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This can’t be real.

This can’t be happening.

Nex’s wrist slips out of my grasp as a keening wail bounces off the surrounding buildings. I lift my hands to my ears, unable to stand the pain radiating from that sound.

Only, it’s me. I’m the one making the sound, and there’s no blocking it out.

I squeeze my eyes shut, unable to cut off the sounds falling from my lips. I can’t hear anything over it as wave after wave of pain coursesthrough me, made only sharper when I realize the taut mate bond I share with Nex is gone.

Pain radiates from my core—every part of my body aches and throbs until all I know is agony.

I don’t know how I manage to hold on to my magic and keep myself afloat as I lose myself to the unending torment.

As I scream for my twin and my mate, I can’t seem to get my brain to move beyond the fact that they’re dead. We’re in the middle of a battle—a war to save the world I grew up in—and all I can do is lament my losses.

My hellfire swirls around me, keeping me safe from anyone who dares to move toward me.

A pulsing pressure builds in my stomach, slowly expanding inside me as it wipes away the pain—if only for a moment.

My body jerks and twists, and I completely lose sight of everything until all I can focus on is the building pressure. I should be worried or scared, or hell, even being destroyed would be better than the blank slate I currently am. I float in the emptiness, focusing on the pressure that builds and builds until it feels like it’s going to explode from me.

And then it does.

A guttural scream spills from my lips as power blasts from my body. It replaces the keening sound I’d apparently still been making, continuing even when I wish it would stop. My throat aches and throbs as ripples of power hit the buildings around me, causing them to sway under its weight.

Clearly, it’s my powers, but I have no idea what it is or what it’s doing. I feel it sweep over the city from one end to the other before rushing back toward me.

It batters into me as it returns, leaving my body feeling beaten as I glance around me to see what my powers have wrought on the city.

I gasp when my eyes lock with Nex’s.

I shake my head, not understanding what I’m seeing. He was dead. I felt it.

Lifting a hand to my chest, my eyes fill with tears. The mate bond is gone, so how the hell is he standing in front of me? It doesn’t make any sense.

He died.

Shuffling sounds bounce off the buildings as the fallen slowly rise to their feet. The people fighting on our side cry out as they realize they’re alive. They’re completely healed—resurrected from the dead. I hear cries of miracles as I take in what else my magic has done.

The angels we’ve killed also rise to their feet, but none of them are healed. No, these are things from horror movies—no better than zombies. They’re either headless or standing there with empty chest cavities. They don’t move or make a sound as they stand there—as if they’re awaiting a command.

Whispers of “necromancer” reach my ears, but I don’t understand what they’re saying. My brain can’t comprehend why they’re whispering it in a hushed tone, full of awe.

A hiss and the crackling of fire draw my attention to where my sister died. Unlike Nex, she’s still lying in the street dead. Tears stream down my face as I move through the air toward her.

Cries fill the air once again as fire shoots into the air and forces me back as my sister’s body goes up in flames.

“No! Wren! Who’s doing this? Stop!” I push forward, the pink flames dancing with my purple hellfire.

It’s hellfire. My sister’s hellfire?

There’s a flash of bright pink light that forces my eyes shut. When the light against my closedeyelids fades, I blink my eyes open and meet my sister’s.

“What the fuck?” we say together before I dive through the air, wrapping my arms around her as I hug her close.

Tears stream down my cheek as I cling to her, afraid that she’ll disappear.

“Audrey! Let me through you fuck faces.” I turn my head just in time to see Brenden shove between Octavius and Riggs.