Chapter 40
Chapter
Forty
ROSIE
“What’s wrong with them?” I cried, looking from Asher to Pan, both of whom stood still as statues, eyes milky and unseeing.
“Th-they’re in a t-trance,” Ben said, waving his hand in front of Pan’s face.
A loud crack sounded as Remi slapped Asher across the face. “Babe! Get it the fuck together!”
Nothing, aside from a bright red handprint blooming across Asher’s cheek.
“She’s doing this to them. It’s the only possible answer.” Gavin slipped his hand around my lower back. “You need to reach them, pull them out of this.”
“How?” I asked, my heart beating frantically in my chest.
“Group chat,” Remi answered, head snapping in my direction. “If they hear you in their minds, it will pull them out of whatever the fuck this is.”
“Are you sure?”
“Love is how Asher saved me. Can only assume it will work for him too.”
A scream from somewhere to my left pulled my focus to the fight beyond.
Novasgardian warriors were now joined with the fae, battling both the fire demons and the ones that had risen from the waves.
Bodies littered the ground, both friend and foe, and a pang of worry hit me. What if we lost this fight?
Shaking my head, I took a steadying breath. We couldn’t. Success was our only option.
As if he could read my mind, Ben caught my gaze and said, “D-don’t worry about th-them. I w-will k-keep you s-safe while you r-reach them.” Then he shifted and started tearing limbs from bodies, ensuring that none of the monsters could interrupt us.
Feeling mildly better, I tried to focus on my connection to my mates, but a movement from the corner of my eye distracted me.
It was Pestilence.
She was cackling like the psychotic bitch she was, her head tipped back in maniacal glee as bodies dropped like flies around her. And she was heading straight for us.
“Now, Duchess. We need them if we’re going to rid ourselves of her filth.”
Closing my eyes, I called out to Pan and Asher through our link. I could feel a barrier keeping me out, but I pressed on, unwilling to let this cunt win.
They were mine.
She couldn’t take them from me.
“Asher. Pan. Come back to me. You have to break her hold on you.”
“Don’t let her do this to you.”
“You promised you’d never leave me.”
That caused a crack in the wall separating us. I felt it give, and moments later, I heard a faint voice. Pan.
“Ma petite monstre,” he said, weak but there.
“Pan, it’s a trap. You need to break free.”
There wasn’t an opportunity for him to answer, because now Asher’s voice filled my mind. It was just as thready as Pan’s, telling me that while I’d made progress, they were still very much under her control.
“Princess? Is that you?”
“Yes! It’s me! Asher, you need to snap out of this.”
“I just watched you die,” he said, his mental voice absolutely gutted.
“No. It’s a lie. I’m right here. I’m touching your hand right now. Feel it.”
I gripped his hand hard and squeezed until I felt the slightest twitch of his finger against my palm.
“That’s it, Asher. That’s me. I’m right here. Come back to me. I need you.” Then to Pan, I added, “Both of you. I can’t do this without you.”
Pan’s voice came through loud and clear. “We have to kill her together.”
Opening my eyes, I locked gazes with Pan first. He was fifty feet in front of me and offered a quick, cocky grin before darting away from us. I didn’t know what he was up to, but I had to trust him.
“Asher? Babe? Come on,” Remi urged.
My grumpy hacker groaned and staggered, but he blinked and his eyes cleared. “Fuck me, why do I feel like I got hit by a truck? Is my fucking jaw broken?”
“Oh, don’t be so dramatic. It’s barely bruised.” Remi kissed him, then murmured, “I’m glad you’re back. The mother-in-law from hell is closing in on us.”
The news hit him like a splash of cold water on the face, and Asher was suddenly fully alert. “Right.”
Remi’s focus snapped to where Ben was fighting a group of demons. “Shit. Gotta go help Benji fuck up some more of these douchecanoes.”
He bounded off, shifting into his wolf form as he went back into the fray.
“Do you have the arrow?” Asher asked. His attention was locked on his mother, but the question was for me.
“Right here,” I said, pulling it out of the quiver.
“And you’re sure she can do this?” he asked, eyes darting to Gavin.
He nodded. “It’s simple transference. You’re already connected by the mate bond. So long as you flood the bond with your magic, it will be as if you yourself are the one shooting the arrow.”
Asher positioned himself on my left side, one palm resting on my shoulder as I took up the bow and notched the arrow.
“All right, princess. Let’s do this. Aim for a kill shot. Head or heart.”
I already had her in my sights, her throat my focus. No one survived an arrow through the jugular.
She was still a good distance away, though she’d made progress closing the gap while I’d been distracted trying to reach her sons. All I needed was one good shot. But every time I lined up my sight, a blasted demon would get in my way. Over and over I was thwarted, and my ire continued to grow.
“I can’t get a clean shot.”
Gavin frowned, seeing what I meant as yet another demon seemed to act as her personal shield. “Be ready. I’ll clear a path.”
Then he was gone, little more than a dark blur as he used his vampiric speed and strength to toss the monsters as far away from us as possible.
“Now,” Asher fervently whispered. “Right now.”
I’d already seen my opportunity before he’d spoken the words and lined up the shot. With a slow exhalation, I released the bowstring and loosed my arrow. It sailed through the air, my aim true, but Pestilence reached out and froze our only chance at victory in place with her power.
“No!” I shouted, despair and disbelief crushing my heart.
But Pan appeared in front of her, wrapping one hand around the arrow and jabbing it forward, shoving the weapon through her eye socket.
She staggered, blinking her unaffected eye as her mouth opened and closed a few times.
Falling to her hands and knees, she tried and failed to reach for the arrow.
Pan walked a circle around her stooped form.
Once he was in front of her again, he used the tip of his boot to angle her chin up so her eyes met his.
Then his voice echoed in my head, and I realized he’d opened up the group chat so we could all hear her final moments.
“So we meet again, Mother.”
She coughed out a laugh, her voice filtering through Pan’s connection like an open phone line. “You arrogant fool. You keep repeating the same things, expecting different results. It’s the very definition of insanity.”
“Mother, Mother, Mother,” he tsked. “I believe this time, it is you who is the fool.”
Pestilence attempted to stagger to her feet. “How do you figure?”
From this viewpoint, I couldn’t make out Pan’s expression, but I could hear the cruel smile in his voice. “Because you’ve yet to realize that you’re already dead.”
Then he kicked out, his foot connecting with the nock and sending the arrow through the back of her skull. She screamed bloody murder, the sound cutting off abruptly as she fell back onto the ground.
Behind me, Asher whistled. “Ding dong, the witch is dead.”