52. Huntyr
Chapter 52
Huntyr
I ran as fast as my feet could carry me. My wings would expose too much of me to the violence that spilled on the edge of the kingdom.
My kingdom.
So one foot after the other, I ran closer and closer to him. I used my dagger to slice a few attackers as I passed, but I did not stop, did not waiver.
Wolf was in trouble, and I would stop at nothing to get to him.
My boots crushed stone and gravel before finding dirt and grass, pushing further and further to where I knew the battle started, out in the forest, on the front lines.
I felt our bond strengthening as I got closer, but I also felt it slipping. Weakening, but not from distance—from lack of him . He was fading.
He was hurt, and the thing that terrified me the most—he was afraid.
“Wolf!” I called out. “Where are you?”
Chaos ripped through the trees. Fire blazed in the distance. Bodies littered the ground.
Huntress .
It wasn’t a word spoken aloud, but in my soul. In my bones. I stopped in my tracks and turned to the right.
Then I saw them.
Asmodeus—I looked twice to make sure it was really him—lay unmoving on the ground a few feet away, but that was the least of my worries.
Lord stood over Wolf, a sword piercing his torso.
Dread flooded my senses. “What did you do?” I breathed, rushing toward them. Wolf was still alive, still kneeling, but Lord did not release the weapon. He pushed it further into Wolf’s body as he looked at me.
“I’m doing what I have to do to protect you,” he spat.
I stopped for one beat, letting the truth of the situation fall around me. “You’ve taken everything from me!” I seethed. “I will not let you take this!”
Violence was not strong enough a word for what poured out of me then. Rage, betrayal, disbelief. Years and years of being hurt by him, all of it came to the surface as I charged, weapon raised.
I hesitated before, but now? After this?
Wolf fell forward, now struggling on his hands and knees as Lord stepped back.
I would kill him for this.
A warrior’s cry escaped me as I pounced, aiming my blade directly at Lord’s heart.
But he was no fool. He knew my fighting style better than anyone. He knew each move before I made it, each maneuver before I thought of it myself.
He blocked me with one hand, using the other to shove me back. “You don’t want to do this, Huntyr,” he warned. “You don’t want to fight me.”
“Yes,” I choked with emotion, “I do.”
I tried again and again, very aware of the fact that Wolf was barely holding on a few feet away. I attacked over and over, but Lord continued to block me.
Think, Huntyr. What moves does he not know? What have you learned that Lord knows nothing about?
It had to be magic. That would be the only maneuver Lord wouldn’t see coming.
He was an expert in combat, yes, but magic?
I did not need to bleed into the ground. I did not need to offer my own blood to the goddess to access my power.
It was mine. It had always been mine.
When the familiar rush of fire came from within me, I released it, aiming directly at Lord.
I did not falter as he screamed, did not falter as my entire life flashed before me; all those whippings, all that suffering, all that punishment. All he ever wanted for me was pain. I was a fool before, but I saw everything with clear eyes now.
My power pushed until it reached its limit. When I pulled back, I had no doubts that Lord was dead. His body—charred and unrecognizable—fell to the ground with a solid thud.
I didn’t hesitate. My eyes landed on Wolf, and then I was moving, desperate to get to him.
“Wolf.” I fell to his side. “Wolf, are you okay?”
He sat on his heels, gripping the dagger in his torso with both hands as he pulled, blood pouring through his fingers.
“Hells,” I mumbled. “You’re losing too much blood. You won’t heal in time.”
I surveyed the war around us. The fighting continued, but too much of it pushed into the kingdom, and Wolf knew it.
“You have to finish this,” he mumbled. “It has to be you.”
“Don’t talk like that,” I ordered. “I’m not doing anything without you. Can you stand?”
He nodded, only to grunt in pain when he tried to lift himself from his knees. My stomach sank. Not only was Wolf fading quickly, but Asmodeus started to move.
“It has to be you,” he said again.
“What?” I looked at him frantically, searching for meaning behind his words. “What has to be me? I can’t do this alone, Wolf!”
“You have to kill him. Kill him and stop this.”
“We already tried to kill him.” Screams rang out in the distance. Goddess help us, we were losing this damned war. “It didn’t work.”
“That’s because it wasn’t you. It has to be you, Huntress. You are the blood queen. You are the one with the magic that can end him.”
“I’m not strong enough,” I replied quickly. “My magic is no match for his, Wolf.”
He swallowed, eyes nearly fluttering closed. “That’s why you’ll take all of mine too.”
“No.” I was shaking my head before he even finished the words. “No, I won’t do that. You won’t survive it.”
“None of us will survive if he’s still alive. This war will end in blood, Huntress. You still have a kingdom counting on you.”
How the fuck did we get here again? How did we get to this point again, with Wolf sacrificing himself for me? I was sick of it, sick of having to choose, of having to do the right thing.
I didn’t want to do the right thing if Wolf wasn’t here. I didn’t want the kingdom if he wasn’t part of it.
Damn it all.
“I see that look in your eyes,” he said, smiling softly.
“What look?”
“The look you make when you’re about to do something incredibly stupid. But I won’t let you do it, Huntyr. I won’t let you try to save me.”
He fell forward slightly and threw his arms around me. I was too distracted to notice the way his hand fumbled at my belt, pulling my bloodied dagger out of its sheath.
He was already bleeding, but he sliced his palm deeply before I could stop him, before I even realized what was happening.
“What are you?—”
He gripped my arm and sliced my palm before placing our two hands together.
Asmodeus struggled to sit up a few feet away. He drew our attention with a grunt of pain, then anger.
“It’s yours now,” Wolf said. “It’s all yours.”
I tried to pull my hand away, but Wolf clasped on. I didn’t feel his magic, didn't feel any part of him anymore. He was fading too fast, slipping out of my grasp, just a few seconds away from?—
“You will never win!” Asmodeus shouted. I flinched, straightening as much as I could and trying my best to block Wolf from his father.
“You should have died a long time ago.” I returned my gaze to Wolf, whose eyes fluttered closed as his body collapsed to the ground.
No, no, no.
“Don’t be too upset,” Asmodeus said. “You two will be together again soon.”
I knew what was next. I knew what came after this. Asmodeus would blast us both with his power before he blasted the entire damn kingdom, taking over the vampyres and using them as weapons in whatever plan for dominance he had.
He would never stop. These people would never know peace.
Wolf would never know peace.
Wolf pulled on our bond, and I focused on him enough to feel the love, the light, the hope that radiated from him. He was lying here, bleeding out and ready to die, while putting the fate of the world in my hands.
And his father was about to ruin everything.
So, I did the only thing I could think of, the only thing that would give me a chance to get us out of this mess.
I held my hand out to Asmodeus and met his flash of magic with a storm of my own.
S ince Moira, I hardly learned the extent of my own power. I had no clue what turning into a vampyre had truly done to me, to my blood, to my magic. But light rippled against light as my magic battled his. It stopped his flash of light, freezing it in the air.
The power of an archangel.
He screamed out in frustration, but I didn’t stop pouring everything I had at him.
It has to be you , Wolf said.
This madness, this absolute chaos Asmodeus brought into this world, it ended now. He deserved to pay for what he did. He deserved to pay for what he put us through, for what he put Wolf through.
I did not worry about how much power I was throwing out, did not worry for my own health, for the consequences of draining myself.
And when I felt as though I had nothing else to give, I felt the pull of the bond, the nudge of Wolf’s magic ready to replace mine.
Ready to finish the damn job.
I let my free hand fall onto Wolf’s body as I took a deep breath, mustering the strength to pull, dragging everything that remained through that dwindling thread of a bond.
A scream left my mouth as I was filled with the electrifying strength of Wolf’s untapped magic. I knew he was strong—hells, he was half angel—but this was unlike anything I could have possibly prepared for. Wolf’s magic ripped through me, taking hold of every muscle, every instinct. I could not have contained the flood even if I wanted to.
All that magic—that beautiful, painful elixir of pure violence—catapulted toward Asmodeus. The scream ripped through my throat, tore at my lungs, but I kept pushing. My hands burned with the new magic that fueled me, but I didn’t stop.
Die.
Die.
Die.
Die for what you’ve done to us. Die for what you’ve taken from me. From him.
Pain ripped me apart, but I hardly noticed it. I poured everything I had, everything Wolf had, into Asmodeus.
Something snapped deep inside me, something that ceased my entire body, halted any magic.
I realized instantly what it was—what that void meant.
The bond. It broke.
That archangel-killing power. It was all mine now.
I stood up to make sure Asmodeus was truly dead, standing on wobbling knees and weak legs, but before I could take a step, someone entered from the right, sword raised.
I couldn’t have moved to protect myself even if I wanted to.
But the attacker wasn’t after me.
No, the attacker aimed directly for Asmodeus. What was left of him, anyway.
It was Luseyar, his white wings now coated in blood, a roar of fury on his lips as he brought the sword down on Asmodeus one final time.
We felt it ripple in the air, like the lifting of a weight that had been holding us down.
Asmodeus was dead.
Finally dead.
A stranger in my own body, I looked down at Wolf. I knew instantly that something was wrong.
I took too much; he gave me too damn much, but I didn’t have a choice. I had to take it all to kill Asmodeus.
My breath grew shallow.
I fell to my knees, placing both hands on Wolf’s chest, feeling for any sign of life.
Someone said my name behind me.
I searched and searched for a heartbeat, begging Wolf to open his eyes.
But Wolf was long gone.