Chapter 25 #2
Aria gasped into my mouth, her hands gripping my arms, digging into the muscle. She didn't pull away; she pressed closer. She opened for me.
Mine, the Wolf roared in my head.
Ours, the logic corrected, though it was a struggle.
I broke the kiss, breathless, my forehead resting against hers. "We need to do this now. Everything. No barriers."
"How?" she asked, her eyes dazed, her pupils blown wide.
"We make a circle," Elias said. His voice was trembling. He was standing right behind me. "Physical contact. Continuous loop. We pour everything into her, and she directs it."
"No," Kaelen said.
I spun around, ready to fight him.
"No circle," Kaelen said. He was stripping off his ruined tunic, revealing the hard planes of his chest, the scars, the dragon scale patterns rippling under his skin in golden waves. "A circle is passive. This needs to be active."
He walked toward us, naked from the waist up, looking like a god of war who had just decided to stop playing nice. He stopped in front of Aria, his eyes burning with a terrifying intensity.
"We don't just hold hands," Kaelen said, his voice a low growl that vibrated the floor. "We mark her. We claim her. We flood the system."
He reached out and tore the front of her tunic.
The sound of ripping wool was loud in the silence. The fabric fell away, exposing her pale skin, the curve of her collarbone, the swell of her breasts. The golden veins were faint, pulsing weakly.
Aria gasped, crossing her arms over her chest instinctively.
"Don't hide," Kaelen commanded softly. He pulled her arms away. "Let us see you."
He leaned down and pressed his mouth to the hollow of her throat.
Aria’s head fell back, a ragged sound tearing from her throat.
For a second, I just watched. The sight of the Dragon Prince claiming her, his dark head against her pale skin, his hands spanning her waist... It was almost too much. The jealousy was there, sharp and acidic, but it was drowned out by something else.
The Bond.
It flared to life, blindingly bright. I felt Kaelen’s sensation as if it were my own, the softness of her skin, the frantic beat of her pulse against his lips, the taste of her salt and sweat.
He bit her.
Not deep enough to draw serious blood, but enough to mark. Enough to trigger the magic.
Aria screamed, her back arching.
Golden light exploded from the bite mark. It raced across her skin, revitalizing the fading patterns. The cavern lit up as if a sun had been born in the crush.
"Flynn," Kaelen said, lifting his head. His mouth was wet, his eyes wild. "Thane. Elias. Now."
I didn't need to be told twice.
I moved in behind her. I pulled her back against my chest, my hands sliding over her hips, finding the heated skin beneath the rags. I lowered my head to the slope of her shoulder, finding the spot where neck met muscle.
I let my teeth graze the skin.
Mine.
I bit down.
The surge of power was euphoric. It wasn't draining me; it was completing me. It was a circuit closing. I poured my strength, my speed, my hunger into her.
Aria sobbed, her knees giving out.
Thane was there. He dropped to his knees in front of her, catching her as she sagged. He buried his face in her stomach, his massive arms wrapping around her hips, anchoring her to the earth.
"Hold her," Kaelen ordered.
"I have her," Thane rumbled, his voice thick.
Elias moved like the wind. He came up beside Kaelen, his hands finding the bare skin of her back, his fingers tracing the spine. "The channels are opening," he murmured, his eyes glowing white. "She is taking it. She is holding it."
The air in the chamber began to scream. Not the sound of the Devourer, but the sound of magic becoming too dense for physics to tolerate. Static electricity arced between us, snapping against our skin.
Aria was glowing. She was incandescent. Her head thrashed back against my shoulder, her eyes rolling up.
"It hurts," she gasped. "It’s too much."
"Just a little more, fireheart," Kaelen growled, grabbing her face, forcing her to look at him. "Take all of us, Aria. Don't leave anything for the goddess."
He kissed her again, hard, brutal, feeding her his fire.
I felt it happening. The walls between us were dissolving. I wasn't just Flynn anymore. I was Kaelen’s rage. I was Thane’s sorrow. I was Elias’s vision. And I was Aria’s overwhelming, terrifying capacity to endure.
We were one thing. One beast with five heads and a single heart that beat with the force of a collapsing star.
The Song, Elias’s voice echoed in the collective mind. Sing the Song.
Aria’s mouth opened against Kaelen’s.
She didn't scream. She didn't shout.
She vibrated.
A tone, pure and crystalline, emerged from her throat. It wasn't a human sound. It was the sound of the rune we had seen in the book. The sound of Void.
The broken crystal behind us shattered. It couldn't handle the resonance. It exploded into dust. As did the crystal floor we’d been standing on. The cracks spread out under my feet until it felt like trying to balance on ice. The sensation only lasted a moment before it too turned to dust.
But Aria realized she didn't need it. She was the amplifier.
The sound wailed out of her, pouring from her, driven by the infinite magic of the four princes. It punched through the ceiling of the cavern, through the rock of the mountain, and through the atmosphere of the world.
Silent. Empty. Dead. Gone.
The signal blasted out into the cosmos, overwriting the distress call, replacing the dinner bell with the static hiss of a graveyard.
Above us, the thumping stopped.
Hera had paused.
She felt it. The sudden, violent erasure of the bait.
For a heartbeat, there was silence.
Then, the roof caved in.
A slab of rock the size of a city block detached itself from the ceiling directly above us.
"Hold!" Thane roared.
He didn't let go of Aria. He didn't try to catch the rock. He poured his essence into the floor, the area where the broken crystals had been, the area that now looked like stone.
The ground did not liquefy; it vanished.
Thane dropped us.
We fell into the darkness below the throat, a tangle of limbs and glowing skin and divine power, just as the Titan's voice box was crushed into oblivion by the Queen's wrath.
We fell into the deep. Toward the only way out.
And as we fell, wrapped around the woman who was now burning brighter than a star, I looked at Kaelen. He was laughing. A wild, broken, terrifying sound.
We had done it. We had changed the song.
Now we just had to survive the fall.