Blue Blood (Series of Blood Book 3) by Emma Hamm (books to read this summer .txt) 📕

Jasper pulled back slightly so his eyes could run over the damages done to her body. Beneath his gaze, her eyes grew back to fill in the cavities left by the jagged spikes attached to the inside of the blindfold. Sunset eyes stared at him, now ringed with blood.

Her body trembled. “I have done terrible things.”

“You were aware the whole time?”

“I’m always aware,” she told him. Her teeth chattered audibly. “I have become what I was most afraid of.”

“Stay with me, please stay with me, love. We have to go.”

Mercy pulled away from him and stumbled backwards on the rickety wood planks. “I can hear them. I can hear them screaming and begging for mercy.” She gasped for air as though she were drowning. “Oh god they were calling my name, and I did not answer.”

She fell onto her knees and pressed her palms against her ears.

“Mercy, sweetheart—”

“They were bad people. They had done terrible things, and all I wanted to do was cleanse this place. But then—” Her voice caught. “They were innocent. They were good people trying to make a living in a dark world, and I did not stop. I could not stop.”

“Don’t think about it. We have to leave.” He reached for her.

“Do not touch me!”

“Ignes,” Jasper called out to her Phoenix. “Ignes, take over so I can remove her from this place.”

They were interrupted by slow clapping. Jasper turned towards the sound, dropping into a fighting stance. Malachi sat atop the horse statue, in place of the missing soldier.

“Did you think I wasn’t aware you were watching?” Malachi asked. “I knew exactly where you were the entire time.”

Jasper wanted to punch that smug grin until there was nothing left but a bloody pulp. “You.”

“Me.” Malachi raised both his hands in the air. “Guilty as usual.”

“What do you want?”

“Well, mostly to gloat. But also to check in and see just how badly I broke your little Phoenix.”

Malachi tapped a hand against the stone horse’s shoulder. The head creaked, shuddered, and then began to move. Magic swept down the body until the statue was walking off its own stand and onto the ground.

Jasper’s lip curled in disgust. “I see you devoured a different power.”

“I had to keep myself busy while I was waiting for her to finish. Or for you to interrupt.”

“This was your plan? Destroy the city where most of your followers live?”

Malachi tsked. His long braid swayed against his back with the motions of his unnatural steed. “No. No. Remember how I told you this was all a game of chess?”

Jasper grunted and stepped back towards Mercy. She was kneeling on the ground, holding her head and muttering words he did not understand.

The other man shrugged. “Fine, you don’t have to talk. I will talk for you. In chess, all the pieces have different qualities, different abilities. It would be easy to assume that, say, the King is the most important one. And, in a way, it is. But many of the other pieces are far more versatile…and at the same time, more expendable. Do you understand what I am getting at?”

“No.”

“Good. I’m glad you were listening though.”

Jasper saw a dark streak of movement run towards him and push hard. He fell to his knee as a strange creature flew past him and landed upon the stone head of Malachi’s steed. The dark shape fluttered its dark wings. A crow.

“Shapeshifter,” Jasper grunted.

“Yes,” Malachi confirmed. “And a very good one at that.”

He pulled something from the crow’s mouth. Glistening in the sunset, Ella’s horn reflected the light far too prettily in Malachi’s hand.

“I’ve taught you many lessons about me, Jasper. One, that I always lie. Two, that I always win. And this third lesson I will give you for free.” He leaned forward. “I always take back what is mine.”

A few other people ran towards Malachi. One, Jasper recognized only as another Fairy. Her wings had been tied down upon her back, but she was indeed just like Jasper. She threw him an apologetic glance before reaching out to the three other people. They all disappeared from sight.

Jasper gritted his teeth. This had all been an elaborate ruse. Malachi only wanted one thing. The immortality Jasper had held in his pocket and delivered on a silver platter.

Time and time again, Jasper had proven to be a fool.

Mercy’s breath hitched towards hysteria, and Jasper knew he could not linger upon dark thoughts. She needed him now, as much as he needed her. But even more than that, she wanted him. She shared his feelings. That made her more important to him than life itself.

He spun on his heel and rushed to her. The platform’s wood was charring all around, the edges crumbling. It wouldn’t be long before they crashed through it to the ground beneath. Jasper doubted Mercy was capable of taking care of herself in her current state; she’d only get herself hurt further.

His hands slid underneath her armpits and raised her like a child into his arms. Mercy did not hold onto him. Mercy remained limp in his hold as he carried her away from her fires, off the podium, and onto the cobblestones lining the square’s ground

Ash fell from the sky like rain. White flakes that were beautiful and so corrupt at the same time. Jasper scanned the area for any further enemies, and only then did he realize the destruction she had caused.

The buildings were gone. He had heard them falling, but he hadn’t made the correlation between the ringing in his ears and everything else. He had thought it was a few buildings.

But this was utter desolation. Everywhere he looked, the city was gone. Every building had been reduced to rubble. The only thing that stood within miles was the single platform that shuddered as fire devoured it.

His legs gave out. Landing on his knees, Jasper clutched her in his arms and pressed his trembling lips to her hair. So much death and