Page 92

Evander

I just keep rocking, willing life back into her. Her chest isn’t rising anymore. There is no heartbeat thudding against my own chest. No thrumming of energy coming from her. Bria’s arms hang limp in my grasp, her head tipped back, ivory skin gleaming in the moonlight.

“I love you.” The words I had tried not to say, the words I had kept locked up tight to not distract her, to not keep her from her destiny.

They now flow out of me, and I cannot stop them even if I wanted to.

I whisper over and over to her, hoping she can hear me, that she will come back to me.

That she will let me love her the way I’ve always tried to.

Nimai sinks to the ground, her knees slamming into the roots of the trees a few feet away.

The scream of anguish at losing her sister tears from her throat and echoes off the gilded trees around us, sending a sharp jolt up my spine.

I yank my head from Bria, staring at her sister.

Her dark hair sparkles blue and violet in the moonlight, making it look as if stars are glimmering all around her.

That’s when I feel it. The thrumming.

I glance back down at Bria, but she’s still. Too still. Too quiet.

The thrumming is coming from Nimai. She throws her head back and her skin starts to glow. Her whole body glows, all at once. She becomes a golden star, burning from the inside out.

Quinn runs toward her, but something is happening, something he cannot help her with.

He stops short when he realizes it too, not daring to touch her.

He looks at me, eyes wide in terror. My brain scrambles, trying to determine what this is, but then it hits me.

It’s late, the moon is perched high in the middle of the sky. It has to be midnight.

Her birthday. She’s come of age.

Quinn was right, it’s the prophecy.

I hold tight to Bria, watching as her sister pulses.

Waves of energy wash over us, making my hair stand up on end, goosebumps pebbling across my body.

She stays like that for a moment, energy swelling inside her, the dress pooling around her in a glowing ring of white and gold.

Then her head snaps up, her eyes locking on her sister.

Flames of emerald and forest green flare inside her eyes.

Fuck. She looks terrifying and unbelievable at the same time.

Nimai stands, raising herself from a seated position with otherworldly grace, as if the forest has lifted her to stand. She takes the few steps over to us and I freeze, unable to speak or move. Unable to do anything but just watch her in utter shock and awe.

At first, I’m not sure what she plans to do. But the look in those magical eyes tells me everything I need to know. She has her power now.

She drapes her body over her sister, covering her completely while Bria is still in my arms, and I absorb the weight of her, the weight of both their bodies against mine.

She cries then. Sobs finally escape and wrack her glowing body as she slams her hands into Bria—one hand on her heart, one hand on the bloody hole in her middle.

My body is pushed back against the golden tree, forced into it from the surge that roars from Nimai.

The bark bites into my skin and blood trickles down the flesh of my back as her power traps me there.

A blinding white light bursts from her, encompassing the area around us, flooding my eyes with such intensity I have to squeeze them shut for fear they may burn out of the gods damned sockets.

Stars sparkle on the inside of my lids, a fiery heat sweeping over me.

I suck in a hot breath and feel it searing against my lungs.

I’m gasping, panting for air, but I stay clinging to her, my fingers digging into her body, warm with the heat that rushes out of Nimai and into her.

I’ve absorbed Bria’s heat before, and I focus on that now, letting Nimai’s power surge over me and allowing myself to take it in, not letting it burn me or hurt me in any way.

This is it , I think. This is what the prophecy foretold.

Bria, the descendant of Lilith, would die.

Struck down in the kingdom she was meant to overthrow in order to save our world.

And Nimai, the descendent of Kiara, would bring forth a new day.

That has to be what the searing light and heat are.

Her powers are growing. The power of the sun, light, and all things pure and good in this world—that is what Kiara held and that it what Nimai will hold.

The daughters of the Keeper will rise, the moon shall die, and the sun shall give birth to a new day. The world will thrive under the reign of magic once more.

Bria is gone. Nimai is the one who will lead us forward now.

I have to let her go.

But there is no forward for me. She’s gone, and my heart is broken.