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Page 32 of Shattered Galaxies (Tears of the Siren #6)

Lorcan

“I told you that you two would get along.” Nova winked, and I nearly rolled my eyes in amusement. Queen Gray had been as cool and down-to-earth as Nova described. Probably a bit crazy as well, but considering the power I could feel radiating off her, it made total sense.

“She’s pretty great,” I admitted before adding, “Bummed that I couldn’t meet Vegas, but it makes sense why she isn’t joining us.”

“Just like Maya,” Nova agreed. “Although, maybe after this we could all get together to have a big old sleepover. Or a girls weekend! We could go somewhere fun. We can even invite Maize; she’d probably come.”

“Valentina would for sure,” I said, not knowing if that was completely true but loving the idea nonetheless.

“This is happening. Valentina probably wouldn’t mind a weekend away from being a mom and queen—I mean, that just seems like a lot,” Nova added as I laughed.

She wasn’t wrong. I think Valentina had literally said something to the effect of, ‘I’m not happy for the reason, but it’s sort of nice having a vacation. ’

I hadn’t been surprised to find that Nova and Valentina had gotten along. In fact, it would have surprised me more if they hadn’t. They had that perfect blend of ‘get shit done’ and a sprinkle of crazy—maybe more than a sprinkle when it came to Nova, but I loved that about her.

One perk was that it made people take her very seriously.

So when she was informed that one of her men—Nour, I believe—had a vision of the dark ones arriving tomorrow, paired with other gods saying the same thing?

She hadn’t hesitated to call a meeting that no one would consider missing.

It may have been a long, taxing day preparing for battle, but it appeared it would be a long night as well.

“Oh, you’re bleeding,” Nova said. I hadn’t even noticed my nose dripping. I grabbed the sleeve of my shirt, wiping away the blood.

“One of your star calls?”

“No actually.” I frowned in confusion. “Maybe it’s the amount of power in the room.”

“There is a fuck ton of that.”

Seriously, every member of leadership and their generals were stuffed into this tent. I felt like I was choking on power and had to take a deep breath to calm myself, knowing my men—who were a few feet away—would feel it.

Being near Nova helped to an extent. Her magic was extremely possessive of everyone she claimed as ‘hers.’ You would have thought that was just her men, but because of all the power she’d been handing out, it included a ton of people in the tent, which meant their magic was dulled to me.

And despite her massive power increase, she was so sealed up against my own magic that it ended up creating a nice buffer.

Almost as if she was unintentionally shielding the rest of the room from me and any unintended influence.

I wouldn’t complain about that.

“We’re ready to go!” someone shouted. My gaze tracked to them, one of the goddesses that Nova had brought along.

Venus, possibly? I didn’t have a great grasp of mythology.

The time I should have spent learning all of that had been spent high and suicidal.

So while I knew she was important, the details were fuzzy.

“Alright! If we’re all ready, let’s talk about the game plan.” Nova raised her voice to gather the attention of the crowd. Crossing my arms, I kept my gaze on the ground as if in thought when really I was just trying to avoid thinking about all the eyes on me.

I didn’t do great with attention, especially now that I wasn’t high.

And just because their desires were muted or unreadable in most situations didn’t mean they didn’t exist. I sort of just wanted to blend into the background.

Nova had insisted on me standing up here with good intention, but now I didn’t feel like it was such a great idea.

Nova continued. “Nour and a few other gods have had visions that come tomorrow, the dark ones will arrive—” I nearly winced at her using their name but managed to stop myself.

In fact…at this point it was unavoidable.

We had their full attention. I wasn’t going to even bother with tip-toeing around it anymore.

“The old gods will arrive shortly before, hoping to steal our magic and offer it as a sacrifice to the dark ones in exchange for their lives.” She sounded amused, shaking her head as she let out a somewhat disappointed sigh.

“Yes, that is as ridiculous as it sounds. With that being said, it means it’s all hands on deck, and we should prepare for a full-scale invasion and attack. ”

Understatement. If we weren’t careful, it could be a slaughter. If I didn’t start playing at exactly the right time…

No. I wouldn’t go there. Not right now.

“I’ll be on the front lines with all of you,” Nova explained, and I nodded in confirmation. The two of us had discussed the logistics of tomorrow, but I knew that on the battlefront side of things, there was more to iron out. After all, there were thousands of people involved in this.

Nova motioned toward me. “Lorcan will need to get to wherever the dark ones appear, so she’ll have a unit around her to ensure that happens.”

I could feel the tension that layered the room at her announcement, so I tried to ease that, unable to help myself—wanting to give the crowd a bit of reassurance.

“Just in case they arrive early, we’ll have people on watch all night, so try to get some rest.”

Then Queen Gray spoke up. “What type of offense should we expect from the dark ones’ ground soldiers?”

I could feel Nova looking at me, so I offered the clearest answer I could provide based on our experience at home.

“These creatures are what I believe to be a version or apparition of the dark ones; they can multiply rapidly and change their forms instantly. In a vacuum they would be unstoppable, but our goal isn’t to destroy all of them.

Like the gods, our goal is to hold them off while I take care of the bigger problem.

Once they are down, the ground forces will cease to exist.”

I could feel the curiosity brimming throughout the room, so I answered the question on everyone’s mind—what the hell was my part in this?

“For those who don’t understand how my magic works, it will be hard to explain this next part.

In order to destroy the dark ones, I’ve created a piece of music that I will play.

I know how it sounds, but I have no idea how it’ll sound to all of you or how it’ll affect you.

It may encourage you to fight more, or it might possibly do the opposite… ”

I hesitated, wondering if I wasn’t making the situation worse. I usually didn’t doubt myself—in fact, I rarely did. But this was entirely new territory, and I was woman enough to admit that I was on shaky ground, trying to get my footing.

Desmond spoke up, helping me out. “Which is why if anything goes wrong, we’ll place a ward around the battlefield.

It won’t bar entrance or exit, so no one will be trapped within battle without retreat, but while under the protection of the ward, we can avoid anyone falling under the influence of the music. ”

I offered him a thankful smile as he gave me a playful wink.

“And we know for a fact that the old gods plan to arrive?” Valentina asked from within the crowd.

Nova let out a half-dispondent sigh that had a small smile tugging at my lips. I knew she was annoyed with these gods— really annoyed—and something about that was not only funny but perfectly Nova. Only she could manage to find foundational deities annoying.

“Yes. Believe me, Ra and the other assholes won’t be able to ignore this.

But don’t worry about the big guys, worry instead about all the creatures and soldiers they bring with them.

Mark my words, we may have convinced many from the God realm to join us, but there will be lines of descendants—some of whom you may know—who have sworn their lives to those older gods.

They will fight for them. I wish we could avoid the bloodshed, but we’re far beyond that point. ”

Nova’s words were filled with surety and confidence, and I found myself wanting to mimic that—especially in this situation.

Straightening myself, I tried to look like the woman who was destined to save this universe and not just…

Lorcan. Maker. I was never this insecure, but I hadn’t even been sure I would live past this fall—hell, I hadn’t wanted to—and now I was in the middle of a military camp on a mission to save our universe?

This was fucking wild.

Nova spoke up again after a pause. “Any more questions?”

When no one said anything, my friend gave a bright smile and closed out the meeting. “Perfect. Alright, everyone eat a good dinner and get some rest—tomorrow we save the world.”

A dry chuckle left me. “No pressure.”

Except all the pressure— all the pressure.

As everyone filed out of the tent, I made my way toward Draven who was leaning against one of the tent beams, watching me with worry.

As I stepped into his grasp, his rough hand cupped my cheek and I let out a sigh, content with melting into his chest. The feather around my neck warmed as he let out a low rumble.

“Are you okay?”

It was such a simple question, but my throat tightened as I looked into his lavender gaze. I found strength in the intensity of his concern, and I forced myself to nod—because even if I wasn’t okay, I needed to be.

There was too much riding on it.

They were coming. As we stood at the gates of the camp facing south, the late night air settling over the space and the lull of our men behind us growing softer, I felt the truth radiating through me. They were coming. They were nearly here.

I could feel their malice, their fury, their hunger, every bit of it directed toward us. They wanted us to suffer. They wanted us to fear our own extinction.

My gaze moved across the night sky as I watched the cosmos fade out of view, leaving just a black void. It was like the stars themselves were running in terror, and I didn’t blame them. The silence of the universe made my heart beat in fear.

When Nova spoke, I could hear my concern echoed in her voice. She felt the pull on her own soul—she may not have fully understood it, but she felt it.

“I may throw up that ward anyway. I don’t think your average individual will be able to withstand the mass and pull of power that’s approaching us—I’ll just make it larger than normal so that we can ensure people have room to move about.”

Relief filled my chest. “You’re right. That’s a better move. I didn’t consider what it would be like to face them in person. I’ve only ever experienced them while star-traveling.”

Nova’s brow dipped in concern. “How loud are the screams now?”

“There are none—just silence.”

And for a moment, silence fell between us, the gravity of the situation weighing heavily on our shoulders.

“We can do this.” Nova’s voice was filled with determination as she set her shoulders back. “I know we can do this—I refuse to let go of a future I’ve worked so damn hard for.”

Nova was right. Inhaling sharply, I nodded in agreement. For so long I hadn’t wanted any future, and now I had one filled with love. I wasn’t going to let that go without a fight. It didn’t matter how nervous or out of my element I was; I knew exactly what I needed to do.

“I’m going to give everything I have to ensure the dark ones are obliterated. The balance has been off for too long; they can’t be allowed to consume whatever they want—to feed from the unaware and the powerless.”

“I believe in you,” Nova said, giving my forearm a squeeze. “I know you can do your part, and you better believe I am going to slaughter every asshole god who tries to stop you.”

Oh, I didn’t doubt that for a second.

“I know you will.”

I felt my bonds fill with concern. My men were clearly picking up on my shift in emotion, and probably not loving that we were slightly outside the wards.

“Shit,” I murmured, looking back and catching Zander’s gaze…which was filled with a surprising amount of pride.

He’d totally been listening to us. I didn’t mind in the least, and it brought me pleasure to know that he was proud of the strength I was finding in myself.

When Nova offered me a questioning look, I explained, “We need to go back inside the camp. Our men are worried—I can hear them talking.”

That wasn’t even a lie. Her men were very loudly talking about wanting her to come back inside, and my men were too, just through our bond and more subtly.

“Let’s spend the next few hours focused on the people we love.” Nova smiled, adding, “Promise me that when this is done, we’ll plan a group vacation.”

“If we survive tomorrow, we can vacation for the entire year. We’ll deserve it.”

As we made our way back through the gate, I beelined right to Zander, who stood off to the side of my men. They were talking logistics for tomorrow, but Zander was completely focused on me. My fingers intertwined with his as I tilted my head back, looking up at him.

His amethyst eyes, decorated with a pumpkin orange, were filled with so much devotion and love that my eyes began to sting.

We had come so far since the first time we’d met, and within Zander I found a piece of myself I hadn’t realized I’d been missing.

One that believed in my abilities as a siren, that accepted my heritage as a siren.

I didn’t know the words to express my gratitude for that, no matter what happened.

“I love you, Zander.”

My bond with Zander exploded with adoration as he pulled me close, dipping down to press a deep, hard kiss to my lips.

Despite our audience, he didn’t hold back on the intensity, and my head spun with pleasure as he pulled back only inches.

His lips grazed mine once again before saying the words back.

“I love you, starlight. You have all of me.”

And Zander had every inch of me. They all did.