Read URIEL: The Price (The Airel Saga, Book 6) (Young Adult Paranormal Romance) for Free Online Page A

erected their breaching ladders and was ascending. Why are they only in human form, and where are the demons? Some had reached the battlements and were beginning to squeeze in between the merlons onto the parapet walk. “Veridon, behind you!” Yamanu drew steel, pointing behind his friend and ally.
    Veridon spun on his foe with the powerful mace, a spiked orb tethered by a chain to a rod of iron, dropping the foul man by smashing his brains into tiny bits. “Yamanu, we need a little help from your shadowing arts, old friend.” Veridon moved toward the next intruder.
    Yamanu nodded. “I am working on it,” he said, running his sword through and killing the next unfortunate enemy to ascend onto the wall walk of the barbican, the gatehouse of the city. He felt at once the drain as the horde gained ground. This battle was going to be hard to win if they were all weakened by the draw of the Brotherhood and unable to fight. “Zedkiel,” he called out, “how are the archers faring?”
    Zed landed not far away, having come from checking in with the captain of the watch. He shook his head.
    Not good. Yamanu took a moment to breathe and focus. How could he turn back so many? He tried to manifest the fog around them, but it was like using a cold spark to try to ignite wet timber. Something is wrong. Yamanu remembered how, so many years ago, he and his Shadowers had been sold out to the former Seer, and he also remembered who was his prime suspect. Anael. This is treachery most vile. “Veridon! We must stand and fight them hand to hand. I cannot draw the shadow over us.” He hacked a hand off as it reached through the embrasure in the wall beside him. “Something is wrong.”
    He turned away from the wall toward the heart of the city and beheld sweeping red pulses of lightning striking over it, drawing closer to his position. It was Anael. He was using black arts to destroy the city from the rear, while the main Brotherhood force crashed against the wall upon which he stood.
    Kreios, we could use a little help here. I hope you have not abandoned us utterly.
    * * *
    KREOIS WAS ALREADY ON his way, streaking across a high black sky above the atmosphere from halfway around the globe. He had sensed imminent danger for quite some time. Only now had his sense of duty finally outweighed the reluctance he had long felt toward his kin.
    As he accelerated by a magnitude of ten past the speed of sound, his thoughts turned terrible. If Ke’elei has indeed become a target, I fear the worst. There can be no allies left to us if this is true. Only a handful of true warriors can remain. Yamanu and Zedkiel flashed into his mind, their faces anxious and dark.
    * * *
    URIEL FELT HERSELF BEING spun off, shunted. As she was gathered together into what was once herself, she realized that she wasn’t the one in control anymore. Some other force from within was in control of her. All her particles dangled from strings, which made her dance on a lurid stage. The Bloodstone.
    Part of her became fully manifest above ground and part of her remained dispersed underground. On the city wall near the barbican, she was humanoid, wearing a black cloak made of shadows, her shadowing power drawing from and being augmented by her angelic foes, even Yamanu. Beneath the ground, she was infiltrating the soil, soaking her every molecule into the bedrock, the shale, the granite on which the city of Ke’elei rested. Above, on the wall, she advanced on the enemy, dagger in her right hand. Below, she spread herself as thinly as possible over many square leagues past the limits of the city.
    Below ground, she waited.
    Above ground, she attacked.
    Veridon came first. Out of the blackness, she came from behind—he never saw her. The blade of her dagger flashed out against him, striking quick and low, slicing deep into the thigh, severing the femoral artery. He did not cry out, but he did fall fast, the mace he so skillfully wielded clattering to an awkward stop on the