Chapter 21
I was tired of being controlled.
I’d already pinpointed Hades’s desire to control the outcome of events, but I hadn’t counted on his desire to control me.
Not like this.
I’d already planned to release Calamity—but as a unit. With every supernatural on the same side, we could have all worked together to contain it.
Instead, I was going to have to give it something on which to feast.
Sonya and Queen Evelyn gifted me something first. I felt a sliver of their power enter me before I released their hands.
I realized what it was as it settled inside my chest.
Belief.
Quietly making my way to the cylinder of power, I gently touched the surface.
And I let my Creation magic pour through.
My hair flung back as a crack resounded through the air. Calamity screeched, releasing a sound from within its chosen Conduit that made my spirit stir in response.
Come out and play, I whispered in my mind.
Everyone in the room must have felt the impact because a fight instantly broke out. Everyone had a stake in this.
This wasn’t just my battle, nor my war.
My Virtues all moved toward me with protective intent while each species chose their side.
The Incubus King clashed against the Queen of Hell.
And as my goddess senses heightened, I felt withdrawn, my body retreating to see that the entire world had erupted into a fight.
While my body remained below, my hands breaking down Lucifer’s prison, my spirit soared into the sky. The horizon spanned out around me, with a falling sun seeming to set the world on fire.
A massive portal appeared, one from Hell itself, and the forces of the Underworld invaded this world. Fallen angels dropped from the sky with a collective roar that rushed over me, making my spirit quiver.
I’d never seen anything like this; no one ever had.
The forces of Hell spilled onto the streets, leaving burning trails of fire as Lucifer’s fallen army fought back.
Orion had sent them to Derek’s mansion to help us—but that had played into Balthazar’s plans, too. Because they were already in position to stop Hell from storming the gates.
Queen Evelyn had also readied her forces.
It was an unprecedented clash that rattled the entire universe.
Witches fought rogue witches and their contracted demons.
Fallen angels fought shifters.
What few humans were left, well, they ran for their lives.
I have to stop this!
Dropping back into my body, I pushed another blast of frantic belief into the prison, needing to stop the madness.
Stop the darkness.
Stop the chaos.
Lucifer violently twisted inside his enclosure as the world fought the forces of Calamity sweeping out onto the surface. If this went on, there’d be nothing left of the world.
There’d be no one to save.
“Fight me!” I screamed and slammed my fists against the crumbling prison, ignoring the pricks of pain as shards stuck into my skin.
Lucifer’s body bent at the wrong angles as a dark entity worked inside of him to get out.
Calamity had already learned how to draw in divine magic. It was a matter of time before it mastered the technique.
Hades was on me in a flash, wrapping his fingers around my neck as he lifted me onto my toes. “Don’t toy with it,” he instructed as his red eyes flared with warning. “Release it. Now.”
My mates flung themselves at the male muse, but he flicked them away like the insects he saw us all to be.
Not only was he incredibly powerful, but he held a piece of Calamity, too. It had spread dark veins up his arm and traveled to his eyes.
Fuck.
Fluttering my eyes closed, I pushed the entirety of my goddess magic…
Into Hades.
He roared in shock as the blast of brilliant light burned through him, leaving a trail of glittering golden dust across his features. He healed in an instant, but a crack radiated across his skin.
I shoved him against Lucifer’s encasement, making it shatter as the demon bellowed to life.
Hades screamed as Calamity was unleashed, swirling out of Lucifer and seeking the new host I knew it wouldn’t be able to resist.
I’d already given him the fragment.
And enough of my goddess magic to make him a fucking beacon.
And most importantly, Hades’s singular desire for control was there, giving the god of chaos and death something to latch onto.
Have a fucking blast, Hades.
His eyes widened, cracking with light before he broke apart. He screamed as he disintegrated in front of my eyes, all of his arrogance and confidence meaning nothing in the face of a true god.
Have fun with death, I thought at Hades, until Calamity was all that remained.
Lucifer staggered and then fell, his massive bat-like wings drooping over him as he groaned. He glanced up, his wicked gaze peering through the tangle of his hair as he struggled for breath.
I spotted hatred there.
But also admiration.
The death of a male muse rocked the foundation of the world. Calamity—Noctis—capitalized on that, filling in the power void left behind as the dark form unfurled and wheezed.
It had no eyes. No face. Just a form that struggled to take shape and the incredible sense of wrongness and dread that spread out around it like a plague.
The fighting in the room paused as everyone took in the incredible beast.
Raze threw off his cloak and transformed in front of our eyes, blazing through in all his glory as a powerful stallion with a wicked golden horn.
He rushed to take Calamity down, but his power was meant to contain it, not handle what I had unleashed. The foggy creature shrieked as Raze left a streak of light down its side, then it swiped him, sending the unicorn catapulting into the ground.
I blinked, stunned, as Calamity instantly sent Raze back to where he’d come from. The smell of an evergreen forest burst through my senses before Raze vanished, and a molten burning scent took its place.
Then that dark pit of dread returned, making my knees go weak.
My stomach dropped as I struggled not to fall victim to it. Perhaps I would have, had my Virtues not surrounded me one by one.
Dante, my Hunter.
Cole, my rage demon.
Hendrik, my soulless Dark Mage.
Kaito, my mentor and the caretaker of Hell’s Heart.
Orion, my demigod of sunlight and sex.
Logan, my alpha wolf.
Samael and Azrael, Purgatory’s angels.
And Asher, my first and last Virtue, who tied them all together. My incubus, the son of Ares, and the one who knew my goddess soul best.
They all reached out until they touched me. They offered me the one thing that someone like Balthazar or Seth would never have.
Endless love.
That was why my Creation power was considered limitless. It was based on the power of love, and between my Virtues, there really was no limit to that.
But I knew there would be a price to turn the tides now. I faced Calamity as it grew stronger, drawing power from the crystal that Seth had used to feed it.
The Necromancer wanted Noctis to target someone else, as long as it wasn’t his world. Even if he didn’t know the god’s name, he knew Calamity was a force he could redirect elsewhere.
He had made my world an attractive place, and his smile as he drifted back into the smoky green waves filled me with rage.
Balthazar lingered in the background, wafting his stolen wings as he watched the show.
Was this playing out how he had hoped? What did he really want?
I didn’t have a chance to consider Balthazar’s angle because Calamity turned on me, its corporeal form taking on a mouth and fangs as it dug its bite into my neck.
I screamed.
My Virtues tried to stop it, but I sent a resounding order into their minds.
No.
Hades’s words made sense now. “What have you sacrificed, little goddess?” This was my test.
This was what I would sacrifice.
I let Calamity take what it was after. It ground its teeth into my neck and drew a long, desperate pull.
It didn’t just want blood. I knew what it was asking for.
I let it have a part of me.
Balthazar couldn’t take my goddess spirit because it wasn’t something I could trade, not unless he tried to bargain for the entirety of my soul. Even then, I doubted a demon’s contract could hold a goddess’s power alone.
But Calamity? It was learning. It was part of a trifecta that surpassed even my own, and if I allowed it, it could take something far more precious than my body.
It could feast on my soul.
It hissed and sputtered as it gorged on my golden blood. When it sank its teeth back in, I screamed, allowing the light to flow out.
I let it go.
My star, stop, please, Orion pleaded as he banged his massive fist against the shimmering barrier. I wasn’t sure if it was one Calamity had put up, or me.
Pup, don’t do this, Logan added.
Each of my Virtues begged me to stop, but this was why it was a sacrifice.
I had to do this for them.
I had to do this for everyone… for me.
When it had taken too much, just like I knew it would, Calamity screeched. It burst into a ball of darkness and light and I grew dizzy as my power began to fade.
But I still had something else inside of me, something comparable to a goddess’s spirit. Azra’s cherry pit seeped evil into my stomach and an echo of who I used to be thrummed through my veins.
I had just enough goddess essence for one last trick.
“I want it back,” I whispered. “I want to be me,” I said, believing it with all my heart.
Believing it with all my might.
I was a monster.
I was a queen.
I was a creature of balance between darkness and light, and it had taken everything for me to finally see that.
My back grew heavy as I re-formed my wings.
One with bat-like talons, and the other with soft, downy feathers.
I smiled as the pain stretched along my spine and a slight weight pressed on my brow. Hell’s Crown had adorned my head once again, and that was because I’d come back to the person I’d grown to be.
Not necessarily a goddess of creation, but Hell’s Princess.
And Fate’s Queen.
When I opened my eyes, the other Champion Queens looked back at me. My mother smiled with pride and her encouragement as the Witch Queen drew a bloody line down her own palm.
The Witch Queen pressed her hand against the barrier, leaving a red handprint behind that filled me with power.
Calamity staggered into my way, blocking my view.
I expected its form to have black eyes, but instead they were silver and had little crescents in them like tiny moons.
A long tongue snaked out and jagged rows of teeth made a shiver run up my spine. My wings flared as my flight instincts returned.
But there’d be no flying away from Calamity. I had to stand my ground.
I’d thought that Seth had disappeared back to the Void, leaving all of us to fight this, but his dark form blurred behind Calamity.
I’d never seen a Necromancer use his power, but death warped around him. That was the only way to describe it as the echo of lost souls obscured his form.
Flicking my gaze back to Calamity’s disjointed black body, I blinked at it, waiting to see what it would do.
“Taste,” it whispered, the word coming out as a slithering hiss that didn’t sound quite right to my ears.
I tilted my head as it lapped up golden droplets from its lips. It shivered, then blinked at me as a third eye slid over its pupil in a flash. “Taste,” it insisted again.
When it approached me, I stiffened. I’d used all of my goddess magic up, saving only a fragment to keep myself alive.
“You need more,” Seth said from behind the creature, making Calamity screech and flail a clawed hand at the sound, aiming behind him.
Souls burst into ash at the strike, having protected the Necromancer from the blow. He matched Calamity’s dark stare with one of his own.
It was quite a sight, seeing a Dark Mage face off with a god of death.
I had given Calamity what it wanted most, and in doing so, I hoped it would be too much for chaos to handle.
It wanted to be corporeal, but it didn’t have the power to maintain its form. Darkness dripped around it as if it was melting, so maybe Seth was hoping to wear it out by keeping it talking.
“More,” Calamity agreed, turning back to me.
A wolf’s howl broke through the tension and Calamity made a clicking sound, allowing Logan to dive through.
The brand on my breast burned to life at the sound of my alpha’s charge. He rushed in front of me and his hackles stood on end while he snarled.
I won’t let it touch you, Logan vowed in my mind.
Calamity looked more intrigued with the wolf than he did with me.
“Recognize it?” Seth practically purred as he waved at my wolf.
Logan snapped at Calamity’s clawed fingers as it approached.
Its toothy mouth stretched into what looked like a grin.
Its eyes fluttered closed as it tilted its head back, a moon appearing in the sky as the ceiling momentarily faded away.
A resounding boom sent me flying back on my heels. My wings flared and I caught myself as Logan howled in response.
The room went quiet and Seth curled his hood over his face.
“It is finished,” he said, then vanished once again into the murky green shadows, leaving me wondering what he meant.
I had a feeling that I had won this battle… but not the war.
It only felt like victory when the sense of darkness lightened and all of the barriers dropped, allowing my Virtues to flood in and surround me.
I closed my eyes and let myself fall into their collective embrace.
“You can rest now, my star,” Orion whispered into my ear. “We’ve got you. We’ve won.”