Page 29

CHAPTER 28

ROWAN

“N ova, hold on— shit .” A grunt left my lips as I threw an explosive right at someone’s head, lobbing it completely off. At this point in the battle I was covered in blood and ink, so it didn’t bother me when the crimson liquid splattered across my face. I couldn’t waste time worrying about that when this was the perfect time—while everyone was distracted by the cosmic entities in they sky—to sprint towards Nova, River ducking and weaving alongside me.

Nova had been holding her own in battle, so we hadn’t felt the need to intervene. Instead we fought to keep a perimeter around her, fighting away the older gods’ foot soldiers as they tried to join the fight between Nova, Ra, and two others. The determination and strength radiating through our bond was so intense that it humbled me. But now was the time to be with her—because what would happen next was the true unknown.

We could all see where she was going. Toward Ra. Toward Lorcan.

Toward the fucking world eaters.

The shock of them arriving brought only a momentary reprieve on the field before the fighting blasted into an entirely new level of cutthroat volatility. Our side knew they were fighting for their lives—the lives of all—the other believing that if they killed us, they would save themselves. There were no true winners in the ground battle, only bloodshed in an attempt to distract from the imminent lethal threat to our entire universe.

The others followed as River and I forced our way through masses of soldiers. Luckily, we would reach her soon—his healing magic of the utmost importance and my ability to blast away the barricades of bodies around us equally as useful.

Although from what I could tell, Nova was clearing the damn way on her own.

“What the hell are those?!” I demanded as River and I made our way through a crowd of swords and magic. A blade sliced against my side, but River’s magic instantly healed the wound.

I could feel my protective runes on Nova pulsating as enemies attempted to reach her, and despite it not being perfect, I was pretty damn proud of the way the wards were actively protecting her.

Well, that and the nine glowing figures that looked just like her .

“Probably something to do with her Titan magic,” River said. “Fuck—to your left.”

I turned sharply as I took the hammer I’d slung over my shoulder and brought it down right on top of the head of an approaching demi-god. The slick sound of blood, brain, and crushing bone barely fazed me.

Nova wasn’t the only one experiencing a magical shift, brought forth by the intensity of battle. All of our magic was working at the highest level, my own skin feeling as though it would burst from the pressure of the power fueled by my bond with her and my other team members. No one was holding back, not even August, whose shadows devoured enemies, melting their bodies into tar.

As we sprinted through the valley, my gaze caught both everything and nothing at the same time. Flashes of gore and bloodshed. The booms of magical blasts hitting home. Body parts being sliced and severed. The ground shook as shifted individuals roared out, their bellows filling the air with an animalistic noise while dragons soared above, spraying sheets of fire down on enemy soldiers. There were dead bodies being raised on the field—the corpses of enemies—now turning to attack their once brothers in arms.

The power extremes were almost impossible to describe, their pull so magnetic you couldn’t help but seek them out, even at your own peril.

There were monarchs—like Queen Gray—slaughtering twenty to thirty soldiers with a single flick of her hand. There were teams from the Red Masques and other institutions working in tandem to pull on every single hour of combat training they’d experienced. Druid magic made massive vines erupt from the ground, swallowing enemies whole. Demonic magic filled the air with a smokey texture that suffocated those it wrapped around, a direct contrast to the blue, purple, and green flashes of magic from elves. And that wasn’t even including the gods, who fought in such unique and different forms, all of them dressed in armor that vibrated with power much like our own.

The display was both impressive and objectively terrifying for the other side. And for all of these reasons, a win should have been guaranteed for us.

Yet as we reached Nova, there was a shift from outside of the dome. We came to a hard stop as a wave of white humanoid figures formed, their line stretching forty feet or more in each direction. The faceless mannequins seeped out a toxic liquid that burned the ground as they began to march forward.

“That’s going to be a huge problem!” Nova called back to the others. “You have to hold them back—I have to get to Lorcan!” There was an edge of panic seeping through our bond, and I could tell that she had no choice but to unite with the second half of the prophecy. I would be damned if we couldn’t get her there.

“We’ll be by your side—the rest will stay!” River told her before shouting back to the others. I knew they heard us, but I could also feel the heavy worry through our bond. No one wanted to leave Nova’s side, and I felt fucking lucky that I could stay by my wildcat.

They’d be more useful down in the valley, anyway—my magic was helpful, but it wasn’t a hands-on combat type unless I created weapons. It’s why I had become proficient in fighting, unwilling to rely just on my power.

“We’ve got to get these creepy bastards out of our way,” I bit out, throwing an explosive ink pod at the group of white forms in front of us. They burst into ink-splattered white blobs…only for the white goo to sink into the humanoid forms that stood behind them, getting absorbed right into their bodies.

Fuck. Not only was that creepy, but really inconvenient.

Suddenly, I remembered that Lorcan had advised us not to try and defeat them, but rather to simply hold them off. I really fucking hoped everyone would be able to do that. I had no idea what the siren’s plan was outside of the piece of music she’d crafted, but despite our numbers I knew we didn’t have long. There was only so much bloodshed and battle that one person could endure.

Luckily, I could feel our support team—both weapons and healers—flooding the field in recognition of the new wave of threat.

“These are new!” I called out as Nova’s magic solidified around the three of us, all nine shimmering forms of her guarding us on all sides. When the white humanoid forms slammed into them, they just blew up, leaving us untouched.

Nova flashed me a devastatingly beautiful smile that didn’t match our surroundings and had me feeling momentarily stunned. Her words only added to the surprise. “Each of them has one of your magics, so all nine of you are represented.”

That was really fucking cool.

I couldn’t look away from them as we pushed forward, instantly understanding what she meant as the two ahead of me used August’s and Everett’s magic. We had each marked Nova in a million different ways, but somehow this was the greatest display of our bond. This meant everything to me.

Even through our magic and our bond, we were able to support her, without fail and without error. That was what all of us had wanted all along.

Nova had always been destined to save this universe…and we were destined to fight by her side.

When we reached Nova’s dome wall, it parted for us and we sprinted into the unprotected section of the realm. I let out a grunt at the vibrating bass that nearly caused my fucking ears to bleed. I hadn’t realized just how much her magic had been holding it off, shielding us from the effects. I could practically feel them siphoning the magic from us, lifting it from my very skin.

The glow around us suddenly intensified as the burden lessened. The three of us pushed forward, and I knew Nova was instinctively holding the influence off. It was insane that our woman could stand strong in the face of devourers of the entire cosmos.

“What’s the goal here, butterfly?” River got out, his jaw tight.

“Get to Lorcan!” she yelled over the chaos of the white humanoid forms bouncing off of her protection. “I have to get to her before Ra does.”

I wasn’t sure if that was possible, but we would fight like hell to make it happen. It felt like the push forward took eons, the endless slaughtering of the creatures that grew back again and again slowing us down.

It wasn’t until I heard music playing that I realized something in the air had changed. The universe grew heavier, more saturated with magic, and almost poisoned. This wasn’t fucking normal music.

“Hit one of them!” Nova called out, and I tossed an ink pod at a group of white humanoids. This time, when they splattered onto the ground, they stayed down. Fuck yes. Something about the music was working.

It also was causing the world eaters to grow furious, their deep bellows growing angrier as my vision blurred.

Finally, after what was probably mere minutes but felt like hours—we reached the bottom of the hill and cliff where Lorcan stood. Alone. Everyone else, including some of her bonded, stood twenty feet above us, blocked by the enormous dragons that created a barrier between the two prophecy holders. Black smoke bellowed from their mouths, pulling oxygen from the air and inducing a wave of fatigue that I quickly shook off.

“Where’s Ra?” River asked, looking around sharply.

“Past them.” Nova snarled. “Fucking ridiculous.”

“We’ve got them. We’ll distract them. You go.” My voice was filled with tension as I pulled the hammer off my shoulder and nodded toward Lorcan. “Do what you need to. I believe in you, wildcat.”

Nova’s eyes softened, her gaze holding mine and then River’s in a moment of suspended time. The sky behind her, filled with black voids that could swallow a star whole, only highlighted her beauty. Her eyes shone a nearly pure silver, and the power bleeding off of her cast a glow around her like an angel. Panic gripped my throat. In the next few minutes, I could lose this. I could lose her .

“I love all of you so damn much. Let’s finish this.” Her whisper was a soft breeze as the world around us spun—and she disappeared. River surged forward on instinct to follow her, but I stopped him.

Soaring up into the sky, nearly flying, she landed on the other side of the dragons with a massive boom that trembled the earth. Immediately she sprinted forward, not giving the dragons a chance to even turn before we were on them in a violent and brutal attack.

No one was going to stop our woman from her destiny.