Chapter 34
Chapter
Thirty-Four
Sy
Killian had been gone for three hours, and I was dying to go with him, to get to my sister and save her from the evilest being in existence.
My magic stirred uncontrollably along my fingertips, making flowers bloom and die in rapid, frantic cycles on the furniture.
The other heirs weren’t faring any better.
Everyone started pacing, causing traffic, bumping shoulders and egos.
“No, I can’t do this,” I told Rowan, unable to hold back anymore. “I’m sorry, but I just can’t. I’m not going to wait another day. I’m going after Barbie now! If you want to stay behind, I won’t blame you.”
“What are you talking about, little monster?” Rowan scolded. “Where you go, I go. And I won’t let your sister stay in the hands of that evil being one second longer.”
He turned to the other heirs, and they exchanged that look—the one that meant they were having an entire conversation in glances and raised eyebrows.
“I’m with you, brother,” Louis said. “We can’t let Killian and Barbie face this alone.”
“Fuck it.” Cade pounded his fist on the island. “Let’s get our forces moving!”
“Small problem.” Silas turned away from the window. “We can’t open portals like Killian. And Sy needs Barbie for a portal-jump.”
“In fact, we can,” Rowan said.
All the other heirs raised an eyebrow.
“Haven’t you noticed your powers expanding?” Rowan drawled, lightning sparking in his silver eyes. The other heirs drew a collective gasp. “That comes from Killian. I don’t get it all, but I get some. Not as strong as the source, though.”
Louis, Cade, and Silas moved closer to Rowan. Everyone loved a secret sauce.
“After we formed the Covenant,” Rowan explained, “I found I could channel all of your powers. When I fought my father, your fire, wind, metal, and Killian’s lightning were all at my disposal. I wouldn’t have won otherwise.”
“You’d still have won, sugar!” I insisted.
Silas gave a nod. “I channeled our powers and won the challenge against my sister, even after she poisoned me. But I couldn’t access Killian’s dragon fire.”
“I grew stronger after drinking from Barbie when she was in my house,” Louis said, flexing his fingers. “And then my power leveled up again after we swore the blood vow. Man, I feel invincible.”
“That’s great news, brothers,” Cade called. “If our bond shares power, we should be able to channel Killian’s portal ability—”
“Then let’s summon our army,” Silas cut in, always the one rushing into action.
“Slow down,” Louis called. “Let’s test it first instead of making fools of ourselves in front of the entire army if this portal shit doesn’t work.”
“It’ll work,” Rowan said confidently. “Have the generals get our best warriors ready in Trailblazer Courtyard.”
“We have no time to lose,” Cade said. “Looking like fools is the least of our concerns.”
We strode toward the courtyard where the army was assembling.
At the front of the gathering, the heirs and I joined hands.
The first attempt singed Silas’s eyebrows. He leapt back, breaking the connection, and glared at everyone. “Why am I always the one being targeted?”
I suddenly remembered the frozen dick incident and fought not to laugh. “Well, maybe you’re just too lovable, wolf king?”
Louis chortled.
The second try opened a portal to what looked like Antarctica; we caught a glimpse of massive ice sheets and a flock of penguins.
“Concentrate!” Cade barked. “Intent matters. Close your eyes if you have to and think of our mage Barbie. Think of where she would be.”
Our hands clasped tighter, with me at the center. We squeezed our eyes shut and focused, bending the very air into submission.
Silence. Then the air began to boil and hiss, the sound shifting into the grinding of stone on stone. The air grew so hot, our eyes snapped open in alarm.
Before us, a shimmering portal opened into a land of nightmares. Beneath a bleeding sky, an army of Shriekers stood massed. Behind them, rising from blackened earth, was a grotesque tower built from fused bone and despair.
“That’s Ruin’s lair!” I cried. “The palace of horror Barbie and I escaped a decade ago!”
“Shit, it worked!” Silas breathed.
And the portal had conveniently opened at the rear of the enemy forces, their attention focused elsewhere. It was a perfect chance to strike them from behind.
We widened the portal with our combined will and powers, stretching the shimmering edges until a full squad could pass through at once.
The last of our combined army from all five kingdoms settled into formation, waiting.
Generals from the different Houses took their positions at the front, their warriors armed with blood blades and blood shields—Bea’s newest innovation.
The flags of each house snapped in the wind.
The heirs scanned their army. Not a massive one, but quality over quantity.
“Today, we make it count!” Cade roared, raising his blood blade high.
“Let’s go get our girl,” Silas growled, the promise of violence thick in his voice.
As one, the heirs and I led the charge, diving headfirst into the portal’s rippling surface.
We had barely oriented ourselves on the other side, the acrid stench of the place filling our lungs, when an enormous figure stepped forward from the demon ranks.
He stood eight feet tall, his crimson eyes burning like embers.
Horns curved back from his skull, and his skin looked like cooled lava.
The stripes on his armor said he was at least a captain.
The demonic power rolling off him felt ancient. An archdemon.
The heirs raised their blood blades in unison, and my creation magic uncoiled within me, ready to make him a part of the landscape.
It would be fun.
“Wait!” the archdemon called, and bowed.
I narrowed my eyes. Demons didn’t bow to other species, and no way would an archdemon bow to us.
“I am General Baal, and I now serve Barbie, the new Queen of the Underworld.”
Louis also narrowed his pale blue eyes. “What? Did we portal to the wrong fucking universe?”
“Shit! How do we get back?” I breathed, trading an appalled look with the other heirs.
“Barbie, known to some as Ugly Barbie, or Little Bob,” Baal clarified, then quickly cleared his throat.
“Both are disrespectful nicknames—ones we don’t tolerate.
Our new queen is the most beautiful and powerful, equal to Queen Lilith.
The Oracle revealed to our beloved queen what must come to pass.
She is gone now; she gave her essence to Goddess Barbie, to defeat the void god.
Barbie is our new queen by divine right of succession and might. ”
My companions and I exchanged an incredulous glance again before the shifter king exploded.
“We can’t trust demons!” Silas ground out. “Let’s just cut him down.”
“Give him a fucking second,” I countered, my gaze locked on the demon general. “We can always cut him down later if he looks at us wrong.”
Our army had poured out of the now sealed portal, facing off the legion of demons.
“Why now?” Rowan demanded, lightning crackling at his fingertips. “You betrayed us last time!”
“The Sixth House never betrayed the other houses,” Baal declared.
“During the last battle, we were the ruse, the hidden blade waiting for this moment.” He drew a curved dagger and sliced his own palm.
Thick black demon blood dripped onto the dead earth.
“We swear a blood oath to our new queen, and we will not harm her allies. We have waited here for you on Queen Lilith’s final order.
We are not powerful enough to counter the void god alone, but we can clear the path for you.
” He then nodded at me in reverence. “You are the one Queen Lilith shielded before she hid you within Queen Barbie.”
“He’s telling the truth,” Cade said. The mage heir could always recognize lies.
Behind him, another giant demon stepped forward. I recognized him from the academy—Barbie had beaten the shit out of him in the study hall, and he’d respected her ever since.
“The void god took our queen into the bone palace. King Killian and his warriors entered minutes ago.”
General Baal raised his demon sword high. “Warriors! Today, we win back our honor! Today, we avenge Queen Lilith, the brightest star! Today, we fight for Queen Goddess Barbie!”
The demon army turned as one, thousands of voices taking up the bloodthirsty bellow. They crashed into the ranks of human traitors and the Legions of the Brotherhood and Shriekers. Demons loved violence and gore more than anything.
“Well,” Louis drawled, watching the carnage unfold. “That’s unexpected.”
“Complain later, bloodsucker bro,” Silas called, shifting into his massive warrior form. “Let’s kill every abomination!”
We charged into the gap the demons had torn open. The battle became a three-way massacre—demons and our combined force crushing the confused Shriekers between us. Bea’s blood shields proved their worth instantly, deflecting attacks easily.
The heirs and I carved through the enemy ranks like a burning arrow through silk.
Rowan’s earth magic split the ground to swallow hundreds of Shriekers; Silas flooded half the battlefield, a violent whirlpool sweeping away two cohorts.
Louis’s wind joined Cade’s fire, cleaving a burning path straight toward the bone palace.
My magic turned the human collaborators’ heavy artillery into splinters and wilted flowers, and the mages razed through the disarmed traitors.
They were especially keen to find the druid for their prince, cutting down anyone who wore the symbol of the Legion of Brothers. The human traitors fell fast.
But the druid was nowhere to be found. He wasn’t on the battlefield. Cade cursed viciously; he had a personal score to settle for the Fury curse the druid had a hand in.
“We need to get to the bone palace!” I shouted over the din of battle.
Even though Barbie and I no longer shared a body, a special bond remained between us. Close in proximity, I felt her agony, only I couldn’t take it for her.
She was in that feeding chamber, where Ruin had tormented us countless times as children.
“We need to go!” I roared, urgency clawing at my throat. “Ruin is feeding on my sister!”
“Go!” General Baal appeared beside us, oily Shrieker blood on his broadsword. “We’ll hold the line. Save our queen!”
We ran. The heirs formed a protective formation around me as we sprinted across the blood-soaked ground toward the bone palace. Behind us, the battle raged—demons, fae, mages, witches, vampires, shifters, and chaos warriors, united in purpose.
To defend the realm. To save one infuriating, self-sacrificing goddess.
We’d brought the fight to our enemy’s door.
The entrance of the bone palace loomed before us, guarded by Archer and two shadow beasts from Underhill.
The terrifying creatures used to escort me to work during those days I’d pretended my sugar was a client.
Barbie had taken my “career” as a sex worker more seriously than I had.
I hated to break it to her, but she was a terrible pimp.
She probably needed to read a handbook or something.
“King Killian and his team are underground,” Archer informed us, his gaze sharp. “No fuckers will get past me and our friendly beasts.”
The shadow beasts licked my face, their tails thrashing in excitement.
“Yeah, yeah, good to see you too,” I said, hugging two of them at once to save time. “I need to go save Barbie.”
A group of Shriekers surged toward us. The shadow beasts dashed past our group and charged into the ranks of the abominations, tearing them apart. Archer bellowed a war cry and joined the fray.
“Let’s go!” I shouted, my voice raw. “Barbie is out of time.”
Her pain lanced through me—fresh, searing agony layered over the old trauma of this place that haunted our nightmares.
A hole yawned open before us, a passage leading down into the abyss. I didn’t hesitate. I leapt.
“Sy!” Rowan shouted and followed without a second thought. His arm wrapped around me as wind rushed up to meet our fall.
Behind us, the other heirs jumped too, a united front diving into the depths to save my sister and slay the evil that festered there.