Page 64

He threw my words back at me, and the cruelty of how I’d spoken to him cut me like a knife.

“I’m here, ready to pay it,” he said, his strong jaw jutting up. And for the first time, I’d allowed myself to truly see the sincerity in his soft brown gaze. But before I could speak, move, or comprehend what was happening, Madds sank to the ground with a cry.

I ran to him as his knees buckled, and I took the brunt of his weight as we sank to the ground.

“What’s wrong?” I asked frantically, my hands hovering over his muscled body.

“My back,” he rasped. “I tried sneaking around the back, but this place is crawling with demons.”

I pushed him forward to see that he was covered in blood.

I ripped off his shirt and gasped.

He grimaced. “I know it’s bad, but you should see the other guys.”

The first thing I noticed was a huge and gushing wound. The second was a shimmering tattoo that covered his entire back.

“Maddock! Why didn't you show me this?” I asked furiously, trying to staunch the bleeding at his liver.

“You never seemed to be in a hurry to see me naked,” he joked in a pained rasp.

My eyes traced along the silver markings covering his back. “The Marked,” I barely whispered as his blood coated my hands. The silver embossment on his skin looked just like my scars.

His mark started between the dimples just above his pants, then extended up and out like a tree of lightning. The markings were thickest across his upper back, where the branches reached out across his shoulder blades.

I gasped in disbelief. “You’re the one from the prophecy. It’s always been you. The Synodic Son. The Marked. All of it.”

He shrugged, his thumb tracing over one of the silver scars on my arm.

“Maybe. Funny, how you’re the one who gave it to me.

The night in the crevice when you blasted me out of your mind.

I woke up in the hospital with it. Since that day, it was always going to be one of us. I’m just choosing for it to be me.”

“No.” I shook my head. “Not like this. Never like this.” I tried to speak, to refute what I was seeing.

“It’s too late,” Maddock replied weakly, and as soon as a drop of his blood landed within the core of Indrasyl, veins of Light spread throughout the ground. “Indrasyl has accepted me, Keira. She has accepted my sacrifice.”

“No,” I screamed to Indrasyl, pressing my hands harder to Maddock’s wound. “You have the wrong person. It’s supposed to be me!”

I’d told Maddock in confidence what I meant to do, never believing he would betray me to do it himself. He let everyone believe he’d deserted our army to keep me from guessing his plan. And I believed it so easily.

I was sobbing, pushing my Light into him to heal him. I regretted every horrible thought I ever had about him.

“I’m going to heal you and take your place,” I said in a determined daze.

“Do not break this connection, Keira,” he demanded weakly. “Indrasyl might not accept me again. And if you try, she might deny you. It is done.”

“You did this for nothing. You don’t have enough power. You only stole a small amount of my Light. It’s nowhere near what is needed. Your death will have been for nothing,” I cried, my hands slathered in red. “I’ll still have to do this, and you could have . . . could have lived.”

I hated him. Hated him more than when he’d violated my mind because now he had violated my trust.

His voice faded by the second. “You’ll have to help me, Keira. Use me; use my body as a conduit. Do what needs to be done.”

Inside the trunk of the tree, the battle was no more than white noise, but I knew the longer I prolonged Maddock’s death, the more people would die, including Rowen.

“I’ll hate you into the next life,” I said, releasing my hands from his gaping wound and letting his blood fall.

“I know,” he murmured. “Be with Rowen. Be happy.”

I extended myself beyond, reaching the tendrils of my astral light toward Maddock.

Our connection was already in place, formed through the soul flame bond he had stolen.

Finding the threads of his existence was simple, and I latched onto each one, our bodies fully connected through the Alcreon Light that surged between us.

“Do it,” he whispered against my cheek. We both knew he was right. He was dying.

With an anguished scream, I pushed all of Maddock’s blood and my Light through him. It soaked into the tree whose roots were so long and ancient that they covered the entire earth. It would be a reset as the vines and roots healed the earth from the inside out.

Maddock arched back as I pushed the light of the heavens inside of him, using my astral projection powers as a gateway to heal Luneth. Indrasyl greedily accepted the blood I pushed into her through Maddock. I was bleeding him dry, and she was hungrily accepting his offer.

Maddock struggled to keep his eyes open as I fed his life force into the tree along with the power of the Alcreon Light .

“Come closer, Keira,” he whispered, and I did as he said. How could I refuse him this last wish?

His lips softly touched my cheek. “I just wanted to taste you one time.” His hands wrapped around me as he licked, kissed, and nuzzled his way down to my mouth.

He hesitated as if waiting for me to push him away, but I didn’t.

Suddenly, he pressed his cold lips to mine, startling me.

A little strength returned to him as he took my mouth, slowly exploring my lips as if it were the last thing he’d ever do. And it was.

When I first saw him in the hospital, unconscious and beautiful, he looked like a prince in need of a kiss to wake, only now, it was a kiss to sink into silence forever.

“It’s better than I imagined,” he murmured against my lips, then kissed me harder.

I felt a push through our bodies; something warm, golden, and painfully missed filled me as I kissed him back. Where I was giving him everything, he found the one channel to return something to me—my soul flame bond with Rowen.

I sobbed into his mouth as he returned what he had so violently stolen. The small missing piece clicked back into place, and a broken yet healed cry charged up my throat.

My bond returned to me fully, and I realized I was kissing Maddock. Not the man from the crevice, or the thief, or the bond stealer. Just Maddock.

He dove his tongue between my lips, exploring my mouth as he took and tasted what he wanted. My fingers threaded through his hair as I held him to my mouth.

“Ple-please, forgive me,” he said against my lips then slumped in my arms.

Before I could say yes, yes that I forgive him a million stars over, his eyes closed forever. He would never get to hear that I forgave him. “Yes,” I screamed, hoping some part of him was still close enough to hear me. I wanted to tell him there was nothing left to forgive.

Maddock slumped to the ground in my hold just as the tree around us illuminated in a blinding white light. The tree shook from deep within the earth, accepting the blood that carried the Alcreon Light, spreading and feeding it to the world.

Tears poured from my eyes. I couldn’t stop them. The joy of Indrasyl coming back to life while Maddock lay lifeless in my arms was hard to reconcile—that one had to die for the other to live.

A comforting shadow appeared in my periphery, and I lifted my head to see Rowen joining us in the tree. He was covered in even more blood and sweat.

His emerald eyes were wild as he took in the sight. “What happened?” He panted as he ran toward us.

“It was supposed to be me,” I sobbed, my tears crashing onto Maddock’s cheeks.

Understanding settled over Rowen’s face as he lowered himself and gently took Maddock from my arms, but I gripped him tighter, refusing to let go.

“I can’t accept this,” I cried, rocking him. “It was my life to give.”

Rowen gripped my chin in his hand, forcing my gaze to his. “Don’t say that. Do you hear me? This is what he wanted; the redemption he was seeking. Do not take that away from him, Keira.”

My sobs were uncontrollable. “He didn’t hear me say that I forgive him.”

He gripped my chin harder. “He knows, my love. He knows. Say it back to me and believe it.”

“He . . . he knows,” I stuttered within his grasp.

“That’s my girl,” Rowen said as he released me, fighting the tears welling in his own eyes. I finally let him lower Maddock to the ground.

I picked up Mithrion and turned to Maddock to give him one last promise—that if I succeeded, I would come back for his body, but Indrasyl had other plans. She slowly blanketed him in branches and roots, pulling him into her cradle. No part of his body would go to waste. Through blood and bone.

I stood mesmerized as Maddock was engulfed in his tomb. And I couldn’t help but envision my body being wrapped and cocooned within Indrasyl’s embrace, living on forever in her roots.

It wasn’t a bad way to go.

Rowen pulled me back as the tree closed in around us. The hollow trunk slowly merged together. Maddock’s body, and the shifting bark, filled the hole of Indrasyl, making her complete. “Keira, listen to me. The battle still rages. We need to go."

As much as I wanted to stay and watch Maddock’s funeral through to the end, I couldn’t. This battle was far from over.

Though my bond was back in full force, there was a gaping hole deep within myself. It was as if I were an empty well ready to be filled.

“Let’s end this,” I gritted out. I didn’t know how or with what energy, but there would be no sunrise in which this wasn’t finished. One way or another, I would end this war.

Maddock may have sacrificed himself to heal Luneth, but Erovos hadn’t been defeated. Nothing was to stop him from destroying the planet again or moving on to the next.

After what Maddock had offered in my place, I wanted to fight for him. For his memory. He’d given me the gift of time. And I’d be damned if I let Erovos ruin one more second of my life with Rowen.

I didn’t wipe the tears for Maddock off my face. I’d let them stain my cheeks as I fought for his revenge. “I need to defeat Erovos. It might be on the astral plane.”

“I will protect your body with my life,” he swore as a wild, brutal forest swirled in his eyes.

“I know.”

“Don’t leave me again,” he said as his eyes held mine. “You are my flame. If your light goes out, then so does mine. I don’t have the strength to face this world without you.”

“I’ll never make you face this world, or any world, alone. I promise.” This time, it wasn’t a lie. It was the truth. Forever and always.

I didn’t turn back to look at him as I raced towards Erovos. I knew Rowen was behind me. I didn’t need to see him to know he was there because if I looked back, it might steal the strength I needed to defeat Erovos once and for all.