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Unnoticed by the others, I saw Death appear behind where Cassius and Thea’s souls were.

I knew he would put their souls back, so I charged Sydra, tackling her and keeping the attention on me.

We struggled on the ground, punching and swatting at each other.

But I heard Della grunt; Sydra punched me in my distracted state.

She began crawling away, but I shot my frost at her, instantly freezing her in place.

When I turned, my wrath was fucking seething from all the havoc these fucks had caused. I could feel it pulling around me like a physical force, the anger reaching into my very bones. They backed away from me when I stepped forward, finally realizing how much power I truly had.

Death made a noise behind them, drawing their attention.

“Death,” Elra purred. “You would have been my first choice if you could actually have a mate.”

What an odd thing to say, but I could tell it instantly pissed him off. His eyes suddenly burned red with anger.

“What are you doing here?” she asked angrily.

“My friends, Haden and Ezra, asked for my help.” He smiled when he showed them that he had Thea and Cassius' souls hovering above his hands.

“What are you doing?” she hissed. “If you don’t back off, we will tell your brother where you’ve been."

I could see concern pass through his eyes for a brief moment before it disappeared behind a mask of madness.

"You know Artemis?" he said.

"Of course, we needed someone to help take over Valynth." Elra smiled, clearly thinking she had the upper hand. "Trying to decide if I'm lying? How about this, Death—I will tell him to cut out Morrigan's heart."

Death became enraged and Elra knew immediately that she fucked up.

"How do you know about Morrigan?" he whispered, but even in a whisper it was terrifying.

"My father knows a lot of useful things."

“You’ll be dead before Artemis can help you.

I guarantee it.” His smile was evil. "And if Haden wasn't about to kill you, I would skin you alive and make you eat your own flesh for thinking you could say Morrigan's name in a vile way. And when you died, I would put your soul back inside of you over and over so that your suffering was never-ending." Then he turned and looked at me, winking in assuredness before gripping Thea and Cassius’ souls in his hands and ripping them apart. “How will you overpower all these gods when they aren’t drugged up on red lily powder?”

At that statement, the doors in the hallway clicked open, and the gods and goddesses walked out, their mates slowly following behind. I sighed in relief when Ezra stepped out with a big grin.

“I can’t wait to see them rip you apart,” Death laughed before he whispered something to the souls in his hands, and they slithered their way up Thea and Cassius’ bodies and into their mouths.

I had never seen anything like it before.

I watched in amazement as their green souls traveled quickly down their throats, illuminating them from the inside.

Soon, we could all see the glowing in their chests, the light burning so brightly that we had to squint to make out their bodies.

Everyone in the room watched in awe of Death and what he had just done. Then we all froze, everyone waiting anxiously to see if Cassius and Thea would wake up.

It felt like the longest moment of my life.

But when their eyes finally flickered open, I knew my siblings were fucked.

Cassius’ eyes shined bright red as he ripped himself from the magic contraption.

Once free, he turned and helped Thea down, and her eyes were no less red than his.

Gods, they made an impressive couple. In that moment, I sure was glad that they were on our side.

Death smiled at my siblings as all of the gods they had captured descended on them, looking for vengeance.

“We will kill Della for good if you do not back up!” Elra was panicking. “She will be easy to kill without a soul.”

Everyone stopped moving, and all of their eyes focused on me.

Maybe it was because they saw how completely enraged I was becoming.

Unable to control my wrath, my emotions were churning inside of me.

My frost and wind magic whipped around me like a tornado that had sprung to life inside of a deadly blizzard, and thunder boomed loudly around us, its deafening crack causing all of my siblings to cover their ears in fear.

“I am going to destroy you so thoroughly that there is not even a piece of you left remaining in Hell, the heavens, or the realms,” I promised.

“Get him,” Elra demanded savagely, only for the rest of our siblings to remain frozen in doubt. I smiled as I shot frost at her feet so she could not leave.

“I will kill you last.”

Then I stepped toward the three that were backing away from me. As I passed by Sydra, still stuck where I froze her earlier, I shoved her over so roughly that her frozen body shattered on the marble floor.

I lifted my palms toward the ceiling, and balls of lightning cracked and flashed in my hands.

I focused on my left hand and stretched the lightning, drawing it out so it was as long as a sword.

I gripped it with both hands and stepped forward, pulling it back before I swung it into the neck of Gareth, who had been so distracted by my magic that he did not realize what was happening.

I didn’t flinch as black blood spewed from his neck when I cut his head clean off, spewing all over the room.

I smiled wickedly at Elra. The head rolled across the room and landed at her feet, his mouth still open in an ‘O’ of surprise.

Still staring her in the eyes, I wiped off the blood I felt trickling down my cheek, smearing it. Then I looked at Daya and Mateo as they tried to hide behind one another.

“I thought you would at least fight back,” I teased. “Not so tough when your opponent is pissed beyond reasoning with. And has magic.”

I grabbed Daya by the hair and did not hesitate before punching my fist through her chest, gripping her slimy soul in my fingers. I smiled directly in her face as the light began to leave her eyes.

“You won’t be needing this where you are going.” I ripped her black soul from her like I had seen Della do before.

“Gods be damned,” Ezra muttered. I turned toward him, and my smile widened. I was completely lost to my wrath, and nothing was going to stop me until they were dead. Even then I did not know if it would end.

All because they had tried to take her from me. I looked at Della, and she watched me proudly.

I smiled at her as I punched Mateo in his prideful face. He tried to run, but I shot my starlight out, gripping him tightly and yanking him back to me.

“Where are you running off to?” I asked.

He was shaking with fear as I slammed him down on the ground, pinning him with my magic.

Then I lifted my foot and stomped it down into his legs repeatedly, breaking the bones so he could not get away from me.

His screams pierced the air, and it made the void in me explode with excitement.

“Keep screaming; it only makes me want to draw this out, Mateo.”

I left him on the floor so he could writhe around in pain. Elra was mumbling as I stepped toward her. I laughed when I heard her words.

“You are praying to the heavens?” I stepped forward. “A god who wanted to end the heavens and everything they loved is now begging them to save her… How pathetic can you get?” I asked.

She continued to pray as I came for her.

“Too bad your prayers will never be answered. I will not show mercy on anyone who threatened to take her from me!” I pointed at Della, and Elra shrank away from me.

I was fucking livid that they thought the heavens would listen to them.

Maybe our parents would, but their children would be dead before then.

I lifted my hands, and a dozen icicles began to form in front of me.

I smiled as they sharpened into spikes that were all pointed at her. Her prayer doubled at the sight.

But instead of sending them at her, I turned toward Mateo, who was trying to crawl away.

I shot my star mist out and used it to pick him up and turn him in midair so he was facing me.

Once I made sure he was looking me in the eyes, I smiled and shot all of the ice spikes forward.

Some of them shot completely through his body, his black blood exploding onto the wall behind him.

The rest of them struck him forcefully enough that they slammed his body into the wall, staking him to it.

“This is for touching my wife,” I said as I shaped my starlight into a thin blade and sliced his hands off with it.

Tired of looking at his bloody face, I flicked my wrist, and my starlight snapped Mateo’s neck without sparing a glance at him as he groaned, barely alive. My focus was now on the fucking bitch that was in charge of all of this. She remained deathly still as I approached.

“Guess whose turn it is?” I taunted as she started struggling.

Half of her body was still frozen, so I lifted my foot and kicked it, shattering it and knocking her over.

She tried to crawl away, but I grabbed her by the back of the neck and dragged her to where Della stood, then kicked the back of her legs so she was kneeling in front of her.

Della looked at me, her eyes flickering over my face before smiling.

I squatted so I could grip her by her hair and forced her head back so she was looking up at Della. I leaned forward so I could whisper in her ear.

“I would kill you a million times for trying to take her from me. I want you to look at her and see how she is everything you wished you could be.” I waited a moment.

“Apologize to her for thinking her perfect soul could ever belong to you. That you thought you could take it when it was always destined to be mine.”

“Little Miss Perfect looks pretty fucking close to being dead to me,” she huffed out in defiance. “I’d say I’m better off than her.”