Page 23

Audrey

O ne moment, I’m sure I’m about to die, and the next, I’m being shoved aside.

All I can do is watch as the lightning bolt meant for me strikes Nex right in the chest. Then he’s plummeting toward the ground, and I completely forget about Michael.

I dive after him, trying to catch him before he hits the ground, but he’s falling so fast. I don’t think I can reach him in time.

Even if I do, will he even still be alive?

I don’t know, but I do know that if he hits the ground, he will be dead .

Pushing myself harder, a sob escapes me as I latch onto his wrist. His weight jerks me down a few more feet before I can right myself. I was barely able to stop him before he hit the ground. We’re hovering just thirty feet above the heads of my other mates, the horsemen, and my sister.

“Noooo,” a man’s voice screams seconds before a familiar screech reaches my ears. My head jerks up just in time to see a sword cut into my sister’s neck. Her head goes flying, bouncing off the wall she was backed against.

I realize she’s dead at the same moment I realize I’m holding Nex’s dead body in my grasp.

All I can do is blink, disbelief and denial hitting me at once.

This can’t be real.

This can’t be happening.

Nex’s wrist slips out of my grasp as a keening wail bounces off the surrounding buildings. I lift my hands to my ears, unable to stand the pain radiating from that sound.

Only, it’s me. I’m the one making the sound, and there’s no blocking it out.

I squeeze my eyes shut, unable to cut off the sounds falling from my lips. I can’t hear anything over it as wave after wave of pain courses through me, made only sharper when I realize the taut mate bond I share with Nex is gone.

Pain radiates from my core—every part of my body aches and throbs until all I know is agony.

I don’t know how I manage to hold on to my magic and keep myself afloat as I lose myself to the unending torment.

As I scream for my twin and my mate, I can’t seem to get my brain to move beyond the fact that they’re dead. We’re in the middle of a battle—a war to save the world I grew up in—and all I can do is lament my losses.

My hellfire swirls around me, keeping me safe from anyone who dares to move toward me.

A pulsing pressure builds in my stomach, slowly expanding inside me as it wipes away the pain—if only for a moment.

My body jerks and twists, and I completely lose sight of everything until all I can focus on is the building pressure.

I should be worried or scared, or hell, even being destroyed would be better than the blank slate I currently am.

I float in the emptiness, focusing on the pressure that builds and builds until it feels like it’s going to explode from me .

And then it does.

A guttural scream spills from my lips as power blasts from my body. It replaces the keening sound I’d apparently still been making, continuing even when I wish it would stop. My throat aches and throbs as ripples of power hit the buildings around me, causing them to sway under its weight.

Clearly, it’s my powers, but I have no idea what it is or what it’s doing. I feel it sweep over the city from one end to the other before rushing back toward me.

It batters into me as it returns, leaving my body feeling beaten as I glance around me to see what my powers have wrought on the city.

I gasp when my eyes lock with Nex’s.

I shake my head, not understanding what I’m seeing. He was dead. I felt it.

Lifting a hand to my chest, my eyes fill with tears. The mate bond is gone, so how the hell is he standing in front of me? It doesn’t make any sense.

He died.

Shuffling sounds bounce off the buildings as the fallen slowly rise to their feet. The people fighting on our side cry out as they realize they’re alive. They’re completely healed— resurrected from the dead. I hear cries of miracles as I take in what else my magic has done.

The angels we’ve killed also rise to their feet, but none of them are healed. No, these are things from horror movies—no better than zombies. They’re either headless or standing there with empty chest cavities. They don’t move or make a sound as they stand there—as if they’re awaiting a command.

Whispers of “necromancer” reach my ears, but I don’t understand what they’re saying. My brain can’t comprehend why they’re whispering it in a hushed tone, full of awe.

A hiss and the crackling of fire draw my attention to where my sister died. Unlike Nex, she’s still lying in the street dead. Tears stream down my face as I move through the air toward her.

Cries fill the air once again as fire shoots into the air and forces me back as my sister’s body goes up in flames.

“No! Wren! Who’s doing this? Stop!” I push forward, the pink flames dancing with my purple hellfire.

It’s hellfire. My sister’s hellfire?

There’s a flash of bright pink light that forces my eyes shut. When the light against my closed eyelids fades, I blink my eyes open and meet my sister’s.

“What the fuck?” we say together before I dive through the air, wrapping my arms around her as I hug her close.

Tears stream down my cheek as I cling to her, afraid that she’ll disappear.

“Audrey! Let me through you fuck faces.” I turn my head just in time to see Brenden shove between Octavius and Riggs.

His snarl quickly falls away as his eyes land on me. “Fucking hell.”

He throws himself at us, wrapping himself around me and my sister. I let my eyes fall shut as I bury my head in Wren’s neck.

“You were dead,” I tell her, and she nods.

“I was.”

Pulling back, I laugh. “If you were dead, then how aren’t you now?”

Gael clears his throat. “I think I can answer that.”

“As can I if you’ll let me through, assholes.” Wraith’s voice has me snapping toward Gael, who steps back to reveal my mates.

I break away from my sister and Brenden, rushing into his arms and clinging to him. Cassian and Donovan are there too, tugging me from Wraith so they can hug me too.

When I pull back, I find Nex standing there. I shake my head, the pain of our broken bond still radiating through me. “How?”

“You,” Wraith says as he presses against my back. “You’re a necromancer, Audrey.”

I shake my head, never taking my eyes off Nex. “Necromancers haven’t existed for…I don’t know how long, but it’s been a long time.”

“You’re right, and if it’s something that only three-quarter-blooded gods can be, that makes sense,” Wraith presses.

“And Wren?” I ask, knowing she’s no necromancer. Nor did my magic raise her from the dead like it did for the others.

Gael’s the one who answers. “She’s a phoenix.”

That’s what finally has me tearing my eyes away from Nex. “So, I raise the dead, and she comes back from the dead?”

“So it seems.” Wraith chuckles. “We’ll deal with all of this later.

Everything might have died down over here, but that’s not going to last for long.

I can already hear the fight moving toward us.

The angels who were here when you went supernova snuck away while we were distracted—likely going to tell Michael of the new developments. ”

It’s only then that the sounds of the battle reach my ears once more. I was just so focused on what was going on around me I lost track of everything else.

“What do I do?” I ask Wraith, frowning as I turn toward the undead angels.

“You command them. They’re your army, after all.”

Can it really be that easy?

“Kill the angels fighting for Michael,” I tell them, my voice reverberating with power as it echoes off the building—even though I barely spoke above a whisper. The power resonates in the voice that’s mine but not, commanding them to my will.

As one, the zombie angels step forward, heading toward the sounds of the battle.

I watch them go, shaking my head. Not only did I raise them from the dead, but I can control them? That’s insane.

My eyes catch on to Nex, and I realize how stupid I’ve been. I knew the entire time that he was trying to push me and Brenden away. I knew he thought he was protecting us .

Did he hurt us in the worst possible way? He sure the fuck did, but he’s also been trying to make it up to us—not that I’ve given him much of a chance to do so.

I almost lost him today. Something inside me broke when I realized he was dead. That Wren was dead.

I can’t continue to hold on to the hurt or cling to my pain. It’s not just punishing Nex, but me and Brenden as well.

I throw myself at Nex, and he hugs me close as my tears fall once more.

“I’m so fucking sorry,” I murmur into his neck.

“No. You have nothing to be sorry for.” His voice is firm, and this is probably something we’ll never agree on.

Pulling back, I swipe at my tears. “Our bond is gone, and I don’t like it. Once this is finished, I expect you to fix it—for you to bond with me again. Only for real this time.”

He beams at me as he brushes the hair back from my face. “Nothing would make me happier. Except to bond you and Brenden both.”

“Done.” My vampire mate appears beside me, yanking Nex toward him for a kiss before pressing his lips to mine. “Now, we have angels to destroy.”

Wren’s soft touch pulls my attention away from my mates and to my twin. Tear streaks mar her face, probably matching mine, but the look on her face is determined.

“We need to find Michael.”

“We do. He was the one who ki-ki-killed Nex.” I suck in a breath, fighting against the tears threatening to fall once more. “He’s likely still in the sky. I’ll have to go after him without you.”

Wren grins. “I don’t think you will.”

Before I can ask her what she’s talking about, pink flaming wings sprout from her back. I stare at her in awe—and a fair amount of jealousy—as she flaps them and hovers inches from the ground.

“Be careful with those things,” Riggs grouches, stepping away. “Remember, they’re made from hellfire, and we’re not all immune to it.”

My sister flushes as she lands back on the ground, pulling the wings in flat against her back.

“I want wings,” I blurt, and Wren just grins at me.

“But you don’t need wings to fly, do you?”

I guess she’s right .

“So Michael?” she asks, nodding toward the sky above us.

I grin as I nod. “Let’s do this.”

Before I can call on my hellfire, I’m yanked into Wraith’s arms. “Be careful. We can’t all follow you up there. Cassian and Nex will join you, keep you both safe.”

I’m not sure we need either of my mates joining us, but I can see how much Wraith is freaking out right now. Which is understandable, considering the fact that Nex died pushing me out of the way of a lightning bolt meant for me.

“We’ll be careful, but we need to end this now.” I step back, nodding to him before turning to my mates with a smile. “No one else better die. I have no idea how to use these resurrection powers of mine.”

Then, without waiting for a response, I lift into the air as my purple hellfire surrounds me. With a flick of her fiery wings, Wren joins me. Cassian and Nex are only moments behind us as we soar higher in the air, seeking Michael.

“Umm…Ree?”

I turn to Wren, confused by the excitement in her words. “What’s up? ”

“I don’t think you only raised the angels near us.” She points down at the city where masses of zombie angels are fighting against Michael’s angels. Our people are standing back, staring in confusion.

“It wasn’t just the ones who fell today, either,” Cassian says, pointing to what must be a cemetery. There are holes in the earth that look like they were dug from underneath.

My eyes catch on decomposing bodies rambling down the street toward the battle, and I shudder. “Why does it have to be zombies?”

Wren throws her head back as she laughs. “Still afraid of zombies?”

“No.” I shake my head. “They’re just gross. Why couldn’t I be the phoenix?”

“Ladies, as nice as it is that neither of you is crying any longer, we’ve been spotted.”

I lift my head to where Nex is pointing, finding Michael bearing down on us.

“At least he made it easy for us.” I reach for Wren’s hand, squeezing it tightly before releasing it. “Cassian. Nex. The two of you need to stay back. Join the fight if you can, but there’s going to be hellfire flying around everywhere—assuming that’s what you’re bringing to the fight, Wren. ”

She lifts her hand, a ball of pink hellfire resting there. “Sure is.”

“But we need to keep you safe,” Cassian argues, but I shake my head.

“This is something Wren and I have to do. It’s what we were born to do. If you want to keep us safe, keep the other angels off us.”

I shoot off toward Michael, hoping they listen to me as Wren trails behind me.

It’s time we end this.