Page 55

Chapter

Fifty

A ZALEA

She is gone. And I watch in horror as Gannon steals her from me, clutching her to his chest. I feel dead.

Like I took my last breath when she did, like all life has left me.

She died for me, and I feel completely and utterly numb until I hear his voice slice through the air as it mocks me.

But it is his slow, methodical clap that makes me see red as I lift my head to see I am circled by the Landeena and Valkyrie Guards, shielding me instead of fighting.

My eyes scan the destruction to find Kyson getting to his feet not far from me. The sight of my mate makes my heart beat faster when Crux’s voice brings me back to my surroundings.

Crux took Abbie from me. He won’t take my mate too. “I have waited for this day since I learned of your birth,” Crux laughs. My blood boils and sizzles, my skin warming with rage.

“The almighty Landeenas finally fall. The Landeena Kingdom should have been mine! He promised it to me! I took down my own mother’s Kingdom for it!” he yells as everyone halts under his voice. The hunters’ guns trained on us. They know we are cornered and there is no way out for us.

That fucking name! That fucking name everyone is obsessed with! The Landeena name means nothing to me. I know the sins that name carries. The heartache bestowed upon the Kingdoms from it, and the reign of terror it has caused.

Right now, I can feel the blood of that name burn through me along with my mothers, feel it in my toes as they tingle along with my rage.

Yet, I am not just Landeena. My father’s name brings nothing but shame to me.

I no longer want it. Crux can have it. That name has taken more from me than anything else.

Yet as I watch Gannon clutch my sister’s dead body in his arms and Liam tries to pry Abbie free of him, it angers me more.

Gannon fights him, trying to draw her nearer, when Liam punches him and knocks him back, his hands replacing Gannon’s as he brings his hand down on her chest, pumping her heart as if he can save her and bring her back to us.

Turning my head and seeing my mate on his knees makes pure, white-hot rage sliver through me.

The ground vibrates beneath me, and I can feel its energy, breathing life into me like it is part of me.

“Your father lied to me, then took Tatiana as his Queen! His enemy! He took her as his Queen and birthed her spawn! It was never yours, Azalea. Your father promised it to me. The Landeena name was to be mine!” Crux roars in anger.

“You can have the fucking name!” I scream in anger as I rise to my feet. My guard tenses and takes protective stances, encircling me, but I want to see the face of the man who thinks he will be our downfall. I want to witness the life drain from his eyes when I take it from him.

“Stand down!” I scream at my guard when I see them move to protect me.

My command rings out loud, my people drop to their knees, and Crux laughs, clapping his hands slowly as he strolls closer.

Kyson’s fear bleeds into me, and I can feel his eyes on me, his heart beating in his chest in sync with mine as I stare down Crux, who smiles sadistically.

“Landeenas used to be Gods! The Landeenas were feared among the Lycania Kingdoms, and your father brought shame to the name! But not anymore. His reign ends here, today, with you, just like the Azures. You’re all that’s left,” Crux calls out to me.

He is right because I can feel their blood singing in my veins, feel the power that has awoken and now writhes through me, strong like a flexing muscle. He is right. I am Landeena and Azure by blood, but that is not all.

“You’re wrong. The Landeenas and Azures may be dead,” I tell him.

“Almost,” Crux sneers, pointing to me. I laugh, the sound wicked as the ground beneath my feet begins to shake, my aura pressing out, and I feel its strength as it wraps around my people like a shield.

“But I am not a Landeena or Azure,” I tell him, and his laugh cuts off to hear what I have to say.

“I AM VALKYRIE!” Stepping out of the circle my guard has created around me, I glare at Crux as the earth splits and cracks beneath my feet.

“And you shall not take my Kingdom!”