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Chapter Nineteen

R oderick:

G old engulfed my vision as Ailpein burst into flames. Not the gentle transformation of a phoenix shifting form, but a supernova of raw energy. The king’s sacrifice exploded outward, washing over us in waves of blistering heat that somehow didn’t burn. The air vibrated with the unleashed power.

At the edge of my mage sight, I thought I saw Ailpein smiling and waving goodbye. Next to him was the image of a female phoenix, taking his hand and leading him away. It couldn’t have been real, but it had seemed so vivid.

Cinaed’s grief spiraled into me through our full mate bond. His emotion was sharp and jagged like shattered glass. His sorrow threatened to overwhelm us both, but we couldn’t afford to lose our focus. If we failed to shape Ailpein’s life force into a new ward, his sacrifice would be wasted.

Anchoring myself to the Earth, I pulled Cinaed back on task. We’d have time to mourn once we were finished. Every nerve ending in my body thrummed, alive with the massive amount of magic flowing between us.

“Stay with me,” I said softly, gripping Cinaed’s hand tighter. Linked at the most intimate level, Cinaed instantly understood why he needed to concentrate. His emotional center solidified, and he readied himself to gather the wave of raw magic heading toward us.

Ailpein’s life force rushed into Cinaed like water released from a dam’s spillway.

In theory, the volume of energy should have killed us, but Ailpein had linked himself to his ‘firebird’ at a near-cellular level.

I’d seen no suggestion it was possible. Looking deeper, I found the channel Ailpein had used to interrupt our mate bond.

In an ironic twist, by barring us from completing our mate bond, he’d made it possible to save our lives.

Golden flames coalesced into threads of pure Earth magic, spinning around Cinaed like a cocoon of light before sinking beneath his skin.

The amount of power the king had accumulated through countless renewals over his millennia-long lifetime was beyond what I’d imagined.

He’d gathered bits from every phoenix and through his deep connection to the Earth.

There was enough to power the spell and more.

Cinaed’s skin blazed with golden light as power coursed through him. Linked now, I saw his inner fire for the first time. It was beautiful and deadly. Flushed with the extra energy, flames flowed through his veins like molten gold.

Staggering under the weight of his grandfather’s sacrifice, Cinaed’s fingers clutched mine with desperate strength.

Our bond vibrated, the pristine link humming with the long-promised connection.

His consciousness trembled under the onslaught, struggling to maintain cohesion as ancient power poured through channels never meant to contain such magnitude.

Skepticism flickered into his thoughts, but he quickly tapped into the inner strength he used all those years while we were apart.

His eyes widened, the amber irises consumed by liquid light that spilled down his cheeks in luminous tears.

I worried it was too much, but he refused to give in to doubt.

I pushed myself into his being, ready to shoulder this burden together. Our knees threatened to buckle, but we supported each other and stood firm. My confidence fueled his resolve, and together we created a bedrock of stability to corral the power needed to save the world.

My diamond mage stone pulsed hot against my palm, its facets glowing with intense heat.

The gem resonated as I directed Ailpein’s life force into its crystalline structure, molding it into the contours of the spell.

Phoenix energy was chaotic and primal, while magic was structured and precise.

This was why it had to be Cinaed and me who formed the new ward.

No other mage, not even Bart, could create the Great Ward.

Katarina and Adelais understood this truth twelve centuries ago.

Cinaed and I were about to recreate the greatest magical spell in history. Thanks to Ailpein’s sacrifice, however, we might walk away to admire our work.

The spell that created the Great Ward wasn’t complex.

Making it last for centuries, however, was more difficult.

The four guardian pairs tethered the spell to the world, guaranteeing the protection covered the entire planet.

Once the Ward was in place, their role was almost ceremonial.

The magic needed to maintain the barrier flowed through the Guardians, ensuring it never failed.

Cast properly, the spell became a living lattice of interconnected pathways and nodes, each in perfect balance and alignment.

Pushing out the demons was the hard part. It required an enormous expenditure of energy. Katarina’s spell tore open the dimension walls between planes of existence, and then forcibly expelled every demon back into their home realm.

Despite the herculean task, I was confident Cinaed and I would survive.

In addition to the greater energy Ailpein provided over Adelais, the difficulty was tied to the number of demons that needed to be expelled.

Thanks to centuries of peace and the preparedness of our mages, considerably fewer demons walked the Earth than in Katarina’s time.

Malachy stood nearby, tears streaming unchecked down his face as he watched his father’s essence transfer to his son. The phoenix guards flanked him, their expressions a mixture of awe and grief.

Through our link, I felt Cinaed contain the wild energy, ready to feed it into the spell. His control wouldn’t last long, so I had to finish before it overwhelmed him.

“Bart,” I called mentally. “Link us now.”

“We’re ready,” Bart responded with a hint of urgency.

I understood. Not only were Cinaed and I at risk the longer this took, but more beings would die trying to defeat the demons being summoned to our world.

Touching Bart and Cael first, Cinaed and I quickly felt the others join our link.

Jan and Conall’s steady emerald presence.

Leo and Gund’s fierce golden intensity. Otto and Thalion’s calm crimson strength.

Each pair pulsed with its own rhythm, yet all resonated in harmony.

Cinaed’s skin had gone incandescent. He’d maintained a hold on the energy, but it was too much for him to keep inside for long.

Ever since I realized my fate would lead me to this moment, I’d studied the spells Katarina left for her successor.

Drawing on that training, I formed the energy into the proper shape.

The power filtered through my diamond, turning golden white inside the atomic bonds of my gem.

Ailpein’s magic mixed with mine and became an extension of my being.

I constructed the Ward upon a global network that my brothers and their mates anchored to the Earth.

Before inserting the activation spell, Cinaed and I needed to cleanse our world of demons.

Together we ripped open the veil that separated Earth from the demon realm.

This created a vacuum similar to opening a plane door at thirty thousand feet.

Only, instead of flinging passengers into the atmosphere, this sucked the demons back to hell.

The spell created a one-way gate that required an immense surge of energy to keep out unwanted arrivals.

Connected as we were to the Earth, we heard the anguished screams of beings flung back from the prize they’d waited a millennium to claim. I echoed the grim satisfaction coming from Cinaed as we purged these scars from our world. The tear snapped shut once the last demon was gone.

Returning to the original spell, we expanded our consciousness to encompass the spell’s full structure. We perceived the Earth in a way neither of us had before. It was more than rock, soil, water, and air. There was a will and wisdom that protected every living thing on the planet.

The ancient magic that imbued all things responded to our call, eager to be woven into a new fortification.

Tendrils of pure energy rose from the ground and spread out to fill the matrix Cinaed and I created.

The consciousness that brushed ours wasn’t human, being, or anything mortal, but it was unmistakably alive and aware.

It recognized us as its champions and eagerly allowed us to secure the spell into its essence.

Sweat beaded on my forehead as I worked.

I’d never attempted anything this important.

The obligation we shouldered was a weight almost too heavy to bear.

Except we weren’t alone. Eight new consciousnesses pressed against us, supporting and assuming some of the burden.

They accepted a portion of the spell, affixed it deep into the spirit of our world, and made the pillar a permanent bulwark against future corruption.

The energy crested like a wave about to break.

Just before releasing it, I inserted a small modification— something Katarina intended to do had she not died banishing the demons.

Seven minds acknowledged the change and allowed the magic to flow through as intended.

The eighth watched with intense curiosity, but didn’t inquire before the procedure moved along.

Through our link, Cinaed and I watched the others seal threads of magic, barring anyone else from tampering with the barrier.

Leo and Gund began the final stage, tying off the northern point.

The eastern guardians, Jan and Conall, were next, followed by Otto and Thalion to the South.

Closing the circle, Bart and Cael wove all four stations into a solid whole.