Free Wings of Hope by Pippa DaCosta

newly discovered fire gushed through my elemental body, and then the first blow came from behind, shattering the frightful embrace of fear and spurring me into action. Instinct trampled on panic, and I did all I could to fight them off. Pain sparked on my body. Daggers, claws, teeth—all found my flesh. I killed some of them, but their number soon swamped me.
    Tumbling to the floor, I realized I would die without seeing the towers of glittering light Mammon had spoken of and the wonders that belonged to my human half. My fleeting existence, my tiny life, seemed so…redundant. This wasn’t how it was meant to be. I knew it in my bones, in my flesh, in my blood. This wasn’t life at all. My half-human mind refused to accept this would be how it would end. How dare they take my dreams from me? What right did these creatures have?
    Mammon clasped his hand around my upper arm and dragged me to my feet. He tugged my limp and tiny self against his chest, clamped his arm around my upper body, and pinned me back against him. I caught the flash of blue light from an ethereal blade and smiled as the sword cut through the wave of elementals, slicing them apart with terrifying ease. Mammon hunched forward, curled me into his embrace, and roared. The monstrous sound deafened me, vibrated through my tiny body, and rattled my teeth. I’d have clamped my hands over my ears if he’d unpinned my arms.
    “Muse is mine!” he snarled. Every bellows breath he took rumbled with barely restrained anger.
    A few rushed forward, too lost to the bloodlust to recognize when to quit. Mammon thrust out a hand and wrapped them in blue flame. They made it a few more steps before the fire exploded. Ashes blasted my face, and the foolish elementals were no more.
    The mood of the crowd turned. Those at the front bent low and shuffled with shame. Others scurried back, falling over themselves in their haste to be free. Mammon could kill them all with a glance. Terror widened their eyes. I wanted him to do it. Breathing hard, bleeding, bruised and broken, I thirsted for their blood. Had I the power, I’d have slaughtered every last one.
    Mammon sucked in a breath, and he let loose a primal bellow of rage that surely must have shaken the foundations of the fortress above. The cavern quickly emptied of elementals as they scurried over one another in their haste to be anywhere but within Mammon’s sight. Chaos fizzled to nothing, and the elements melted away. Clutched against Mammon’s behemoth body, bleeding, battered, but more alive than ever before, I regarded my fallen kin and only wished I could have killed more.
    
----
    I couldn’t speak. My ridiculous human body had decided speech was superfluous. Not that I knew what to say. We stood on top of this new world. At least, so it appeared. Beyond a smooth sheet of glass, the City of Boston glistened. Sharp towers reached like monoliths into an inky black sky dusted with diamond stars. We stood inside one such tower. Below, veins of red and white pulsed through the streets—cars, Ahkeel had said. There were so many. I pressed my hand to the ‘glass,’ expecting it to ripple like water, but it was cold and solid beneath my touch. Throat dry, heart pounding, I glanced behind me at the strange cube ‘apartment’. Here too, glass sparkled. The floor gleamed as though polished. Countless lights illuminated every angle. Leather, fabric, and stone wrapped me in a peculiar warmth. And bizarrely, I felt safe, although there was nothing here to suggest sanctuary. No barricades, no cages.
    When we’d popped into existence in this apartment moments after leaving the pit, Mammon had demanded I wear my human skin. I’d obliged without a thought and wandered, awed and silent. I touched and gasped and peeked around doors, under fabric squares called cushions. I scrunched my little