Page 125 of Lady of Starfire (Lady of Darkness #5)

“Here is what is going to happen, Scarlett,” Alaric said. “You are going to come over here and use that magnificent power you have acquired to unlock this mirror gate.”

“Have you forgotten the part about Achaz wanting to kill Arius’s entire bloodline?” Scarlett drawled. “That includes me. Why would I let him come here?”

“He will not kill you, Scarlett,” Alaric admonished. “Not with World Walker power reborn in you.”

“And when I refuse?”

“I kill the mortal kings. You so nicely delivered all three to me. Or rather, Nuri did.”

“You want me to believe you orchestrated all of this?” Scarlett said, crossing her arms.

“Just like I orchestrated you bringing me the Avonleyan Keys.”

Scarlett snorted. “Because that worked out so well for you.”

“Watch it, Scarlett,” Alaric said in a low tone, and Callan felt his power wrap around him for the briefest of moments. It was something he’d never wanted to experience again. He staggered, and some of the others obviously felt it too, everyone but Scarlett and Razik having some kind of reaction.

“Enough,” Scarlett growled, her shadows breaking free and panthers forming at her sides.

“Then get on with this,” Alaric said, stepping to the side and gesturing to the mirror gate. “I am done playing games, Scarlett. You had your fun. Now it is time to come home.”

Scarlett glanced at Callan, and he could see it in her eyes. The hesitation to carry out the plan they’d devised mere hours ago. The plan that would truly end all of this. He gave her a soft smile before he subtly nodded his head.

They’d already said their goodbyes.

He watched her swallow, her throat bobbing, before shadows started winding up his torso.

Alaric eyed her warily. “What are you doing? Your shadows will not shield him from me.”

“I know,” Scarlett said, her voice nothing but venom. “Know that I will kill you for making me do this to yet another one of mine.”

“What are you talking about?” Alaric sneered.

“Callan?” Tava said, her voice soft and hesitant. She tried to step around Balam, but he held an arm in front of her, keeping her back.

And this? This was the only part of the plan he’d regret in the After.

Knowing that Tava would understand, but she didn’t know it was coming.

She wasn’t prepared to watch him die again after watching him nearly do so in a throne room months ago.

She’d have Drake though. At the end of this, she would have her brother.

But giving his life to save his people? To keep the mortal kingdoms from being used yet again in a war that had never been about them? That choice had been easy.

“Scarlett,” Alaric said. “What are you doing?”

Her back had straightened, darkness beginning to seep from her. The seraphs standing between her and the Maraans took another step back. “What will you do when your Maraan Lords are dead, Alaric? When your seraphs are nothing but ash? Who will stand between us then?”

“You won’t kill the Maraans,” Alaric spat. “We have already established you will not kill the mortal kings.”

“Mortal king ,” Scarlett replied. “Only one. King Callan Solgard of the Mortal Kingdoms.”

He had been the obvious choice when it had come down to it. The Maraan Lords were bound to mortal kings, but what if there was only one? What if there was only one mortal king like there had been long ago? Wasn’t that what Arianna had once said to him?

The three mortal kingdoms were once ruled by one. I am merely suggesting that perhaps your destiny is another path, but it is not one that can be chosen for you. You must choose it yourself.

Because destiny was a fickle thing.

When this was over, the kingdoms would be returned to their rightful rulers.

Rydeon and Toreall were heirless, but Windonelle?

His kingdom had Eva, and Eva had Tava to help her become a queen worthy of their people.

Tava would rule as the queen she was always meant to be until it was Eva’s time to take the throne.

But for now, he was the only mortal king. Hale and Drake had abdicated to him, signing formal documents an hour before they’d come to the Necropolis.

The only mortal king now tied to three Maraan Lords.

One sacrifice instead of three.

Alaric was gaping at her, speechless, but Tava—

“No!” she cried, pushing past Balam and trying to rush to him. Drake broke away from the group, snagging her around the waist, and this scene? Gods, it was a repeat of that throne room.

“No!” Tava screamed again and again as she bucked and thrashed against Drake’s hold.

Swords were clashing, and magic was swirling around him as Alaric yelled at the seraphs to get to Callan, get to Scarlett. Anything to stop her and her shadows.

The shadows wouldn’t be what ended him though. Scarlett appeared at his side, a dagger in her trembling hand. He was certain he’d never seen her so much as twitch when it came to taking life.

“Quick and painless,” she whispered, stepping behind him while he lowered to his knees.

“Thank you, Scarlett,” he said, raising his voice to be heard over the panic around them. To be heard over Tava’s screams. “Tell her …”

“I will, Callan,” Scarlett answered, a hand reaching around to cup his chin and hold him steady. He felt her position the blade, right where it would sever the spinal cord.

“Scarlett!”

Someone screamed her name before she was tackled to the ground, the dagger grazing the back of his neck. Callan twisted to find her struggling against Idris. He was on top of her, and while her shadows were coiling around him, he still didn’t move from atop her.

“Scarlett!”

That time it was Cassius.

A surge of darkness came from Scarlett, flaring out and into the room and throwing everyone back. When it had receded, the mirror gate was glowing and Alaric was gone.

“What the fuck?” Razik demanded, moving closer to the mirror.

Orvyn was chuckling softly. “Foolish girl,” he chided. “He had already Marked the mirror. All he needed was some of your Chaos. Achaz comes.”

Scarlett scrambled to her feet, her face pale. “No.”

“He is right, my dear,” came Balam’s solemn voice from across the chamber. “The only way to stop it is to kill Alaric. To kill all of us. You will never get to him in time.”

“We go now,” Nuri said, reaching her sister’s side. “We go after Alaric and leave the others to finish things here.”

“I can do it, Scarlett,” Eliza said, bending to retrieve the dagger that had skittered along the floor. Callan could still see some of his blood glistening on the blade. Grey eyes met his. “I will do it.”

“We are wasting time,” Nuri urged. “I know where he went.”

“You cannot betray your master,” Orvyn snarled.

Nuri ignored him, clearly no longer interested in maintaining the illusion of loyalty she’d had to portray for Alaric when they got here. “Now, Scarlett,” she snapped, Juliette appearing at her side.

With one last lingering glance at Callan, she grabbed her sisters’ hands, and the Wraiths disappeared.

Drake released Tava, and she raced to him, throwing herself into his arms. He clutched her close, stroking her hair as she cried into his neck.

“We will give you as much time as we can,” Eliza said, before orange and black flames sprang up around them, keeping back the seraphs and Maraans.

“Little Fox,” he whispered.

“No, Callan!” she cried. “No.”

“I love you.”

“Stop! Please stop.”

The cries became sobs.

“You taught me to see our people, Tava,” he went on, wanting to get out everything he had not thought he would get to say to her. “You taught me what it means to be a king, and you are going to be a queen they are deserving of.”

“Not without you, Cal.” Her entire body was shaking with the intensity of her sobs.

“You are so strong, Tava Tyndell,” he murmured, his own face wet as tears tracked down it. “Braver than I could ever hope to be.”

She lifted her head, pressing her lips to his. It was all wrong, her wet and salty tears tarnishing the pure sunlight taste he’d never been able to accurately describe. There weren’t words to describe her. There never had been, not in any language.

“Solgard,” she murmured against his lips. “Tava Solgard.”

He brought his hands up, cupping her face and thumbing away tears. It was pointless. More instantly replaced them. “They deserve rulers who care for them as mortals.”

“So selfless,” she whispered. She tried to smile, but it never formed, and the pain of knowing he was doing this to her was worse than any dagger to the head was going to be.

“Know that I thought I knew what love was, but I was wrong. I did not know what love was until I found it with you. You are my light, Tava.”

The surrounding flames flickered before Eliza appeared behind Tava. “We are out of time, Callan. Something is happening with the mirror.”

He nodded, eyes never leaving Tava’s. Her hands came up to frame his face, and she forced a sad smile. “I love you, Callan. You are a king worthy of your crown. I would have followed you to the ends of the realm and beyond.”

She held his face this time, and he held her stare. He didn’t know what he’d done to deserve to stare into her eyes as he crossed the Veil, but he’d thank whatever gods he needed to when he got there.

He felt his hair stir as Eliza positioned the blade.

Heard her suck in a sharp breath. Unlike Scarlett, the fire general’s hand did not tremble.

Sure and steady, he felt her pull the dagger back to make the blow, but then he was jerking Tava into him and rolling as Idris appeared behind her.

A dagger raised to make the same blow against his wife.

He knew he would have never been that fast without all the training he’d been doing these last months.

But it turned out his reflexes hadn’t been necessary.

Energy burst around them, sending both Eliza and Idris flying. He heard Eliza bark a curse as he scrambled to his feet, trying to find where Idris had gone.

“What was that?” Tava asked, Callan pulling her up beside him.

“I don’t know,” he muttered.

Where had Idris gone?

He’d pulled a short sword from his side, but there was so much godsdamn fire everywhere he couldn’t see anything but black and orange flames.

Until they all suddenly went out, pitching the chamber into darkness.

He clutched Tava closer to his side. The only sound was labored breathing before the cave was illuminated once more by soft glowing flames above them. Cyrus’s doing, Callan realized a moment later. But then—

“Drake?” Tava asked, her tone full of confusion.

Callan turned to find Drake kneeling on the ground beside Balam, a dagger protruding from the center of his chest. Eyes scanning the room, he found Idris and Orvyn unmoving on the stone floor as well.

“Are they …dead?” Tava asked.

“They cannot be,” Callan answered. “I am still alive.”

“They are dead,” Drake said, lifting his gaze to Tava.

“I don’t understand anything that is happening right now,” Cyrus said, propping the flat of his sword on his shoulder.

Tava took a tentative step towards her brother, but stopped, still clinging to Callan.

“He said …” Drake’s eyes dipped to Balam’s body once before meeting Tava’s gaze again. “He said that he’d made a vow to our mother. That he’d vowed we would never know the pain and suffering she had. He was drawing something on his arm. I don’t know—”

“Where?” Razik demanded, striding forward from where he’d found his way to Eliza’s side. The general was clutching at her left side, and she gave Callan a tense look.

“I have never seen a Mark like that before,” Razik said, crouched over Balam and examining his left arm. “This one, however,” he added, pointing higher up to the inside of his bicep. Callan couldn’t see anything. “This is a Blood Vow Mark.”

“To who?” Drake asked.

“No way of knowing now, but from the sounds of it, I would say it was to your mother,” he answered. “A Blood Vow demands fulfillment.”

“He said he couldn’t save her, but he’d promised to save us,” Drake said hoarsely. “He finished drawing on his arm, and then he pulled this dagger from the air. It all happened so fast.”

“That is a deathstone dagger,” Razik said, eyeing the weapon. “Are you saying he stabbed himself in the chest?”

“He did,” Drake said. “And then the other Lords just …dropped to the ground.”

“He somehow transferred the life bond to himself,” Razik muttered, back to studying the invisible Mark that was apparently on Balam’s forearm. “That shouldn’t be possible, but there is no other explanation.”

“Are you saying Callan does not have to give up his life?” Tava asked, her voice trembling for an entirely different reason now. “Is that what you are telling me, Razik?”

“It would appear that way,” Razik confirmed. “It would seem that the male who raised you cared for you both very deeply. More than he cared about what he was sent here to do.”

Cyrus let out a low whistle. “If that’s true, Sorin is going to be pissed he didn’t get to finish off Mikale.”

“He wasn’t going to finish him anyway if we’d actually killed Callan,” Eliza said, rolling her eyes. “Sorin got his vengeance and more. You know how he gets in the black rooms beneath the palace.”

Callan had no desire to know what that meant. Ever.

He turned back to Tava, opening his mouth to say something, but paused when his gaze snagged on her amulet. The white sapphire itself was still there, but the swirling mist inside it no longer was. He picked it up between his fingers. “I guess it was not simply the Beta’s flair.”

She smiled, fresh unshed tears glimmering in her eyes as she let out a breath of laughter that Callan felt in the depths of his soul.

“Razik?” Hale asked, drawing all of their attention to him. He jerked his chin to the mirror gate. “Do you know what is happening here?”

The mirror gate was no longer a mirror, but instead it was a swirling mass of black with what appeared to be white lights among it. They were moving so fast, Callan couldn’t make anything out. Just glowing blurs among the darkness.

“I do not know what is happening,” Razik said, pushing slowly to his feet and reaching for Eliza. “I would suggest we not be here when whatever is going to come through arrives though.”

“What if she’s not fast enough?” Eliza said, stepping into Razik’s side.

“Then we just lost the war,” Razik answered grimly, Traveling Eliza, Hale, and Drake out while Cassius held out a hand to him.

As they reappeared in the Fiera Palace, Sorin met them in the foyer. He’d come here to make sure Mikale actually died when Callan did, wanting to witness the male’s death himself.

“What happened?” Sorin demanded, taking in those who stood before him. “How is Mikale dead if Callan is still alive? And where is Scarlett?”

“We’ll fill you in,” Eliza said. “But as for Scarlett, she went after Alaric.”

“Alone?” Sorin asked sharply.

“No,” Cassius interjected. “The Wraiths went hunting.”