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MALACHI

I hadn’t been out long, a minute, maybe, the poison still burning like acid in my veins, my muscles still weak and rubbery as I gripped the wall, pulling myself up to my feet.

I had to finish this.

Ravok could never leave these tunnels.

Him dying down here was the only way Evie would be safe.

Swaying, I looked down at what was left of Noc, then pulled the iron dagger from his ruined, rotted body, tucking the blade into the back of my belt, before limping toward the chamber where Ravok waited, shoving against the effects of the poison, churning like acid through my veins. The air crackled with dark power, thick with the scent of burning pitch and something far more sinister…

Inevitability .

The real Romulus stood beside Ravok, sporting a gloating smile. No illusions, no disguises. My fingers tensed, eager to carve that smile right off his face. All these years, I’d considered him a fallen friend, when, in reality, he’d been destroying everything I loved.

Tyberius. Noctarian.

Now he wanted Evie. Well, the bastard wouldn’t get her.

Romulus gripped the hilt of his blade, his expression radiating quiet menace, eyes flickering over me, calculating where to strike first.

I braced myself, knowing his attack would not be steel, but magic.

Except…I’d put my attention on the wrong foe.

Ravok lifted his hand, and the room warped into a torrent of red tinted shadow and shifting forms. The walls blurred, expanding and contracting, distorting into a dizzying maze of reflections. I countered with a flick of my wrist and a wall of glamour, slamming my will into the protective shield, stopping Ravok’s attack.

Romulus struck next, his blade flashing through the air, masking the dark whip of magic behind it. I twisted away as his blow landed, and this time, my glamour shuddered beneath the impact, Romulus’s smile growing before I countered, driving a blade of dark energy toward his ribs.

Romulus snarled, our magic clashing in a burst of sparks, shadows clogging the room until I could barely see. But all around me, I sensed Ravok’s presence, as if my Maker was simply biding his time, toying with me, like a mouse in a trap.

What the fuck was he waiting for?

“You cannot win this,” Romulus murmured, his shadows wrapping around my shield and squeezing, until I felt the pressure. “You are fighting against fate itself.”

“I’m not fucking afraid of fate,” I hissed, willing my shaking legs to move . “But you should be. You used our friend, sent him to his death. Noc looked up to you, he trusted you.”

“We all trusted you, and look where that got us,” Romulus muttered bitterly. “Don’t whine to me about betrayals, when yours was the greatest one of all.”

“And here I thought you loved serving your Master.” I gathered my magic and pushed, sending Romulus flying. My knees buckled and my hand slapped against the wall to catch myself. “But I see I was wrong.”

I had to finish this before I collapsed .

I had to get close enough to use the knife.

I sensed Ravok’s creeping intent like a spider at the edge of my consciousness. He was drawing this out. Our Maker could stop this—stop me—at any moment, and yet, he was allowing this to drag on. Waiting, perhaps, for me to tire myself out, the minutes ticking by…

Past Romulus, through the haze of raw power and shadows and spent magic, my Maker’s eyes drifted to the ceiling, a look of terrible cunning written across his cruel face. His greedy gaze fixed on where Evangeline stood, right above us, here to save me from myself.

This had never been about me.

She was his end game. Not me.

He’d lured me here…knowing she would follow. He’d seen this , I realized bitterly. Had seen every decision, every well-thought-out step of my plan, and all my efforts had been for nothing, because unless I killed him now , Evie would end up in his grasp and there was nothing I could do to stop him.

With a final surge of strength, I sent a blast of raw power outward, knocking Romulus back and sending cracks through the walls, across the ceiling. Maybe we’d be buried down here . And if that was the cost of keeping Evie safe, then so be it, I would welcome my stone coffin, so long as it meant all three of us died together.

Dust and stone rained down as Ravok staggered to the side, fury twisting his features.

I reached behind me, gripping the hilt of the knife. Even through the leather wrapping, a chill rippled through me from that deadly blade.

I smirked. “You’re not leaving this room alive, asshole.”

“No, my son, it’s you who is dying down here, but go to your end knowing this. Your death does not bring me joy, but will usher in a new beginning for our kind.”

With that bullshit platitude, the fucker vanished into the shadows.

Behind me, Romulus—the threat I should have kept my eyes on—drove his sword straight through my side, the point punching out through my stomach, a spear of red-stained silver.

For a second, I could only stare down, uncomprehending.

Then the pain caught up with me.

* * *

Romulus’s hand closed down over my shoulder, holding me in place as he dragged the sword back out, the hideous, wet slide of cold metal through organs and soft tissue horrifyingly real.

“You cannot win this,” Romulus murmured, his voice almost sad as he cleaned his blade on my back, shoving me forward when he was finished. “You had to know, even from the beginning, all your efforts were for naught.”

I ended up braced against one wall, every agonizing breath sharp with pain, my mouth tasting of copper, keeping one hand pressed against the gushing wound. “You were always a pessimist, Rom. But me? I’m a glass half full kind of guy.”

I didn’t know where I found the strength—maybe from imagining what would happen to that fierce, beautiful female if Ravok got his hands on her, but I gathered my remaining magic and drove every bit of it all toward Romulus’s ribs.

I couldn’t fail, couldn’t afford to let Romulus stop me.

I had to reach Ravok before he found Evie.

Or worse, before Evie found him, which was more likely.

Romulus countered, but too late, his sword splintering as he tried to parry ancient magic with forged steel, spooling up his own magic far too late to do himself any good. My glamour punched through bone and everything beneath, rupturing his lungs, glamour exploding over his body at my command.

I no longer wished to stop Romulus.

I wished him dead, and my glamour obeyed, chains of searing light coiling around his limbs, binding him in place. The air hummed with power as I limped forward, something dark and ugly coiling in my gut—vengeance.

“You thought you were the hunter,” I purred. “But Ravok was willing to sacrifice you to the cause. How do you like your Master now, Romulus?”

Rom strained against the bindings, but my glamour sapped his strength, drawing power from him, feeding his strength into me. The wound on my stomach sealed over, blood stopped dripping, my head cleared, the poison in my system faded away.

Normally, I was above common thievery, but today, I would do anything to survive.

“Even after Noctarian, even after Tyberius, I would have left you alive. We were friends, once” I told him bitterly. “So much so, I traded my life for yours. But I have exhausted all my mercy.”

Romulus stared up at me impassively, nothing on his face except acceptance, and a trace of a smile, as if he’d known all along this was his fate. Perhaps Ravok had told him how his life ended. Perhaps he’d had centuries to prepare for this moment.

I meant to kill him quickly. A merciful death, after all the pain he’d inflicted.

I pulled the cold iron dagger from my belt, raised the blade over his throat for a clean blow.

An electrical charge shattered the air, crackling across me with a faint jolt, lifting the hair on my arms as ribbons of red magic captured my wrist.

I glanced through the doorway, to that still pool of water, dark and glassy, and above it the suspended portal—pulsing with malevolent energy.

Aria stood there, her once-defiant eyes dull, hands at her sides.

A thrall, waiting for her master’s command.

At my feet, Romulus began to laugh, heaving up a mouthful of blood, splattering across the dusty floor onto my shoes. “After all your planning, you’ve lost, Kai. You’ve lost and the look on your face…is fucking priceless.”

My arm was frozen in place, the dagger worthless, Aria’s magic holding me captive.

“The witch will perform the ritual,” Romulus’s expression shifted to awe. “And the world will be transformed.”

“She’ll never get the chance,” I hissed, gathering my strength for a counterattack, but the knife slipped from my hand and clattered across the floor, my glamour disappeared into wisps of smoke as the room filled with red light. “Ravok will never complete his transformation, because I am going to kill you all.”

“No, you won’t,” Rom whispered, blood dribbling from his mouth. “He has seen this moment, as he has seen all others. A new realm will rise, ruled by a new king, with his queen by his side.” Desperation hardened my resolve, and I forced my magic to obey, grasped it with sweaty hands and trembling fingers.

“If you think our Maker will be transformed into some kind of god, you are dead wrong. Whatever he’s planning, this magic will unmake him, forge him into something unnatural.”

“Oh. Not Ravok.” Romulus’s smile widened as he painfully climbed to his feet. “ You . A creature of the night. A slave to your true master. A mindless beast for all of eternity, unable to die, unable to think . A fitting punishment for your sins.”

Fuck that.

I was still trying to call up my magic when Aria’s glowing red magic snared me, coiling around my body like vines, thorns piercing my skin to hold me in place, stop my struggling.

Ravok appeared behind the tiny witch, his enormous hands swallowing up her shoulders as he grinned.

“Bring him so we can get started.” Romulus climbed to his feet, dusting himself off.

My heart pounded as I fought, desperation clawing at my throat as I glanced at my knife, forgotten on the floor, but those wicked, cruel chains bit in deeper and dragged me forward toward the water.

Toward the portal.

Toward my doom.