Chapter 26
Chapter
Twenty-Six
Barbie
Iwatched a vampire warrior drive her blade through a Shrieker’s third eye, a textbook kill. The creature dropped, twitched once, then clambered back to its feet. On its second death, it adapted, matching her speed. On its third resurrection, it anticipated her move and tore out her throat.
We were no longer just fighting. We were teaching them how to kill us more efficiently.
For every Shrieker we destroyed, two more took its place. The dead kept getting up. My father’s laughter carried across the battlefield, chilling my soul. Our warriors shuddered, an instinctive reaction at recognizing the undefeatable evil among us.
Our defensive line buckled.
A wall of resurrected Shriekers, impossible to hold back, smashed through our center.
“Form the line!” Cade’s voice boomed across the chaos, the mage heir fighting to inject order into the rising panic. “Hold them!”
“Hold!” Silas roared, his voice a bastion against the tide. “We are the last defense!”
How did you defend against enemies that wouldn’t stay dead?
Retreat was not an option. The Veil was now a porous curtain, and my father would paint this realm in blood if we fell. And we were falling.
The battle was lost—had been lost the moment Ruin revealed he could resurrect his army infinitely.
There was no other path. I’d always known it, yet I kept running from it like a coward. Watching our forces crumble, hearing screams rise as blood blades bounced off enemies that wore death like a second skin, I finally accepted the one way out.
The Oracle’s words echoed in my head: You’ll know what to do when the time comes.
Through the melee, I found Killian. Even when losing, he fought savagely, never faltering.
He struck at Ruin again and again like a flash of relentless light, keeping the evil god’s eyes from training elsewhere, from turning to me.
His sapphire scales were a mosaic of reflected fire and shadow, a beautiful, terrible banner in the storm.
And I had to let him go.
Every second I hesitated cost lives.
Father. I pushed the thought into his mind like rain pattering against glass. Withdraw from this realm, and I’ll go with you.
His attention turned to me, a weight pushing on my chest, and I shoved it back with my will. The weight dropped, and Ruin smiled eerily. You are in no position to bargain, daughter. I offered you chances. You spat on them. Now, you will watch everyone die.
Then you will never have the old magic.
The words soured my stomach, the betrayal—even perceived—sickening me. If he hadn’t known from Lilith that I’d carried the last drop of old magic, he knew now. I could almost see the calculations spinning in his mind.
With that final piece, he would become truly unstoppable. He would consume worlds without end, until the universe was a hollow, silent tomb.
Lilith might have whispered of the old magic hidden within me, but she had missed one crucial detail: there were two of us now.
I shielded my mind from him, my face remaining blank as I gambled.
You’ve searched for eons, I continued. And I’ve hidden it within me all that time.
I deceived you. I cradled it in my soul, where you could not find it—not when you drank my essence, opened my insides, or ate my marrow.
You can take me today, but you can never take it by force.
You are soulless, but I am not. My soul is the one thing you cannot devour.
So, unless I willingly offer you the last drop of the old magic, your effort is futile.
Stop this massacre. Leave my realm. Or I swear on your void-birth, your hunger will never end.
Someone has been coaching you. Fury and a spark of cold curiosity warred in his tone. Who?
Who else? Lilith. The fallen star, I said, directing fire to the queen of the Underworld, so he wouldn’t know that I was conspiring with his ancient enemies. Wasn’t she the mother who sold me to you?
She was a bad mother. He chuckled, a dry, rustling sound. I do not care for her. Prove you hold the old magic now; I will not tolerate another deception.
I’d prepared for this so I could stay two steps ahead of Ruin.
When I demanded Sy stay behind and shook her hard enough to make her teeth clatter, it wasn’t just out of fear or frustration.
In that deceptive and dire moment, I’d siphoned a thread of creation magic from her.
Not much but enough for one desperate, perfect bluff.
Verdant green erupted from blood-soaked stone, grass pushed through gore, and flowers bloomed in defiance of death. An oasis spread around me, lush and wrong and absolutely convincing.
His gasp sounded like victory. Greed that chilled my bones replaced rage in his mismatched eyes—one crimson, one black, both narrowed on me with horrifying intensity.
Do we have a deal, Father?
For you? Of course. His smile fouled the very air. You are my only daughter. The apple of my eye.
I fought the bile rising in my throat. Then stop the slaughter. Now!
He gestured lazily. Across the battlefield, every Shrieker froze in place. Our warriors were caught between relief and confusion as enemies simply stopped. Some still had blades buried in creatures that no longer fought back.
In that moment of distraction, Killian drove his starlight blade through the space where Ruin’s heart should have been. But my father simply shifted to shadow. The next second, he rematerialized directly before me, so close I could smell the unforgiving scent of the void on him.
Come, daughter. He stretched a hand toward me. We leave now.
Not yet. I forced steel into my voice, refusing to flinch. I need two days. The old magic must be prepared for the transfer. Before his rage could erupt, I pressed on, appealing to his cosmic ego. You are eternal. What are two days to a god?
His face cycled through expressions too alien to name, a silent war between suspicion and avarice. I had gambled correctly. The promise of the old magic, the ultimate prize for which he’d glutted himself on planets, was a lure he couldn’t resist.
I give you one day, he hissed. Not a moment more. Betray me again, and I will make each death here last for centuries while you watch.
He snapped his shadowy fingers.
Foul darkness swept over his army like a final curtain falling. Shriekers, human traitors, and demon all vanished between one blink and the next. Only our battered forces remained, standing stunned among our fallen, the house banners snapping in the chilling, empty wind.
Even in retreat, he had to make a show of his absolute power.
A shocked, hollow silence fell across the battlefield. Warriors stood with weapons still clutched in exhaustion, unable to process that the enemy army had simply vanished.
No one cheered. This was not victory. Every survivor held their breath, waiting for the next horror to descend, none knowing the terrible deal I had just struck, the price already being tallied.
A deep, chilling numbness spread through me, freezing me from the inside out.
I had one day. One day until Ruin returned to collect me and the power I had promised.
In a flash, Killian crossed the battlefield, his half-dragon form melting back to human as he ran. His arms wrapped around me before I could speak, before I swayed. He lifted me, and I instantly clamped my legs around his waist, holding on as if he were the only solid thing left in the world.
“Little scorpion, you’re all right,” he breathed into my hair, his voice a ragged prayer against my bouncing golden curls.