasn’t fucking around, and I wasn’t nearly in the zone enough to avoid getting hit. Even worse, I wasn’t fast enough to help my friends. Dani and Xamira were moving; maybe fast enough to save their beautiful asses, but I was shit out of luck.

All I could do was instinctually throw my arms up in a futile attempt to save myself. Instead of dying, I felt something pulse inside me. Throwing my arms up was meant to shield my heart and lungs from the flying daggers, instead . . . something leapt from my mind to do just that. It looked like a shield of mostly-translucent energy, but it flashed out as fast as the daggers, and put itself right in front of me. The glamor blade smacked into my little shield and shattered, but it felt like someone hit me with a fucking haymaker. Pain tore through my mind, and I nearly stumbled into the path of a second dagger. It flashed past me so close I heard the zip of it cutting through the air.

“How . . . never mind,” Dani was limping toward me, trailing a line of blood from her leg. She hadn’t been fast enough. Xamira blurred to my side, unharmed.

“What do we do?” I asked, as another inhuman shriek ripped through the air. “How are we supposed to get out of here?”

Both women looked at Lilith. “Duh, she’s our ticket out of here.”

The giant succubus and Fae noble were going at each other like this was a no-holds-bar cage match. There was no swordplay or strategy like when I battled the Fae knight. Chunks of glamor and bone armor were shredded as they tore into each other with swords, daggers, whip, claw, and to my surprise . . . fangs. Gore splattered everywhere, blocking the exit back to Joe’s pizza joint with hunks of flesh the size of dinner plates, and enough blood to keep a village hydrated through an African summer.

Aveena’s current scream was because Lilith had sunk her teeth into the other woman’s exposed neck. For a second, I thought the fight was over.