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Something rammed into my side. More claws, more blood.

I fell beside Wolf, losing Venom in the chaos of decay.

I didn’t cry anymore. I didn’t care.

More thunder filled the sky.

I turned to Wolf, laid my head on his chest.

More teeth, more claws, more killing.

The very last thing I thought about before my eyes closed for good was not Lord. It was not the drive to kill one last vampyre. It was not anger or resentment or grief.

I thought wholly ofhim.

Chapter

Forty-Two

Darkness caressed every inch of my body. All the pain I felt moments ago disappeared. In fact, I couldn’t feel my body at all.

I tried to blink, but that helped nothing. The darkness around me looked the same whether my eyes were open or closed.

The next thing I felt was an all-consuming wave of… of comfort. Of peace.

“Death awaits you,” a female voice grazed over my skin.

I snapped my attention around, trying to find the source of the voice, but it was no use in the void of nothingness.

“Who’s there?” I asked. “Am I dead?”

The female voice hummed, and my skin warmed at the sound. “That is up to me to decide.”

I waited for more of an explanation, but none came. “Who are you? What’s happening?”

“I am Era, Goddess of Vaehatis. You’ve died outside the walls of The Golden City, and it is up to me to decide if you shall continue living.”

Wha—

“You died protecting the half angel. Why risk your life for him?”

It took me a few seconds to answer. This was… this was the goddess? I was speaking to Era herself? And I was dead?

“I had no choice,” I replied. “I couldn’t leave him, and I wasn’t going to make it in without him.”

A gust of wind blew my hair across my face in the black void, followed by a flash of blue light.

Then I could see. The wind blew and blew and blew, not letting up as the light swarmed in a funnel, spinning and spinning before halting entirely.

Revealing Era, Goddess of Vaehatis, standing before me.

No, not standing. Floating in the shadows. Her skin was dark and velvet, her hair waist-length and flowing around her in a blanket of glimmering blue light. She radiated in power. I fought the urge to bow, to look away in the presence of her beauty.

She looked straight at me with nearly iridescent eyes. “You did have a choice,” she pushed. “He offered his life for yours, and you turned it down.”

Fuck. Was Wolf dead, too? Did he manage to survive the chaos of the vampyres?

“No,” Era answered, reading my thoughts. “He did not survive. He is in this void, same as you, awaiting his fate. I am the one who decides who is worthy of The Golden City. I am the one who controls the souls who continue living.”