21. Draven
21
DRAVEN
I materialise in my room, the rage and hurt from Matilda’s outburst still thrumming through me. The temperature drops several degrees as my power responds to my emotions. Ice crystals form on the windows, spreading in delicate patterns.
A flash of Hellfire announces Luc’s arrival, while Vex swirls in on a flash of lightning that is definitely showing his irritation. None of us speak for a long moment, each processing what just happened.
“We handled that badly,” I finally say, breaking the tense silence.
“No, fucking shit, Sherlock,” Luc mutters.
Vex runs a hand through his hair, frustration evident in every movement. “We were trying to help.”
“Were we?” Luc challenges. “Or were we treating her like she needed to be contained? Controlled?”
The truth in his words hits hard. After everything Matilda’s been through, we responded to her justified anger by trying to dampen it.
“She has every right to be furious,” I say quietly. “And she wasn’t wrong; her power wasn’t out of control. She was expressing her rage in a perfectly natural way.”
“For someone of her power level,” Vex adds. “It’s an extension of her. It’s not like other magick. It’s not a conscious decision to use it or not. It just… is.”
“But that makes her dangerous whether she or we want to admit it,” I say, wishing I didn’t have to.
“Yep,” Vex agrees.
I take a deep breath. I’m glad we are on the same page.
“We need to fix this,” Luc says.
I shake my head. “Not yet. She needs space to process everything. We can’t just rush back in with apologies and expect it to make everything better.”
Vex sighs. “The soul bond comment... before everything went sideways. She was ready to commit to that.”
“And then we proved we didn’t trust her judgement,” I finish grimly.
“We didn’t do anything of the sort,” he snaps. “We didn’t fully understand what was going on and jumped to conclusions. We know better now.”
“Doesn’t change the fact that she thinks we betrayed her,” Luc says. “So why are we here talking to each other about it when we should be talking to her?”
We fall into silence again, but nobody moves. We are all too scared of making it worse. We failed her, when she needed us to understand her.
A violent tremor rocks the entire academy, making the windows rattle. The temperature plummets further as my death magick responds to something fundamentally wrong. To me, that is.
The air feels heavy, charged with divine energy that makes my skin crawl.
Vex is already at the window, his runes flaring bright blue against his skin. “Heaven’s not waiting,” he says grimly.
Ranks of Angels descend from above, their wings spread wide and weapons blazing with holy light. Vazna’s massive form radiates divine power as he hovers above MistHallow’s wards.
“Fuck,” Luc growls, his Hellfire already igniting around his hands.
Another tremor shakes the building as the Angels begin their assault on MistHallow’s barriers. The wards strain under the combined celestial attack.
My necromancy flares in response to the divine assault. It feels different—stronger, wilder. The dead stir beneath MistHallow’s foundations, drawn to my power in a way they never have been before. I’m not calling them. They are calling me.
The building shudders again. “We need to get outside.” The magick swirling around my hands is darker and more substantial than ever before. Matilda’s influence has changed something fundamental in my necromancy .
The first Angels break through MistHallow’s outer wards. The impact sends shockwaves through the building as Vex grabs us up in his magick and launches us onto the courtyard below.
I raise my hand instinctively, and the dead rise. Not just skeletons this time, but fully formed spirits, their ethereal forms solidifying as they manifest. They pour through the walls of the academy as well as out of the ground at our feet, an army of the damned waiting for me to direct them.
“Well, that’s new,” Luc mutters, his eyes wide as he watches my enhanced necromancy at work.
“Praxian Necromancy,” I mutter.
“Later,” Vex snaps, rounding on an Angel and blasting it with dark magick that makes it hiss and retreat.
The door to the residence building blasts open from the inside. Matilda stands there, rainbow light sparking around her like lightning. Her eyes blaze with power, but there’s still hurt and anger in them when she looks at us.
Another explosion rocks the academy. Vazna’s voice booms across the grounds, “Surrender the Praxian, or we will take it by force.”
Matilda’s power flares brighter. “Like hell,” she growls, and despite everything, I grin at her.
She glowers back at me, and I deflate slightly. She is seriously pissed off with us.
The dead swarm around us protectively as we brace for another attack. Heaven’s army fills the sky, their combined divine light turning night to day. But my connection to death has never been stronger.
“Together?” Vex asks, extending his hand to Matilda.
She hesitates for just a second before taking it, without a word.
Luc lobs a Hellfire orb into the Angels. “Now, let’s show Heaven why they should’ve stayed in their lane.”
Vazna descends, his massive wings casting shadows across the courtyard. His gaze fixes on me, arrogance and old hatred burning in his eyes.
“The soul stealer,” he sneers. “Still playing with powers beyond your comprehension.”
“And you’re still an arrogant prick,” I reply, feeling the dead lurch around me, eager for violence. “How’s that working out for you?”
He launches forward, holy light blazing. My enhanced necromancy responds instantly, the spirits coalescing into a wall between us. Where divine energy meets death magick, reality distorts and warps.
All around us, battle erupts. Vex trades blows with multiple Angels. Luc’s Hellfire tears through the sky, forcing the celestial beings to scatter.
And Matilda is magnificent.
Rainbow light explodes from her, each thunderous crack disrupting the Angels’ divine power. Where her magick touches them, their wings falter, their light dims. The Praxian force recognises them as fragments of itself, reaching for them like a mother trying to reclaim wayward children. But to do exactly as it wants to do with all magick. It wants to draw it into itself.
I falter when the thought hits me. Why is it not doing it to us? Is Matilda stopping it, or does the Praxian know us as her mates?
“The force belongs in Heaven,” Vazna shouts, his sword cleaving through my spirit wall and drawing my attention back to the fight. “Where it can be properly contained!”
“You again!” Blackthorn rumbles as he starts zapping Angels like flies with his mage power, which is staggering in its nature. “Haven’t you learned by now not to come here?”
“Give me that magick, and you will never see me again,” Vazna grits out.
“It doesn’t belong to you,” Matilda snarls back. The ground trembles beneath her feet as she channels more power.
I summon more dead, drawing them up through the earth. They rise in crowds now, each one stronger and more substantial than the last. Through my connection to them, I feel something new. Not just death, but the space between life and death. The boundary itself responds to my will.
An Angel with more courage than brains, dives toward Matilda, blade raised. Before any of us can react, one of my spirits simply reaches out and pulls the divine essence right out of it. The Angel drops like a stone, its celestial light extinguished .
“UnHoly fuck,” Luc remarks, pausing mid-attack to gape at me.
It feels fucking good, I have to admit.
“Need a little help here!” Vex shouts, his magick whizzing past my ear as he holds off three Angels at once.
But I’m already exploring this new ability. The dead aren’t just fighting for me anymore—they’re hunting. Each one that touches an Angel drains a little more of their divine power, feeding it back to me, to the necromantic force that’s evolved beyond anything the realms have seen.
Vazna realises what’s happening. His face contorts with fury as he watches his forces weakening. “This ends now!” Divine light explodes from him in a searing torrent.
Matilda steps forward, her power meeting his head-on. The collision sends shockwaves across the battlefield, knocking Angels from the sky and making my spirits flicker.
“You’re right,” she says, her voice layered with ancient power. “This does end now.”
Her magick flares, and I feel it connect with my necromancy, amplifying it beyond measure. The dead rise faster now, stronger, hungrier. They spread out across the courtyard like a tide of shadow and spite, pulling divine energy from any Angel they touch.
It touches Vex, whose dark magick becomes black in force, tainting the air with an acrid taste that Blackthorn growls at. Vex just shrugs and grins, taking down another Angel.
Luc’s Demonic form, which becomes more Devilish as the seconds pass, is about to give our mum a run for her money. His Hellfire has evolved, and I lick my lips when I see it caged in black magick, just like the Devil’s.
Vazna’s attacks grow more desperate as his forces thin. “You don’t understand what you’re doing! The force cannot be allowed to roam free!”
“No,” I growl, directing my enhanced army toward him. “You don’t understand. It’s not roaming free.”
The battle rages on, but the tide is turning. Between Matilda’s raw power, my evolved necromancy, Vex’s black magick, and Luc’s enhanced Hellfire, Heaven’s forces are being decimated.
I search for the connection between us. It’s there, strained by anger and hurt, but unbreakable. We move like one unit, covering each other’s weaknesses and amplifying each other’s strengths. Whatever damage our fight did, in this moment, we are perfectly in sync.
Heaven never stood a chance.